“There is in my judgement, no more fundamental liturgical issue
facing the Reformed churches today than this ancient dispute within the tradition
over the place in the liturgy of the eucharits: ought the liturgy of the
Reformed churches to exhibit the enduring structure of word and sacrament, and
ought the people of God to eat the Supper weekly? Or is it appro-priate to keep
word and sacrament in separate services and to celebrate the Lord’s Supper only
infrequently? Like all liturgical issues, this dispute raises a pastoral issue:
Does it serve the health of the church to celebrate the Supper infrequently?
And like all liturgical issues this dispute raises a theological issue: Was
Calvin right in teaching that, by way of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper,
God acts towards us in love and we respond to God in faith, or was Zwingli
right in teaching that the Lord’s Supper is no more than an expression of our
response to God’s action?”
Nicholas Wolterstorff, ‘The Reformed Litugy’ pp273-304 in Donald K.
McKim (ed.) Major Themes in the Reformed
Tradition (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1992) p295
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