Sunday Observance Research Articles

Impact of Hypermedia-Based Reading on Professional Writing; An Experimental Study Based on ‘Sri Lanka Sunday Observer’ E-Paper

The application of hypermedia-based learning with electronic newspaper; refers to facilitate the learning with graphics, images, animation, sound and hypertext shows a major role in the performance of the students. This research was conducted to find the relationship between the hypermedia-based newspaper reading under the business English in the Higher National Diploma in Accountancy syllabus with learning strategies: tasks and activities in newspaper corner with poster method and the performance in the professional writing in HNDA course of Sri Lanka Institute of Advanced Technological Education as there were no any previous research studies done in the academic field. Ninety students from HNDA – A were taken as an experimental group and ninety students from HNDA- B were taken as a controlled group. A pre-test was conducted for the groups to find the previous knowledge of the students in the professional writing proficiency and the mean differences were found to be negligible for the groups. Later, the experimental group was used to pursue hypermedia-based newspaper (Sri Lanka Sunday Observer) reading on the strategies; tasks and activities in newspaper corner with poster method for six months with sixty hours learning while the controlled group was taught without the use of hypermedia-based newspaper reading. After six months a post-test was conducted for the groups. When it was conducted the mean was slightly improved for the group – B, and the mean was considerably improved for the group – A. Thus, the research findings imply that hyper-media newspaper reading improves professional writing of the learners.

Interpretation of Revelation 13 in the writings of Ellen White

The origin and development of the Adventist Church was based on eschatological interpretations of the apocalyptic books of the Bible. Ellen White, one of the co-founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, played a prominent role in the interpretation of prophetic texts. In this article, I highlight her interpretation of one of the most controversial passages in the book of Revelation – the thirteenth chapter – in which John writes about the Antichrist. I show that Ellen White took a historical approach to the interpretation of apocalyptic prophecies. White interpreted the beast from the sea as a symbol of the papacy, and the beast from the earth as a symbol of Protestant America. White argued that the image of the beast would be a separate authority, a union of church and state in the United States, a kind of counterpart to the papacy. The restoration of the power of the papacy and its alliance with Protestantism will lead to the loss of religious freedom and persecution. The article highlights that the mark of the beast, according to Ellen White, symbolizes the celebration of Sunday – a false and idolatrous Sabbath. This spiritual sign will be activated in a future eschatological spiritual battle that will take place in the matter of worship and faithfulness to God’s commandments. White wrote about Sunday laws in the historical context of the United States, where they were hotly debated and even passed in some states. I argue that White was not limited by historical context, but was making a statement about future Sunday observance legislation on a worldwide scale, with other countries following the US’s example. The article shows that Ellen White also interpreted the Antichrist individualistically, by indicating the personal appearance of the devil in the form of Jesus Christ at the end of time.

Influential Factors between the Primacy of Roman Church and the Origin of Sunday

The debate between the mysterious rise of Sunday observance and the church dominance in the Roman empire throughout the Ante-Nicene period appeared as an emerging discourse in regard to the Sabbath adherence. The historical background has been capable of analyzing the supposed relation between the two when the Christian beliefs gradually developed. The connection would seem to bring relevant ramifications to today’s theological understanding as far as observing the Sabbath or Sunday is concerned. The significant factors between the beginning of Sunday and the supremacy of the Roman church appeared to be intertwined and fused in the early church era. While many other events have circulated the social and religious cultures in Rome, the factors below indicate and strengthen the relationship between both church primacy and Sunday origin in history through a documentary research method. The time of the early church in this discussion is delimited around the year 100 up to 313 AD. Though the focus not only touches on one particular reason as to why Sunday replaced Sabbath, the research questions comprise of how the pre-eminence of papal supremacy took place and why the Sunday worship has seemed to alter the Sabbath observance since then.

