Churches Liturgy

The Patristic Church

In the first five centuries of Christian history, worship continued to evolve based on the traditions of the synagogues and the upper room. The didache gives instructions for services of babtism and the Lord’s Supper; for the latter in records the “set prayers” to be used and directsthat confession of sin should precede the celebration. Justin Martyr’s Apology gives a specific order for worship.

The service of the word readings from the prophets and memoirs of the apostles sermon

though this worship order does not mention music, it was surely included. From this time on psalms and canticles were music with scripture texts, while “hymns” had word of human composing. D toSome musicologists insist that spiritual songs continuebe glossalalic; the tradition of this type of music was perpetuated in Western Christian worship in n improvised, melismatic “Alleluia” before the reading og he Gospel that was eventually formalized in a roulade called the jubilus.

The MiddleAges

During the 1000 year period between 500 and 1500 A. D. Christian worship grew in complexity while still maintaining the basic outline reported by justin martyr. Many abuses, both theological and liturgical, crept in, principally in the concepts underlying the Lord’s super and the lack of comprehension and participation by the congregation. During this entire period, there was almost no congregational song in regular worship. Priestly choirs sang the many hymns written to express Christian faith. The psalms and biblical canticles were the principal song  expression in the non-eucharistic services of the  hours in monasteries and certain churches and cathedrals. Ordinary folks sang in popular expressions of devotion outside the church- as in carols, and the hymns associated with religious pilgrimages. Other new hymns based on secular antecedents appeared of Francis of Assisi in 12^th-13^th century Italy. All these popular forms might be considered to be the spiritual songs of that period of history; similar types have continued to appear with most renewal movements since that time.

The Reformation

In the 16^th century, western Christian worship experienced drastic reform under the leadership of Martin Luther in Germany, Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin in Switzerland and France, and John Knox in Scotland. The new Lutheran, Anglican, and reformed liturgies removed the non-biblical emphases of the Roman mass, and worship was given back to the people in their own language. The most drastic reform of worship order came under Calvin, but even he retained the basic form developed in the earlier centuries.

The liturgy of the word

·         Scripture sentence

·         Confession of sins

·         Metrical psalms

·         Prayer for illumination

·         Scripture reading

·         Sermon

·         Collection

·         Intercessions

·         The Lord’s Prayer, in long paraphrase

The liturgy of Upper Room

·         Apostles Creed (communion elements prepared)

·         Words of Institution

·         Exhortation

·         Consecration

·         Communion (with psalms sung or scriptures read)

·         Post- communion prayer

·         Benediction (Aaronic blessing)

It is noteworthy that, though Calvin removed all non-evangelical phrases and all liturgicl symbolism (of boh action and furnishings, including vestments) from French-speaking Protestant worship, his service maintained a balance between word and table, with a full Prayer of Thanksgiving that included an emphasis on remembrance, the concept of sacrament, a petition for continued grwth in faith, a confession of sin, and the words of institution (1 Cor. 11). Before communion there was a sober exhortation and fencing of the table which excluded all who were considered unworthy to participate; after communion there was a post-supper prayer of thanksgiving.

Although singing became congregational in the Reformation, protestant groups have rarely sung a full diet of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Calvin insisted that only God’s word is worthy to be used would sing only psalms, plus a few new Testament canticles;  further, the psalms, though in poetic form, should add or subtract nothing from the original scripture concepts. The church of England was influenced strongly by Calvin and eventually followed the same rule; Angelicans sang the psalms in meter and also chanted them in “prose” form. Only luther  allowed extra – scriptural “hymns”  in worship, together with free paraphrases of psalms, other biblical passages, and history liturgical texts.

The Beginning of Nonliturgical Worship

From the second to the 17^th centuries, all authorized Christian worship was “liturgical” in that it followed estabilished froms. In the late 16^th century, “separitists” emerged in England, so-called because they parted companywith the establishedchurch,, believing that it needed more radical “reforming”. They rejected all established worship forms and their services consisted only of preaching and prayer, the latter always improvised. Communion was infrequent and very simply done. At first, the “free churches” used no music; later they sang psalms only, like their Anglican neighbors.

Worship and Congregational

Singing in the New World

The early colonists on this continent brought their worship practices, service manuals, and songbooks with them from the Old World. Anglicans and separatist from England, Calvinist from Holland, and Huguenots from France all sang psalms withinthe format of their individual worship traditions.

Meanwhile, in “Mother England” in the early 18^th century, Isaac Watts, a Congregationalist minister, insisted that since worship is the activity of human beings, it ought to be expressed in their own words in hymns of “human composing.”  Watts became known as the “Father of English Hymnody”, writing such great hymns as “When I survey the wondrous Cross”, as well as free “christianized” versions of the psalms. Watt’s hymns and psalms paraphrases became popular in America, shifly because of their use in the revivalist ministry of George Whitefield, a British Calvinistic Methodist who made several trips to this country between 1738 and 1770. Later the hymns of Charles Wesley added impetus to the movement from psalms to hymns.