Palatinate Church Order

(1563)

Zacharias Ursinus, et al.

(1534–1583)

German Reformer in Heidelberg

SERVICE OF THE WORD

  • Greeting
  • Confession
  • Prayer for Illumination
  • Lord’s Prayer
  • Scripture*
  • Sermon*
  • Short Confession
  • Declaration of Forgiveness
  • Warning of Judgement
  • Intercessions
  • Lord’s Prayer or Paraphrase
  • Singing (Psalm/Hymn unspecified)
  • Benediction

SERVICE OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

  • Greeting*
  • Confession*
  • Prayer for Illumination*
  • Lord’s Prayer*
  • Scripture*
  • Sermon*
  • Short Confession*
  • Declaration of Forgiveness*
  • Warning of Judgement*
  • Intercessions*
  • Lord’s Prayer or
  • Paraphrase of Lord’s Prayer*
  • Words of InstitutionSelf-Examination
  • Exhortation and Excommunication
  • Words of Comfort
  • Invitation
  • Meaning of the Lord’s Supper
  • Covenant and Breaking of Bread
  • Prayer of Epiclesis
  • Lord’s Prayer
  • Apostles’ Creed
  • Exhortation to Lift Hearts
  • Distribution
  • Singing or Scripture
  • Psalm 103 or Prayer of Thanksgiving

Indeed, he allowed his blessed body to be nailed to the cross, so that he might nail the handwriting of our sins to it; and he also bore our malediction, so that he might fill us with his benediction; and on the cross he humbled himself to the deepest humiliation and hellish anguish of body and soul, when he cried out with a loud voice: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” so that we might be brought to God and never be forsaken by him; finally, by his death and the shedding of his blood, he established the new and eternal testament, the covenant of grace and reconciliation, as he said, ‘It is finished.

Exhortation before Communion