Music of the Reformation

The reforms in music which attended the reform of worship in the Reformation ranged widely from the rejection of all instruments and the restriction of singing solely to the Psalms to the choral Eucharists of the Anglicans.

Christian Worship in the Reformation

During the Middle Ages, worship had developed into an elaborate ritual which evidenced serious distortions of apostolic standards, according to the Reformers, in both theology and practice. The following five developments were especially troubling to the Reformers.

(1) The Liturgy of the Word had little significance. Although provision was made for Scripture reading and a homily in the vernacular, a sermon was rarely heard since most local priests were too illiterate to be capable of preaching.

(2) Typical worshipers understood little of what was being said or sung since the service was in Latin. Their own vocal participation was almost nonexistent.

(3) The Eucharist was no longer a joyful action of the whole congregation; it had become the priestly function of the celebrant alone. The congregation’s devotion (mixed with superstition) was focused on the host (the bread) itself, on seeing the offering of the sacrifice, or on private prayers (e.g., the rosary).

(4) Each celebration of the Mass was regarded as a separate offering of the body and blood of Christ. The emphasis was limited to Christ’s death, with scant remembrance of his resurrection and second coming. Furthermore, the custom of offering votive masses for particular individuals and purposes became common.

(5) The Roman Canon was not a prayer of thanksgiving, but rather a long petition that voiced repeated pleas that God would receive the offering of the Mass, generating a spirit of fear lest it not be accepted. As a result, most of the congregation took Communion only once a year. On many occasions, only the officiating priests received the bread and the cup.

Our look at the worship of the Reformation churches will include a consideration of the German, English, and French-Swiss traditions. However, none of these was the first expression of rebellion against Rome. The Unitas Fratrum (United Brethren), which began under John Hus in Bohemia, had its own liturgical and musical expressions. However, the reforms that were begun in this movement were aborted because of the death of Hus, who was burned at the stake in 1415.

The Lutheran Reformation

Martin Luther’s quarrel with Rome had more to do with the sacerdotal interpretation of the Mass and the resultant abuses which accompanied it than with the structure of the liturgy itself. For him, the Communion service was a sacrament (God’s grace extended to man). A musician himself, he loved the great music and the Latin text which graced the mass. Consequently, in his first reformed liturgy—Formula missae et communionis (1523)—much of the historic mass outline remains. Luther (1483–1546) is remembered as the individual who gave the German people the Bible and the hymnbook in their own language in order to recover the doctrine of believer-priesthood. He also restored the sermon to its central place in the Liturgy of the Word. But in the Formula missae, only the hymns, Scripture readings, and sermons were in the vernacular; the rest continued to be in Latin. He achieved his theological purposes relating to the communion by removing many acts of the Liturgy. All that remained were the Preface and the Words of Institution.

The German Mass (Deutscher messe, 1526) was more drastic in its iconoclasm and may have been encouraged by some of Luther’s more radical associates. In it, many of the historic Latin songs were replaced by vernacular hymn versions set to German folksong melodies.

Throughout the sixteenth century, most Lutheran worship used a variant of the Western liturgy. The Formula missae was the norm for cathedrals and collegiate churches, and the German Mass was common in smaller towns and rural churches. Twentieth-century Lutherans tend to agree that Luther was excessively ruthless in the excisions made in the Communion service. Consequently, in recent service orders, they have recovered much of the pattern and texts of the third and fourth-century eucharistic prayers, while still retaining their Reformational and Lutheran theological emphasis.

We have already mentioned Luther’s love of the historic music of the church. In the Formula missae, the choir sang the traditional psalms, songs, and prayers in Latin to Gregorian chant or in polyphonic settings. They also functioned in leading the congregation in the new unaccompanied chorales. Later, they sang alternate stanzas of the chorales in four- and five-part settings by Johann Walther, published in 1524 in the Church Chorale Book. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the choir made significant new contributions to worship in the singing of motets, passions, and cantatas.

The treble parts of the choral music were sung by boys who were trained in the “Latin” (parochial and cathedral) schools. The lower parts were sung by Latin school “alumni” or by members of the Kantorei—a voluntary social-musical organization that placed its services at the disposal of the church. Where there was no choir, the congregation was led by a “cantor.” That title, meaning “chief singer,” was also given to a musical director of large churches such as J. S. Bach, whose career culminated with service to churches in Leipzig from 1723 to 1750.

Luther seems to have been indifferent to (and occasionally critical of) the organ in divine worship, as were most Roman Catholic leaders of that period. As in the Roman church, the organ gave “intonations” for the unaccompanied liturgical singing and also continued the alternatim practice in the chorales. The “intonation” for the congregational chorales developed into what we know as a “chorale prelude.” Later, as composing techniques moved toward homophonic styles with the melody in the soprano, the organ took over the responsibility of leading the congregation in the chorales.

Luther felt that the multiple services of the medieval offices had become an “intolerable burden.” Since monasteries had been abolished, he prescribed that only the most significant morning and evening “hours”—Matins and Vespers—would be observed daily in local churches. However, office worship never really caught on among Lutherans. The practice soon died out and has only recently been revived, with moderate success. For non-eucharistic worship, Luther’s followers have preferred a shortened Mass called an “ante-Communion,” which simply omits the Lord’s Supper observance from the regular liturgy.

The Reformation in England

The early impetus for the Reformation in England was more political than spiritual. This was partly evident in the fact that for years after Henry VIII broke with the pope (1534) and assumed himself the leadership of the English (Anglican) church, the Latin Roman Mass continued to be used without change. However, during the ensuing years, evangelical thought became more widespread and after Henry’s death in 1547, Archbishop Cranmer (1489–1556) set about to devise a truly reformed English liturgy.

The first Book of Common Prayer was released in 1549, the title (“common”) indicating that worship was now to be congregational. This vernacular Mass retained much of the form of the Roman rite, with drastic revision only in the Canon (eucharistic prayer), because of the rejection of the concepts of transubstantiation and sacrifice. A significant number of Anglicans (especially Anglo-Catholics) still express regret that this rite never became the norm for the Church of England. As was true in Lutheran Germany, popular opinion seemed to demand even more drastic revision, and three years later another prayer book was published. Much of the influence for the more radical trend came from the Calvinist movement in Strasbourg and Geneva.

In the Prayer Book of 1552, the word Mass was dropped as the title of the worship form, vestments were forbidden, and altars were replaced by Communion tables. The Agnus Dei, the Benedictus, and the Peace were all excised from the liturgy, and the Gloria in excelsis Deo was placed near the end of the service. Thus the beginning of the ritual became basically personal and penitential, losing the corporate expression of praise and thanksgiving. The introit, gradual, offertory song, and Communion song were replaced by congregational psalms in metrical versions and later by hymns. In comparison with the “Liturgy of the Eucharist” that Roman Catholics used c. 1500, the greatest difference lies in the very-much shortened eucharistic prayer.

During the brief reign of “Bloody Mary” (1553–1558), the Roman Catholic faith and worship were reinstated, and many Protestant leaders were burned at the stake or beheaded. Others fled to such European refuges as Frankfort and Geneva, where they came under the influence of John Calvin and John Knox. When they returned to their native country, they brought with them an even more radical revisionist attitude that eventually showed itself in the Puritan movement within the Church of England and the emerging of Nonconformist churches (Presbyterian, Independent, and Baptist). With the death of Mary, Queen Elizabeth I sought to heal the wounds of her broken country and to bring papists, traditionalists, and Puritans together. Under her leadership, the prayer book was revised in 1559. Some worship practices found in the 1549 version were restored, though the changes were slight. Vestments, for example, were once again permitted.

The Puritan movement gathered increasing momentum during the close of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. In worship, its emphasis was on “scriptural simplicity”—no choral or instrumental music, no written liturgy, and no symbolism (vestment, liturgical movement, etc.), much after the pattern of John Calvin’s Geneva. Eventually, the group developed enough political strength to overthrow the king and set up a republic. In 1645 the Prayer Book was replaced by the Directory for the Plain Worship of God in the Three Kingdoms. For a brief period, the choral and instrumental worship of the church went into complete limbo.

In 1660 Charles II was placed on the throne. He immediately brought the prayer book back into use. Soon a new revision (1662) was brought out; it made no substantial changes in the old version, retaining basically the 1552 worship outline, and that book became the norm for the Church of England for the next 300 years. It remains basically the same today, though there is considerable sentiment for a thorough revision.

We have already noted Luther’s purpose pertaining to the continuance of the two “offices” Matins and Vespers as public, daily services of non-eucharistic worship. This practice was also adopted by Archbishop Cranmer for the English church, and liturgies for these services appeared in each of the prayer books mentioned above. As in the old Roman tradition, the emphasis was on the reading and singing of Scripture; the Psalter was to be sung through each month, the Old Testament read through each year, and the New Testament twice each year. In making this service completely “English,” the revisions of 1552 and 1662 had changed the titles of the services to “Morning Prayer” and “Evening Prayer,” placed a general confession and absolution (assurance of pardon) at the beginning, added the Jubilate Deo (Psalm 100) as a regular canticle plus an anthem, with four collects and a general thanksgiving as the prayers. In common practice, a sermon is also included, and this service has been for many Anglicans the “preferred” option for typical Sunday worship.

