The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2634 page)

 
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Veneration of the Cross
.

A ceremony of the Latin
rite
for
Good Friday
, in which clergy and people solemnly kiss the foot of a crucifix at the entrance to the sanctuary. In the Middle Ages it was called ‘creeping to the cross’. A comparable ceremony in the Orthodox Church takes place on the feast of the
Exaltation of the Cross
.

 
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Venial sin
.

In Christian moral theology, a sin which is less grave or deliberate than
mortal sin
and so does not deprive the soul of sanctifying
grace
. On the basis of John 5. 16 the
fathers
posited two classes of sins, but the modern distinction goes back to the
scholastics
, especially Thomas
Aquinas
. According to the theology of
penance
, there is no obligation to confess venial sins. For the Hindu distinction between major and minor offences, see
MAH
P
TAKA
.

 
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Venite
.

Psalm 95, so-called from its first words in
Lat.:
Venite exultemus
(‘O come, Let us worship’).

 
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(1796–1873)
. Christian organizer of missionary work, and one of the founders of the
CMS (Church Missionary Society)
. On the basis of Matthew 28. 19, he envisaged the emergence of national churches with their own indigenous characteristics. This vision is summarized in the ‘three-self’ policy—though that concept and phrase may have originated from Rufus Anderson: the churches should be self-governing, self-supporting, self-propagating.

 
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Veronica, St
.

A woman of Jerusalem who, according to legend, offered her head-cloth to Jesus to wipe his face on the way to his crucifixion. When he gave it back, his features were impressed on it. A ‘veil of Veronica’ seems to have been at Rome since the 8th cent. The legend was probably written in its present form in the 14th cent. to explain the relic. The incident is now devotionally important as the sixth of the
stations
of the cross. Feast day, 12 July.