Sunday Laws In Europe

[divya]

Sabbath-keepers, please take note of the progression:

The EU Must Keep Sunday, Says Catholic Church
November 18, 2008 | From theTrumpet.com

The Catholic Church wants Sunday observance enshrined in EU law. The European Parliament is debating changes to its Working Time Directive. The Vatican wants a clause in this law that would force every citizen in the European Union to rest on Sunday.

A hideously socialist piece of legislation, the Working Time Directive currently makes it illegal for those working, with some exceptions, in the EU to work for more than 48 hours a week. Workers in the UK are currently allowed to opt out of its provisions.

The bill is being revised. During the second reading, in October, seven Members of the European Parliament tabled an amendment saying that the minimum rest period “shall in principle include Sunday.” The Brussels-based Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (comece) agrees, recommending the directive should say “the minimal weekly rest must include Sunday.”

http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=5676.4031.0.0

 

[divya]

Croatia Bans Sunday Shopping

ZAGREB (ANS) - The parliament of the predominantly Catholic country of Croatia is urging its citizens to reclaim Sunday as a day for celebrating the Eucharist, for family, and for rest.

This was revealed in a story by Thaddeus M. Baklinski and posted on http://www.lifesitenews.com/

Writing on July 16, Baklinski said, “The Croatian parliament passed a law yesterday requiring most businesses to close on Sundays. The law does, however, allow Sunday shopping during the summer tourist season and Christmas holidays.

“The new law also allows stores in hospitals as well as those in gas, bus and train stations to open on Sundays year-round. Bakeries, newsstands and flower shops are also exempt from the ban.”

He went on to say, “Most post-communist countries, including Croatia, have experienced problems transitioning from the oppression of Marxist ideology, which proclaimed there is no God and therefore no need for any day for religious observance or rest, to a free market economy with a fascination with and craving for all things Western.

“Croatia, however, is now in a more stable political and economic situation where its people can reaffirm their centuries-old traditions of family and faith and experience a Renaissance of their culture. The banning of Sunday shopping is a significant step in that direction.

“The benefits of not making Sunday just an extension of Saturday have been well documented.”

For instance, he added, a report entitled “The Church vs. the Mall: What Happens When Religion Faces Increased Secular Competition?” that was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in 2006, indicated that approval of Sunday shopping triggered an increase in drug and alcohol use among otherwise faithful churchgoers.

http://www.crosswalk.com/11579674/

 

[divya]

Protection of the work-free Sunday: MEPs launch Written Declaration
17 February 2009

The Church of England’s House of Bishops’ Europe Panel, the Secretariat of COMECE (Commission of the Catholic Bishops' Conferences of the European Community) and the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) have welcomed the initiative of several Members of the European Parliament, to ask the House to decide on a Written Declaration “on the protection of a work-free Sunday as an essential pillar of the European Social Model and as part of the European cultural heritage”.

Such a declaration would constitute an important commitment to a “Social Europe”. If it collects a majority of signatures (394 MEPs), it becomes an official act of the European Parliament. It was launched by five parliamentarians from the EPP, PSE, ALDE and UEN political groups on 2 February.

The declaration, submitted by MEPs Anna Záborská, Martin Kastler, Jean Louis Cottigny, Patrizia Toia and Konrad Szymański, says:

The European Parliament,

– having regard to Article 137 of the TEU,

– having regard to Rule 116 of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas a work-free Sunday is an essential pillar of the European Social Model and a part of the European cultural heritage,

B. whereas a EUROFOUND survey shows that the likelihood of sickness and absenteeism in establishments that work on Saturdays and Sundays is 1.3 times greater compared with establishments that do not require staff to work at the weekend,

C. whereas, according to EU law, Sunday is the weekly rest day for children and adolescents,

D. whereas the European institutions, bodies and agencies have not worked on Sundays since their creation and do not intend to do so in the future, despite the diversity of religious, cultural and ethnic backgrounds of EU officials and decision-makers,

1. Calls on the Member States and the EU institutions to protect Sunday, as a weekly rest day, in forthcoming national and EU working-time legislation in order to enhance the protection of workers' health and the reconciliation of work and family life;

2. Instructs its President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories, to the Council, the Commission and the parliamentary committees for social affairs of the national parliaments.

