Uniformity in This Kirk
An Act of the General Assembly - 7 February 1645
Introduction: The following document is among the Acts of the General Assembly of the Scottish Church in 1645, the year in which the Assembly adopted the Westminster Directory for the Public Worship of God. In approving and adopting the text of the Directory, the Assembly acted to clarify and disambiguate certain sections of that directory for application within the Reformed Church of Scotland.For instance, in establishing the Directory as the standard for worship, the initial adopting Act itself (from Session 10 of the Assembly, 3 February 1645) had already specified certain practices for the Scottish Church that had been left open or ambiguous in the Directory itself. In doing so it was attempting to keep intact those traditions and practices of the Scottish church that stood in contrast to those of some of the English churches, whether Puritan or Independent, so long as these proved no offense to those English churches.
Thus that Act states that the Directory is Scotland's standard:
...Provided always, that the clause in the Directory of the Administration of the Lord's Supper, which mentioneth the Communicants sitting about the Table, or at it, be not interpreted as if, in the judgment of this Kirk, it were indifferent and free for any of the Communicants not to come to, or receive at the Table; or as if we did approve the distributing of the Elements by the Minister to each Communicant, and not by the Communicants among themselves.In making this interpretative judgment, the Assembly was simply maintaining and mandating what was already the common practice of the Scottish Church in which communicants came foward to the eucharistic table in groups and received communion at the table, distributing it amongst themselves.
The following document was approved by the Assembly subsequently to the initial adopting act and specifies further ways in which the Directory is to be rightly applied in the Church of Scotland. I provide some interpretive comments in the footnotes.
Session 14 - February 7, 1645
The opinion of the Committee for keeping the greater uniformity in this Kirk, in the practice and observations of the Directory in some points of public worship.
I. It is the humble opinion of the Committee for regulating the exercise of reading and expounding the Scriptures read upon the Lord's Day, mentioned in the Directory, that the Minister and people repair to the kirk half an hour before that time at which ordinarily the Minister now entereth to the public worship; and that the exercise of reading and expounding, together with the ordinary exercise of preaching, be perfected and ended at the time which formerly closed the exercise of public worship.1
II. In the administration of Baptism, it will be convenient that that Sacrament be administered in the face of the Congregation, that what is spoken and done may be heard and seen of all, and that it be administered after the sermon, before the blessing.
III. In the administration of the Lord's Supper,2 it is the judgment of the Committee:--
1. That congregations be still tried and examined before the Communion, according to the bygone practice of this Kirk.3
2. That there be no reading in the time of communicating, but the Minister making a short exhortation at every table; that thereafter there be silence during the time of the communicant's receiving, except only when the Minister expresses some few short sentences, suitable to the present condition of the communicants in the receiving, that they may be incited and quickened in their meditations in the action.4
3. That distribution of the elements among the communicants be universally used; and for that effect, that the bread be so prepared that the communicants may divide it among themselves, after the Minister hath broken and delivered it to the nearest.5
4. That while the tables are dissolving and filling, there by always songing of some portion of a Psalm, according to the custom.6
5. That the communicants, both before their going to and after their coming from the table, shall only join themselves to the present public exercise then in hand.
6. Then when the Communion is to be celebrated in a parish, one Minister may be employed for assisting the Minister of the parish, or at the most two.
7. That there be a sermon of preparation delivered in the ordinary place of public worship upon the day immediately preceding.
8. That before the serving of the tables there be only one sermon delivered to those that communicate, and that in the kirk where the service is to be performed. And that in the same kirk there be one sermon of thanksgiving after the Communion is ended.7
9. When the parishoners are so numerous that their parish kirk cannot contain them, so that there is a necessity to keep out such of the parish as cannot conveniently have place, that in the case the brother who assists the Minister of the praish may be ready, if need be, to give a word of exhortation in some convenient place appointed for that purpose, to those of the parish who that day are not to communicate; which must be begun until the sermon delivered in the kirk be concluded.
10. That those who are present in the kirk when the Communion is celebrate none be permitted to go forth until the whole tables be served and the blessing pronounced, unless it be for more commodious order, nd in other cases of necessity.
11. The the Minister who cometh to assist have a special care to provide his own parish, lest, otherwise, while he is about to minister comfort to others, his own flock be left destitute of preaching.
12. That none coming from another parish shall be admitted to the Communion without a testimonial from their own Minister: and no Minister shall refuse a testimonial to any of his parish who communicates ordinarily at their own parish kirk, and are without scandal in their life for the time. And this is no way to prejudge any honest person who occasionally is in the place where the Communion is celebrate; or such as by death or absence of their own Minister, could not have a testimonial.
IV. It is also the judgment of the Committeee, that the Minister's bowing the pulpit, though a lawful custom in this Kirk, be hereafter laid aside, for satisfaction of the desires of the reverend Divines in the Synod of England, and for uniformity with that Kirk, so much endeared to us.8
The Assembly, having considered seriously the judgment of the Committee above written, doth approve the same in all the articles thereof, and ordains them to be observed in all time hereafter.
