Reforming Worship: English Reformed Principles and Practice

The Reformed tradition of worship in England has given the English-speaking world the Westminster Directory for the Public Worship of God, and the hymns of Isaac Watts. In this collection of essays, scholars and ministers who are inheritors of this tradition reflect on the continuities, innovations, and tensions in Reformed worship and their lived expression in contemporary church life. Among the tensions explored is that between order and freedom in worship, and the bold contention is made that "ordered freedom" is the scriptural mark of the church's worship and the character of all good liturgy, for "order is love in regulative operation" (Anglican- Reformed International Commission). This collection of essays on the theology, history, and practice of Reformed worship also includes examples of psalmody, liturgy, and a sermon. "The revival of our worship depends on a rediscovery of the mystery at the heart of life, and that will only grow from a profound and disciplined attentiveness to the sources of faith in Scripture and in the on-going tradition of faith in the Christian community. This collection of writings is evidence of such attentiveness." --from the Foreword by Angela Tilby