Sabbath Keeping and Sunday Observance as Spiritual Practice

This article investigates recent interest in the spiritual practice of Sabbath keeping in the light of its history in Judaism and Christianity. It will focus, firstly, on the spiritual nature of Sabbath keeping in Biblical texts and its reception in Judeo-Christian traditions. It will spell out comprehensive, multifaceted approaches to Sabbath keeping and Sunday observance in these traditions and how dynamically these approaches were developed in terms of later contexts. The article will then analyse the positive impact of this spiritual practice on human relationships, but more importantly, its role in creating awareness of the divine presence which represents its most essential dimension. This will reveal how transformative Sabbath keeping as a spiritual practice can be in the spiritual journey, even and also in contemporary contexts. The aim of the article is to investigate insights that spirituality authors can gain from past history in order to meaningfully respond to challenges in their own context and to empower them to counter the serious consequences for the spiritual health of those who are victims of a consumerist culture. The article is by necessity merely an overview, without in-depth discussion of the detail of Sabbath in various historical phases. Important is a general trend that reflects the ebb and flow of Sabbath keeping in the course of history, its tenacity as a spiritual practice and its deeper meaning in the life of faith communities.

Reasons of How Adventist Pioneers Accepted the Truth about Sabbath (1844-1863)

Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) emerged as a denomination in the nineteenth centuryamid Sunday‟s observance domination. The majority of the SDA pioneers are Sundaykeepers. The seventh-day Sabbath was first brought to the Millerite Adventists by RachelOakes. She is a member of the Seventh-day Baptist who joined the Millerite Adventists. Thefirst time the seventh-day Sabbath was introduced in Millerite Adventists, there was upheavaland conflict. But finally, a group of Sabbatarian Adventists was formed which kept theseventh-day Sabbath. This group finally became SDA Church. The purpose of this work is tofind out what were the reasons for the Adventists pioneers to accept the Sabbath. This paperargued that there were four reasons why Sabbatarian Adventists received the seventh-daySabbath. First, the Sabbatarian Adventists kept the seventh-day Sabbath because of theirinvestigation of the Bible, which led them to abandon Sunday observance and accepted theSabbath. Second, one of the co-founders of the SDA, Ellen G. White, confirmed that theSabbath is related to the temple in heaven, because the Ten Commandments, including thefourth commandment, still remains there and never been eliminated. Third, the pioneers ofthe SDA also found that there was a connection between the Sabbath and the three angels‟messages, in which the issue will be the worship of God and its closely related to the seventhday Sabbath. Fourth, they saw that Sabbath was related to eschatology. In this understanding,they understood that Sabbath would still be observed in the new world. This paper is ahistorical approach using documentary research method. For each reasons, researcher utilizesprimary resources. Secondary resources are employed only to see current opinions about theissue.

Catechizing at Home, 1740–1870: Instruction, Communication and Denomination

Catechizing played an important part in domestic religious education in Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as in the better documented early modern period. However, its significance has been neglected in comparison with family prayers (often deemed to be an expression of patriarchy), Sunday observance or even private prayers. This article analyses the incidence of catechizing across religious denominations in Britain from 1740 to 1870, and within selected overseas missionary families. Drawing on a wide range of personal memoirs, the article analyses the range of contexts and relationships within which catechizing could occur. These included not only household worship (which could be conducted by women) but also relationships between siblings. It demonstrates that catechizing could provide opportunities for asking questions and spending ‘quality time’ with parents and / or children, rather than embodying an alienating form of rote-learning. The article therefore challenges many stereotypes relating to family domestic education, relating to themes such as patriarchy, denominational difference and adult-child interaction.

The Theological Underpinnings of Australia's Constitutional Separation of Church and State Provision

The Australian Constitution contains two provisions concerning religion: a reference to “Almighty God” in the preamble and a provision denying the Federal Parliament power to legislate in respect of religion. The inclusion of those two provisions by the National Australasian Convention, which met from 1897 to 1898 to draft the Australian Constitution, was in large measure a result of political campaigns undertaken by competing religious groups. The first group, the Councils of Churches in each colony representing the main Protestant denominations, agitated for a constitutional “recognition” of God. The second group, the Seventh Day Adventists, campaigned against any constitutional recognition of God and for the inclusion of a provision limiting the Federal Government's power in respect of religion. The Adventists held fears that constitutional “recognition” of God would empower the federal parliament to pass nation‐wide Sunday observance laws. This article explores the theological and legal thinking of the Seventh Day Adventists to explain how they came to believe what, on a strict legal analysis, was highly implausible.

