The theme of the Word of God incarnate in Christ and witnessed through the Bible is the focus of Presbyterian teaching on worship. The Psalms in metrical versions once were the exclusive fare for singing within the simple, even plain, Presbyterian orders of service. The Word was dominant.
In the American experience, Presbyterian worship has displayed almost all the fashions of evangelical church life, from revivalism through liturgical renewal. The PC (USA) still seeks to maintain a cohesive identity while living with a variety of notions about what makes Christian worship Presbyterian. Sermon-and-psalms no longer adequately describes this tradition.
The Renewal Impulse
Liturgical renewal in the PC (USA) stems from several factors, including the historical influence of both the Second Vatican Council and the continuing search for Reformed roots. An inner demand for renewal comes with membership decline and shifting demographic profiles. Presbyterians are reexamining their customs and practices with fresh eyes, concerned for the future of ministry and witness. They are more aware of ethnic traditions and customs in the church, and a secular American public to be reached. Justice, which affirms ethnic diversity and equality, and evangelism, which places priority on the needs of unchurched people, function as criteria for good worship, which increases the variety of what one finds on Sunday morning in congregations.
Seminary training is beginning to take liturgy seriously, and most Presbyterian seminaries have a worship position on the faculty, though few teachers hold earned Ph.D.s in the field of liturgy. The Theology and Worship Ministry Unit of the General Assembly includes staff in the areas of worship, arts, spirituality, and liturgical resources. The Unit coordinates worship conferences and events and publishes the quarterly journal Reformed Liturgy & Music (also the official publication of Presbyterian Association of Musicians).
Recent Developments
A new hymnal in 1990 (The Presbyterian Hymnal: Hymns, Psalms, and Spiritual Songs) selected music from several ethnic sources and represented a variety of styles of piety. This hymnal affirms the “centrality of the sacraments, ecumenical and mission dimensions, the perspectives of women, and the concerns of youth and age.” The range is broad: classic and contemporary hymnody joins “praise-and-worship” music, gospel songs, spirituals, ethnic contributions (Hispanic, Asian, Native American, and African-American). A section of psalms for singing in metrical and responsorial forms facilitates recovery of that practice. Some congregations keep one of the older denominational hymnals (1972, 1955, 1933) in use, while others use one of the commercial hymnals or music books. Supplemental collections for singing are often compiled and used locally.
Preaching continues to hold the most prominent place in worship, though there appear to be few true giants to emulate. The adoption of the Common Lectionary with the three-lesson plan of Sunday readings has had a major impact on preaching. Presbyterians first adapted the Roman Catholic lectionary of Vatican II in 1969. The older Presbyterian practice of reading and preaching through books of the Bible in course (called lectio continua) is still practiced by many preachers, with or without a view to the Common Lectionary.
The Unit on Theology and Worship has a staff position for the arts and worship, but program development lags in this area. Local churches and the seminaries experiment with dance and drama, but no strong precedent exists for a once-iconoclastic Presbyterianism to cultivate liturgical arts. Ecumenical and ethnic influences may be factors in new appreciations of movement, color, and texture that go beyond decoration to liturgical functions.
The liturgical calendar has proven very popular with the great majority of the PC (USA). Roughly one century after the first hesitant introduction of Christmas and Easter observances there is now widespread affirmation of the positive role of “seasons,” with a growing number of holy days. The calendar is the post-Vatican II model increasingly common among North American churches. Efforts to reinforce the understanding of Sunday as Lord’s Day and original feast day accompany the growing pedagogical interest in a calendar.
A new appreciation of the centrality of the sacraments is developing. The Lord’s Supper, once observed at most four times in the year, is celebrated at least monthly in half the congregations. Change is not uniform, but a move toward greater frequency is widespread. Weekly celebration is the practice or a goal of a small but growing number of churches. The celebration of baptism increasingly involves the participation of the whole congregation and is less likely to be seen as strictly familial in significance. In both sacraments the place and role of children is taken seriously, and their participation is encouraged.
