#Reformation500
I don't think I've ever felt more Protestant than when I was in Rome a few years ago. It wasn't the aesthetics of the Vatican, or anything like that. It was the knowledge that the buildings we were standing in had been paid for by the abuse of Christians in Germany and throughout Europe centuries earlier. 
It was confronting to see what the indulgences opposed by Martin Luther had actually paid for. It was confronting having come from Oxford (final photo) and seen the spots where Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer had died in the backlash against the Reformation.
Being Protestant means many things (i.e. the five solas), but I think it involves a certain disposition: holding together how precious Christian unity truly is, and how nefarious church corruption truly is.
It involves the recognition that gospel faithfulness can be compromised by religious hypocrisy.
It's the abhorrence of the scriptures being held captive, and the delight in seeing them set free to in the lives of ordinary women and men.
To be Protestant means exposing sin to the light – beginning with our own – so that it can't fester in the darkness.
#AllSaints
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