Chronologically, the Presbyterian Church in Korea states its beginning at 1884, celebrated its 50th anniversary at 1934, and its Centennial at 1984. The Church experienced its radical social changes through the final periods of last kingdom. Japanese colonial occupation brought them hard time. They experienced independence in 1945 with divided nations, finally Korean Conflict in 1950 brought peninsula tsunami.
The Presbyterian Church(R.O.K.), pushed out by the main Presbyterian Body, understood the event as God’s providence(1953). They inherited ‘the directory for worship’ as only reformed liturgical heritage. It was not so enough resource for the grass-root congregations. That’s why they produced its first Book of Common Order (1964) ten years after its organization. As the church’s silver jubilee approaches, an attempt was made to revise ‘the directory for worship’ and produced accordingly a second Book of Common Order (1978). And when they come to celebrate its golden jubilee, they completely reworked the directory and produced the Jubilee Worshipbook (2003).
This paper is an appraisal of the above-mentioned liturgical resource in terms of reformed liturgical heritage and also in light of a broader ecumenical spectrum. It is primarily an appraisal of our current status in order to find future tasks.
Regarding the historical reformed heritage, we consider the two foci: (1) Geneva Book of Common Prayer in 16th century, and the Westminster Directory for Worship in 17th century England. The former was actually initiated by Martin Bucer in Strasbourg(1536) and John Calvin revised it in Geneva(1542, 1545). The main idea was firstly, simplifying the Lord’s Supper according to the early apostolic practice, and secondly, emphasizing the authority of Scriptures in reading and preaching in weekly worship: Liturgy of Word and Liturgy of the Upper Room.
The Westminster Directory for Worship was a product of Westminster Assembly in 17th century. It was not a liturgical resource but a theological directory mainly against the Anglican Book of Common Order. They was not in favor of set-liturgy with sets of formal prayers. This directory became a guide-post for the puritan worship through the reformed world for centuries for good and bad.
For more than a century, the Presbyterian Churches, in England and America, have struggled over to overcome the shortcoming of the Westminster Directory. By the middle of the last century, most reformed denominations adopted their own directory as well as the book of common worship, in spite of ignorance in most of Presbyterian Church here. By 1990, most ecumenical churches produced their completely new Book of Worship.
We reached thus far at the current reformed liturgical concerns in our denominational worship. However we are far beyond yet to reach the grass-roots for ‘semper reformanda.’