The Sunday Morning Service of the Book of Common Order

Maxwell develops the contention in the previous Annual that Calvin's main diet of worship does not have its source in the daily offices or choir offices but in the Eucharist.  After summarising the immediate history of the forms in the Scottish Book of Common Order at the Reformation, the writer offers a detailed account of the ancestry of the Book of Geneva from which it is derived, including the laying out in tabular form how the various sources were used.   He discusses Calvin's preference for weekly Communion, and the obstacles in his way.   Maxwell shows that the resulting form of service was a modification of the eucharistic order rather than the result of adopting another model.  This leads to the contention that the true Reformed tradition is the conduct of worship from the Table.  There is a final note on the “Reader's Service” in the early Reformed Church in Scotland.