Holiness Worship

The holiness movement traces its origins to John Wesley. The worship of the holiness churches, however, was shaped primarily by the liturgical forms of the camp meeting movement. In 1784 John Wesley recognized the establishment of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America and attempted to offer guidance for its worship through the publication of his revision of The Book of Common Prayer. Wesley's work was entitled The Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America and Other Occasional Services. Elements which survived Wesley's abridgment of The Book of Common Prayer included morning and evening prayer, baptism, the Lord's Supper, rites of ordination (for deacons, elders and superintendents), the Psalms, the litany and collects, and Epistles and Gospels for the Lord's Supper. Worship was to be marked by weekly sacramental celebration. The Sunday Service, however, was never widely accepted or used in America. Wesley had not accurately perceived the North American situation, nor had …