Planning D-Day.

Edinburgh Theolgical College (Coates Hall)


Cuddesdon Theological College


Westcott House Cambridge


 Cranmer Hall Durham

I was on the wrong side of the Rector's desk today.  Or rather, on the side of it I'm new to.  Rachel and I met with Bishop Brian to plan the wedding liturgy!!!  Largely he was happy with what we had proposed but we fine tuned the tricky logistics of Registration, prayers of Intercession, the  Peace and the Blessing of the Newlyweds.  It is basically a Scottish Marriage Liturgy 2007 with Eucharist but it had to be tinkered with (like adding a confession and not trying to bless us between the end of the Canon of the Mass and the Fraction -which utterly scrambles the flow of the liturgy).  It was fun though!  The combined liturgical talents of Coates Hall, Westcott House, Cuddesdon and Cramner Hall Durham working out the running order made quite a team!

I have just taken possesion of Richard Holloway's memoir "Leaving Alexandria" and a book on 12 Step Spirituality by Richard Rohr.   So my night time reading on sleepovers is sorted for a bit.  I'll let you know how I find them.

Theological dissonance.

There is a thundering theological dissonance between this (the "Libera me"  - the version of which from Faure's Requiem was sung beautifully by the choir last night at the All Souls Mass at St Michael and All Saint's Edinburgh) :

Libera me, Domine, de morte æterna, in die illa tremenda: 

Quando cœli movendi sunt et terra. 

Dum veneris iudicare sæculum per ignem. 

Tremens factus sum ego, et timeo, dum discussio venerit, atque ventura ira. 

Quando cœli movendi sunt et terra. 

Dies illa, dies iræ, calamitatis et miseriæ, dies magna et amara valde. 

Dum veneris iudicare sæculum per ignem. 

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Deliver me, O Lord, from death eternal on that fearful day,

when the heavens and the earth shall be moved,

when thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.

I am made to tremble, and I fear, till the judgment be upon us, and the coming wrath,

when the heavens and the earth shall be moved.

That day, day of wrath, calamity, and misery, day of great and exceeding bitterness,

when thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.

Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord: and let light perpetual shine upon them.

and this (the Post Communion collect for All Souls Day from Exciting Holiness used at the same service) :

God of love,
may the death and resurrection of Christ
which we have celebrated in this Eucharist
bring us, with all the faithful departed,
into the peace of your eternal home.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ,
our rock and our salvation,
to whom be glory for time and for eternity.

On the one hand, a God who shall judge the world by fire, who make us tremble and fear The Wrath of God.  On the other,  a God of Love who draws us through the death and resurrection of the only begotten Son into the peace of our eternal home.  The two ideas have their own validity (though I have to say I prefer the modern theology but adore the Faure music - my own inner theological dissonance.) but they simply don't sit comfortably side by side in the same liturgy.  One of the challenges facing any practising liturgist is how to mesh the best of tradition with the best of the new.  And sometimes you just have to admit that the mesh is not actually possible.  There's many a Remembrance Sunday that simply never uses "I vow to thee my Country" because the sentiment nicely wrapped in Holst is utterly foreign to modern culture and sensibility.  It all works fine if you treat the music simply as a mood setter and ignore its theology, cloaked in luscious notes and hidden in generally incomprehensible Latin (just don't print the English translation in the order of service).  If you think that the meaning of what we sing with our lips is just as important as what we say aloud, then there is a problem.  Then you have to choose - Ancient or Modern?

The day thou gavest...

Luckily, this will not be my problem at Murrayfield tomorrow!  Organ & choir, Hymns Old and New and a baptism (the deacon does that!)  Today was marked the "Booking of the Honeymoon".  France, a cottage and a swimming pool are the key ingredients.  And we sorted the wedding hymns.  And the Liturgy will be modern Scottish - but no keech like "handsel" will be involved and there will be a confession and proper prayers for the bride and groom before the Eucharistic prayer starts and nae clergy wandering aboot after the consecration to bless us.  The Liturgy gurus of the Province can experiment away with the laity if they like - neither of us intends our nuptial mass to be a liturgical experiment. (I was very anti vivisection as a youth!  I ain't gonna be no liturgical guinea pig!)  They did that to us when I was a student at Coates Hall and to this day I dislike that ring bound folder thing they call the Scottish Daily Office.  If you need an Office book, a lectionary, a guide to the lectionary, a bible, something with a collect and a hymn book to say mattins with an office hymn then you need to get your act together and produce something more workable.  Moi, je prefere l'Office SSF.  All you need is a bible and a hymnal and a lectionary.  And you're off!  The beauty of the Roman Office is that everything is in one volume.  Perhaps our liturgical gurus might take note of that!

