Day of Humiliation and Prayer

On the motion of Rev D A Ross, the Synod in May 2024 appointed a Day of Humiliation and
Prayer to be observed throughout the Church on Wednesday, 4 December 2024, as follows:

The Synod appoints a Day of Humiliation and Prayer to be observed throughout the
Church on Wednesday, 4th December 2024. This is because of the deepening moral and
spiritual darkness relentlessly encompassing Church and State. We are shown from the Word
of God that in time of crisis the people of God always resorted to humbling themselves before
God, asking for His deliverance. This continues to be the practice of our own Church and
indeed the visible Church, at least to some degree. Sadly, sections of it not only give consent
to the vilest of sins, but openly engage in the same. When the children of Israel were properly
exercised during their time in the wilderness – and before and after that time – they resorted
to bringing their troubles to the God of eternity. Indeed, we find this pattern throughout the
Word of God.

It is distressing to observe the enduring purpose of our nation not only to continue in
the way of transgressing the Moral Law, but also its purposeful rejection of Christ Jesus the
remedy to remove not only the guilt of individuals but also that of nations that are ripening
for the judgement of God. It is a frightening reality that our nation would rather keep adding
sin to sin and search out new forms of ungodliness, and loves to have it so. Alarmingly, we
are a nation more and more given over to all kinds of wickedness and there seems to be no
holding back. And worse, sections of the professing Christian Church not only show approval
of such evils but dare to engage in these abominations.

This is a time indeed for us to pray more earnestly that the Lord would come over the
mountains of our rebellion and not leave us to the inevitable, destructive consequence of sin.
For any one of us to cry in true spiritual prayer to God for the mercy our poor sin-stained
Church and State urgently need, we must have some awareness of our own sin and the
efficacy of the blood of Christ to cleanse us from our sin. Then we may all the more earnestly
cry in prayer to God for Church and State, pleading that God would grant a spirit of
repentance and a sense of our abiding need of the mercy of God in Christ, and thereafter
endeavour to serve the Almighty God in the spirit of new obedience. “That Thy way may be
known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations” (Ps 67:2).