Congregational Worship

Congregational worship was influenced by the radical wing of Puritanism, which stressed a worship shaped by biblical teaching alone. Worship was stripped to its New Testament essentials, centering on the exposition of the Word and the observance of the sacraments. Customs and features of worship not expressed in Scripture were dropped. The movement which came to be known as Congregationalism owes its origin in the middle of the seventeenth century to a revolt against both the "high-church" liturgy and the hierarchical government by bishops in the state-supported Church of England. These objections, which necessarily brought with them a radically different order of worship, stemmed from a Reformed or Calvinistic theological opposition to the remnants of Roman Catholic liturgy and government in the Church of England. New England Church-Exterior View. One purpose of both the exterior and interior architecture of Puritan meetinghouses was to depart as far as possible from the liturgica…