The Influence of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer on the ‘Bersier Liturgy’ and French Protestant Worship

• Main Author: Stuart Ludbrook
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre de Recherche et d'Etudes en Civilisation Britannique 2017-05-01
• Series: Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique
• Subjects: liturgy; French Reformed Church; Anglicanism; Book of Common Prayer
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/1231

French Reformed minister Eugène Bersier’s liturgy, which he composed for his congregation at the Temple de l’Etoile in Paris in 1874-76, is an example of extensive borrowing from Anglican liturgical tradition. Although this liturgy was only ever used by Bersier’s congregation, its influence on the French Reformed Church was far-ranging because it constituted the basis of a proposal for liturgical reform that Bersier drafted at the request of the French Reformed synod in 1888 and which led to considerable change in French Reformed worship. The Bersier liturgy is not a case of merely adopting the Anglican liturgy as it was. The liturgical text of the Bersier liturgy owes much to the Book of Common Prayer, and the architecture, decoration and music of his Paris church were influenced by Anglican cathedral worship. But Bersier adapted the Book of Common Prayer to French Reformed sensibilities and even downplayed Anglican influence as he responded to criticisms of ritualism and servile imitation of the Anglican high church party.