This happened a while back. I've been too busy to write it up properly, and now might be too late to do it justice. But it was extremely interesting, and I'm going to try. Just be warned that my memory sucks, so my details may not be as accurate as they would be for a fresher visit.
Anyhow, I was in London, and it was Sunday, and I had to be near the church anyway, so I went to services at a very "high" Anglican church. That means "more like Catholic", or "more traditional", but this one was amazing.
In prior posts, I have often defended ritual from people who don't care for it. This service gave me the opportunity to experience what I suspect your emotional reaction to ritual is. The ritual was over the top. It wasn't a large
church, and the weather was horrid (edge of a hurricane) and it was in the midst of August vacations, so there were only about 50 members of the congregation. Serving those 50 were 9 different officiants. There were three men who mostly ran the service, dressed in heavy elaborate brocade, and three more who helped them with their clothing (more on that later) and another who gave the sermon, and two others who helped move stuff around. Eight of those men were old enough to be my father, and the ninth looked young enough to be my son. :)
The church is a beautiful building, in a highly ornate way. I particularly admired the stained glass. I took photos before the service started, so I can describe the room in some detail. It was long, narrow, and quite tall, with a vaulted ceiling. There were traditional pews on each side, and tall white pillars flanking the main section of the room. In the front was a large ornate structure carved of dark wood, with a gold-covered eagle in the center, a pair of gold angels above and to either side of that, and at the top, a large, rather life-like crucifix with an alabaster Jesus. It was flanked by two large sculptures of people, perhaps Mary and Peter? There were also colorful portraits of Biblical figures on the wood. In front of that was a table holding holding a cross, several tall candles, and a gorgeously ornamented book. A bit to the front and to audience-right was a pulpit, a small wooden box up a circular stair, in the style I associate with Lutherans. Between the table and the pulpit was an iron fence, open in the middle.
I'm told y'all call a portion of the ritual space in front the altar. This is new to me -- despite going to a lot of services, that's not the sort of word that comes up a lot in conversation. So I'm not certain exactly how much is the altar, and I have to confess, using the word sort of creeps me out, as I associate it with bloody sacrifices in the Temple. I suppose it's because Christians associate church with the sacrifice of Jesus, which sort of makes sense. But I'm still getting over the disconnect between a somewhat gory ancient ritual and staid modern churches. So please bear with me here.
(The word didn't disconcert me as much at the Hindu temple, probably because they DID leave sacrifices at the various altars, so it seemed like a more natural use of the word from my background. And, of course, their sacrifices were mostly rice and spices, not bleeding animal corpses.)
The service itself was gorgeous. It was visually gorgeous, as the three men-in-brocade walked in perfect choreographed harmony, even when they did potentially awkward things, like duck to let helped remove their hats, or put on their hats, or take off their cloaks, or drape different cloaks over their shoulders. The tall candles (fake, lighter-fluid-fired candle-shaped things, with real flames) were carried perfectly symmetrically. The Bible that the priest read out of was encrusted with gold and gems, and featured an attractive portrait of Christ on the cover. The priest walked to the middle of the church to read scripture, and actually stood about 3 feet from me as he did, so I noticed that he didn't actually read from the book, but from an ordinary A4 piece of computer paper paper-clipped to the page. I'm told the translation has been updated, and he was using the newer translation.
It had fabulous music. A local man apologized for most of their choir being on vacation, but the organist was also a cellist, who had arranged some cello concertos for the organ, and the lead singer had a fabulous voice -- easily opera quality. The prayers were sung in English, but in such ornamented English that it took me a while to realize that.
I would have been just as happy without the incense. A guy carried around a censor, waving it back and forth, and by the end of the service I could easily see rays of sunlight in the thick smoke, even up near the (high!) ceiling. It was all sort of over-the top.
But I can see the appeal. It was a very rich, dense ceremony.