Conceiving of the Sabbath in 17th-century Kampen: ‘Disorderly,’ ‘Public’ and ‘Scandalous’ Desecration

Proper observance of the Sabbath was an important aspect of Christian piety in the early modern Dutch Reformed Church. As evidenced by local church records in the Dutch city of Kampen, known as consistory records, church authorities sought to enforce better Sunday observance. This article notes the consistory’s disgust with a disorderly Sabbath that was publicly desecrated. In particular, these concerns for proper Sabbath observance are tied to a concern for order and to the desire to establish a Reformed identity.

Jewish Bakers in Late Nineteenth-Century Great Britain and Sunday Baking Restrictions

When immigrants first arrive in a country there is almost always friction between the host population and the new immigrants over housing, jobs, and culture. This article tells the story of such a clash in Britain in the late nineteenth century, tracing how Jewish bakers ran afoul of Britain's Sundays closing laws, which forbade bakers to bake and bakeries to sell their good on Sundays. In a time when most businesses worked a six-day week, Jewish bakers felt unfairly victimized, since their religion called upon them to close their establishments on Saturday in observance of the Sabbath while Christian bakers were free to bake and sell on Saturday, but the law required all bakers, including Jews, to close on Sunday for the Christian Sabbath. This story is a microcosm of social conflict and social change, and reveals the serious pressures that observant Jewish immigrants faced as they tried to find a place for themselves in British society.From medieval times, custom and the law in England assumed that Sunday was a day of rest and worship. Sunday observance laws were directed at errant Christians who failed to observe the Sabbath. Renaissance urban growth, increasing commercial activity, and the turmoil of the Civil War in the midseventeenth century all disrupted the habits of Sabbath observance. After the restoration of the monarchy, Parliament sought to restore religion to a central place in British life and to reestablish strict observance of the Sunday Sabbath with respect to the commercial life of the country. It passed the Sunday Observance Act of 1677, an avowedly religious law that was for centuries the foundation of Britain's legal structure on Sabbath observance. The act prohibited work and commerce on Sunday except in some limited instances.1 It was augmented a century later by the Sunday Observance Act of 1781, which required that the nation's theaters, taverns, libraries, museums, zoos, and retail shops were to be closed on Sundays.2 However, it was recognized that some businesses such as bakeries and food merchants had to be allowed to work even on Sundays in order to provision the populace.Medieval England had a small but thriving community of Jews but it was destroyed by the expulsion of Jews in 1290. Under the Tudors, Jews, mainly Spanish Jews, began to trickle back into Britain. The number of Jews continued to grow as British commerce and empire grew and British trade spanned the world. In 1734, there were about 6,000 Jews living in England.3 The Jewish population of Britain began to rise more rapidly in the nineteenth century as Jews from the German states arrived on British shores. In 1850, the Jewish population was approximately 25,000.4 Toward the end of the nineteenth century a new wave of Jewish immigration, composed largely of Jews from the Russian and Hapsburg Empires in eastern and central Europe, led to a substantial increase in Jewish population. About 120,000 Jews immigrated to Great Britain between 1880 and 1914. The Jewish population of London alone went from 47,000 in 1883 to 150,000 in 1905, which accounted for about three-fourths of the Jewish population in the UK.5 This influx of new Jewish immigrants, arriving at a time of significant changes in British social and economic life, faced them with-and helped to create-tension with the host population. Nowhere was this tension played out more visibly than in the British baking industry. Jewish bakers wanted to bake on Sunday, the day that was not their Sabbath, and ignore the legal restrictions on Sunday commercial activity. British law forbade that. By the late nineteenth century, there was conflict in the baking industry.Some legal restrictions on baking connected with Sunday closing existed before the nineteenth century. For instance, a 1794 act obliged bakers to refrain from work on Sunday except for three hours, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.6 The purpose was not to unburden bakers per se, but rather to obtain better observation of the Lord's day by persons exercising the trade of Bakers. …

