Evangelical Lutheran Churches In America

Lutheran worship renewal remains consistent with Lutheran directives to purify the Roman Mass and to refrain from legalism. Luther's concern for these goals is expressed in the simple and direct way in which the twentieth-century forms of renewal have been adopted and applied to Lutheran worship. Although change has been slow, the turn to ancient practices, charismatic worship, and inclusive elements is meeting with wider approval. Lutheranism has been sometimes defined as a movement for reform of the Western Catholic church. Nowhere is this more evident than in worship practices. Martin Luther's principle, stated in his Formula Missae, was: "It is not now or ever has been our intention to abolish the liturgical service of God completely, but rather to purify the one that is now in use from the wretched accretions which corrupt it and to point out an evangelical use. " Two programs were embedded in this statement: to prune the inherited rites of their many additions over the centurie…