matters involving worship must be terminated.

Hence, if it is the wife that is excommunicated, the husband will continue to conduct the family Bible study with the children, and on appropriate occasions he may lead his children in prayer. The wife may sit in and hear the prayer or follow along in the study, thereby taking in valuable information, but she would not contribute to the discussion.

If the husband is the one disfellowshiped, the wife and children are still in subjection to the head in family matters. This is not canceled out. The wife does not become the head of the house in carrying out the daily pursuits of life. But if the husband sincerely wants to do what is right, he will take the necessary actions to reconcile himself with Jehovah and his visible organization. He will realize that he is not qualified to direct family spiritual affairs. However, the wife, at some convenient time when the husband is not in charge of the situation, will arrange to study the Bible with her children.

The same principle applies at mealtimes. There can be no spiritual association here. The disfellowshiped family head is not in position to lead his family in prayer, nor would he properly call on someone else present to represent the family in prayer, thus having them do so at his direction. Any who want to pray may do so privately. However, in his absence, faithful dedicated members of the family could join together in prayer.

If the excommunicated husband insists on offering prayer at mealtimes, the dedicated members of the household would not say “Amen” to the prayer, nor would they join hands as some have the custom, as this would be participating spiritually. They could bow their heads and offer their own silent prayer to Jehovah. If he insists on expressing his views on religious matters, he cannot be prevented from doing so in his own house; but faithful Christian members of the household are not obligated to participate in a discussion. They show respect for the decree disfellowshiping the wrongdoer from God’s organization. “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.”—Acts 5:29.

It is a serious responsibility for Christians to keep the worship of Jehovah pure. To do this the Christian will comply with Jehovah’s righteous requirements, even where members of his own family are cut off from God’s visible organization. Love for God comes first. The Christian takes appropriate measures to show he agrees with Jehovah’s ways, thereby pleasing Him and maintaining pure worship.

Glory to God?

◇ A candid observation in The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge testifies how ineffective Christendom’s Christmas celebration is in bringing glory to God: “The religious significance of Christmas has been too commonly minimized among Christians, the day among adults being degraded into one merely for the exchange of presents, often neither given nor received in any affection, but out of a sense of obligation or as barter. In too many homes the children, whose day it more particularly is, are not taught to link their merrymaking on Christmas with the gift of God to the world in the person of his Son Jesus Christ. Although some of our denominations hold service on that day, the vast majority of Protestants do not attend, and most of our denominations keep their churches closed.”—Volume III, page 48.