Doings at S. Clement's

S. Clement's, Philadelphia (see links at right) is perhaps unique in the Anglican Communion: faithfully adhering to the Roman Rite as it existed in 1955. The only Anglican interpolation into the kalendar is S. Charles Stuart, and the Easter Vigil is at four o'clock in the afternoon. The deacon at High Mass serenades a blank wall with the chanting of the Gospel, a historical anomaly in the manner of the "north-ender" that only a sedevacantist would defend if pressed. (Even Christminster's Vigil is at night). Our Clementine readers will be able to tell us whether Holy Communion is administered at the Mass of the Pre-Sanctified on Good Friday.

A message from a member of the S. Clement's staff yesterday tipped me to a change in the Sunday services, specifically Solemn Vespers & Benediction, which is sung at three o'clock from October to Pentecost. Previously Vespers followed the Anglican Breviary. Now the Breviarium Romanum and Liber Usualis in Latin will be used, according to the Solesmes method. Benediction is bilingual.

Our correspondent Paul Goings writes that "the Hours (Prime, Terce, Sext, and None) were recited before the Mass of the Vigil, and Prime on Christmas Eve has that interesting passage from the Martyrology. First Vespers of Christmas was solemnly sung, but without coped assistants. The Midnight Mass was followed by Lauds, and the Hours and Second Vespers of Christmas were recited the next day, before and after the High Mass."