The 1549 Prayer Book had stressed the requirement that Communion was not to be celebrated unless communicants were present and participating, and specified that members in good standing would receive Communion at least three times a year. The 1552 prayer book indicated that “ante-Communion”—the same service but omitting the eucharistic prayer and Communion—would also be observed on Sundays and “holy days.” Because, like Lutherans, most Anglicans retained the medieval sense of awe and fear in receiving Communion, non-eucharistic services tended to be the most popular in Anglican worship until recent times.

We have already noted that congregational hymns became the norm of Protestant musical worship under Luther. In the early development of the English reformation church, this possibility was considered, and Bishop Myles Coverdale made an English translation of certain German and Latin hymns together with metrical versions of psalms and other liturgical material in a volume Goostly psalms and spiritual songs (1543), intended for use in private chapels and homes. But, eventually, the Lutheran example was rejected in favor of the Calvinist standard—metrical psalms. In 1549, a Thomas Sternhold, the robe-keeper to Henry VIII (Albert E. Bailey, The Gospel in Hymns [New York: Scribner, 1950], 7) published a small collection of nineteen psalms without music. By 1562, with the help of J. Hopkins, Sternhold completed the entire Psalter, which was named for its compilers. “Sternhold and Hopkins” remained in use (along with others) for more than two hundred years.

Psalm singing received added impetus during the exile of English Protestants in Geneva during the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots. There they produced a number of versions of the Anglo-Genevan Psalter, with tunes, beginning in 1556. This book was based on Sternhold and Hopkins with certain additions of texts (and especially tunes) from the French psalters of Calvin. In the early eighteenth century, English Nonconformists began to write and sing psalm paraphrases and “hymns of human composure,” beginning with Isaac Watts (1674–1748). But free hymns were not widely accepted in Anglicanism until well into the nineteenth century.

Particularly in the services of morning and evening prayer, the Psalms were regularly sung in prose version; this was also true of the Canticles (Benedictus, Te Deum, Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis). For this purpose, in the seventeenth century a new “Anglican chant” was produced, based on small snatches of Gregorian melody and sung in four-part harmony.

Despite its rejection of Luther’s hymns, the English church followed the example of the Lutherans in adapting the choir to its new Protestant patterns, particularly in the “cathedral tradition.” From almost the beginning of Anglicanism, the choir was retained to lead the congregation, but also to sing alone, as in a Choral Eucharist. In the sixteenth century, the Tudor composers who had produced Latin masses (e.g., William Byrd, John Merbecke, Thomas Tallis, Richard Farrant) began to set portions of the new prayer book services. A complete “service” included music for Holy Communion as well as for the canticles of morning and evening prayer. Anglican services have been written by British (and other) composers in every generation. These services are not performed in their entirety in one service as is the Latin mass, but they are published together for liturgical use in larger Anglican (including Episcopalian) churches.

In addition, the Anglican heritage made a unique contribution to church music in the anthem—originally an English motet, whose name is derived from “antiphon.” So-called anthems existed before 1550, but they remained in disfavor until the Restoration. In the prayer book of 1662, they are acknowledged to be a regular part of worship in churches that boasted a choir.

In the English tradition, it may be said that provision is made for a wide variety of musical tastes. In the parish church, congregational singing is central even though a modest choir may in some instances be available to sing an anthem and to lead the hymns and chants. In the cathedral setting, certain services are essentially choral, with less congregational participation. These services give the opportunity for the very finest examples of choral art to be used.

Both Anglicans and Lutherans continued to observe the liturgical calendar with its festivals and holy days. In both the eucharistic services and the offices, the “Ordinary” remained fairly constant throughout the year. The “Propers” provided Scripture readings, prayers, responses, and “sermon emphases” which changed according to the season and the day involved.

Worship in the Calvinist Tradition

In Reformation times, the most severe reaction to traditional Roman Catholic worship came in the Calvinist tradition; for this reason, it is closely related to modern evangelical practice. But first, we must look briefly at some of John Calvin’s predecessors.

Ulrich Zwingli (1484–1531), whose reform leadership centered in Zurich, was more of a rationalist-humanist than Luther or Calvin, both of whom shared the medieval scholastic tradition. Consequently, Zwinglian worship tended to be more didactic than devotional. His typical morning service resembled the ancient Prone liturgy, consisting of Scripture reading (Epistle and Gospel), preaching, and a long prayer. In the first German liturgy of 1525, music was eliminated completely (although Zwingli himself was an accomplished musician); however, psalms and canticles were recited responsively. The Communion service was celebrated four times a year, with the congregation seated as for a family meal. The Eucharist service had no true eucharistic prayer and no prayer of intercession; it consisted of an exhortation, “Fencing of the Table,” the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer of “humble access,” words of institution, ministers’ Communion, Communion of the people, psalm, collect, Dismissal. According to Zwingli, the Eucharist was only “the congregation confessing its faith in obedience to our Lord’s command.”

Martin Bucer (1491–1551), a follower of Zwingli, developed quite a different tradition when he was put in charge of Reformed worship in Strasbourg in 1535. Prior to that time, the city had been dominated by Lutheranism. Consequently, Bucer’s liturgy of 1537 seems to combine Lutheran and Zwinglian elements. He retained the optional Kyrie and Gloria in Excelsis, though in time these were replaced by psalms or hymns. The Communion service included intercessions as well as a Prayer of Consecration.

When John Calvin (1509–1564) first preached and taught at Geneva, he evidently followed no set form of worship, and the service was entirely without music. When he was banished from Geneva in 1538, he went to be pastor of the French exiles in Strasbourg. He was quite impressed with Bucer’s German rite and, according to his own admission, “borrowed the greater part of it” for his own French liturgy of 1540. Later when he returned to Geneva, this liturgy was simplified slightly, becoming the Geneva rite of 1542 and the basis for Calvinist worship in all of Europe—Switzerland, France, Germany, Netherlands, and Scotland.

The medieval eucharistic vestments were discarded. (The traditional black cassock now worn by Presbyterian ministers is essentially a reminder that Calvin preached in his overcoat because the cathedral at Geneva was unheated!) Indeed, all the traditional Roman symbolism was stripped from the building. A Calvinist “processional” (particularly in Scotland) is headed by a deacon carrying the Bible into the sanctuary to place it on the pulpit. Calvin ignored the church calendar (except for the principal feast days) and with it the lectionary of readings. The Scripture was read-only to serve as a basis for the sermon.

Calvin’s ideas about the Eucharist were not radically different from those of Luther, though he rejected the idea of “consubstantiation.” He too saw the Eucharist as a sacrament and desired that it would be celebrated weekly as part of a full service of Word and Eucharist. But this was not to be, because many of the French Reformed leaders (including the magistrates at Geneva) had a more narrow view of Communion. Indeed, they restricted its observance to four times a year, despite Calvin’s persistent objections.

Calvin is most frequently criticized for his actions restricting music in worship. He discarded the choir and its literature completely, and Calvinist iconoclasts removed the organs from the formerly Catholic churches. As mentioned earlier, worship in Geneva had no singing at all, and Calvin complained about the resultant “cold tone” in the services. When he went to Strasbourg, he was pleased with the German Psalm versions he found in the congregations there, whereupon he set several Psalms himself in metrical French to tunes of Mattheus Greiter and Wolfgang Dachstein. These were included with his Strasbourg service book, The Form of Prayers and Manner of Ministering the Sacraments According to the Use of the Ancient Church (1640).

Later he commissioned the French court poet Clement Marot to set all the Psalms in meter, which resulted in the historic Genevan Psalter (1562). The Psalms were sung by the congregation in unison and without accompaniment. (Four-part settings of the Marot Psalms were composed by Sweelinck, Jannequin, and Goudimel, but they were heard only in the home and in educational circles.) Music editor for the volume was Louis Bourgeois (c. 1510–c. 1561), who adapted tunes from French and German secular sources and no doubt composed some himself.

This is not the place to debate Calvin’s decision for the Psalms and against hymns, in the light of his dictum “Only God’s Word is worthy to be used in God’s praise.” No doubt he was reacting strongly to the complex, verbose Roman liturgy, with its many “tropes” and “sequence” hymns. He did not have all the writings of the early church fathers at his disposal, from which he might have learned the significance of the New Testament “hymns and spiritual songs” (which in the early patristic period were not part of the biblical canon) and of the successors of those forms in the early church. The Calvinist tradition of singing Psalms was also inherited by the Anglican church and by early free churches in both England and America. It has persisted in some places to the present day.

