ABSTRACT

The main religious purpose of all Christians is the worship of, in other words showing honour and reverence to God. The form, worship takes naturally varies from religion to religion, but within Christianity most Churches have rather similar forms of public worship. This public worship is called 'the liturgy', a term that comes from two Greek words meaning 'public' and 'work'. The public liturgy, partly precisely because it is public, is very structured in Catholicism. The translation of the liturgy into the vernacular was much regretted by some, who believed that an air of mystery should surround the Church's main act of worship and, with the introduction of the vernacular and a simpler style of worship, this had largely disappeared. In more recent times, however, there has been a gradual growing together of the styles of worship of some at least of the Churches, including the Catholic Church.