They didn't have very good instructions for visitors, so I didn't follow all of the service (and some of the words were hard to understand) but it seemed to be quite similar to Episcopalian services I have been to in the past, which is to say, also similar to a Catholic service. It was structured around three readings, punctuated by familiar prayers. One odd bit was that the second reading was done by some random middle-aged woman, dressed in business casual, who had been sitting in the pews. Everything else was completely male-centric, and the men were all dressed in ritual robes, not street clothes. In any other service I've been to, it would have been completely ordinary for a a random woman to walk up to the lectern (draped in brocade that matched the clergy) and read a passage of Bible. But it seemed weirdly out-of-place in this one.
When they passed around the collection plate I dropped in a two-quid piece, and later felt really cheap about that. :(
The regular minister was on vacation, and the sermon was given by one of the 9 gentlemen I described. He was wearing black clerical robes (well neigh identical to academic robes you see at graduation) and spoke from the raised pulpit. The gospel reading had been about Peter walking across the Sea of Galilee towards Jesus, and the minster talked about how just as there was a storm on Galilee, the modern church was experiencing stormy times. He spoke of the challenges we face with society recognizing same-sex marriage, and the Anglican church accepting women as priests. He talked about how the Anglican Church had unfortunately followed the lead of Vatican II, and mentioned that THIS church was not technically in compliance with some of the modernizations the national Anglican leadership had endorsed. But, he went on, just as Peter was fine so long as he kept his eyes on Jesus, we would also be fine so long as we followed Jesus and concentrated on Him.
Then there was a little more to the service, and they offered communion, closing off the open part of the gate, and putting down cushions for people to kneel on. They offered both bread and wine, although I don't remember the exact details.
And then they had an additional short service dedicated to Mary. To the left of the lectern, in the front, they had a smaller alter dedicated to Mary, complete with both a statue and a portrait. The clergy moved over there, and led "Hail Mary" and a few other prayers centered on the Mother of God.
When the service concluded, they invited me downstairs (past the sign that said, "private, keep out") to a light luncheon, with wine and sherry. That's when I felt really cheap about my 2 quid -- they had sandwiches and quiche and salad and cookies -- I'm sure just my meal cost more than I had given them. And I didn't eat much. The people were quite friendly, and talked about the history of the church, why they chose it (most were not local, but came in from the suburbs to attend) and about why I was in town.
I will try to attach some photos.
Anyhow, I was in London, and it was Sunday, and I had to be near the church anyway, so I went to services at a very "high" Anglican church. That means "more like Catholic", or "more traditional", but this one was amazing.
In prior posts, I have often defended ritual from people who don't care for it. This service gave me the opportunity to experience what I suspect your emotional reaction to ritual is. The ritual was over the top. It wasn't a large
church, and the weather was horrid (edge of a hurricane) and it was in the midst of August vacations, so there were only about 50 members of the congregation. Serving those 50 were 9 different officiants. There were three men who mostly ran the service, dressed in heavy elaborate brocade, and three more who helped them with their clothing (more on that later) and another who gave the sermon, and two others who helped move stuff around. Eight of those men were old enough to be my father, and the ninth looked young enough to be my son. :)
The church is a beautiful building, in a highly ornate way. I particularly admired the stained glass. I took photos before the service started, so I can describe the room in some detail. It was long, narrow, and quite tall, with a vaulted ceiling. There were traditional pews on each side, and tall white pillars flanking the main section of the room. In the front was a large ornate structure carved of dark wood, with a gold-covered eagle in the center, a pair of gold angels above and to either side of that, and at the top, a large, rather life-like crucifix with an alabaster Jesus. It was flanked by two large sculptures of people, perhaps Mary and Peter? There were also colorful portraits of Biblical figures on the wood. In front of that was a table holding holding a cross, several tall candles, and a gorgeously ornamented book. A bit to the front and to audience-right was a pulpit, a small wooden box up a circular stair, in the style I associate with Lutherans. Between the table and the pulpit was an iron fence, open in the middle.
I'm told y'all call a portion of the ritual space in front the altar. This is new to me -- despite going to a lot of services, that's not the sort of word that comes up a lot in conversation. So I'm not certain exactly how much is the altar, and I have to confess, using the word sort of creeps me out, as I associate it with bloody sacrifices in the Temple. I suppose it's because Christians associate church with the sacrifice of Jesus, which sort of makes sense. But I'm still getting over the disconnect between a somewhat gory ancient ritual and staid modern churches. So please bear with me here.