Worship in the Free Church Tradition

In the closing years of the sixteenth century, the passion for religious reform was most intense in the most radical of the English Puritans. They are known historically as the Separatists since they intended to part company with the established Anglican church. When they did so, they were more iconoclastic than Calvin himself, reducing worship to something less than the essentials! They rejected all established liturgical forms. When they met together (in barns, in forests and fields, or in houses on back alleys, as such gatherings were forbidden by law), their services included only prayer and the exposition of Scripture. Prayer was always spontaneous; not even the Lord’s Prayer was used, since it was considered to be only a model for Christian improvising.

The early Separatists evidently had no music, but eventually, they began to sing unaccompanied metrical psalms. When it was possible for them to celebrate Communion, the appointed pastor broke the bread and delivered the cup, which was then passed to every member of the group while the leader repeated the words of 1 Corinthians 11:23–26. There is also a record that on such occasions an offering was received at the end of the service, by men who held their “hats in hand.”

The Separatists followed several traditions under a number of dynamic leaders, and eventually formed the churches known as Presbyterian, Independent (Congregational), and Baptist. Their negative attitude about earlier music is expressed in a quote from John Vicar in 1649, who was speaking as a convinced Puritan, but still an Anglican: … the most rare and strange alteration of things in the Cathedral Church of Westminster. Namely, that whereas there was wont to be heard nothing almost by Roaring-Boys, tooting and squeaking Organ Pipes, and the Cathedral catches of Moreley, and I know not what trash, now the Popish Altar is quite taken away, the bellowing organs are demolished and pull’d down; the treble or rather trouble and base singers, Chanters or Inchanters, driven out, and instead thereof, there is now a most blessed Orthodox Preaching Ministry, even every morning throughout the Week, and every Week throughout the year a Sermon Preached by the most learned grace and godly Ministers.

Anabaptists (“re-baptizers,” who insisted that baptism was only for adult believers) appeared both on the Continent and in Great Britain in the late sixteenth century. Records of a group in Holland in 1608 indicate that a typical service consisted of the following.

• Prayer
• Scripture (one or two chapters, with a running commentary on its meaning)
• Prayer
• Sermon (one hour, on a text)
• Spoken contributions by others present (as many as would)
• Prayer (led by the principal leader)
• Offering

It is not surprising that such a service often lasted as long as four hours. Sunday worship ran from about 8 a.m. to noon, and again from 2 p.m. to 5 or 6 p.m. (See Horton Davies, Worship and Theology in England, vol. 2 [Princeton: Princeton University, 1975], 89)

English Baptists were by no means of one mind theologically. They divided into General Baptists (more Arminian in theology), Calvinistic Baptists (John Bunyan belonged to this group), Seventh-day Baptists (who worshiped on Saturday), and Particular Baptist (radically Calvinist). For all of them, the typical worship consisted of the ministry of the Word (reading and exposition), extemporized prayer (lengthy—no collects) with a congregational “amen,” and possibly metrical psalms sung to open and to close the service.

There is evidence that in some churches the only music was sung by a single individual “who had a special gift.” John Bunyan once argued that open congregational singing could not fulfill the standard of Colossians 3:16 because some might participate who did not have “grace in the heart.” As late as 1690, Benjamin Keach (1640–1704) had difficulty persuading his own congregation to sing in unison. However, he did prevail, and it is said that he was the first to introduce hymns (in addition to psalms) to an English congregation. He wrote the first hymn to be sung at the conclusion of the Lord’s Supper, “following the example of Christ and his disciples in the upper room.” Beyond this, we have little indication of how Baptists celebrated Communion, except, ironically, that it was a weekly occurrence.

Evangelicals are in large part the successors of the Separatist movement, and in many instances have inherited the anti-Romanist, anti-liturgical, and anti-aesthetic attitudes of their forebears. It may help one understand why these prejudices are so deeply ingrained to remember that our forefathers were moved by a strong spiritual commitment to evangelism. Furthermore, as dissenters, they endured constant persecution by the Puritan/Anglican regime (or the Lutheran or Calvinist) under which they lived. To disobey the law by leading in clandestine worship was to risk a heavy fine and lengthy imprisonment.

Summary

This article, along with the others that have preceded it, has traced our worship-practice roots, from New Testament times through 1600 years of the history of the Christian church, ending with the Reformation and finally, the emergence of free churches. The purpose has been to show our universal Christian heritage, as well as the unique tradition of each individual fellowship.

To be sure, there is a common, universal heritage. We have seen that material from Scripture was the basis of musical worship in all medieval services. We have also traced the evangelical emphasis on preaching from New Testament times and the early church fathers, through the medieval Prone, the reformed services of Luther and Calvin, and the worship of the Separatists. All Christians continue to experience a Liturgy of the Word and a Liturgy of the Eucharist, though most Reformed and free churches have perpetuated the medieval reluctance to participate in Communion on a frequent basis. Furthermore, particularly in the free-church tradition, occasional observance tends to give the impression that the Lord’s Supper is an appendage that is not central to full-orbed worship. Most evangelical scholars agree that the early church celebrated the Eucharist each Lord’s Day. It may be that the free churches should face up to the question as to whether or not, in this matter, they are living up to their claim to be the New Testament church.

All the changes brought by the Reformation were responses to the sincere desire to be more “evangelical.” Obviously, the reaction of the free (Separatist) bodies was the most radical, but it tended to be tempered (as in the matter of the use of music) within a few years. Nevertheless, some of the attitudes and practices which began at that time have haunted certain free church groups ever since. It is important that we distinguish true evangelical reform from blind iconoclasm. In recent years, many Christian groups have taken a new look at their heritage and have tended to reinterpret those reforms.

An Anglican/Episcopal Theology of Worship

Anglican worship emphasizes the incarnational and sacramental motifs of the Christian faith. God was embodied in Jesus Christ. Thus, in worship, the church incarnates in a visible and tangible form the embodiment of God in Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world.

The Episcopal Church, like the other national and regional churches which comprise the Anglican Communion, does not have an official theology of worship. It does have an official practice set forth in The Book of Common Prayer in its various editions from 1549 until the present. Anglican theology of worship is derived from its official liturgical practice.

In The Book of Common Prayer of 1979 the American Episcopal Church says, “The Holy Eucharist, the principal act of Christian worship on the Lord’s Day and other major Feasts, and Daily Morning and Evening Prayer … are the regular services of public worship in this Church.” (Book of Common Prayer, 13). The pattern of worship there set forth is daily prayer, preferably in common, and the weekly celebration of a service of Word and Sacrament.

Anglican theology has often been described as incarnational or sacramental and this is especially true of its theology of worship which uses the words and actions of an “outward and visible” rite as the symbol and the means of entering into an “inward and spiritual” relationship with God in Christ (Book of Common Prayer, 857). Worship is therefore embodied. It is something that we do, not only with our minds but with our entire being. We stand, we sit, we kneel, we bow, we lift our hands and our voices. We look, we listen, we sing, we speak, we remain silent. We smell and we taste. What often appears to be an undue concern with the external aspects of worship by Anglicans, however badly it may be expressed in particular cases, derives from this central theological conviction that it is by entering into the symbolic activity of the liturgy that we are drawn by the action of the Holy Spirit into the very center of the divine mystery, there to lay all that we have and are and hope to be before the throne of grace as members one of another in Jesus Christ.

It is in the coming together of the people of God to hear the Word and celebrate the sacraments that we become the body of Christ, that Christ our Head becomes present in our midst, and that we participate in his Paschal victory over death. Christ’s promise to be present in the midst of the assembly “where two or three are gathered in my name,” (Matt. 18:20, RSV) stands as the primary foundation of worship, which is a corporate activity of the Christian people in which we encounter the living God. Its principal parts include the reading and proclamation of the Word, prayer in Jesus’ name, and the celebration of the sacraments, of which baptism and Holy Communion are the chiefs.

In worship, we as a gathered community remember the mighty acts of God in Christ by which we are saved, in all their power, virtue, and effect, and offer our lives—“our selves, our souls and bodies” (Book of Common Prayer, 336) to God in praise and thanksgiving. This very act contains elements of penitence for sin, acknowledgment of our own unworthiness, and fervent petition and intercession for the needs of all humanity, including ourselves and those we love, for it is only as we are spiritually united to Christ in the power of his risen life and through the activity of the Holy Spirit that we are emboldened to make this response to the divine initiative.

In baptism we are reborn by water and the Spirit to a new life as the children of God, passing over with Christ through death to life, and in holy Eucharist, the anamnesis (commemorative celebration) of the sacrifice of Christ makes us partakers of the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection. As our bodies are fed by the bread and wine over which we have given thanks in obedience to Christ’s command, “Do this in remembrance of me,” (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:24), so our souls are nourished by the body and blood of Christ and we are united with Him and with one another in his mystical body.

