Sometime around July 23 1637 Jenny Geddes picked up the stool upon which she was sitting and hurled it at the Dean of Edinburgh, who was reading from a prayer book based on Anglican liturgy during a worship service.
It was not so much liturgy, as the imposition of the Mass which she protested against.
The issue was not about structure, form, or formality in worship; it was a protest that worship doesn’t bring us into God’s presence, and its actions don’t make us acceptable to God – rather worship is what people who are already in the presence of God because of the finished work of Jesus do.
Even today, anytime someone suggests that what we’re doing in worship is brining us into God’s presence, or bringing God’s presence to us the should be careful if the chairs aren’t bolted down.
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