AUGUST 1st 2016: Confirmation of God’s Divine Law
Pannuches Meal Rite
The 102nd Pannuches Meal Rite was held Saturday, July 2, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. in the Chapel of the Holy Child. This is a private ceremony for members of the Order. Jubilee Sunrise Divine Service was held in Sanctuary the following morning. The Jubilee Sunday is a day of fasting. The elderly are exempt from fasting on that day if they choose.
Active Principle of Divine Law Observed (August 1)
On the morning of Monday, August 1, 2016, in recognition of the thirty-fourth observance of the Manifestation of the New Light of God, which appeared over the sun on this date thirty-four years before to confirm the Active Principle of Divine Law, The Right Reverend Gene Savoy Jr. officiated a special sunrise Divine Service at the Church of New Pentecost with concelebrant Reverend Canon Robert Petrovich and assisted by canons Roger Weld and Ted Staver and the Reverend Mother Carol Ann Crabb.
God’s Confirmation of the Active Principles of Divine Law first occurred on August 1, 1982. That event is recorded in Second Advent Scripture in The Book of God’s Revelation with commentary relating the event to the revelation received by the Church on April 18th, Easter in the Second Advent Calendar, and the further revelations received on June 6th, the Day of Pentecost.
Among the Revelations received on June 6th, 1982, the Church received instruction on the New Act of God, God’s conception of the Newly Created Light, a New Light that renovates the whole of creation. The Church also received instruction on the Four Newly Created Intermediary Lights that manifest through this conception.
Scripture tells us that through the manifestation of these Four Intermediary Lights, God has fixed the Four Newly Created Tables of the Law to be taught to the Ordained in the Holy Institutions of Learning; and, so that the unwritten Code of the Law may be codified on earth for the emancipation of the human race, God has decreed Twelve newly created Active Principles of Divine Law of Hid New Covenant, which are subordinate to the Lights of God and to the Tables of the Law, yet are instruments of the Divine Plan for human redemption.
With the revelation given on June 6th, God decreed these Twelve Active Principles to be in force upon confirmation. And on the first day of August in 1982, “The New Light of God appeared over the face of the sun, confirming the Active Principles of Divine Law.” The event of confirmation that on this date is the purpose of the special commemoration each year.
The final paragraph of The Book of God’s Revelation describes that event:
And on the first day of August, it being the eighth Sunday following the giving of the Revelation at Pentecost on the sixth day of June, the New Light of God appeared over the face of the sun, confirming the Active Principle of Divine Law. And the whole congregation, gathered at sunrise, saw and felt the gift of the Spirit manifest out of the sun.
The Church has observed this date since 1982 in a variety of liturgical forms. At the Divine Service performed on August 1, 1987, a new composition titled “The New Light of Divine Law” was introduced to the liturgical music usually accompanying Divine Service. The piece commemorates the confirmation of the Active Principle of Divine Law.
* * *
The religious tradition and astronomical calendric attached to this date are significant. First Dispensation churches know August 1 as Lammas Day or the Day of the Loaf Mass. The date was celebrated by Christians in England, where the first bread of the harvest was taken to mass for blessing. The Christian feast has even earlier roots in the Celtic Lugnasaid, which hailed the beginning of the wheat harvest.
August 1 marks the beginning of the calendric period known as the “dog days.” The period is named for the Dog Star, Sirius. The span of time between late July and mid-August is an astronomical period when Sirius rises each morning with the sun. For the ancient Egyptians, August 1 was a calendric marking for the rising of the Nile and was celebrated by an important religious feast. This date also held significance for other ancient solar cultures.
The Sacred Calendar of the Second Advent Church also holds August 1 as a significant date. When counting from February 2, Second Advent New Year’s Day, the semiannual cycle, or 180-degree cycle of the earth around the sun, falls on August 1.