From this theological center, worship moves out to the celebration of this saving mystery in the daily praise of Morning and Evening Prayer and its application to the critical moments in the lives of individual Christians in pastoral offices such as marriage, ministry to the sick, rites of reconciliation, and burial services, drawing every aspect of life into unity with God in Christ through the church, so that all may be offered in union with the perfect self-offering of Christ. It is from this center that we receive, in turn, the power of Christ’s victory, so that we may become what St. Paul declares us to be (1 Cor. 12:27)—the body of Christ in the world.

A Reformation Model of Worship: The Traditional Anglican Liturgy (1662)

The Reform of the liturgy in England began in 1540 under the leadership of Thomas Cranmer. The Book of Common Prayer was revised again in 1552, and a final revision was completed in 1662. The service below is from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

Introduction

Soon after Henry VIII’s break with the papacy, efforts toward liturgical reform began to gain momentum in England. It was not until 1549, however, after Edward VI had ascended the throne, that the first comprehensive reformed liturgy was issued. The principles upon which this book was based were spelled out in the order called on in the old service books and in the Act of Uniformity for the first revision of The Book of Common Prayer. These documents state that the first Book of Common Prayer was (1) “grounded upon the Holy Scripture,” (2) “agreeable to the order of the primitive [i.e., early] church,” (3) designed to be unifying to the realm, and (4) intended for the edification of the people. Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was its chief architect. In compiling the book, he made use of various sources, including writings of early church fathers, English reformation formularies, German church orders, Quinones’s revised breviary, Eastern liturgies, Gallican rites, and various uses of the medieval Roman rite.

The 1549 book was not well received. It was too conservative for some, too radical for others, and too open to diverse interpretations to encourage uniformity. The Clerk’s Book, published that same year, contained some revisions. Marbeck’s [Merbeck’s] commissioned musical setting contained further changes. The rubrics were widely disregarded. It was too radical for the Devonshire rebels, for such bishops as Bonner, Thirlby, and Gardiner, and for priests who continued the use of old service books or who “counterfeited Masses.” On the other hand, it did not go far enough in its revisions to satisfy the Norfolk rebels, or continental reformers such as Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr who had come to England and had been given positions of prominence in the universities, or the Anabaptists, or some of the clergy and bishops such as Hooper and Knox.

The second Book of Common Prayer (1552) is sometimes spoken of as a radical plot foisted upon the people. It was, in fact, in many ways a compromise and an effort to arrive at a middle way or via media. With Mary’s accession to the throne and the restoration of Roman Catholicism and the medieval Sarum use in England, religious exiles carried the 1552 book to the continent where it was revised by the exiles in Frankfurt and Geneva. After the accession of Elizabeth, with the return of the exiles, pressure mounted for the establishment of a liturgy more closely akin to those of the continental reformers. However, the 1552 book was again imposed with only a few changes. When James VI of Scotland came to the throne as James I of England, he was confronted by Puritans with the Millenary Petition, which called for a number of changes in the rites and ceremonies of the church. The resultant Hampton Court Conference (1604) made few concessions. At the time of the Restoration, despite efforts of Puritans to force more radical change on the one hand and of Laudians (followers of Archbishop Laud, who attempted to force the return of high churchmanship and ritual catholicity on the nation) on the other, relatively few changes were made in the 1662 revision.

The Architectural Setting. The first Book of Common Prayer assumed a style of architecture in which the nave and chancel were divided by a screen. The congregation would occupy the nave for the daily offices and the Ante-Communion (the liturgy of the Word portion of the eucharistic rite) and, at the offertory, move into the chancel to place their alms in the “poore menes boxe.” Those who would receive Communion remained in the chancel, where the celebrant, “standing humbly afore the middes of the Altar,” would proceed with the rite. For the use of the nave for liturgies of the Word and the chancel for the liturgy of the sacrament, there was precedent among both Lutherans and Calvinists on the continent.

In Lent 1550, John Hooper, preaching before the court, expressed a wish that the magistrates “turn the altars into tables.” On St. Barnabas’s Day, June 11, a table was set up in place of the high altar at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, and that summer Bishop Ridley exhorted the clergy and wardens to set up an “honest table” in each church in the diocese. In November the council commanded each bishop to give orders that altars be taken down and tables set up instead. The tables were normally placed in the midst of the chancel with their long sides parallel to the north and south walls. The 1552 Book of Common Prayer consistently referred to it as a “table” or as “God’s board,” not once calling it an “altar.” The priest was to stand “at the north side” and the congregation to gather around. The Elizabethan settlement called for the table, with a cover of “silk, buckram or other such like,” to stand in the place of the old altar except when the communion is to be celebrated. These “carpets” varied in color; there was no attempt to follow a color sequence. Some more affluent churches had different frontals for festal and ordinary use, and some had black for use in Lent or on occasions of national mourning. For celebrations of the Eucharist, the table was to be covered with a fair linen cloth (reaching down almost to the floor on all four sides) and to stand in the midst of the chancel or in the body of the church if the chancel could not accommodate the communicants. In many places, the table stayed at all times in the midst of the chancel because of the inconvenience of moving it or because of theological considerations. In some churches seating for the communicants was provided on two, three, or all four sides of the chancel. A tablet containing the Decalogue was to be put up on the east wall over the table. Often the tablet(s) contained the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer as well. Altar rails came into use early in the seventeenth century. Originally the rails were not used for the administration of communion but for the protection of the costly hangings and to keep the table from being used as a desk, or as a repository for hats, or for other profane purposes. In some cases, the new rails surrounded the table in the midst of the chancel, but generally, they extended across the chancel to protect the altar when it was placed at the east end, either altar-wise or table-wise. Eventually, communicants would begin to kneel at the rails for the receiving of communion. In exceptional circumstances, candles were placed on the table, but normally nothing was placed on the table except the books, vessels, and elements necessary for a eucharistic celebration.

Fonts were typically made of stone, set near the door, and large enough for the immersion of infants, though those of puritan persuasion sometimes used a basin and substituted pouring or sprinkling for immersion.

Occupying an important position in the nave, typically against the north wall, was a triple-decked pulpit, which was often enhanced by hangings and by cushions for the books. On the lowest level was the desk for the clerk, a lay assistant who led the people in their responses and, if there was no choir, in the metrical psalms and hymns. Behind this, on a higher level, was the desk for the officiant, at which he read the daily offices and typically the Ante-Communion. On a yet higher level was the pulpit for the preaching of sermons. In some churches, a pew near the pulpit was designated as the “churching pew” for use at the rite then called “The Churching of Women,” more recently the “Thanksgiving of Women after Childbirth.”

In the churches of the period, the pews in the nave were generally arranged in such a way that most people faced the pulpit. In parish churches where there was a choir, it generally occupied a gallery in the west end or over the rood screen. Smaller churches often had instead a “singers’ pew,” typically in the west end. If we can judge by later practice, the congregation often turned to face the choir during psalms, hymns, or anthems.

The Vestments. The first Book of Common Prayer (1549) had designated that for the Eucharist the celebrant wear “a white Albe plain, with a vestement [chasuble] or Cope,” and that assisting priests or deacons were to wear “Albes with tunacles.” For other rites, the clergy were to wear a surplice. The use of a hood with the surplice was recommended for preaching and for general use by the clergy in cathedral or collegiate churches. A bishop, when celebrating the Eucharist or executing “any other publique minystracyon shall have upon hym, besyde his rochette, a Surples or albe, and a cope or vestment, and also his pastorall staffe.” The 1550 ordination rites specified that a candidate for ordination as a deacon or priest be vested in a “a playne Albe,” and that a candidate for ordination as a bishop and the presenting bishops be vested in “Surples and Cope.” The ordination rites had been out only a day or two when Hooper, who was soon thereafter nominated to the bishopric at Gloucester, preached before the king denouncing the vestments.

In the 1552 Book of Common Prayer, a rubric preceding Morning Prayer dealt with vesture: “And here is to be noted, that the minister at the tyme of the Comunion and all other tymes in his ministracion, shall use neither albe, vestment, nor cope: but being archbishop or bishop, he shall have and wear a rochet; and being a preest or deacon, he shall have and wear a surplice onely.” Exiles on the continent during Mary’s reign rejected the use of the surplice.

The 1559 revision replaced the 1552 rubric on vestments with one which reads: “And here is to be noted, that the Minister at the tyme of the comunion and at all other tymes in his ministracion, shall use such ornamentes in the church, as were in use by aucthoritie of parliament in the second yere of the reygne of king Edeard the VI.” The rubric was apparently designed to restore the use of eucharistic vestments, but it did not have that effect. Archbishop Parker’s “Advertisements” of 1566 simply ordered the use of a cope by the celebrant, the gospeller, and the epistoler at celebrations of the Eucharist in cathedral and collegiate churches, and of a surplice and hood at other services and for preaching. In other churches, the minister was to wear the surplice for all rites. These regulations were not universally followed. In many places a black gown was worn for preaching and often for presiding or assisting at the services.

