ABSTRACT
The Nonjurors authored exotic liturgies for small congregations and Newtonian and Lockean theologians created blueprints for liturgies which expressed cutting edge theology. However, as W.R. Ward reminds us, Enlightenment thought directly affected only 10 per cent of the population, and at least in the Church of England, the suggestions of the Nonjurors, Newtownians and Lockeans were never given official expression. The evangelical movement had a wider impact, bringing hymns into public worship, but few parishes were evangelical. What, then, of the many parishes whose worship remained relatively impervious to these movements? What was ‘normative’ worship like? F.C. Mather and W.M. Jacob have shown that generally worship and parish life was vigorous, well supported and appreciated.1 On 27 June James Gordon observed of his first Sunday in the parish of Hawnby that he ‘was well pleased to see such a numerous congregation in such a retyr’d corner’.2 Bishop Edmund Gibson in his 1717 visitation charge at Lincoln stressed the need for clergy to pay attention to proper voice production in reading services.3 Many churches had two services per Sunday and many town and city churches had daily services. For example, Wimborne Minster sang services daily in the 1730s, and at Bath Abbey there were daily prayers at 11am and 4pm, ‘reverently and devoutly’ read.4 Villages and small hamlets may have had sacramental celebrations only three or four times a year, many towns had monthly celebrations.
