READING DESK, see Desk.
READING IN. Every incumbent upon entering his living is obliged to read the Thirty-nine Articles, and to give his assent thereto publicly, in Church, on some Sunday nearly following his appointment. He must also read the Morning and Evening Prayer, and declare his assent to the Prayer Book. A certificate to that effect has to be signed by the Churchwardens. The whole ceremony is known as that of "reading in."
REAL PRESENCE, see Presence, Real.
RECTOR. A clergyman who has charge of a parish, and who possesses all the tithes. The distinction between a Rector and Vicar is that the former has the whole right to all the ecclesiastical dues within his parish, whereas the latter is entitled only to a certain portion of those profits, the best part of which are often absorbed by the impropriator.
REFORMATION. The great revolt in Europe in the 16th century against the Papacy. The rescue of our Church from the usurped dominion of the Pope, and its restoration from the corruptions of Popery to primitive purity was then effected. (See Church of England.)
REFRESHMENT SUNDAY The fourth Sunday in Lent is so called probably because the Gospel for the day relates the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. It is also frequently called Mid-Lent Sunday. In several parts of England it is known by the name of Mothering Sunday, from an ancient practice of making a pilgrimage to the Mother Church, usually the Cathedral, of the neighbourhood on this day. The comparatively modern and local custom of young men and women going home to visit their parents on this day is probably a survival of the older practice.
REGENERATION. A Latin word meaning new birth, or being born again. The catechism teaches us that the grace of Baptism is "a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness…" So, in perfect consistency with the catechism, the minister, immediately after the administration of Holy Baptism to a child, addresses the congregation thus: "Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, that this child is regenerate;" and he returns thanks to God that it hath pleased Him "to regenerate this infant with Thy Holy Spirit." The same connexion between regeneration and baptism is expressed in the Office for Private Baptism and in the Office for the Baptism of Adults. There has been much confusion and misunderstanding caused by using the word regeneration as though it meant conversion. Both the Bible—Tit. iii. 5; John iii. 3-5—and the Fathers use regeneration as the new birth of baptism, but never as meaning anything else, unless figuratively as Matt. xix. 28. (See Conversion, Baptism.)
REGISTER. A parochial record of Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials. The keeping of a church book for registering the age of those that should be born and christened in the parish began in the thirtieth year of Henry VIII. Canon 70 gives directions for the safe keeping of parish registers wherein baptisms, weddings, and burials were entered. Duplicate registers of weddings are now kept by order of recent legislation, and also copies are made quarterly and given to the registrar of the district. There is a small fee payable by those who wish to search the parish registers; and for a copy of an entry 2s. 6d. is the legal charge.
RENOVATION. This action of the Holy Spirit upon the heart of man differs from Regeneration (which see) in that it is progressive, and may often be repeated or totally lost. Whereas Regeneration comes only once, in or through Baptism, and can never be repeated nor ever totally lost.
REPENTANCE or CONTRITION, A sincere sorrow for all past sins, an unfeigned disposition of mind to perform the will of God better for the future, and an actual avoiding and resisting of those temptations to sin under which we have before fallen.