Ceremonial Actions. The 1549 Book of Common Prayer prescribed little ceremonial. In the eucharistic prayer, the celebrant was to make signs of the cross over the bread and wine during the epiclesis and to take the bread and the cup in his hands at the Institution Narrative. Baptism included a signation, vesting with the “Crisome,” and an anointing. The marriage rite included the giving of a ring and specified a sign of the cross with each of the two blessings. Visitation of the Sick provided for an optional anointing. Though few ceremonial actions were required, the only rubric that explicitly forbade an old action was printed immediately after the Institution Narrative: “These wordes before rehersed are to be saied, turning still to the Altar, without any eleuacion or shewing the Sacrament to the people.” Among the “Notes” at the end of the book is one which reads, “As touching, kneeling, crossing, holding up handes, knocking upon the brest, and other gestures: they may be used or left as every mans deuocion serueth without blame.” Though some priests were accused of “counterfeiting Masse” rather than using the book in the way in which it was intended to be used, many found the retention of even these few required ceremonial actions objectionable.

The 1552 book dropped all indications for the use of the sign of the cross except for the signation in baptism, all directions for any manual acts in the eucharistic prayer, and all references to anointing. The 1549 book had not specified the posture for receiving Communion, and in some places people received while seated. The 1552 book specified kneeling as the posture, but explained in a rubric that this did not imply “anye reall and essencial presence there beeying of Christ’s naturall fleshe and bloude.” The 1559 revision dropped this rubric but retained the direction to kneel. The 1549 book had retained the use of wafers which were to be put in the communicants’ mouths by the priest. The 1552 book allowed use of bread “such, as is usuall to bee eaten at the Table wyth other meates,” and this was to be put into the communicants’ hands rather than their mouths. Provisions regarding ceremonial actions were not changed in the 1559 revision, but the Royal Injunctions published that year directed that “whensoever the name of Jesus shall be in any lesson, sermon, or otherwise in the church pronounced, that due reverence be made.”

Among the issues raised in the Millenary Petition presented to King James, April 1603, were the use of the signation in baptism and the ring in the marriage rite and bowing at the name of Jesus.

A committee appointed by the House of Lords in 1641 listed “innovations” that had arisen. These pointed to some of the changes in practice among those of the so-called Laudian school. Among the “innovations” were turning the table altar-wise and calling it an altar, bowing toward the table, putting candlesticks on it, compelling communicants to receive at the rails, turning east for the creed and prayers, offering of bread and wine by the hand of the churchwardens or others “before the consecration,” standing for the hymns (canticles) and the Gloria Patri, and carrying children from baptism to the table, “there to offer them up to God.”

The Music. There is evidence that in some places plainsong settings and polyphonic settings for the old Latin texts were adapted for the new English texts at the time of or even before the appearance of the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549. In The booke of Common praier noted [London, 1550] John Marbeck [Merbecke], organist at the royal chapel at Windsor, provided simple music, one note per syllable, partly adapted from plainsong and partly original, for almost all of the texts of the daily offices, the eucharistic rite, and the burial rites. When the 1552 revision appeared, Marbeck’s settings fell out of use because of changes in the texts. The rubrics of the 1552 book allowed for the singing of certain portions of the rites “in a plain tune after the manner of distinct reading.”

Clement Marot had produced metrical versions of psalms which were sung to popular tunes in the French court. This was imitated in England. Thomas Sternhold began to translate the Psalms, generally in “Ballad Metre” or “Common Metre.” Nineteen of these were published in 1547. After Sternold’s death, John Hopkins in 1549 published this collection with an additional eighteen metrical versions by Sternhold and seven of his own. There is no evidence, however, that these were used in liturgical services prior to the accession of Mary and the suppression of the Book of Common Prayer.

Congregations of English people in exile during the reign of Mary published revised and expanded versions of the Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter, with tunes from German and French sources, including tunes now commonly known as psalm 42, old 100th, old 112th [vater unser], old 113th, old 124th, old 134th [st. michael], commandments, le cantique de simeon [nunc dimittis], and erhalt uns, herr, and with other tunes apparently never before published (for example, old 148th). These congregations in exile, following the examples of continental churches, began to make use of metrical versions of the Psalms and other liturgical texts in the services.

Elizabeth’s Royal Injunctions of 1559 allowed a hymn at the beginning and end of services. In 1562 The Whole Booke of Psalmes, collected into Englysh metre was first printed. This Psalter, which continued to be published into the nineteenth century, contained metrical versions of Sternhold and Hopkins or others of every psalm and of several Prayer Book texts (the Veni Creator, the canticles, the Lord’s Prayer, the Decalogue, the Athanasian and Apostles’ Creeds). It also contained several hymns, including two which were translations from German. From 1566 the title page described these metrical psalms and hymns as being allowed before and after sermons as well as before and after the daily offices. One of the hymns (124 lines in length) was for use at the time of the ministration of Communion.

During the reigns of Elizabeth and the Stuarts, plainsong, anthems, and new polyphonic service music was used by choirs in cathedrals, royal chapels, college chapels, and a few parish churches with endowed choirs. The music in the typical parish church, however, was largely confined to the metrical psalms and hymns of the Sternhold and Hopkins psalter. With a few tunes repeated, a proper tune was appointed for each text—sixty-seven tunes in the fullest edition (1570). In the typical parish church, the psalms and hymns were normally led by a clerk without the benefit of a choir or any instrument. They were apparently sung at a fast clip and with a pronounced rhythm, for they were derided by some as “Genevan jigs.”

Later in the reign of Elizabeth, the fashion turned toward slower singing and shorter tunes. Among tunes that are still in use, Windsor and Southwell were apparently first printed in Damon’s 1579 edition of the psalter. East’s (Est’s, Este’s) 1592 version introduced several new tunes, including Cheshire and Winchester old. Ravenscroft’s 1621 edition was the first to print with the texts of the Sternhold and Hopkins psalter some tunes from the Scottish psalters, including Dundee, martyrs, st. david’s, and york, as well as a tune from Archbishop Matthew Parker’s Psalter, the eighth tune [‘tallis’ canon]. Ravenscroft also introduced other tunes, including Bristol, Durham, Manchester, and old 104th.

The Rites. The prayer books called for Morning and Evening Prayer to be said daily by all priests and deacons. A minister in charge of a parish was to say them in the church or chapel, after having tolled a bell “that suche as be disposed maye come to heare Goddes worde, and to praie with hymn.” The attendance of all in the parish was expected on Sundays and major holy days. On Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Morning Prayer was followed by the Litany, and on Sundays and major holy days, by Ante-Communion, if not the whole of the eucharistic rite.

Early in the reign of Elizabeth, the singing of a metrical psalm or hymn was allowed before the beginning of Morning Prayer. The 1552 revision directed Morning Prayer to begin with a penitential section (for which there was precedent in Calvinistic liturgies), which consisted of a scriptural sentence and an exhortation calling to repentance, a general confession lined out by the minister (for which the congregation was to kneel), and a declaration of forgiveness to which the people were to respond “Amen.”

The elements which followed the opening penitential section were mostly derived from the old rites of Matins, Lauds, and Prime. The minister was to say “wyth a loude voyce” the shorter form of the Lord’s Prayer. A short series of versicles and responses which incorporated the Gloria Patri introduced the psalmody. Psalm 95 (Venite) was to be said or sung daily except on Easter Day itself when two brief anthems from the New Testament (Romans 6:9–11 and 1 Corinthians 15:20–22) were to be used instead. The Venite was to be followed by a selection from the Psalms. Proper psalms were appointed for Christmas Day, Easter Day, Ascension Day, and Whitsunday (Pentecost). The Prayer Book provided a table that divided the psalms between Morning and Evening Prayer over the period of a month. As opposed to the medieval systems, this meant that even those who came to church only on Sundays would be exposed to the whole psalter every seven months, but particular psalms might come up at very inappropriate times (Psalms 144–150 on Ash Wednesday or the First Sunday in Lent, for example, or Psalms 50–55 on a festal day such as Epiphany, Trinity Sunday, or All Saints).

In some places, the Psalms were sung to plainsong tones, sometimes with a fauxbourdon, from which Anglican chant evolved early in the seventeenth century. The Psalter was not bound with the early prayer books, and in most places, the Psalms appointed would have been read by the minister or the clerk, or the minister and the clerk would have alternated verse by verse (if we can judge by the printing of alternate verses in italics or in a different font in some of the Elizabethan special forms). Each psalm was followed by the Gloria Patri.

The Psalms were followed by the reading or singing “in a plain tune after the maner of distinct reading,” of a chapter from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. To assure that the Old Testament “except certain bokes and chapiters, whiche be least edifyeng” would be read once each year, the lectionary was arranged according to the civil calendar rather than the church year. Depending upon the date of Easter, post-resurrection material from John and Acts might be read in Lent, or the account of the Passion in Eastern season. A particularly weak point of the system was that those who attended church only on Sundays and Holy Days would often get lessons from the Old Testament which made little sense out of context. At the 1559 revision, proper Old Testament lessons were appointed for the Sundays and Holy Days, but proper New Testament lessons were provided for only three Sundays: Easter, Pentecost, and Trinity Sunday. The chapter from the Old Testament might be read by either the minister or the clerk; that from the New Testament was apparently normally read by the minister.

