As it’s St Fillan’s 900th anniversary I’m looking at Rev. Rutherford’s children’s address, where he talks about the history of the church, this one is from 22th Jan ’67. Here he is continuing his walk up the path to the church.
When you come round the corner of the path you get the first glimpse of the church. People’s first remark is, “it must be very old, how old is it?” We have evidence to suggest it dates from 1123.
But what I want to draw your attention to this morning is the different types of service which have been held within these walls.
From 1123 to 1560 the monks would have conducted the service including the chanting of psalms and all in Latin.
After the Reformation the service was very long and the psalms sung without music.
The prayers were set prayers, you knew what to expect, it was the same every Sunday with a few alterations on special days.
Gradually the order began to disappear, the prayers came from the minister, sometimes they forgot to read the bible, they sang a few psalms and the sermons got longer and longer.
We then get to the the type of service we are familiar with today.
But which style of service is right? It makes me think we make too much of a fuss about the way we do things instead of what we do. It doesn’t matter how we worship Him, so long as we worship Him in spirit and truth.