In our last article we looked at the emergence of early Christian worship from the Jewish synagogue service. This basic Jewish service was pray, chant, read and expound on scripture, and pray again. The early church adopted this pattern but added the Eucharist (Lord's Supper) to the mix as the centerpiece of the service. For the first three hundred years of the life of the church there was little oversight given to the liturgy (order of worship used by various congregations). However as the church began to become more and more structured with a clerical hierarchy, the liturgy began to be more and more structured as well.
The first great push for standardization came around the years 375-380 CE. During that time the Apostolic Constitutions were collected and disseminated. This collection of writings (The Apostolic Constitutions) contained writings on doctrine, discipline, and worship. These Constitutions were to assist clergy in everything from correct teaching to correct worship. Legend had it that they were either the work of the original Apostles or of Clement of Rome. The church rejected their claim to be Apostolic (meaning they could not be inserted in the Bible) and later realized they were not from Clement either. Nonetheless they were pivotal in assisting the church in bringing some liturgical order out of the chaos of every congregation doing whatever they desired. Their fingerprints show up in virtually every western (Roman) and Eastern (Orthodox) rite today.
Even so, over time as the rites spread to a variety of nations they acquired several distinct forms. The main branches of liturgical styles were Alexandrine, Syriac, Byzantine, Armenian and Latin. Each of these rites gave birth to other traditions. The Syriac tradition birthed the Chaldean, Malabar, Syriac, Malankar and Maronite rites. The Byzantine birthed Greek and Slavic variants. Alexandrine birthed Coptic and Ethiopic rites. The Latin tradition gave the world Roman, Ambrosian, Celtic, Gallican and Mozarabic rites. All of this is to say that within the emerging church, while there were certain basic liturgical elements (see below) there was no one way to order worship. Liturgy was still ultimately shaped by the local culture, language and clergy.
The common liturgical elements within these rites will sound familiar to us today: invocation, confession, absolution, hymns, litanies, Kyrie/Gloria, collect, liturgical readings, Alleluia, scripture readings, Creeds, Prayers, Lord's Prayer, offering, communion (which includes a liturgical conversation between the priest and the peoples, the Eucharistic prayer, the words of institution, prayer and distribution), passing of the peace, Agnus Dei and benediction. Over the centuries other elements were added to the worship practices of the church. These include the church year (a three year cycle of scripture readings which retell the cycle of Christ's life from birth to ascension), vestments for the clergy (this includes robes, stoles and hats), veneration of the saints (through holy days, statues or icons), prayer books (filled with portions of the liturgy to be read/sung by the congregation) and architecture specific to the various rites (Roman and Orthodox church buildings are very different because of the different needs of the rites).
Two of the great changes in the Roman rite (used by the Roman Catholic Church) were the transition from Latin to the local vernacular as the language of worship and the increased use of laity in the service itself. These were both byproducts of Vatican II, initiated by John XXIII (1881-1963) when he desired that some "fresh air" be brought into the church. As far as I am aware few if any of the other major traditions have moved away from their original languages (Greek, Russian, etc.) in worship or have included laity in the service in the ways now in use in the Roman church.
This history then sets the stage for the transformation of worship not only in the Reformation but in our world today.
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