Lenten Differences.

(St Basil the Great, whose Liturgy is celebrated in Lent)

This little bit of info intrigued me recently:

"On weekdays of Great Lent, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated, because the joy of the Eucharist (literally "Thanksgiving") is contrary to the attitude of repentance which predominates on these days. However, since it is considered especially important to receive the Holy Mysteries (Holy Communion) during this season, the Liturgy of the Presanctified—also called the Liturgy of St Gregory the Dialogist— may be celebrated on weekdays. Technically, this is not actually a Divine Liturgy, but rather a Vespers service at which a portion of the Body and Blood of Christ, which was reserved the previous Sunday, are distributed to the faithful. Most parishes and monasteries celebrate this Liturgy only on Wednesdays, Fridays and feast days, but it may be celebrated on any weekday of Great Lent. Because the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated on weekdays, it is replaced with the Typica, even on days when the Presanctified Liturgy is celebrated. On Saturday and Sunday the Divine Liturgy may be celebrated as usual. On Saturdays, the usual St John Chrysostom is celebrated; on Sundays the more solemn and penitential Divine Liturgy of St Basil the Great is used. "  (with grateful thanks to Wikipedia).

How fascinating.  Imagine if we stopped all weekday  celebrations in the SEC for the duration and had Reserved Sacrament Communions only.  We could use the nice shiny new Blue Book on Saturdays and only the 1929 Prayer Book on Sundays.  Doubtless this would utterly appal some - but might drive home the difference between Lent and the rest of the Liturgical Year to the majority of the people with some force.  I personally kinda regret the "sameness" of our liturgy in most parishes.  Yes, we change colour and drop the Gloria, but the music rarely really marks the difference nor does the severity of the penitential Rite.  Like it or loathe it, the old Prayer Book Confession came into its own in Lent.

Just a thought!

Hosting the stranger.

We have a wee Ghanaian priest staying with us just now (well, he's shorter than I am, so wee is an accurate word!) and in the absence of other community members it fell to me to do the hosting this morning.  Andrew brought him to church and I took over socialising after Mass and fed him bacon rolls at lunchtime.  Poor soul, he's rather homesick, distinctly cold and a wee bit ill at ease having been shuffled around 3 churches on placement, with no set "home" for 3 months.  This has not been desperately well planned, as we only knew he was coming on Friday night and he knows who's coming to uplift him tomorrow but not where he's going to stay.  Which adds to the uncertainty, sense of dislocation and unease.  However, we chatted over lunch and he felt rather at home at St Michael's - the churchmanship being quite what he's used to!  Interestingly, he felt he could join in the liturgy here because a) we sang bits to Martin Shaw (which is almost Merbecke) and what they have in Ghana and b) the hymns were old favourite crowd pleasers!  We talked about the challenges music and hymns have made to mission and growth in Ghana.  The old UMCA style and A&M hymns have not really protected the Anglican Church in Ghana from the rise of Pentecostalism and worship that is more culturally and ethnically "African" - they are evidently moving on a bit on this, towards a more authentically Ghanaian liturgical style.  +Frank Weston of Zanzibar had the right idea all those years ago about growing an African Church in the African idiom and not importing Victorian Englishness wholesale.