The relationship between worship and other ministries cannot be generalized for all congregations of the PC (USA), but the ideal is clear—worship is the work of the Holy Spirit within the body of Christ, the source of the vitality of the people of God, and the offering of our failures and service to God in Christ. Presbyterians typically relate worship to education. Now, questions of justice within the worshiping community are being related increasingly to issues of justice in society. And, new church planting locates worship as the central activity of the church, and subjects worship practices to fresh demands for hospitality and relevance.
Resources for Renewal
The current Directory for Worship of the PC (USA) was adopted in 1989. It is the most ambitious directory ever adopted to govern and guide worship. It favors liturgical renewal, and assumes an educational rather than a strictly legislative role. A new “Brief Statement of Faith” was adopted in 1991 for liturgical use.
A book of services for the use of ministers is projected for 1993 and expected to be available in print and computer versions. Toward this end a series of Supplemental Liturgical Resources has been published (1984–1992) for trial use and review: The Service for the Lord’s Day (No. 1, 1984); Holy Baptism and Services for the Renewal of Baptism (No. 2, 1985); Christian Marriage (No. 3, 1986); The Funeral: A Service of Witness to the Resurrection (No. 4, 1986); Daily Prayer (No. 5, 1987); Service for Occasions of Pastoral Care (No. 6, 1990); and Liturgical Year (No. 7, 1992). Spanish-language liturgical resources went into preparation in 1991. Service books are for voluntary use guided by the Directory for Worship, which is the constitutional provision for worship.
A complete Psalter is projected to appear in 1992-1993 for the use of cantors, choirs, and congregations. The style of the psalms is primarily responsorial. The Common Lectionary for Sundays gave the shape of the selection, but it will include biblical canticles to use in daily prayer along with psalms for Sunday.
Hughes Oliphant Old’s studies in Presbyterian worship include The Patristic Roots of Reformed Worship (Neuchatel, 1974; Zurich: Theologischer Verlag, 1975); Praying with the Bible (Philadelphia: The Geneva Press, 1980); and Worship That Is Reformed According to Scripture (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1984), plus several articles on the daily prayer heritage of the Reformed tradition. Dr. Old’s work, along with the writings of the prolific Methodist scholar James F. White, are used in seminary worship courses taught by Presbyterians.
Two major conferences are sponsored annually, at Montreat in North Carolina, and more recently, the Westminster Conference on Worship and Music (Presbyterian Association of Musicians), held in Pennsylvania. Workshops are held at the seminaries and by regional governing bodies of the denomination. Liturgical scholarship among Presbyterians is growing through academic programs, including the masters and Ph.D. programs of the University of Notre Dame, at Drew University, and other institutions. Presbyterian liturgists are now participating in greater numbers in international ecumenical bodies (e.g., North American Academy of Liturgy, and Societas Liturgica).
Response and Outlook
Liturgical renewal gained fresh interest among Presbyterians through new emphasis found in seminaries, through Reformed Liturgy & Music and the impact of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, and because of the latest generation of new resources (1984-1993). However, liturgical renewal has been unevenly understood and received. The claims to attention made by evangelism, social justice, and liturgical renewal are too often pursued in competition rather than developed into a faithful unity.
Monolithic visions for liturgical renewal will not prevail in the PC (USA) of the near future. Ethnic and other communities of loyalty and ministry will seek to preserve their own styles and spiritual genius. The success of renewal will be on the lines of a more pervasive care for teaching and doing liturgy.
The central gains of the post-Vatican II era continue to find stronger rootage: systematic hearing of Scripture, appreciation of the sacraments, and greater variety in music across lines of ethnic and theological diversity. Increased attention to spiritual gifts and the ministry of all the baptized integrates ecumenical insight with the continuing recovery of a Reformed heritage. Presbyterian worship has not ceased reforming and being reformed in the faithful service of the Word of God.