Leigh Eric Schmidt. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989. xiii, 277 pages; notes; index. $32.50.
Reviewed by Keith Watkins, professor of worship at Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Even though the normal Sunday service in most congregations of the Reformed tradition does not include Holy Communion, eucharistic worship is still a major element in the liturgical systems of these churches. Holy Fairs is a case study that illustrates this importance. In a carefully researched and beautifully written book, Leigh Eric Schmidt traces two hundred years of eucharistic history in Scottish and American Presbyterianism.
Two centuries ago the custom in these churches was to hold an annual communion festival, ordinarily in the summer. Each of these festivals included an emphasis on discipline, penitence, and reconciliation— followed by the celebration of the Lord's Supper. Often great throngs of people would assemble for the preliminary preaching during the week and for the sacramental activities on Communion Sunday itself. The celebration of the sacrament included an action sermon, the guarding of the table, and the distribution of communion to successive tables until all qualified persons had received the sacramental bread and wine. The festival was completed by thanksgiving sermons on Sunday evening and Monday morning.
Schmidt explains how these festivals became the occasions for significant revivals, such as Cambus-lang in Scotland and Cane Ridge and the camp meetings in the United States. He shows how these communion gatherings continued the pre-Reformation popular piety of Corpus Christi in a new guise that was acceptable in the context of Reformed religion.
Schmidt also discusses the decline of the sacramental seasons in early nineteenth-century America. He contrasts frequency and festivity, explaining how the festivity of the holy fairs declined as congregations adopted more frequent celebration of the eucharist.
One reason for the decline of the sacramental season was its close identification with the Scottish form of evangelicalism. By the middle of the nineteenth century, American evangelical religion had received too many other streams for one to remain dominant. The former strength of the Scottish tradition, however, needs to be included in comprehensive expositions and evaluations of the liturgical tradition of Reformed churches. Whatever our current patterns of worship may be, we need to reckon with the fact that there was a time when the entire year came into focus around the Holy Table.