Expecting More on Feast Days

Continuing my “Expecting More” Series of posts, I want to explore how to deepen and enrich the typical Feast Day experience at a typical Episcopal parish. By Feast Day, I mean the Red Letter or bolded Feasts from the BCP. Feast days are an important part of the Christian Life, but too often they are ignored. We need to expect more, but how is that to be accomplished?

First, we have to realize that there are real barriers to people coming to church on weekdays. We have to work around this. Second, expectations have to be announced to Parishioners. Third and importantly, we have to make going to Church on Feast Days an Event, something people want to do.

To this end, these are the days to pull out all the stops. Smells, bells, and holy water this is the time to use them even if you don’t normally. It is also a chance to have the whole daily office in your parish if you don’t normally have that yet.

The Feast begins with the First Vespers on the night before. Unless this is a major feast, one of the twelve with lections appointed to its eve, this need not be too fancy. If on the other hand it is a major feast then treat it like evensong on the day of the Feast as outlined below.

On the day of the feast itself, Morning Prayer, and Noon Prayer are held at the appropriate times.

The time for pulling out the stops comes at Evensong. This service should begin at 6 or 6:30 p.m. so that as many people as possible can come. After the clergy and choir process into the church, and the opening sentence and versicle and response have been said, the phos hilaron is sung while the candels are lighted. Appropriate antiphons should be sung with the Psalms and the Gloria in Excelsis should be sung after the Psalms in place of the final Gloria Patri. After the first lesson, the Te Deum should be sung while incense is offered before the alter (i.e. the alter is censed). Likewise Appropriate antiphons should be sung with the Canticles. A reading from a hagiography of the saint who’s feast it is should follow the appointed lessons from the prayer book.

Evening prayer having lasted about forty minutes, the choir and clergy should then process out. This lets late arrivals get to their seats without disturbing the proceedings. Then the choir and clergy reenter singing the Litany of Thanksgiving. Having arrived at the chancel, the holy water is brought out and the congregation is aspersed while a suitable psalm, hymn or canticle is sung.

Then a Choral Eucharist is held. Again the Gloria in excelsis should be sung after the Psalm. The thurifer should accompany the party to the crossing to read the gospel, so that the scriptures can be censed before they are read. In fact they should not be read, this is the time to chant the gospel. At the celebration of the sacrament, the incense should be used again. After the post communion prayer, the priest’s blessing and the dismissal, wait a moment for those wanting to exit to do so.

Then proceed to Compline. Sing the Psalms with an appropriate antiphon and the Gloria in excelsis. Read the Chapter, pray the prayers, then have the clergy and choir process out to a good hymn.

That is it, two hours and fifteen minutes engaging all of the parishioners senses, the touch of holy water on their cheek, the odor of incense, the sound of the Psalms, Hymns, and Canticles, and the sight of your gorgeous church, reaching their intellect with the sermon and readings and their hearts with the prayers. This it seems to me is how you get your parishioners to come back on Holy Days.

But how do you set the expectation that they should come in the first place. This is why it is important for Ministers to preach on the importance of attending divine services on Feast Days during the week. If their ministers tell them they need to come, then they might come. If the services are scheduled so that parishioners can come, then they might come. But if no expectations are set, they are sure to be meet.

McSacrilege

I want to begin this post with an apology to the McDonald’s Company which only serves bad food in containers that reflect the quality of their product.

I was browsing on the internet recently when I came across a church supply company (it will remain nameless since further investigation showed it was not alone) which was engaged in what this protestant considers sacrilege. Were they selling “Christian rock”, designing mega churches, taking the Christ out of Christmas, or selling copies of the Piss Christ? No. They were doing something infinitely worse. What was this horror?

This firm was selling plastic, disposable, communion cups.

Let us set aside for a moment what the effect of a marginally properly consecrated minister praying a half way decently composed Eucharistic prayer over the bread and wine actually achieves. Let’s assume that the Lord’s Supper is purely symbolic.

That is to say let’s suppose that the Eucharist is to the body of Our Lord as the flag of the United States is to the USA.

What makes the United States a great country are a) the constitution, b) the defense of individual rights, c) democracy, and not least d) the people who make the forgoing a living reality. The flag is not the United States. I think it should not be against the law to treat the flag with disrespect. But the person who desecrates the flag by walking on it, spitting on it, or putting it in the trash is going to get an earful of my displeasure.