Notes:
1. The main point of this section is to eliminate what had been called "the Reader's Service" in earlier Reformed Scottish practice. In the original order of Scottish Reformed worship, the service began with a lay leader reading the Scriptures, giving a brief explanation of them, along with some prayers and the congregational singing of a metrical psalm. This "Reader's Service" had been instituted for practical reasons: [a] to give additional instruction in the Scriptures to a largely illiterate populace, most whom probably did not own a Bible and [b] to make use of the expertise of those who were trained to read in a situation in which the ordained ministry was often still poorly educated. The Reader's Service lasted around an hour and closed with the ringing of a bell at which point the minister would arrive and enter the pulpit and continue with the main part of the worship, including the sermon.
The Act here, then, has the effect of cutting a half an hour off of the time that would have been taken up with the Reader's Service, having the minister enter directly at the beginning of worship, now taking over the functions of reading and expounding the Scriptures himself as part of a unified service. After a century of reform and ministerial education, this was possible in a way that would not have been when the reform first began in Scotland.
2. It is probably useful to recall that this point that the custom of Reformed churches in the 16th through 18th centuries was for the congregation to come forward to the communion table in order to receive communion. On the Continent, in France and Switzerland, the practice had been for the congregation to come forward and gather, standing, around the communion Table for the distribution and, where the congregation was large, to do so in shifts, a group at a time. In Scotland, however, the practice was to run a long communion table from the front of the church, down the center aisle and to actually seat the congregation around the Table, as was the practice in the Netherlands and Westphalia. Where the congregation was large or the Table small, it was done in shifts.
While in the Scottish rite it was the case that, by the time the communicants came forward to the table, the Words of Institution had been already been read (prior to the epiclesis and other prayers), the Words were repeated for the distribution, along with various manual acts. Thus, when the minister recited the words, "he took bread," the minister held up the bread. At the words, "he broke it," the minister broke the bread. And at the words, "take, eat," he distributed it to the gathered communicants, first communing himself. Similar actions were done in connection with the cup.
3. It was the practice of the Scottish Kirk that, before each communion season, all prospective communicants would meet with the minister and/or elders of the congregation, either privately or in connection with a service of preparation. This examination was an opportunity to exercise pastoral care, deal with impenitence, catechize the faithful, and exhort them to partake of the sacrament.
A communion token, usually made of lead in 16th and 17th centuries, would be issued to all those who were examined, unless unrepented sin required otherwise. The token would grant admission to the Table and they would be collected as part of the celebration of the sacrament. The old Scots communion liturgy, in fact, involved bringing those tokens forward and lifting them up, in connection with the offertory and the covered communion elements themselves being brought up to the Table by elders or deacons.
4. That is to say, when each group of communicants came forward to the Table to receive communion, the minister would, in addition to repeating the Words of Institution, add a short exhortation. But the minister was not to engage in a Scripture reading while the communicants were distributing the elements among themselves. It is also known from Scots records that, as the communicants finished partaking, the minister would dismiss them with words to the effect, "Go in peace from the Table of the Lord and may the God of love and peace go with you."
5. The repeated insistence on this practice of the communicants sharing the elements among themselves is an intriguing feature of the Scottish eucharistic rite, likely not only intended as an imitation of the Last Supper, but also to emphasize the nature of holy communion as an act of God's people binding them together as a single Body.
6. The act here notes and endorses the custom of communicants singing a portion of a Psalm as one group leaves the Table and another comes forward. The Psalm text that was most often used in the 16th and 17th centuries was Psalm 116:13-19:
and call upon the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows unto the Lord
now in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his saints.
O Lord, truly I am thy servant;
I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid:
thou hast loosed my bonds.
I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and will call upon the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows unto the Lord
now in the presence of all his people.
In the courts of the Lord's house,
in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem.
Praise ye the Lord.
7. The purpose of this regulation is to place a limit upon possible sermonizing. It was sometimes the case in Scotland that communion services would end up with multiple sermons: explanations of the readings, the main sermon, a short sermon regarding the meaning of the Supper, a table talk, and so on. Here the Assembly is limiting the practice to one sermon so that the service of worship not be unnecessarily drawn out. This is in keeping with the Directory's injunction that worship not be rendered "tedious."
The "one sermon of thanksgiving after the Communion" mentioned in the Act refers to the common practice of a brief post-communion talk and prayer of thanksgiving. Thus Alexander Henderson writes in 1641 that "After the last company hath received, the minister...goeth to the pulpit, where after a short speech tending to thanksgivig he doth solemnly give thanks to God" (Government and Order of the Church of Scotland, 20-25).
8. The reference here is to the practice of the minister kneeling in prayer after ascending the pulpit, making a brief humble and silent petition for himself, prior to preaching his sermon. According to Robert Baillie the Scots commisioners to the Westminster Assembly were unable to get the Divines to agree to allowing the practice because some Puritans objected to it as too reminiscent of the priest's bow to the east and the altar, as practiced among the prelatical party in the Church of England (Letters II, 259).