Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

This preservation [of rites] is correctly assigned to ministers, lest they either change or abrogate the rites accepted by the public authority of the church on the basis of their personal whim. Rather, they should preserve them in order to protect harmony and good order. For though church rituals by nature are adiaphora, since God's Word neither commands nor forbids them, and though they do not of themselves constitute a part of divine worship, nevertheless they should not be abrogated merely by one part of the church.—Blessed Johann Gerhard, The Ministry, Part II, p. 137.