I worked with Chad yesterday evening walking through the ritual of the Anglican Use. Our delegation to the Anglican Use Conference brought home the Ritual from Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston. I would like to give people an experience of the Anglican Use right from the beginning, recognizing that we must start simply. So my goal is to create a basic structure requiring only the celebrant and one server taking the place of the what Our Lady of Walsingham calls the Clerk. That term will take some getting used to. Percy Dearmer describes the role of the Clerk in his Parson's Handbook, but this is actually what we called the subdeacon at S. Stephen's in Providence. Of course Anglicanism has not had subdeacons since the Reformation. Since we are beginning with the Liturgy of the Word until we begin the Mass in Advent, this should work quite nicely. As others join us we can add roles until we are ready for the full Solemn Mass. Having a deacon full time would be a great blessing. "Gabe" is the son of one of our Society of Our Lady of Hope members and he is eager to find someone to serve with him. I've got two who are eager to serve as clerk and one of them is ready to try a vocation as deacon. But that won't help the liturgy and ministry at St. Therese for a long time! We have an organist to help us get started - a wonderful Lutheran woman who has facility with Anglican music. She'll soon be putting the organ through its paces. Now we need a cantor and sacristan. Anybody want to help polish brass? Ours hasn't been used or polished in decades.
The Anglican Use liturgy will work quite well at St. Therese. It is a lovely church with wonderful acoustics. The people who built this church may not have been rich, but they loved their church and it has been well cared for. The sanctuary was modified for the novus ordo, but I have to say it the renovations were done with great care. We will be able to use an eastern orientation. Every space has its own integrity and has an effect on how the liturgy is celebrated in it. And every space has its quirks that we have to live with. One of the major ones I don't have a solution for is the lack of an altar rail. It wouldn't be appropriate at our 9:15 Gospel mass. But how do we make up for one at the Anglican Use mass when there will certainly be people who receive communion kneeling. I found the old kneeling pads. But what do we do without the rail? I'm open to suggestions.
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4 comments:
Father-
Just use the Kneeling Pads without the Rail. That practice is commonly found among those that pray the Extraordinary Form in church buildings that were modified or built without.
The other option that is used at the Extraordinary form when there is no rail, is to set up 4 or more kneelers in the middle of the isle. This is most practical when the church is not full.
I hope this Helps
Christopher
Father, I agree St. Teresa's was/is a beautiful church. My first memories, as a child, attending Mass was in the basement/lunchroom of St. Teresa's school. By May, 1952, I was honored to carry the Blessed Virgin's crown at that years May Crowning in the church. The last time I was in the church was at the marriage of a former parish neighbor/classmate in the late
60's.
Are you sharing the church with Novus Ordo parishoners? I understand that the Anglican rite is similar to the Extraordinary Form Mass except that the Anglican rite is is English. I will try to drop by their some Sunday and say hello.
Here in Boston, when we have Mass for the Congregation of St. Athanasius (Anglican Use) we do not have a cantor. And having been a cantor in a Novus Ordo parish for many years, I would advise against having one. The modern cantor has far less in common with the precentor of traditional scholas and more in common with contemporary wedding soloists, and I don't think it is a good fit for the Roman Rite, much less the Anglican Use.
We have a small schola (usually two or three on Sunday, occasionally swelling to six for big feasts). Our music at Mass typically has this format:
Processional Hymn
Introit (from Anglican Use Gradual - AUG)
Kyrie
Gloria
after the first lesson
the psalm, sung by the whole congregation using Anglican Chant
after the second lesson
the Gradual (AUG)
Alleluia (AUG)
after the confession
the Offertory (AUG)
an Offertory Hymn
Sanctus
(the memorial acclamation is not usually sung, but is occasionally)
Paternoster (chanted, as in the AU Missal)
Agnus Dei
Communion chant (AUG)
Post-communion Hymn
Recessional Hymn
As well, the dialogues are typically sung, as is the Preface. In our usual small chapel, the schola is up front, but not facing the people, but this is fine for leading the congregation in song. When we use the larger chapel on the campus, we set the schola up front perpendicular to the congregation; this lends itself better to being heard in the larger space, but also schola members are often called upon to be candlebearers during procession or to help read lessons. When we have sufficient numbers to help with those non-singing tasks we sing from the choir loft in the larger chapel, which congregants tell me is the best aid of all to them in siniging.
Of course, a mixed choir could be in place instead of a schola (or in concert with one); but then the choir should definitely be in the loft (if available); not set up "in choir". In either case, the precentor (cantor) simply begins the chants, but is not a soloist.
Helpful comments, all. I think the suggestion about kneelers will work nicely. We seem to have a lot of them hidden away in lots of places. Perhaps at one time they were actually used! Now we use a couple in the Shrine of St. Therese and that's it. So we've got a few more things to dust off, fix up, and put back to use.
The Anglican Use Mass community won't be sharing the church in the same way that the Latin Mass community has shared Our Lady of Sorrows for years. The Anglican Use community will be part of the parish which will express itself in two different liturgies. I will celebrate at both, and I hope parishioners will visit back and forth and work together for religious education, sacramental prepration, and community service.
Perhaps one day soon we will have a schola. At this point, we are just trying to get started. In my experience a confident singer can create the security necessary to form a worshiping body of faithful rather than a scattering of insecure individuals. I'll let you know how it goes. I'll be happy to share our liturgical outline.
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