(The word didn't disconcert me as much at the Hindu temple, probably because they DID leave sacrifices at the various altars, so it seemed like a more natural use of the word from my background. And, of course, their sacrifices were mostly rice and spices, not bleeding animal corpses.)
The service itself was gorgeous. It was visually gorgeous, as the three men-in-brocade walked in perfect choreographed harmony, even when they did potentially awkward things, like duck to let helped remove their hats, or put on their hats, or take off their cloaks, or drape different cloaks over their shoulders. The tall candles (fake, lighter-fluid-fired candle-shaped things, with real flames) were carried perfectly symmetrically. The Bible that the priest read out of was encrusted with gold and gems, and featured an attractive portrait of Christ on the cover. The priest walked to the middle of the church to read scripture, and actually stood about 3 feet from me as he did, so I noticed that he didn't actually read from the book, but from an ordinary A4 piece of computer paper paper-clipped to the page. I'm told the translation has been updated, and he was using the newer translation.
It had fabulous music. A local man apologized for most of their choir being on vacation, but the organist was also a cellist, who had arranged some cello concertos for the organ, and the lead singer had a fabulous voice -- easily opera quality. The prayers were sung in English, but in such ornamented English that it took me a while to realize that.
I would have been just as happy without the incense. A guy carried around a censor, waving it back and forth, and by the end of the service I could easily see rays of sunlight in the thick smoke, even up near the (high!) ceiling. It was all sort of over-the top.
But I can see the appeal. It was a very rich, dense ceremony.
They didn't have very good instructions for visitors, so I didn't follow all of the service (and some of the words were hard to understand) but it seemed to be quite similar to Episcopalian services I have been to in the past, which is to say, also similar to a Catholic service. It was structured around three readings, punctuated by familiar prayers. One odd bit was that the second reading was done by some random middle-aged woman, dressed in business casual, who had been sitting in the pews. Everything else was completely male-centric, and the men were all dressed in ritual robes, not street clothes. In any other service I've been to, it would have been completely ordinary for a a random woman to walk up to the lectern (draped in brocade that matched the clergy) and read a passage of Bible. But it seemed weirdly out-of-place in this one.
When they passed around the collection plate I dropped in a two-quid piece, and later felt really cheap about that. :(
The regular minister was on vacation, and the sermon was given by one of the 9 gentlemen I described. He was wearing black clerical robes (well neigh identical to academic robes you see at graduation) and spoke from the raised pulpit. The gospel reading had been about Peter walking across the Sea of Galilee towards Jesus, and the minster talked about how just as there was a storm on Galilee, the modern church was experiencing stormy times. He spoke of the challenges we face with society recognizing same-sex marriage, and the Anglican church accepting women as priests. He talked about how the Anglican Church had unfortunately followed the lead of Vatican II, and mentioned that THIS church was not technically in compliance with some of the modernizations the national Anglican leadership had endorsed. But, he went on, just as Peter was fine so long as he kept his eyes on Jesus, we would also be fine so long as we followed Jesus and concentrated on Him.
Then there was a little more to the service, and they offered communion, closing off the open part of the gate, and putting down cushions for people to kneel on. They offered both bread and wine, although I don't remember the exact details.
And then they had an additional short service dedicated to Mary. To the left of the lectern, in the front, they had a smaller alter dedicated to Mary, complete with both a statue and a portrait. The clergy moved over there, and led "Hail Mary" and a few other prayers centered on the Mother of God.
When the service concluded, they invited me downstairs (past the sign that said, "private, keep out") to a light luncheon, with wine and sherry. That's when I felt really cheap about my 2 quid -- they had sandwiches and quiche and salad and cookies -- I'm sure just my meal cost more than I had given them. And I didn't eat much. The people were quite friendly, and talked about the history of the church, why they chose it (most were not local, but came in from the suburbs to attend) and about why I was in town.
I will try to attach some photos.
Peppermint Patty visits a very traditional Anglican Church
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