What does that mean in Scotland?  Our liturgical style is pretty "Anglican".  We have our own distinctive Scottish liturgy (is that the same as distinctively Scottish?).  I suppose I tried for a degree of ethnic authenticity in Falkirk by increasing the use of the Roxburghe setting to Scottish folk tunes (and our default setting was James Macmillan - a Scot).  But I was always wary of descending into Scottish liturgical "kitsch" - metrical psalms, bagpipes at Mass and mitres with thistles on them (the Bishop as MacLeay's beer pump look!).  I'd argue that the Scots are a mongrel nation with a tradition of welcoming cultural variety and our worship ought to reflect that.  Wonder what anyone else thinks?

Inclusive Liturgy

The SEC has finally produced it's 1st move towards inclusive language (I think non gender specific is rather more accurate myself, but it is a flipping mouthful!). Here are the authorised variations - with my thoughts on them:

Page 2 at 5, & page 5 at 15 (Confession)

Current: God is love and we are his children… We love because he loved us first.

Change: God is love and we are God’s children… We love because God loved us first. (I've done this for years)

Current: heal and strengthen us by his Spirit

Change: heal and strengthen us by the Holy Spirit (who can object to going from 'his' to 'the Holy'?)

Page 3 at 11 (Gloria)

Current: and peace to his people on earth

Change: and peace to God’s people on earth (Fine, OK)

Page 4 at 13 (Creed)

Current: for us men and for our salvation

Change: for us and for our salvation (Not so sure - limits the concept of salvation to the gathered "elect" on one reading- but hardly worth a riot in St Giles!)

Page 6 at 18 (Opening Eucharistic Prayer)

Current: it is right to give him thanks and praise

Change: it is right to give God thanks and praise (Okey dokey)

Page 16, 2nd para, 4th line (Eucharistic Prayer IV)

Current: He renewed the promise of his presence

Change: Your son, Jesus Christ, renewed the promise of his presence (unobjectionable and Christocentric)

Page 21 at 23 (Thanksgiving and Sending out)

Current: Give thanks to the Lord for he is gracious. And his mercy endures for ever.

Change: Give thanks to our gracious God, whose mercy endures for ever. (Somewhat clunky but... fair dos)

Page 21 at 24a (Prayer (a))

Current: which is your will for all mankind

Change: which is your will for all the world (Good - not sodding humanity which sounds silly)

Of course, if we used Latin, it would be truly inclusive - naebody wid ken whit onybudy wis oan aboot!

Ancient and Modern - and spicy

Nipped along to the Cathedral today for the 11.30 Mass. Piety? No, I'm celebrating it next week and I like to know what it involves, especially when it involves the 1929 Liturgy. "It's just the Prayer Book" hides a multitude of practices. Luckily it was terribly straightforward, just as written and it was thoroughly refreshing to hear the old, beautiful, familiar words which we Scottish Piskies have been using in roughly the same order since 1764, in the moderated splendour of the Lady Chapel of St Mary's Cathedral, with the prayers including a bidding for the repose of the soul of a deceased priest and for the grief of his partner - both male. It's that blend of ancient and modern that inspired me. Glorious language and architecture with an utter rootedness in the reality of the modern world. Don't get me wrong: I love the richness of the modern language 1982 liturgy and its seasonal Eucharistic Prayers. But that classical language speaks to ME deeply and the connection with ages and generations past who have knelt and said exactly the same words touches me. But it is wired to the world and not the moon or the British Museum by the prayers of intercession which say where we are and defines our concerns and intentions. I'm a funny mix of radical and conservative: part right on leftie, part liturgical old fart!

Tonight's soup was one of my better efforts: spicy bean and pepper soup! Ideal for winter. It was the cayenne pepper that made it!

Mass, Mosque and Curry Sunday.

Up the hill to my local SEC establishment for the Holy Mysteries this morning. Hymns: conservative (dull), celebrant decently catholic (and female), sermon content ok (delivery a tad academic, but hey, the Team Priest has a PhD), intercessions ARRGH!

