First Evensong of Christmas

I attended the strangest service of my life this afternoon.

Five people gathered in the Lady Chapel of St Bartholomew's, Regent Park. The priest vested in surplice, stole, and cope, blessed the crèche (using the Canadian Book of Occasional Offices) as we stood by and were sprinkled along with it. Your correspondent held the aspersorium. Evening Prayer was then sung, with the psalms to idiosyncratic organ and wind instrument accompaniment, but the readings were not those in the Prayer Book. Instead they were Isaiah ("The people who sat in darkness...") and Luke's nativity narrative.

Hymns: "O little town of Bethlehem" (Forest Green)
"In the bleak midwinter" (Cranham)
"The Maker of the sun and moon" (Newbury)

A sermon was preached.

We all participated in a procession to the crèche and sang ""While shepherds watched" (Winchester Old)

The Benediction hymns were, disappointingly, not the proper plainsong, but Gonfalon royal (which I don't really know) and Grafton. The collect was omitted. The congregation stood in front of the altar rail behind the priest (I alone knelt at it). The benediction was given, rather perfunctorily, at the very end - after the (unabridged) Divine Praises and Psalm 117, with the antiphon sung strangely. (I'm used to "...most ho-o-oly sacrament," not "most holy sa-a-acrament").

All in all, I was of course glad to be there. Blessed, praised, and adored be Jesus Christ upon His throne of glory, in the most holy Sacrament of the Altar, and in the hearts of His faithful people!

Christmas messages from folks I admire

I'll be back soon to report on the First Evensong of Christmas & Benediction. Blessings to all of you!

Advent IV

Originally posted on the Ship of Fools:

Yesterday's Mass was as Marian as it gets at our place. The collect, secret, and postcommunion in the Book of Alternative Services all explicitly recalled Our Lady. The homilist wove the First Lesson, the Canticle (the Magnificat, in lieu of a psalm), and the Gospel together, though he stopped short of identifying Mary as the Ark of the Covenant. The choir sang the Ave Maria to Victoria during Communion, on the chancel steps.

Setting: Missa Quarti Toni by Victoria (but Sanctus to Merbecke).

Hymns:

Introit: "Hail to the Lord's anointed" (Crüger)
Offertory: "Tell out, my soul" (Woodlands)
Communion: "The God whom earth and sea and sky" (O Amor Quam Ecstaticus, which I'd not heard before)
Final: "People, look east! The time is near" (Besançon)

I must see this!

Meryl Streep as a nun and Philip Seymour Hoffman as a priest? Heeell, yeah!

Another Gaudete treat

This carol was featured at the Evensong, Advent Carols, & Benediction service I attended Sunday afternoon, and I haven't been able to stop playing it since.

Gaudete Sunday

Here is a shot of the Sacred Ministers at St Thomas's, Huron Street. The flash causes the vestments to appear less deep in colour than in fact they are.

Anglican denominations in Canada redux

By number of congregations

Anglican Church of Canada (2,884)
Anglican Church in North America (total: 47)

• Anglican Network in Canada (23)
  
• Anglican Coalition in Canada (12)
  
• Reformed Episcopal Church (12)

Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (42)
Independent Anglican Church, Canada Synod (8)
Christian Episcopal Church (3)
United Anglican Church (3)
Anglican Orthodox Church (2)