In my recent studies, I have been encouraged to tackle a daunting task. There are plenty of traditionalists in my presbytery like myself who love historic Christian worship. In the words of a Lutheran friend of mine, “If you don’t like the other service books, write your own.” Well, I have been and I have been encouraged by the clerk of my presbytery to pursue the task and submit it to the Theology and Christian Ed committees for review 
Well, in the process, I have discovered the 1689 Proposed Book of Common Prayer, that was published in 1854 by the English Parliament and the Rev’d Charles Baird’s A Book of Public Prayer Compiled from the Authorized Formularies of Worship of the Presbyterian Church as Prepared by the Reformers Calvin, Knox, Bucer and Others with Supplementary Forms. The later volume is monumental for our task here to demonstrate the liturgical vein in much of continental Presbyterianism and particularly that of the older Scottish Church; the former is illustrative of the various liturgical reforms initiated by the Convocation of 1687 in order to tolerate and convince the non-Conformists in the Church of England. Baird is worth quoting at length here for the task at hand:
At the time of the Reformation, each of the various national branches of Presbyterianism adopted a liturgy. To this fact there is not a solitary exception. And further, with but one exception, each of the national Presbyterian churches of Europe has retained down to the present day, with greater or less modification, its particular liturgy. The Church of Scotland, which for a hundred years had preserved these written forms, finally laid them aside, not of her own choice and preference, but in concession to a plan of uniformity with other Churches, in the use of a common Directory of Worship. The adoption of a liturgy is peculiarly consonant with the spirit and usage of the Presbyterian Church. That a body characterized by strict and scrupulous adherence to established formulas of doctrine and discipline, should make full provision for the proper celebration of worship, appears most suitable and natural. And although in the Church of Scotland, bitter enmity to forms of prayer has long existed, arising out arbitrary attempts to enforce an obnoxious liturgy, in times of civil commotion, there has never been a single enactment of our Church to forbid or condemn the introduction or revival of this her former practice. It is a fact of no little meaning, that when the Presbyterian Church of this country was organized on a national basis, there was a proposal on the part of influential Divines to introduce a discretionary form of public prayer.
It appears that historic continental Presbyterianism had various fixed liturgies in their worship before the Westminister Assembly that adopted the Directory of Worship and replaced Knox’s Book of Order in Scotland. Moreover, from reading Baird’s assessment (which is also based upon the proposed prayerbook of 1689), it appears that with regard to worship, Puritanism and the Secession in Scotland turn out to look more like fundamentalist reactionaries to “Catholicism.” Calvin’s Geneva liturgy was preserved by the Huegonots who settled in South Carolina.
I’m stunned. In the Church of Scotland, the “bitter enmity to forms of prayer” is a reference to the imposition of the Anglican Prayerbook on the Presbyterians; the 1689 prayerbook was approved by Parlaiment to unify the Church in England and Scotland and Ireland (including Puritans, Presbyterians and Independents), but it was not approved by the church and was never published until 1854. So, I am busy at work . . .