The historic importance of G-77

When the Group of 77 (G-77) emerged on the world economic scene at the end of the first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 1964, it was hailed in a front page headline of the prestigious Sunday Observer, a London weekly, as “the most important phenomenon of the Post-War period”. When the first UNCTAD convened, the Group was already functional, but it had 75 members, including Australia and New Zealand. By the end of the Conference, G-75 was transformed into G-77 with the exit of Australia and New Zealand and the entry of four more developing countries. The first substantive and authoritative document issued by G-77 was its Declaration containing an assessment of the outcome of the Conference and outlining the objectives to be pursued in the future, particularly through the UNCTAD forum. It was a seminal document in which the developing countries proclaimed for the first time their resolve to work for a new international order. This was a decade before the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Declaration and Plan of Action for the Establishment of a New International Order.

Bat, Ball, and Bible: Baseball and Sunday Observance in New York

Journal Article Bat, Ball, and Bible: Baseball and Sunday Observance in New York Get access Charles DeMotte. (Dulles: Potomac, 2013. xviii, 205 pp. $24.95.) Journal of American History, Volume 100, Issue 4, March 2014, Page 1230, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jau073 Published: 01 March 2014

CHARLES DEMOTTE. Bat, Ball and Bible: Baseball and Sunday Observance in New York.

CHARLES DEMOTTE. Bat, Ball and Bible: Baseball and Sunday Observance in New York.

Sunday Observance Laws in North America

It is surprising to note that activities that would otherwise be legal are still prohibited on Christian holidays in the US and in some Canadian provinces. After a brief overview of the constitutional issues that may arise from the enactment of a Sunday observance law, this article reviews separately the question of Sunday closing in Canada and in the United Stated using various landmark cases. The last part of this study will consist of an eclectic comparison between diverse matters and questions raised by those cases.

An Exploratory Study on Entry Level HRM Job Opportunities and Their Requirements in Sri Lanka

The objectives of this study are to explore the types, categories and requirements of entry level HRM job opportunities available in Sri Lanka. In order to achieve the objectives, an exploratory study on all the HRM related employment advertisements appeared in the Sunday Observer newspaper for the period of 3 years (2006, 2007 and 2008) was conducted by using comprehensive and systematic content analysis along with descriptive statistics. The results revealed that a few number of entry level options are available in Sri Lanka. These options can be grouped into two broad classifications such as generalized and specialized way of entry options. Sri Lankan organizations have a practice of recruiting young people as Management Trainee (MT) to fill the current or future job vacancies. In connection with entry-level HRM jobs, MT has been identified as one of the main sources of entry options in Sri Lanka. Based on the needed educational qualifications, the MT option is classified into eight categories. In case of MT, a placement process and conditions were identified. From entry level job seekers, organizations expect twenty nine skills and eight types of personal qualities. The implications of these findings are useful to all stakeholders of HRM especially current and potential job seekers, organizations and HRM workforce developers in Sri Lanka. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljhrm.v3i1.5098 Sri Lankan Journal of Human Resource Management Vol.3(1) 2012 pp.58-77

