The Six Chief Parts of Christian, Biblical Doctrine: The Law, the Three Articles of the Faith, the Lord’s Prayer, Holy Baptism, Holy Keys, and Holy Communion.
Members of Lutheran Churches at their confirmation say that they have found the teaching of Luther’s Small Catechism to be a faithful summary exposition of the Bible’s teaching, and they pledge to remain faithful to this teaching for life. After all, the Catechism is nothing but God’s own life-saving and life-giving +Word!
But it gets hard after a while even to remember these words unless they are periodically reviewed (same thing even happens with favourite Bible passages and stories). A number of people have their catechism on their nightstand along side their Bible and perhaps their hymnal too. But this foundation of Biblical doctrine intended to help us find our way through the many pages of Scripture without loosing sight of the Law and Gospel and of Christ our Saviour and God’s saving ways with His people too often quickly does become a vague impression or broken memory.
For the last number of years, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Moncton NB has been doing an annual catechism review during the long Pentecost Season that usually stretches from June to November, give or take a few Sundays. This roughly six month period works out well for reviewing the Six Chief Parts on Sunday mornings during the Divine Service, each part having a natural “spot” where it fits best therein (for example, we review the Commandments before we confess our sins, and we review the Lord’s Prayer before we pray). It even fits well with the times, as we review the mealtime prayers around (Canadian) Thanksgiving, and Confession and Absolution around Reformation (which was started over absolution vs. indulgences).
The Small Catechism in Stained Glass, from Faith Lutheran Church, Dartmouth NS (now St Andrew’s, Halifax NS)
Whether you can join us in person or not, we invite you to join us in reviewing our Small Catechisms this year. To help, here is the schedule we will be following (though we may “adjust it” from time to time as needed!).
+ SDG! +