The chapter from the Old Testament was followed by the saying or singing of one or the other of two canticles, Te Deum or Benedicite omnia opera. Since the alternative canticle was from the Apocrypha its use was avoided by those of Puritan persuasion. The chapter from the New Testament was followed by either the Song of Zechariah (Benedictus) or Psalm 100 (Jubilate Deo). Those of Puritan persuasion favored the Jubilate Deo, believing that it was not proper for others to appropriate the singing of the Song of Zechariah (or the Songs of Mary or of Simeon, the first of the alternatives that followed the lessons at Evening Prayer). The appointed place for baptism was between the New Testament lesson and the canticle which followed.

On major feasts and on certain saints’ days, the Athanasian Creed would be said or sung immediately after the canticle following the second lesson. On most days, however, the canticle would be followed immediately by the Apostles’ Creed, which was to be said by all, standing. The creed was followed by the Kyrie and the short form of the Lord’s Prayer, said by all, kneeling. The minister was then to resume a standing position for versicles and responses and three collects, the collect of the day and two that were said daily throughout the year, a collect for peace and a collect for grace. Where there was a choir, an anthem often followed this third collect. In other places, a metrical psalm or hymn may have been sung.

On Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Morning Prayer was followed by the Litany, said kneeling. This may have been followed by an anthem or a metrical psalm or hymn. This is the point in the Sunday morning service at which women would have been “churched” and couples would have been married.

Cranmer’s ideal was communion every Sunday and Holy Day, but he did not approve of a Eucharist at which only the priest received. There had to be a “good noumbere” to receive with the priest, “And yf there be not above twentie persons in the Parishe of discretion to receive the communion: Yet there shal be no Communion, excepte foure, or three at the least communicate wiyth the Prieste.” Persons not used to receiving more than once a year, and then typically from the reserved sacrament immediately after private confession, did not immediately embrace frequent communions. In many parishes, there was a celebration once a month or even less frequently, yet to keep the ideal of every Sunday communion before the people the Ante-communion was to be said every Sunday.

Text:

THE EUCHARISTIC RITE OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, 1662

[The Eucharist would be immediately preceded by Morning Prayer and Litany]

PSALM 100 [Tate and Brady] (Tune: old hundredth):

With one consent let all the earth
To God their cheerful voices raise;
Glad homage pay with awful mirth,
And sing before him songs of praise.
Convinc’d that he is God alone
From whom both we and all proceed;
We, whom he chooses for his own,
The flock that he vouchsafes to feed.
O enter then his temple gate,
Thence to his courts devoutly press,
And still your grateful hymns repeat,
And still his Name with praises bless.
For he’s the Lord, supremely good,
His mercy is for ever sure:
His truth, which always firmly stood,
To endless ages shall endure.

THE LORD’S PRAYER (Priest alone; the people kneeling):

Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
But deliver us from evil. Amen.

COLLECT (Priest):

Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Despite the fact that the prayer book directed that Ante-communion begin with the priest standing at the north side of the table, it seems typically to have been read from the same place as Morning Prayer. The priest alone said the short form of the Lord’s Prayer, followed by a prayer that later came to be known as the Collect for Purity, elements that had been part of the priest’s private preparation in late medieval rites and the 1549 prayer book.

THE DECALOGUE (Priest: the people, still kneeling, respond after each commandment):

God spake these words, and said; I am the Lord thy God: Thou shalt have none other gods but me.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, and visit the sins to the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and show mercy unto thousands in them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless, that taketh his Name in vain.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all that thou hast to do; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no manner of work, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, thy cattle, and the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and allowed it.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long in the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt do no murder.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not steal.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not bear witness against thy neighbour.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his.

Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee.

PRAYER FOR THE RULER [one of two alternatives] (Priest):

Let us pray.

Almighty and everlasting God, we are taught by thy holy Word, that the hearts of Kings are in thy rule and governance, and that thou dost dispose and turn them as it seemeth best to thy godly wisdom: We humbly beseech thee so to dispose and govern the heart of (N.), thy servant, our King and Governour, that, in all his thoughts, words, and works, he may ever seek thy honour and glory, and study to persevere thy people committed to his charge, in wealth, peace, and godliness: Grant this, O merciful Father, for thy dear Son’s sake, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE COLLECT OF THE DAY [Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany] (Priest):

O God, who knowest us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright; Grant to us such strength and protection, as may support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE EPISTLE (Priest):

The Epistle is written in the thirteenth Chapter of Romans beginning at the first Verse.

THE GOSPEL (Priest, the people standing):

The holy Gospel is written in the eighth Chapter of Saint Matthew, beginning at the twenty-third Verse.

THE NICENE CREED

Commentary: The ninefold Kyrie of Western medieval rites and the 1549 prayer book, from 1552 on, was replaced by the recitation by the priest of the Ten Commandments. For this the priest and people knelt. The people responded after the first nine, “Lord, haue mercye upon us, and encline our hearts to kepe this lawe,” and after the tenth, “Lord haue mercye upon us, and write al these thy lawes in our hearts, we beseche thee.” The priest then stood to say the collect of the day and one or the other of two prayers for the monarch. Cranmer had only slightly modified the Epistle and Gospel lectionary of the Sarum Missal. Both lessons were read by the priest, one immediately after the other, apparently typically from the middle level of the pulpit. The Gospel was followed immediately by the Nicene Creed. It was not until the 1662 revision that the people were directed to stand for the Gospel and creed.

Text:

HYMN

SERMON OR HOMILY

Psalm 117

Commentary: The Sternhold and Hopkins metrical psalter provided a forty-line hymn, “A Prayer to the Holy Ghost, To be sung before the Sermon.” Selections from the metrical psalms were probably often used instead. The Elizabethan Injunctions provided a bidding prayer for use before sermons. If there was no sermon, the priest was directed to read one of the official homilies. These homilies were written to promote and explain the changes in liturgy and theology that the Reformation had brought. The sermon was often followed by a metrical psalm.

Text:

ANNOUNCEMENT OF HOLY DAYS AND FASTING DAYS WITHIN THE FOLLOWING WEEK, AND OTHER AUTHORIZED ANNOUNCEMENTS.

OFFERINGS FOR THE POOR AND OTHER OFFERINGS [gathered by the Deacons, Churchwardens, or others and brought to the Priest who is to “present and place” them upon the holy Table; while the offerings are being received, the Priest reads sentences from the Scriptures]:

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven [Matt. 5:16].

Lay not up for yourselves treasure upon the earth; where the rust and moth doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven; where neither rust nor moth doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal [Matt. 6:19–20].

Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do unto them; for this is the Law and the Prophets [Matt. 7:12].

Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven [Matt. 7:21].

Zaccheus stood forth, and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have done any wrong to any man, I restore four-fold [Luke 19:8].

Who goeth a warfare at any time of his own cost? Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [1 Cor. 9:7].

If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we shall reap your worldly things? [1 Cor. 9:11].

THE PLACING UPON THE TABLE OF THE BREAD AND WINE BY THE PRIEST

Commentary: After the sermon the priest was to remind the people of the holy days and fasting days in the week following. The priest initiated the presentation of alms (and other offerings on occasion) by reading one or more of a series of scriptural sentences, most of which were exhortations to give to the poor or to support the ministers. Apparently in many places, the minister continued reading the sentences until the people had finished placing their offerings in plates held by the wardens or others, who stood near the entrance to the chancel which contained the poor box into which they would then deposit the offerings. In other places, however, after a sentence or two had been said, an anthem may have been sung or the metrical psalm or hymn that was allowed after the sermon. The 1549 prayer book had directed that the bread and wine be placed on the table at this point, and that direction was restored in 1662. The intervening prayer books said nothing about when this was to be done. The old practice may have continued in many places, but in most places apparently the bread and wine were placed on the altar by the clerk before the rite and covered with a second large linen table cloth, presenting an appearance which reminded people of some suppers prepared beforehand in private homes.

Text:

PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH (Priest):

Let us pray for the whole state of Christ’s Church militant here in earth.