An Exploratory Study on the Experience Requirements of Key HRM jobs in Sri Lanka

It has been generally observed that there is a gap in the empirical knowledge with regard to the experience requirements of key HRM jobs in terms of number of years and contents of experiences in the field of HRM in Sri Lanka. The research questions of this exploratory study are: What are the experiences needed or expected by the organizations which are operating in Sri Lanka for key HRM jobs in terms of number of years and contents? and Is it possible to develop a sort of illustration to understand experience requirements of key HRM jobs in Sri Lanka? Objectives of this study are to explore the experience requirements of key HRM jobs in terms of number of years and contents; and to develop an illustration of experience requirements of key HRM jobs in Sri Lanka. In order to achieve the objectives of this research, an exploratory study was conducted by using eight key HRM job related employment advertisements appeared in the Sunday Observer newspaper for the period of 5 years (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010). This study was longitudinal in time horizon. The unit of analysis of this study was HRM related job advertisement. The extent of the researchers’ interference in this study was minimal as there had not been any manipulation and control of variables. This study was carried out in a natural (non-contrived) environment where events occurred normally. Mainly by using comprehensive and systematic content analysis along with descriptive statistics, results and findings were generated. The results of the study revealed that the experience requirement is one of the very important requirements in selecting people for key HRM jobs. At the same time it varies from job to job. When considering the experience requirements for the selected key HRM jobs, the findings revealed that mostly a minimum of 5-10 years experience at senior level (as a HR Manager/Head of HR Department) is needed experience for the post of HR Director. A minimum of 5 years experience is needed for the post of Head of HRM, Group HR Manager, HR Manager and Training Manager mostly. For HR Executive, HR Officer and Recruitment Manager a minimum of 2-3 years experience is expected by the organizations which are operating in Sri Lanka. With regard to the contents (quality) of experiences, eight (08) key dimensions of experience were identified in addition to the number of years (quantity) such as general experience in HRM field, special experience in specific HRM area/function, scope of experience in HRM field (local or international), sector related experience, management level/position related experience, industry related experience, workforce/organisation size based experience and time preference based experience. Based on identified key dimensions of experiences, a model was developed from this exploratory study in order to provide an understanding about the experience requirements of selected key HRM jobs in Sri Lanka. The implications of these findings are useful to all stakeholders of HRM especially current and potential job seekers, organizations and HRM workforce developers in Sri Lanka. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljhrm.v3i1.5094">http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljhrm.v3i1.5094</a> Sri Lankan Journal of Human Resource Management Vol.3(1) 2012 pp.1-18

An Exploratory Study on the Personal Qualities/Characteristics expected by the Organisations for Key HRM jobs in Sri Lanka

This study explores a gap in the empirical knowledge with regard to the personal qualities/characteristics expected by the organisations for key HRM jobs in the field of HRM in Sri Lanka. The research questions of this exploratory study were: What are the personal qualities/characteristics needed or expected by the organizations which are operating in Sri Lanka for key HRM jobs? And is it possible to develop a sort of illustration to understand personal qualities/characteristics expected for key HRM jobs in Sri Lanka? In order to answer the research questions systematically, an exploratory study was conducted by using eight key HRM job related employment advertisements appeared in the Sunday Observer newspaper for the period of 5 years (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010). Time horizon of the study was longitudinal and HRM related job advertisement was the unit of analysis of the study. Comprehensive and systematic content analysis along with descriptive statistics was applied to generate results and findings. The results of the study revealed that the personal qualities/characteristics are one of the very important requirements in selecting people for key HRM jobs in Sri Lanka. At the same time it differs from key job to another key job. When considering the personal qualities for the selected key HRM jobs, the findings revealed that there are 39 personal qualities related to the post of HR Director, 29 personal qualities related to the Group HR Manager, 41 personal qualities related to Head of HRM, 98 personal qualities related to the HR Manager, 81 personal qualities related to the HR Executive, 50 personal qualities related to the HR Officer, 32 personal qualities related to the Training Manager, and 15 personal qualities related to the post of Recruitment Manager. With regard to the personal qualities eleven (11) key dimensions of personal qualities were identified in addition to the number of personal qualities including attitude related, personality related, good character related, team related, professional related, business related, people related, performance related, physical appearance related, leadership traits related and HR/HRM related aspects. The implications of these findings are useful to all stakeholders and professionals of HRM especially in developing good professionalism among current HR professionals in Sri Lanka and prospective personnel who wish to establish a career in HRM. DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljhrm.v3i1.5096">http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljhrm.v3i1.5096</a> Sri Lankan Journal of Human Resource Management Vol.3(1) 2012 pp.32-48

Sunday Observance and the Sunday Letter in Anglo-Saxon England

Sunday Observance and the Sunday Letter in Anglo-Saxon England

Dorothy Haines (ed.), Sunday Observance and the Sunday Letter in Anglo-Saxon England.

