Status of Reform-Calendar Issue

The calendar-revision question has taken on new life since the International Labor Coun­cil succeeded in getting the ear of the League of Nations.

By C. S. LONGACRE, General Conference Religious Liberty Department

The calendar-revision question has taken on new life since the International Labor Coun­cil succeeded in getting the ear of the League of Nations. On January 18, 1937, the League of Nations took definite action to submit the twelve-month equal-quarter blank-day plan to the various national governments throughout the world. The advocates of this proposed cal­endar-reform scheme are carrying on a vigor­ous campaign to induce the national govern­ments to recommend favorably the adoption of the aforesaid plan.

The General Conference during its Spring Council session gave prayerful study to this grave issue, and inaugurated a counter cam­paign to offset the propaganda and to enlighten the public in this important matter. A world­wide campaign was then initiated, and the Gen­eral Conference drew up a statement and an appeal which is being sent to the leaders of the various religious denominations in the United States. Our own church leaders in the various countries have been requested to send a similar statement and appeal to the church authorities of different faiths in their respective lands.

Our local presidents in many conferences in this country are also sending similar appeals, adapted to local churches, for the different de­nominations in their territory, and are request­ing the pastors and their churches in the United States to send protests to the Honorable Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, Washington, D.C. The League of Nations has sent the pro­posed calendar scheme to Secretary Hull, with the request that he submit it to our govern­ment for approval or rejection; therefore ap­peals and protests should be addressed to him.

The following is the appeal which was adopted at the Spring Council by the General Conference and which is going out to leaders of the various religious bodies:

A Statement regarding the proposed calendar revision and an appeal to all religious bodies throughout the World 

Proponents of a change in the present Gregorian Calendar seek to make a perpetual calendar of twelve months with equal quarters, which necessitates the use of the "blank day" principle, thus disarranging the order of days in the weekly cycle of Holy Scrip­ture, setting aside the definite historical basis of days conscientiously observed by religious bodies.

In 1931, revised-calendar propositions were brought before the League of Nations at Geneva. After due consideration, the League voted that the whole matter be "laid on the table." This amounted to a. negative action.

Information now comes from Geneva that the pro­ponents of calendar change have renewed their appeal to the League Advisory Committee ; and that the League proposes to submit to all the national govern­ments the request that as soon as possible each pass upon the calendar question, in order that the League may know whether a majority of the governments approve or disapprove of the proposed calendar change.

In view of the fact that this now becomes a live issue for all religious bodies throughout the world, we, the members of the General Conference Committee of Seventh-day Adventists, assembled in Council, in Washington, D.C. (March 11, 1937), earnestly appeal to all constituted official religious bodies to give con­sideration to this serious matter touching the historic practice and teaching in observing a fixed weekly day of rest.

We call attention to the following considerations:

1. The proposed plan would alter the present se­quence of the days of the week as it has been known through all history. This is the first time, except during the French Revolution and later in the Soviet Republics, that any attempt has been made to break the continuity of the fixed days of the week. In all the calendar changes made in the past, no day was skipped in the historic weekly cycle. Only the days of the month and the days of the yearly cycle were affected.

2. As reliable an authority as the Encyclopedia Britannica states:

"The week is a period of seven days, having no reference whatever to the celestial motions—a cir­cumstance to which it owes its unalterable uniformity. . . It has been employed from time immemorial in almost all Eastern countries ; and as it forms neither an aliquot part of the year nor of the lunar month, those who reject the Mosaic recital will be at a loss, as Delambre remarks, to assign it to an origin having much semblance of probability."—Eleventh Edition, Vol. IV, p. 988, art., "Calendar," under "Week."

3. The proposed calendar, which would skip one day in the weekly cycle each solar year, would cause the historic weekly day of rest of each religious body to fall upon a different day of the new-calendar "week" each successive year. For instance, the first day of the historic weekly cycle would fall on the new-calendar "Saturday" one year, on "Friday" the next year, and so on. This would bring confusion as well as hardship to millions of conscientious Christians. Thus a school teacher, for illustration, who believed that the first day of the week is holy because of the historic event of Christ's resurrection on that day, could no longer teach public school, for his weekly day of worship would fall on school days most years. A similar difficulty would confront him if he were a carpenter working for a contractor who followed the new calendar, or if he were a government employee, or if he were engaged in any line of work where his em­ployer used the new calendar.

The same hardships would confront Jews and certain Christian bodies who observe the seventh day of the historic week as holy time, and Moslems, who regard the sixth day of the week as sacred.

It should be added that in leap years a day would be skipped in the middle of the year as well as at the end, thus creating further difficulty and confusion.

4. The proposed calendar, if adopted, would create opposing groups within religious bodies on the question of a weekly day of rest and worship. For example, among those who observe the first day of the week, one group would keep holy from religious conviction the Sunday of the historic week, the first day of the week, which has come down through time in unbroken cycles of seven. The other group would observe the "Sunday" of the new calendar, which would wander through the historic weekly cycle and which would owe its al­leged religious status to an act of secular legislation. To create a true "holy day" or "day of worship" re­quires more than an act of Congress or even an inter­national act of the League of Nations.

5. The government of France, in its report to the League of Nations, cited the opposition of its leading astronomer, M. Edouard Baillaud, director of the Paris Observatory, as follows : "I have always hesi­tated to suggest breaking the continuity of the week, which is without a doubt the most ancient scientific institution bequeathed to us by antiquity."

6. The government of Portugal, in its report to the League of Nations, stated the opposition of its lead­ing astronomer, Frederico Oom, director of the Astro­nomical Observatory of Lisbon, as follows: "It is very inadvisable to interrupt by means of blank days the absolute continuity of the weeks—the only guar­anty in the past, present, and future of an efficient control of chronological facts."

7. This proposed calendar did not originate with the League of Nations and is not being advocated by it, but by a group of calendar reformers who have been actively campaigning for a number of years.

Our Appeal

In view of the manyfold implications of the pro­posed calendar change, with its "blank day" principle that destroys the continuity of the days of the weekly cycle as established by God in the beginning, we appeal to the religious conviction of all faiths to enter earnest protest.

For alleged advantage in commercial accounting and business why should ruthless hands be laid upon what has been regarded as sacred to religious worship and observance for generations? We protest not only for ourselves, who believe the divine record that the Creator "blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it," but we protest in behalf of all who believe that any fixed day of the historic weekly cycle is sacred.

In a time when secularism and materialism are working powerfully to draw mankind away from thought of a living God to whom we owe allegiance, we protest against this calendar proposal as a plan that, in effect, would set aside the authority of the Creator, and put human authority in its place and man-made law in place of the divine law.

We appeal to the religious bodies of all faiths to consider this matter and to register their protest against any change in the historic weekly cycle with the proper officials of their government who will have the handling of the request that the secretary-general of the League of Nations was instructed to submit to the various national governments.

For the General Conference Committee of Seventh day Adventists,

J. L. McElhany, Chairman, E. D. Dick, Secretary. Washington, D.C., U.S.A.


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By C. S. LONGACRE, General Conference Religious Liberty Department

July 1937

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