Almighty and ever-living God, who by thy holy Apostle hast taught us to make prayers, and supplications, and to give thanks, for all men; We humbly beseech thee most mercifully [to accept our alms and oblations] and to receive these our prayers, which we offer unto thy Divine Majesty; beseeching thee to inspire continually the universal Church with the spirit of truth, unity, and concord: And grant, that all they that do confess thy holy Name may agree in the truth of thy holy Word, and live in unity, and godly love. We beseech thee also to save and defend all Christian Kings, Princes, and Governours; and specially thy Servant (N.), our King; that under him we may be godly and quietly governed: And grant unto his whole Council, and to all that are put in authority under him, that they may truly and indifferently minister justice, to the punishment of wickedness and vice, and to the maintenance of thy true religion, and virtue. Give grace, O heavenly Father, to all Bishops and Curates, that they may both by their life and doctrine set forth thy true and lively Word, and rightly and duly administer thy holy Sacraments: And to all thy people give thy heavenly grace; and especially to this congregation here present; that, with meek heart and due reverence, they may hear, and receive thy holy Word; truly service thee in holiness and righteousness all the days of their life. And we most humbly beseech thee of thy goodness, O Lord, to comfort and succor all them, who in this transitory life are in trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, or any other adversity. And we also bless thy holy Name for all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear; beseeching thee to give us grace so to follow their good examples, that with them we may be partakers of thy heavenly kingdom: grant this, O Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

Commentary: After the offerings came a general intercession, partly derived from Latin and German sources, a prayer “for the whole state of Christ’s Church militant here in earth.” If there was to be no celebration of the Eucharist, the rite ended with one or more of five collects printed after the rite, and possibly a metrical psalm or hymn.

Text:

EXHORTATION (Priest).

Dearly beloved in the Lord, ye that mind to come to the holy Communion of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ, must consider how Saint Paul exhorteth all persons diligently to try and examine themselves, before they presume to eat of that Bread, and drink of that Cup. For as the benefit is great, if with a true penitent heart and lively faith we receive that holy Sacrament; (for then we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ, and drink his blood; then we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us; we are one with Christ, and Christ with us;) so is the danger great, if we receive the same unworthily. For then we are guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ our Saviour; we eat and drink our own damnation, not considering the Lord’s Body; we kindle God’s wrath against us; we provoke him to plague us with diverse diseases, and sundry kinds of death. Judge therefore yourselves, brethren, that ye be not judged of the Lord; repent you truly for your sins past; have a lively and steadfast faith in Christ our Saviour; amend your lives, and be in perfect charity with all men; so shall ye be meet partakers of these holy mysteries. And above all things, ye must give most humble and hearty thanks to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, for the redemption of the world by the death and passion of our Saviour Christ, both God and man; who did humble himself, even to the death upon the Cross, for us, miserable sinners, who lay in darkness and the shadow of death; that he might make us the children of God, and exalt us to everlasting life. And to the end that we should alway remember the exceeding great love of our Master, and only Saviour, Jesus Christ, thus dying for us, and the innumerable benefits which by his precious blood-shedding he hath obtained to us; he hath instituted and ordained holy mysteries, as pledges of his love, and for a continual remembrance of his death, to our great and endless comfort. To him therefore, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, let us give (as we are most bounden) continual thanks; submitting ourselves wholly to his holy will and pleasure, and studying to serve him in true holiness and righteousness all the days of our life. Amen.

Commentary: If there was to be a celebration of Communion, the priest was to say one or more of three lengthy exhortions. The first, the work of Peter Martyr, was for use if the people are “negligent to come to the holy Communion.” The second was designed for those with troubled consciences and points to the option of private confession. The third, always to be said, is a warning against unworthy reception of the sacrament. The last two exhortations, and the penitential order which follows, are largely dependent upon the Consultation, the German Church Order of Hermann von Wied, Archbishop of Cologne, the liturgical portion of which was prepared by Martin Bucer.

Text:

INVITATION (Priest):

Ye that do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins, and are in love and charity with your neighbours, and intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God, and walking from henceforth in his holy ways; Draw near with faith, and take this holy Sacrament to your comfort; and make you humble confession to Almighty God, meekly kneeling upon your knees.

GENERAL CONFESSION [All kneel, and the General Confession is then said “in the name of all”]:

Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, Judge of all men; We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, Which we, from time to time, most grievously have committed, By thought, word, and deed, Against thy Divine Majesty, Provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, And are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; The remembrance of them is grievous unto us; The burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us, Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; For thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, Forgive us all that is past; And grant that we may ever hereafter Serve and please thee In newness of life, To the honour and glory of thy Name; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

ABSOLUTION (Priest, standing):

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of his great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all them that with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto him; Have mercy upon you; pardon and deliver you from all your sins; confirm and strengthen you in all goodness; and bring you to everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith unto all that truly turn to him.

Come unto me all that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you [Matt. 11:28].

So God loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life [John 3:16].

Hear also what Saint Paul saith.

This is true saying, and worthy of all men to be received, That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners [1 Tim. 1:15].

Hear also what Saint John saith.

If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins [1 John 2:1–2].

Commentary: The penitential section which followed the exhortation consisted of a bidding to confession, a general confession, an absolution, and four scriptural sentences which came to be known as the Comfortable Words. Apparently in many places from 1552, the clergy and people entered the chancel at the end of the bidding, “Drawe nere and take this holy Sacramente to youre comfort,” though in other places they may have entered the chancel at the time of the offering, as was directed in the first Book of Common Prayer. At the point at which those planning to receive communion entered the chancel, the others probably left the church. The communicants were instructed to kneel for the general confession, which was said by one of the communicants or by one of the ministers “in the name of all.” If we can judge by some eighteenth century manuals, the people remained kneeling for the absolution but then stood for the Comfortable Words.

Text:

Lift up your hearts;

Answer:     We lift them up unto the Lord.

Priest:     Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.

Answer:     It is meet and right so to do.

Priest:     It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto thee, O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty, Everlasting God.

[Preface of Epiphany]

Therefore with Angels and Archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious Name; evermore praising thee, and saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of thy glory: Glory be to thee, O Lord most High. Amen.

Priest:     (kneeling) We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy: Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

THE PRAYER OF CONSECRATION (Priest, standing):

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of thy tender mercy didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption; who made there (by his one oblation of himself once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world; and did institute, and in his holy Gospel command us to continue, a perpetual memory of that his precious death, until his coming again; Hear us, O merciful Father, we most humbly beseech thee; and grant that we receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine, according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ’s holy institution, in remembrance of his death and passion, may be partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood: who, in the same night that he was betrayed, [Here the Priest is to take the Paten into his hands] took Bread; and, when he had given thanks, [And here to break the Bread] he brake it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take, eat, [And here to lay his hand upon all the Bread] this is my Body which is given for you: Do this in remembrance of me. Likewise after supper he [Here he is to take the Cup into his hand] took the Cup; and, when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of this; for this [And here to lay his hand upon every vessel (be it Chalice or Flagon) in which there is any Wine to be consecrated] is my Blood of the New Testament which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins: Do this, as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me. Amen.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SACRAMENT (the people kneel to receive):

The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life, Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving.

The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ’s Blood was shed for thee, and be thankful.

(The Priest covers what remains with a linen cloth.)

HYMN

Commentary: The traditional sursum corda (the “Lift up your hearts”) dialogue introduced the Preface and Sanctus. Proper Prefaces were provided for insertion at Christmas, Easter, and Ascension [and from 1552, their octaves], for Whitsunday (Pentecost) [and from 1552, the six days following], and for Trinity Sunday. From 1552 the Preface was followed by a prayer later called the Prayer of Humble Access, which had served in the 1548 Order of the Communion and in the 1549 prayer book as a pre-Communion devotion. For this prayer, the priest was to kneel. There is no direction to this effect, but later practice would lead one to believe that the priest, when he stood back up, normally removed the second tablecloth which covered the elements which had been prepared. The form which followed, later referred to as the Prayer of Consecration, begins with a section with no precedent in historic eucharistic prayers but is dependent on Reformation formularies concerning the one sacrifice of Christ upon the cross and the Eucharist as a “perpetuall memorye of that his precious death.” This was followed by a petition for worthy reception. Epicletic elements in the 1549 petition had been edited out in 1552. This petition led into the Institution Narrative. There were no directions in the prayer book concerning manual actions, but the priest probably continued to take the bread and the cup into his hands, as he had been directed to do in the 1549 book and would be directed to do in the 1662 book. If we can judge from altar practice, he probably broke the bread for distribution at the words “he brake it.” Late Western medieval eucharistic piety had been based on adoration of the sacrament at the Institution Narrative, which had come to be seen as the moment of consecration. The 1549 prayer book had attempted to substitute a piety centered in the communal receiving of the sacrament for a eucharistic piety centered in seeing the consecration of the sacrament. The 1552 and subsequent books placed the act of receiving right at what in the late middle ages had been the ultimate point of devotion. Through much of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the priest administered communion by moving among the people kneeling in the chancel. To each person he said a sentence of administration. From 1559 the sentence consisted of two parts. The first half of each sentence was the sentence of administration in the 1548 Order of the Communion and the 1549 Book of Common Prayer. It was a Lutheran amplification of an earlier form, “The body (bloud) of our Lorde Jesus Christe whiche was geuen (shed) for thee, and be thankefull.” The second half expressed a reformed understanding of the real presence of Christ, stressing that it was “in your hearts” and not “with your teeth” that one feeds on Christ by faith. For the receiving of communion, the people were to kneel, though in some places they sat or stood instead. During the time of the ministration of communion, or after people had begun to receive at the rails as “tables” were moving to and from the rail, portions of “A Thanksgiving after the receiving of the Lord’s Supper” from the Sternhold and Hopkins psalter, or some other metrical hymn or psalm, may have been sung.

