“Baptist Worship Old and New:
The Legacy of Stephen Winward”
Winward is not a name many contemporary Baptists immediately
recognise. Yet the questions he was asking remain pressing. What is worship
for? What should shape its order? How do word, sacrament and Spirit relate to
one another? And how might our corporate worship form us into disciples capable
of faithful living in the world?
Listening to the papers, I was struck by how many of these
debates feel uncannily contemporary. The tensions between structure and
spontaneity, sermon and sacrament, individual devotion and corporate
participation, beauty and simplicity, intellect and embodiment all continue to
shape the worship life of our churches.
For congregations like Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church,
these conversations are not academic curiosities. They go to the heart of what
it means to gather as the people of God.
Below are some reflections on the day, beginning with brief
summaries of the papers, before turning to some wider theological and practical
implications for contemporary worship.
A Mid-Century Vision for Baptist Worship
The opening paper by Andy Goodliff explored the influence
of Stephen Winward and Neville Clarke, two figures who sought to renew
Baptist worship after the Second World War.
Winward’s vision was articulated through two key
publications, The Way (1945, with Godfrey Robinson) and Orders and
Prayers for Christian Worship (1960, with Ernest Payne). This latter was,
for a time, in every Baptist Minister’s study, and wasn’t intended as a Baptist
equivalent of the Book of Common Prayer, but rather as a set of resources
offering a common order for Baptist worship.
At the heart of the project was a striking proposal: the renewal
of Baptist worship to a pattern centred on the Lord’s Supper, preferably celebrated
weekly, with the sermon no longer dominating the structure of the service.
Instead, worship would hold together in equal balance the practices of Word,
Sacrament and Spirit.
Winward and Clarke emphasised the Jewish and early Christian
roots of worship. Christian liturgy, they suggested, grows from two primary
contexts: the synagogue and the upper room. By this vision, word and sacrament
belong together.
Their work also attempted to bring an explicit pneumatology
into Baptist worship. Worship was not simply an ordered sequence of events, but
an encounter with God through the Holy Spirit.
In retrospect, Goodliff suggested, their influence can still
be seen in some Baptist contexts. There are congregations which evidence
careful and creative use of liturgy, congregational responses, a (modest) engagement
with the Christian year, and a somewhat stronger place for communion within the
service.
Yet much of their legacy has faded. In many Baptist
settings, especially in larger gatherings such as Assembly or Association
meetings, the dominant pattern now resembles the charismatic model: extended
singing, Bible reading, sermon, more singing, and largely extemporaneous
prayer. Carefully prepared liturgy has largely disappeared.
The Amersham Experiment
Ian Green offered a fascinating case study from Amersham
Free Church, where Neville Clarke served in the late 1950s and 1960s.
Clarke arrived as a young minister of formidable intellect. Like
Winward, he rejected the assumption that the sermon should be the climax of
worship, with everything else acting as a prelude or conclusion. Instead he
structured services around approach, word and sacrament, drawing
inspiration from Roman Catholic and Anglican liturgical patterns.
He introduced a liturgical communion service on Sunday
evenings, already the most popular service at the church. Predictably, this
provoked some resistance. Six members left the church, while others complained
about the rapid introduction of hundreds of new hymns.
Yet the church persevered, and by 1966 the congregation
debated and eventually approved weekly communion at the evening service, while
maintaining a monthly communion in the morning service.
Interestingly, Clarke was not interested in liturgy as
theatre. He avoided elaborate symbolism and sensory elements. For him, liturgy
was primarily a theological exercise, a way of structuring the corporate
response of the congregation to God.
His conclusion was simple but important: for liturgy to
work, it must be genuinely corporate.
The Theology Behind the Reform
Ewan King explored the theological foundations of Winward’s
thinking, particularly in The Reformation of our Worship (the Whitley
Lectures for 1963).
Winward defined worship in very straightforward terms: the
gathering of Christians in a place of worship, to perform acts of worship. He
believed Christian life had been weakened by a persistent suspicion of “cultic”
worship, and he sought to restore corporate worship to its rightful place.
A key concept in his work is concentration. Worship
creates a space where attention can be directed toward the holy.
Another central idea is the pattern of divine address and
human response. God speaks first. The congregation then responds in prayer,
praise and sacrament. This theological conviction shapes the entire order of
the service.
Winward also stressed participation, yet his
understanding of this was somewhat modest. Saying “amen” or bringing forward the
gifts for the table was, for him, sufficient evidence of congregational
involvement.
King also raised important criticisms. Winward was deeply
concerned with embodiment, encouraging practices such as kneeling and
prostration. Yet his theology lacked a robust account of beauty or sacramental
presence. Without a clearer ontology of signs and symbols, the embodied
dimensions of worship risk appearing as personal aesthetic preferences rather
than essential theological realities.
Worship and the Formation of Disciples
One of the most stimulating papers came from James Henley,
who explored Winward’s insights into the relationship between worship and
ethical formation.
Drawing on virtue ethics and thinkers such as Stanley
Hauerwas and Alasdair MacIntyre, Henley suggests that worship forms the moral
habits of the Christian community. Human beings are constantly being shaped by
competing practices and desires, thus Christian worship offers a counter-formation
that re-orients our desires toward God.
The key mechanism for this formation is repeated practice.
Through participating in rituals, our bodies acquire habits. This means worship
is fundamentally corporeal. The physical acts of kneeling, sharing
bread, offering gifts, and speaking prayers do not merely express inner faith.
They actively shape who we become.
Henley suggested that, for Winward, the weekly eucharist
plays a central role in this process. For many Baptists, the presence of Christ
is understood primarily in the gathered community rather than in the elements
themselves, and so participation in the shared meal teaches us a new grammar of
faith and relationship.
