The Church Service Society was founded in the (Reformed) Church of Scotland in 1865 with the intention of improving the quality of worship in its day. Originally particularly concerned with Reformed principles of worship, it is now, from the same base, ecumenical in outlook and membership. There are members and associated groupings in other countries. 

Central to the Society’s work was the publication, from 1928 onwards, of journals which explored the history of liturgies and of places of worship and sought to promote the recovery of good practice and the encouragement of appropriate new forms.

The Church Service Society Annual was published from 1928 until 1970, the Liturgical Review from 1971 (the first one was called Liturgical Studies) until 1980, and the Record (which continues) from 1982 onwards.

These journals continue to be an indispensable record of the study of worship in Scotland, at once Reformed and Catholic, but they are not easily come by. This site provides summaries of the contents of each article so that researchers can identify where to look for topics in which they are interested. A search facility is included.

It is hoped in the long run to mount the complete contents of these journals. In the meantime, complete sets may be consulted at the following locations:

the Society’s own library in Greyfriars’ Church, Edinburgh (pictured above) ; New College Library, the National Library of Scotland, some other Scottish university libraries as well as Oxford and Cambridge; Westminster College, Cambridge; St. Deiniol’s Library, Hawarden; Worship and Doctrine library, Church of Scotland Offices, 121 George Street, Edinburgh.

To access the summaries, click on the journal name, the issue number, and finally the title of the article. The search facility scans all summaries of the three titles simultaneously.