Text:

THE LORD’S PRAYER (the people repeating every petition after the priest):

Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed by thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; But deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.

PRAYER [One of two alternatives] (Priest):

O Lord and heavenly Father, we thy humble servants entirely desire thy fatherly goodness mercifully to accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; most humbly beseeching thee to grant, that by the merits and death of thy Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in his blood, we and all thy whole Church may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of his passion. And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee, that all we, who are partakers of this holy Communion, may be fulfilled with thy grace and heavenly benediction. And although we be unworthy, through our manifold sins, to offer unto thee any sacrifice, yet we beseech thee to accept this our bounden duty and service; not weighing our merits, but pardoning our offences, through Jesus Christ our Lord; by whom, and with whom, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honour and glory be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world without end. Amen.

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS (Priest):

Glory be to God on high, and in earth peace, good will towards men. We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee, we give thanks to thee for thy great glory, O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty.

O Lord, the only begotten Son Jesus Christ; O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father, have mercy upon us.

For thou only art holy; thou only are the Lord; thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

THE BLESSING (Priest):

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord: and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you and remain with you always. Amen.

[The people having departed, the clergy (assisted by others, if necessary) consume what remains without carrying it from the building.]

Commentary: After the people had received Communion, the priest was to line out the Lord’s Prayer (until 1662, the shorter form) with the people repeating each petition after him. He was then to say one or the other of two prayers. The first was an abridged form of the final paragraph of the 1549 eucharistic prayer, later commonly called the “self-oblation.” This form contained phrases from the Roman canon, the liturgy of St. Basil, Hermann’s Consultation, and a quotation from Romans 12:1. The second was a revised form of the fixed post-communion prayer of the 1549 book which replaced the proper post-communion prayers of the medieval rites, many of which contained theological sentiments unacceptable to Cranmer.

The rite concluded with the Gloria in Excelsis and the blessing. The Gloria in Excelsis was moved to this position in 1552, possibly because Calvinistic rites normally followed communion with a metrical psalm in imitation of the hymn sung after the Last Supper (Mark 14:26). Early Lutheran liturgical books concluded rites with blessings, and one dependent on Hermann’s Consultation was provided in the 1548 Order of the Communion and the Book of Common Prayer. After the blessing, a metrical psalm or hymn may have been sung.

Conclusion

The 1549 Book of Common Prayer did not specify what was to be done with elements that remained after the administration of communion except that (following some German Lutheran precedents) on the day of a celebration they might be used for the Communion of the Sick. The 1552 revision specified that “yf any of the bread or wine remayne, the Curate [i.e., the person in charge of the cure] shal have it to hys owne use.” It was not until the 1662 revision that what remained was to be consumed by the priest and other communicants and not taken out of the church.

Through the authorization of this eucharistic liturgy, a basic pattern of Anglican worship was established in the mid-sixteenth century which would not be radically altered until the Victorian period.

Morrison, Robert

Robert Morrison (1782-1834) was the first Protestant missionary to China. He began studying Chinese along with theology and medicine as a student in Northumbria, England. In 1807 the London Missionary Society sent him to Canton, China. He spent his early years on the mission field in near seclusion as he attempted to master the language. His proficiency grew to the point that he became an interpreter for the British East India Company. He worked on a number of printed translations including a collection of hymns, prayers from the Book of Common Prayer, and, eventually, a translation of the entire Bible – a mammoth project he completed in 1823. He went to England for a short time in 1824 but returned to China within two years where he spent the remainder of his life. He saw very few converts during his lifetime but his translation work and the establishment of a mission school laid a solid foundation for the missionaries who followed him.

Sunday Worship in Anglican / Episcopal Churches

“In Corporate Worship, we unite ourselves with others to acknowledge the holiness of God, to hear God’s Word, to offer prayer, and to celebrate the sacraments.” So the catechism in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer in the United States describes worship.

This prayer book definition emerges from the historical context of an English-speaking liturgy handed down from Thomas Cranmer in the first English prayer book (1549). Yet it looks beyond to the present era of liturgical renewal and experimentation.

Anglicans for the last ten years have sought to define, through a great deal of study and “trial use,” the role of liturgy in the life of a church whose historical identity is reflected in its worship. Throughout the Anglican Communion there is also a felt need for understanding liturgical inculturation alongside renewal.

Three Interwoven Circles. Three interwoven circles of equal size is an ancient symbol expressing both the unity and the equality of the Trinity.

Variety and Unity in Worship. The worship experience in an Anglican or Episcopal church can vary. One Anglican may worship with such catholic expressions of worship and ceremony as incense, holy water, genuflections, signs of the cross, and the echoing of plain chant. Another may experience instead the stark simplicity of a New England colonial, low church, evangelical congregation where the Holy Communion is celebrated at a small table located underneath a central pulpit. The real unity of worship within Anglicanism comes through The Book of Common Prayer. Recent versions of the prayer book in various parts of the Communion offer that same sense of unity that was evident at the time of Archbishop Cranmer’s first English Prayer Book while introducing new tones of joy and resurrection.

Renewal of Worship. Today, renewal movements such as Faith Alive, Cursillo (Little Journey with Christ), and Happenings bring with them new musical expressions, mostly informal in nature, which participants seek to bring into the worship experience of their own parish (often, however, not without controversy). There is also a move to reclaim such historical features of Anglican worship as the ministry of healing, complete with anointing and laying on of hands. Local parish churches, now as always, may offer a healing service within the context of a celebration of Holy Communion, giving special emphasis to intercessory prayer.

Anglican/Episcopal churches are seeking a renewed liturgical vision drawing priest and people close through the experience of corporate worship. Instructed Eucharists, training classes, books on liturgy, and worship committees are all now part of the norm of local parish life. Studying the Sunday Bible Propers (the lessons appointed for the day) in the three year lectionary cycle helps bring Anglicans into an ecumenical stance with other Christians. Such an exposure to Scripture gives worship new meaning and vitality.

Eucharist in Worship. The American prayer book sees the Holy Eucharist as “the principal act of Christian worship on the Lord’s Day and other feasts.” The rite used by Anglicans/Episcopalians generally follows the Roman and Lutheran liturgies with an entrance song of praise, the “Gloria in Excelsis.” During the seasons of Advent and Lent, however, the Kyrie (“Lord Have Mercy”) or the Trisagion is sung. Most churches offer services in modern and traditional language rites, faithfully following the church year.

It is likely that Episcopalians hear more Scripture on Sundays than any other Christian denomination. Readings from the Old and New Testaments, Psalms, and Gospels follow the prayer of the day. After a homily, creed, and prayers, the faithful exchange a sign of peace, moving into the celebration of the Eucharist by offering bread and wine, themselves, their souls and bodies as the liturgy says. Money offerings are made as well.

As the great thanksgiving unfolds the dramatic story of redemption, the celebrant offers the bread and wine to become the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, given for the faithful. The Lord’s Prayer and the breaking of the bread lead to the moment when all believers who are present share in the bread and wine. During this time, music associated with renewal can be incorporated effectively. Praise music, Taizé chants, silence, and instrumental music have all become part of this reflective time.

Styles of Worship. Various styles of Eucharistic celebrations on a given Sunday in a large parish church may include an 8:00 a.m. celebration of Communion with a short sermon, usually no music, and a small congregation. That same parish at 9:00 a.m. might have a Family Eucharist which would incorporate the use of a children’s choir, instruments, varying musical styles, and a sense of informality.

More formal would be the next service, the 11:00 a.m. Solemn Eucharist, featuring a full choir, the great anthems, an occasional swing of the incense pot, and sprinkling of holy water. This last service would also include the use of traditional hymns and chanting of Psalms.

It would not be surprising for that same church to gather on an evening for a very informal house Mass or a Table celebration, where there would be hand-clapping, choruses, raising of hands in praise, and prayer. The celebration possibly might even include dance.

Where Are They? The substance of renewal in Anglican worship is reflected in prayer books from all over the world. The new prayer book of the church in Australia finds worship to be “the highest activity of the human spirit,” while from another continent, the new prayer book of the church of the Province of Southern Africa calls upon the people of God to clothe the liturgy “with the devotion of heart and mind” so that worship may release “into the world with its needs and its pains, its sorrows and its hope, an influence for healing and wholeness which we shall never fully comprehend.” This is the substance of renewal in Anglican worship.

Committed Anglicans have testified that God is doing a new thing in their lives. Certainly it is true that liturgical Christians will indeed be well prepared to cry “Holy, Holy, Holy” as they approach the throne of God, because their cry on earth has been united with the whole company of heaven in that proclamation of praise to almighty God in their liturgy.