Yet he also acknowledged the obvious difficulty.
Participation in the sacraments does not automatically produce moral
transformation. Churches that celebrate communion faithfully can still
perpetuate injustice and violence.
His suggestion was that worship must be held together with
two other Baptist practices: immersion in scripture and the communal
discernment of the church meeting. The covenant enacted at the communion table
must be lived out in the practices of decision-making and mutual accountability
within the congregation.
Worship from the Windrush Perspective
Angelee Frederick offered a powerful paper reflecting on the
contribution of the Windrush generation to British Baptist worship,
focusing on the ministry of Sam Reid, a contemporary of Stephen Winward,
who was the Minister at Moss Side Baptist Church in the early 1960s.
Reid had been trained in Jamaica within a liturgical
framework shaped by British traditions. Under his leadership the congregation at
Moss Side grew significantly, but perhaps more importantly his ministry
embodied practices of reconciliation and peace in a racially divided context.
For Reid, worship was never confined to the church building.
His ministry extended into community life and eventually into politics. When he
returned to Jamaica he served as a senator, advocating for the poor and
vulnerable.
Frederick suggested that this example echoes Winward’s
proposal that worship is not merely about internal spiritual experience. Rather,
worship must overflow into the public life of communities as the people
transformed by encounter with Christ become themselves agents of
transformation.
Where Might Winward Worship Today?
The closing paper by Shona Shaw asked a provocative
question: if Winward walked into a Baptist church today, where might he feel at
home?
It is clear from his writings that Winward loved words, and
that he cared deeply about the theological content of worship. Yet Shaw noted
that many contemporary Baptist churches now choose extempore words over those
carefully crafted in advance, and refer to musicians as the “worship group”,
implying that worship is primarily the musical component of the service. In
such contexts, she suggested, the deeper craft of shaping worship is often
neglected.
Yet Winward insisted that heartfelt worship does not mean uncrafted
worship. For him, and possibly for us too, thoughtful liturgy matters. He
also emphasised the integration of cult and conduct. Worship on Sunday
shapes service in the world during the week. The eucharistic meal is not simply
symbolic but forms us for lives offered to God.
Shaw also reflected on the experience of the pandemic, which
forced many churches to celebrate communion online. For her, this exposed the
importance of physical presence, with the sacrament requiring “bodies gathered
together” to be meaningful.
In the end, she suggested, that while some elements of
Winward’s vision may need to be left behind, others remain deeply relevant.
What Might This Mean for Churches Today?
Listening to these papers left me reflecting on what they
might mean for the practice of worship in contemporary congregations such as
Bloomsbury.
Several themes seem especially significant.
1. Recovering the Eucharistic Centre
One of Winward’s most striking claims was that the normative
act of Christian worship is the Lord’s Supper. For many Baptists this
remains a radical idea. Our worship services often revolve around the sermon
and the singing.
For Winward, the eucharist embodies something the sermon
alone cannot achieve. Around the table we encounter Christ not simply through
words but through shared action. Bread is broken. Wine is shared. The body of
Christ is recognised in one another.
In a fragmented and individualistic culture, this shared
meal offers a powerful counter-practice. It reminds us that faith is not merely
a set of beliefs but a communion of lives. For churches like Bloomsbury,
the question is not simply how often we celebrate communion, but how deeply it
shapes our imagination of what church is.
2. The Order of Worship Matters
Another important insight concerns the structure of
worship. The pattern of divine address and human response offers a helpful
framework. Worship begins with God’s initiative. Scripture is read. God speaks.
Only then do we respond in prayer, praise and sacrament.
This ordering reminds us that worship is not something we
create for ourselves. It is a response to grace already given. Carefully
crafted liturgy can help a congregation inhabit that theological truth.
3. Beauty and Transcendence
One of the intriguing critiques raised today concerned the
absence of an explicit theology of beauty in Winward’s work. Yet beauty
matters. Music, architecture, silence, poetry, movement, and ritual all
contribute to an experience of transcendence that words alone cannot provide.
For congregations worshipping in historically significant
buildings, such as Bloomsbury, the relationship between space and liturgy
becomes particularly important, as the architecture itself shapes the way
worship is experienced. The building is not merely a container for worship. It
participates in it.
4. Embodied Worship
The conference repeatedly returned to the theme of embodiment.
Christian worship involves bodies. We stand. We sit. We kneel. We eat. We
drink. We sing. These physical practices shape the habits of our faith. In a
culture increasingly mediated by screens and abstraction, this embodied
dimension may be more important than ever.
5. Word, Sacrament and Spirit
One of the most intriguing aspects of Winward and Clarke’s
vision was their attempt to hold together word, sacrament and Spirit. Many
Baptist churches emphasise the word. Charismatic traditions emphasise the
Spirit. Historic liturgical traditions emphasise sacrament. Perhaps the future
of Baptist worship lies in refusing to choose between them. Healthy worship may
need all three.
6. Recognising Christ in One Another
Finally, Henley’s reflections on the relationship between
communion and the church meeting deserve serious attention. At the eucharistic
table we recognise Christ in one another. If that recognition is genuine, it
must shape how we treat one another when making decisions, resolving
disagreements, and discerning the direction of the church. The sacrament
becomes not merely a ritual but a training ground for communal discernment.
Worship as the Source of Christian Life
The most important insight from the day might be this. Worship
is not simply something the church does. It is the source from which the
church’s life flows. In worship we encounter God. In worship our desires
are re-oriented. In worship we glimpse the kingdom that God is bringing into
being.
If that is true, then the careful shaping of worship is not
a peripheral concern. It is central to the life and mission of the church. Stephen
Winward believed that worship needed continual reformation.
Perhaps he was right.
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