IPC Messenger
A W eekly Publication of The Independent Presbyterian Church
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Volume 14 • No 48
DECEMBER 2016/January 2017
In anticipation of our Reformation conference, March 23-26, I offer this and the
following Messenger articles as preparation for our time together.
John Knox and Worship – I
W
hen I put together Worshipping with
Calvin and Serving with Calvin, I
made very few references to John Knox and
the Scottish Reformation. I was confident
of the continuity of Reformed thinking
about worship from Bucer to Calvin to
Knox to Westminster and beyond, but in
fact my references to Knox and his Form
of Prayers were but passing.
Jane Dawson’s new biography of Knox
(Yale, 2015), one which in Diarmaid
MacCulloch’s view, renders all prior
biographies of Knox obsolete, places the
principle that worship must be regulated
by God’s word at the center of Knox’s
reforms and the key to understanding
his life and ministry. Dawson is no
conservative out to prove a point, but a
member of the theological faculty at the
University of Edinburgh and a worldclass scholar. She opens her work with
an account of the baptism of Knox’s son
at the refugee church in Geneva, May 23,
1557. She describes Knox’s delight in the
simplicity of the baptism as administered
according to the newly published Form
of Prayers in which the maxim that every
part of the worship of God “must rest upon
the words of Scripture alone” was honored
(2). Again and again she returns to this
theme (pp. 35, 41, 50, 89-108, 114, 139,
195). Several incidents are particularly
instructive.
Black Rubric
I was unaware (or forgot that I was
aware) of the extent of Knox’s involvement
in the English Reformation. Dawson refers
to England as Knox’s adoptive country.
During the reign of Edward VI (15471553), a revision of the Prayer Book
of 1549 was undertaken in 1552. Knox
preached before the king and his council
in September 1552 in which he strongly
asserted that sitting rather than kneeling
was the proper posture of receiving
communion, a direct criticism of the 1552
revision then at the printers and due to
be introduced to the public on November
1. Edward’s Privy Council responded
by halting production of the book until
“certain faults” could be corrected. This
put Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in
a rage, and in the end the Archbishop
prevailed. Kneeling was retained, but a
rubric (direction) was appended to the end
of the communion service in which it was
explained that kneeling in no way implied
an adoration of the host or the doctrine of
transubstantiation or of the real presence
of Christ. However, because the time was
short, the appended rubric was not printed
in the usual red (as were the rest of the
Prayer Book rubrics), but in black. Knox
had nothing to do with the print colors but
the “black” of “Black Rubric” became an
ominous symbol of the defects of the 1552
book, according to the high church party
in the Church of England in their struggle
Continued Page 3
IPC Messenger
CONTENTS
2
Music Ministry
2
Children’s Ministry
5
Women’s Ministry
5
Student Ministries
8 - 9 Family Corner
10
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