Standing at the Cross-Roads: the 1986 Presidential Address

Some current trends in society and church are observed, including a more experimental approach to worship. The Society seeks a balance between the new ways and the best of tradition. He asks how, at this period of transition, how the originators of the Society sought to bring life to the 'simple forms' of the time through the devotional quality enshrined in more 'liturgical' worship. Euchologion offered forms for special services plus 'a magazine of prayer' derived from all traditions and periods. He derives principles within this as follows: 1. renewed awareness of church catholic, 2. renewing ancient prayers (semper reformanda) (here he exhorts the Society to speak more publicly and not talk to ourselves, 3. we should broaden the base of the Society beyond the Church of Scotland, 4. we should draw attention to traditions in danger of being forgotten, 5. the need for more and better material for private devotion (like the republication of Baillie Diary of Private Prayer.