The Beauty of Holiness

My wife and I just returned from vacation. The first part was taken up in NYC where her sister lives. While there I did a mini "anglo-catholic"/classical Episcopal NY tour of my own making. It included a visit to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, daily mass at Church of the Resurrection, choral evensong at St. Thomas 5th Ave., a tour of St. Mary the Virgin, General Seminary (a picture of the rood screen in their chapel of the Good Shepherd to the left), and Trinity Church. I had been to some of these places before, and skipped some others that I have been to a million times (e.g. Church of the Transfiguration). The history, artwork, and design in all of these places is really unparalleled here in the United States. 

To a certain extent it makes one feel sad that as a "continuing Anglican" we have few beautiful and historic institutions and churches such as these to inspire the soul and stir up the spirit. We can claim that these are rightfully ours, I suppose, in terms of our history and continuity with Anglican and Catholic tradition, but the fact remains that they are not ours. For we have chosen to walk apart from the Episcopal Church for the sake of the Catholic faith, and so have lost our "rights", as it were, to these places. Some might think that real Christianity doesn't need gorgeous wood carving, floor tile, stained glass, etc.. And to the extent that they do not add to our salvation they are right. But we must not forget that the Catholic faith is incarnational and sacramental, and these beautiful edifices express and communicate the Anglican and Catholic faith and tradition, which is ours. In that sense the beauty of church architecture and decoration is supremely important.

The Tractarians writings and preaching only did so much to restore the fullness of the Catholic tradition to the English Church. The group that did the rest (and had even more of an influence in this area) was the Cambridge Camden Society, who were devoted to the science of ecclesiology (used in its original sense of "church building"), to to matters of decoration and ritual. Without their concurrent work in this area, the influence of the Tractarians would have been less far-reaching. I think those of us who would seek to continue the Anglican and Catholic faith today should pay more attention to the outward and artistic forms of our worship and churches as much as possible. To read our sublime liturgy and sing our gorgeous hymns in a drab and hideous setting not only undercuts its effectiveness, but makes a mockery of it.

Bastion of anglo-catholicism?

A dear friend graduates from Nashotah House this spring. I received his announcement in the mail today. The commencement speaker this year is J.I. Packer. Nashotah is also granting him an honorary doctorate. My how the times have changed! This historic bastion of anglo-catholicism is granting a degree to a rabid Calvinist who once wrote book explaining "Why we need the Puritans" (A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life). These are, incidentally, the same Puritans who sought to continually abolish the Prayer Book; who left the Church after the Restoration; and who later became Unitarians. Dr. Packer has said that the ordination of women is a "second tier" issue. In his book "Knowing God" he expressly condemns the use of images in worship. His Calvinist soteriology is completely at odds with the Book of Common Prayer and even the Articles of Religion! Yes indeed - the times have changed. I am told that Nashotah has been all but taken over by happy-clappy evangelicals from Trinity School for Ministry and other places. I guess this confirms it.

Holy Week Round Up

My first Holy Week as a "solo" priest had both highs and lows. Highs: Our services were well attended for such a small parish with most of the student members missing; we used incense, bells, and torches at some of the services; the weather was perfect - it was just somber enough to make it feel like Holy Week; and we had a primo ad in the local college paper that we got for a song. Low: (there weren't "Lows", just one "low") no choir. You cannot do anything at a small parish - or even a relatively large one - without a good organist and choir! The books (like Ritual Notes) regarding how to celebrate services such as Maundy Thursday and Good Friday in "small parishes" usually just say, "The priest reads the parts that are normally sung." But - as anyone who has actually tried to do this, and has even an ounce of common sense knows - you can't sit up there and recite millions of prayers and read millions of lessons for hours on end! It just doesn't work. It ends up being a big, long, boring joke. Trust me, I have been to services where there is nonstop mindless "recitation" and it totally makes you want to slit your wrists it's so boring. Boredom doe snot help one meditate on the texts... but beauty - good music and singing - does. So what I did this year was very minimal, almost straight Prayer Book, low church (except the incense and bells). That worked fine for us, but it would have been nice to do a bit more. But I will only do more as we grow and get a choir.