Yesterday I went to two services for Candlemass: one at my home parish at noon (low mass), and one at my spiritual director's parish in downtown Baltimore (blessing of candles, procession, solemn high mass, the whole show). Unfortunately, St. Alban's just doesn't get enough people for weekday masses - even big Holy Days - to justify doing all of those things. We are just a small, country parish. So it nice to be able to go to places where they do all of that every once in a while.
During the service at Mt. Calvary, right when people began to go up for communion, an old man in the back row started to have a heart attack. So a couple of us got up to help him. An ambulance was called, and he was taken safely away. While waiting for the ambulance to come, an old, retired priest, the famous Fr. Woolley, got up, pulled a purple stole out of pocket and came over and annointed the man with oil. I must say, if you have to have a heart attack, that is the place for it to happen. It is a gorgeous church, there were at least 10 clergy present, the Blessed Sacrament was being received by the faithful, and beautiful organ music was being played.
Mt. Calvary uses the Anglican Service Book, which is nice, but it is not the American Missal. They also do not follow Ritual Notes very strictly. It is still strange for me to think of an anglo-catholic parish that does not use the missal or follow Ritual Notes to the letter. To me, that is synonymous with being anglo-catholic. But to each his own, I suppose. They have most of what is in the missal, such as the pax, the confessions, the minor propers, etc. But a lot of it is not in the traditional order. The pax, for instance, if after the confession and absolution, whereas in the missal it is at the fracture and co-mingling.
At my home parish, when we do have a solemn high, it follows Ritual Notes almost perfectly, and we use the American Missal exclusively. Perhaps someday, when we build a new building, we will be able to do the more elaborate liturgies for Holy Days like Candlemass. Lord willing that day will not be far off.
