Reformed worship

Reformed worship is religious devotion to God as conducted by Reformed or Calvinistic Christians, including Presbyterians. Despite considerable local and national variation, public worship in most Reformed and Presbyterian churches is governed by the Regulative principle of worship. Huldrych Zwingli, who began his reforming work in Zurich in 1518, introduced many radical changes to worship. His Sunday service, instituted in 1519, was apparently derived from a liturgy called Prone, a late Medieval service which was sometimes held before, during, or after mass. It contained the Lord's Prayer, a Hail Mary, a sermon, a remembrance of those who had died the previous week, another Lord's Prayer and Hail Mary, the Apostles' Creed, the Decalogue, confession, and absolution. Martin Bucer, the reformer of Strasbourg, believed that proper worship must be conducted in obedience to the Bible, and for this reason he sought to eliminate many of the dramatic ceremonies which were part of the liturgy of the church. He limited worship to preaching, almsgiving, the Eucharist, and prayer. John Oecolampadius, in Basel, believed that while the Bible did not give detailed liturgical instruction, all worship must be guided by biblical principles. For him this meant that worship should be simple and unpretentious. John Calvin's ideas about worship were influenced Martin Bucer and William Farel during his time in Strasbourg beginning in 1538. When he came to Geneva in 1536, Farel had already begun a Zwinglian reformation. His liturgy emphasized the unworthiness of the worshiper with the Ten Commandments being sung every Sunday, a practice probably taken from Martin Bucer. The service was also very didactic, with even the prayers written with the intention to instruct. Calvin did not insist on having explicit biblical precedents for every element of worship, but looked to the early church as his model and retained whatever he considered edifying. The liturgy was entirely in the vernacular, and the people were to participate in the prayers.