Dorothy Haines (ed.), Sunday Observance and the Sunday Letter in Anglo-Saxon England.

Sunday Observance and the Sunday Letter in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. and tr. Dorothy Haines

Sunday Observance and the Sunday Letter in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. and tr. Dorothy Haines

Religion and the Politics of Time: Holidays in France from Louis XIV through Napoleon (review)

Reviewed by: Religion and the Politics of Time: Holidays in France from Louis XIV through Napoleon James Friguglietti Religion and the Politics of Time: Holidays in France from Louis XIV through Napoleon. By Noah Shusterman. (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press. 2010. Pp. xviii, 299. $74.95. ISBN 978-0-813-21725-3.) By the end of the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church controlled the calendar just as the liturgical year organized the daily lives of millions of ordinary individuals. In Noah Shusterman's words: "In Old Regime France, people perceived and understood the passage of time through a religious framework" (p. 57). In this richly detailed study, a revised version of his doctoral dissertation completed at the University of California, Berkeley in 2004, the author examines the "politics of time" in the largest Catholic country of Europe over 175 [End Page 819] years. Not only did the liturgical calendar with its fifty-two Sundays require attendance at Mass but also marked these as obligatory days of rest (fêtes chomées). It also mandated observance of various sacred holidays, most notably Easter and Christmas. Days devoted to local saints added to the proliferation of fêtes chomées. According to Shusterman, in the mid-1600s an average of thirty-three weekdays were religious holidays. By the end of the 1700s, however, this number had fallen to only eighteen (p. 38). Such a gradual reduction in holidays was achieved by bishops who recognized that idleness on such days of rest resulted in heavy drinking, debauchery, and even devil worship. In addition, excessive days of religious observance when labor was forbidden deprived poorer Frenchmen of income needed to support their families. Consequently, both religious and economic reasons induced bishops to reduce the number of holidays either by outright suppression or by transferring their celebration to a Sunday (p. 83). But it was the Revolution of 1789, with its brutal assault on the Catholic Church, that instituted state control over the politics of time. During the Terror the republican government sought to replace the Catholic liturgical year with a new, secular calendar that would regenerate France while rationalizing time. This republican calendar, with its twelve equal months composed of three décades each, and a leap year of five or six days, brought the state into sharp conflict with traditional French society. As Shusterman observes, the new decimalized calendar "was the national government's first attempt to regulate time without the aid of the Catholic Church" (p. 138). After the Terror ended in 1794, traditional religious practices regained much of their authority. Although enforcement of the republican calendar declined, it remained official, at least for state purposes. However, after the coup of 18 fructidor year V (September 4, 1797), the government of the Directory moved vigorously to enforce its usage in everyday life. The author devotes considerable space to the period 1797-99, when strict measures were introduced throughout the country mandating that Tenth Day (décadi) and national festivals were obligatory days of rest. Marriages could now only be celebrated on Tenth Day, and fairs and markets were strictly regulated. Enforcement, however, remained difficult. Napoleon's seizure of power in November 1799 led to the undoing of the republican calendar. To improve relations with the Catholic Church, the new master of France relaxed the Directory's strict enforcement policy and, by 1806, completely abandoned the Revolutionary system of time. Simultaneously, thanks to an indult issued by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Caprara, even most traditional religious holidays also were eliminated or relegated to Sunday observance. As Shusterman concludes, "There was a shift in the authority over the holidays from the Catholic Church to the French State" (p. 242). [End Page 820] The author's study rests on extensive research in the French archives. His bibliography alone occupies twenty-two closely printed pages. Shusterman's direct prose enables the reader to follow his argument with little difficulty. In summary, Religion and the Politics of Time is a model of both scholarly thoroughness and skillful analysis. It provides a valuable source for historians of religion and society in France over a wide swath of time. It is an impressive achievement. James Friguglietti...