They got off to a bad start: with 4 possible passages of Scripture to choose a lectionary theme from, we got - animal rights??? How we got there from the 7 Pillars of Wisdom and the Bread of Life I know not. Responsory? That changed with each petition - which only works when they are ALL printed for the whole congregation to use. They weren't, so the congregational response varied from sporadic to inaudible. And content? Sigh! I gave up when we were bade to pray that we struggled with being vegetarian and not being vegetarian. I don't. Sorry, I struggle with depression, sexuality, faith, why God doesn't do things to Robert Mugabe involving a bleeding great thunderbolt and whatever happened to Rowan Williams spine. I don't agonise over my love of bacon rolls and inability to eat tofu with any sense of sharing in God's bounty. Not so much the prayers of the people, as a hobby horse ride over Bruntsfield Links. Haven't heard such well-meaning liturgical ineptitude since I was a Coates Hall student and I told a fellow student I hadn't left chapel at the peace because she was a woman reading prayers but because I refused to pray heresy. I've mellowed - stayed put and went to coffee afterwards and didn't get "angry", I just acknowledged this was not my problem and let God worry about it.

From there back to base to cook bacon for the brunching masses, before leaving (brunchless and drooling) for the Mosque. I did change my shirt before leaving, thinking it might not be terribly tactful to toddle in ponging of cooked pig. My reward: a 1st class curry in the Mosque kitchen before the guided tour and and a look at their excellent exhibition on Islam. And it was a real delight to be there. A big poster stated bluntly that racism and sexism are condemned in the Qu'ran. It was good and cheering to see that there is such a thing as a sensible tolerant face to Islam in Scotland in spite of much of the tosh spouted in the Press. Hugely enjoyable. This is why I think life in the City is where my future is: small town Scotland isn't for me really. The diversity and the buzz of city life are what I need.

Healthy Eating and the Eucharistic Feast.

"Fancy a Pop Tart, Jesus? No thanks, Dougal

Sister Assumpta wouldn't approve!"

My guilty conscience has been working overtime. Yesterday, lunch was a chicken Caesar salad and supper fresh pineapple to start, Prawn and roasted garlic linguine and then chocolate profiteroles. Today, no brekkie as I was celebrating at 10am but lunch was sushi, orange mango and lime crush and a chocolate, cranberry and nut bar from Boots. This healthy kick will probably last 3 days or so and then desist in a roll on crisps. But today, I feel faintly virtuous, in a dietary sort of a way.

Being Corpus Christi, I've been mulling over some bits and pieces that have landed on the desk. First was the CBS Quarterly Paper (I'm a Life Member of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament). It described a visit to the richest Church in the Anglican Communion, Trinity Wall St in New York. During the Eucharist the whole congregation says the whole Eucharistic Prayer including the Words of Institution and the Epiclesis, whilst holding their arms extended in the orans (or celebrant's) position. Part of me reacts to this and says: "It is the whole Body of Christ that celebrates the Eucharistic mystery, so why not?" And my Anglo-Catholic soul goes: "No, no - this demeans the distinctive calling of the priest to preside at the Eucharist and to exercise a ministry which is equal but distinct and is just an ill informed attempt to symbolise inclusivity by clericalising the laity, which will ultimately lead to lay celebrations because nobody understands what a priest is, doesn't see it as important and we'll all end up doing what those Low Church homophobes in Sydney want."

We celebrate the Eucharist in different ways within the Anglican family. I've done Roman Rite in Walsingham, 1662 on the Equator, stole and surplice on the Moray Coast, English Missal with all the works in West London, Grey Book eastward in Glasgow, Blue Book Westward in Falkirk, 1929 facing both ways in Kirkcaldy and mass with a monk on a canal boat with a glass of Chilean red and a Asda roll somewhere near Stoke on Trent. But part of me wants to retain the best of good tradition - the dignity and proper role of the 3 fold ministry - without being exclusive. Each to their own role and the whole presents the fullness of Christ. I balk at swapping this for a pseudo-inclusive hug in where everyone's really a bishop and nobody has any identity save that of member of the body of Christ.

The second article was in the Prayer Book Society's magazine by the Bishop of Sakatchewan. A quick glance suggests that modern scholarship questions some of the historical ideas underpinning the whole Litugical Movement and maybe the 4 fold shape the Westward position weren't really what went on the Early Church at all. Now this I have to re-read rather more carefully and slowly, but if it's right then a lot of us may end up having to re-learn our Fortescue -O'Connell. I'll keep you posted!