In order to be adopted, it is now necessary for the Written Declaration to be signed by a majority (394) of MEPs before 7 May 2009.

http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr1909.html

 

[divya]

German Court Enforces Day of Rest
Germany's Highest Court Strictly Enforces Day of Rest, Bans Sunday Shopping
Dec. 3, 2009

...Germany's Constitutional Court has now upheld a complaint made by the country's Catholic and Protestant churches, based on a clause in the German constitution that Sunday should be a day of rest and "spiritual elevation."

The court on Tuesday decided in favor of the churches, saying that Sunday opening should not take place four weeks in a row. The ruling will not affect shopping this December, but would come into force next year. However, the ruling did not overturn completely the principle of limited Sunday store opening.

The labor unions had joined the churches in their campaign to ring-fence Sunday as a day off for the nation. However, their focus was not on protecting the right to practise religion, but rather on protecting workers in the retail sector from having to work on Sundays, sometimes the only day they might get to spend with other members of their family. The services union Verdi greeted Tuesday's ruling with "relief and joy," saying this was a boon to shopworkers and their families.

German papers on Wednesday are broadly in favor of the ruling, though their reasons for supporting the court's decision are strikingly different.

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"The Constitutional Court had to overthrow the Berlin law. ... The judgement was not 'out of touch with reality,' as the Berlin Chamber of Commerce claims, but is actually very closely in touch with real life. The great diversity of working lives brings with it the fact that members of a single family are forced into different and sometimes incompatible working hours. If the state does not use some of its regulatory power to give a dependable rhythm to at least one free day -- and that is still Sunday -- then the family faces the threat of being pulled further apart."

"If they have no time with each other and for each other, then the formal notion of belonging together loses value. This danger faces many families in society. … The fact that in the face of growing commercialization and fewer jobs hardly any employee ever dares to ask for a free Saturday, led the labor unions to join the churches in their campaign -- with noticeable success."

The conservative Die Welt writes:

"The churches have argued correctly that employees in the retail sector are not given the possibility of organizing their Advent Sundays according to Christian principles: going to church, being involved in the community, singing and reading aloud. It is part of religious freedom to be able to do these things."

"The judges did not just endorse the division of time marked by Christianity, but also the necessity for this division. There is no ambiguity about this weekly rhythm. We people as social animals are duty bound and justified in dividing our time together. It is good to have free time together, it helps us to live as the social beings that we are."

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"The judgement sounds antiquated, maddeningly unmodern and pretty patronizing. It tells citizens when they are allowed to shop, and when they are not. It makes shopping on a Sunday an exception. It is a ruling that goes against the economic liberal zeitgeist and is a ruling against the round-the-clock commercialization of life."

"Yet, the ruling is humane. It is an act in favor of the public spirit. … Those who regularly go shopping on Sundays today will have to work regularly on Sundays tomorrow."

"It may sound old fashioned but it is still correct: Sunday is Sunday because it is unlike other days. This is not about tradition or religion or a social heritage. Sunday is more than just a day off for individuals. It that were so, then it wouldn't matter if someone took a day off on Tuesday or Thursday. It is a day to synchronize society, that is what makes it so important. Without Sunday, every day would be a working day and a fixed point in the week would disappear. Of course there can be exceptions, there have always been particular professions who work on Sundays. But when the exception becomes the rule, then the commercialization of Sundays will not end at the department stores."

"The court has given everyone the right to a day off on Sundays. You don't have to take it. Everyone can do what they like with it. But it is good to have it."

More:

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/court-rules-shopping-sunday-germany/story?id=9236076&page=2

 

[divya]

The Holy Scriptures state:


Exodus 20:8-11
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.


Hebrews 4:4-11
For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:

Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.


Revelation 14:12
Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

May we remain obedient to God and His Word alone, keeping His commandments - resting on His holy day.

Be blessed and this thread will be updated with any developments...

 

[Sharpened]

Most in the States won't care unless they try to enforce it here.

 

[divya]

Most in the States won't care unless they try to enforce it here.

I pray that those of us in the U.S. pay attention to this. Religious freedom is disappearing. What happens to those Sabbath-keepers who keep the Scriptural Sabbath and would like to open their business every Sunday? What about Muslims who regard Friday? It is our religious freedom to run our businesses in our preferred manner that is being taken away.

The ruling in Germany is so off-base. The legislature could give people freedom to take one day off per week. It is not as though those first-day Christians working in stores had difficulty regarding Sunday, but rather they chose to work. Yet now, the court rules in that it is necessary for all to refrain from work at least one Sunday. It is exactly what it they claim it is not - tradition, religion and social heritage - being forced on others.