The Liturgical Revolution

The nineteenth-century Scottish Presbyterian Churches witnessed a ‘Liturgical Revolution’. In part an expression of the wider Romantic movement, some ministers became concerned with the aesthetics of prayer and worship. Some began to publish ‘specimens’ of good practice. A major development was made by Robert Lee of Greyfriars, who published a liturgy that he used as a set form in Greyfriars. The Church Service Society was founded in 1865 to publish liturgies of the past, and drawing on the whole Christian liturgical heritage, compiled forms for the guidance of ministers. The century also witnessed the adoption of hymns in worship in addition to psalms and paraphrases, and the reintroduction of stained glass to adorn church buildings. A theology for this was developed by the Scoto-Catholics of the Scottish Church Society.