I ask those who use these disposable communion cups, what are they teaching their flock there by? If you would not put a symbol of our country in the trash, much less should you dishonor a symbol of the blood of Our Lord that was shed for the remission of our sins.

Now admittedly, I find this sacrilege the more offensive because I assume that: a) god makes perfect the imperfect and b) that Christ meant what he said. Thus I have an assumption that a minister who has received the imposition of hands in unbroken succession from minister to minister from the apostles may and even possibly just from a godly minister of the word with no succession could be, a priest. I assume that when Christ said “this is my body”, “this is my blood” he meant it.

The idea that the blood of God that was shed for the remission of my sins is being treated like a snot filled handkerchief fills me, as it should any pious Christian, with horror.

But suppose I am wrong, suppose all those who hold a high view of the Eucharist: Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox are wrong. Suppose that the wine or (God help us) grape juice is only a symbol of the blood of Our Lord. Do you really want to have to explain treating that symbol like trash at the foot of the throne at the last judgment?

Expecting More on Fridays

Most of my expecting more posts have been about how I would organize organize services to encourage deeper participation by those of us in the pews. This post however is only partly about that. It is also addresses, the Friday fast and the Sacrament of Confession.

As to the services on Friday, Morning Prayer if held, ought to include both the confession of sin and the Great Litany. The Penitential Office with Great Litany ought to be held in the evening before Evening Prayer.

On the First Friday of the month Morning and Evening Prayer ought to be followed by the office for the dead.

Regarding the fast, it seems to me that one of the best ways to expand the church into our daily life is to restore the ancient pattern of feast and fast. Not as a way to earn brownie points with God, but as a way to weave our lives into a coherent whole around the church. We should all be doing this on our own, but it would be a good thing for the Rector to speak as to expectations and best practices.

But what should he say about fasting? My inclination is to follow the old practice of meatless Fridays. What fish on Friday? Isn’t that both too clichéd and too Roman? The problem with lesser disciplines is that they leave insufficient gradation to accommodate a less strict Wednesday fast.

How should the subject of fasting be brought up? The logical time for such a discussion would be some time after the Feast of All Saints and before the Feast of St. Andrew. This would allow the topic of Advent as a season of fasting to be brought up in a positive way. E.g. “if you fast during Advent you won’t have to worry about gaining weight over the holidays” or “if you are only eating one meal a day during Advent you will enjoy all the goodies at holiday parties all the more.”

Thus the parishioners will already be in a routine of fasting on Fridays and have a less strict fasting season under their belt by the time the Lenten Fast arrives. This will make it easier for them to fast during Lent.

That leaves us with the topic of confession. While the general rule is that individual confession is not necessary to the reception of communion, the disciplinary rubrics and the exhortation make it clear that the practice of individual confession is often necessary to the wellbeing of parishioners. It is therefore unfortunate that so few Episcopal parishes offer confession at set hours. A sermon on under what circumstances, individual aural confession are appropriate and a set time would do most parishes a world of good and give the priests a better insight into the state of their flock’s spiritual health.

Friday being a penitential day, would be a good time to schedule confession.
By encouraging the parishioners fast on Friday, while having a penitential rite and the Litany with morning and evening prayer, while scheduling confession on Friday, the Rector can bring the congregation more deeply into the life of the church.

Service for First Sunday in Advent

Regarding my previous post on Expecting More on Sunday I have put together a service of Morning Prayer, Great Litany, Penitential Rite, and Eucharist for the First Sunday in Advent. If you want a copy, e-mail me at cuthbertstevenson@gmail.com

Expecting More on Saturday

Following up on my post, Expecting more on Sunday, I want to discuss how a parish can expand its offerings for Saturday and enlarge parishioner’s expectations of how much they should worship.

This topic really has two components, services during the day on Saturday and services on the Eve of Sunday. The first topic can be set aside as either being a sub topic of an article on a parishes’ Daily Office schedule or as part of an article on Marian Devotion. It is the second topic, the Vigil of Sunday that I want to address.

Saturday evening is a time when preparations both practical and spiritual should be made for the following day. First Vespers of Sunday should begin the Saturday prep time at 6 p.m. this should be followed by two hours of preparation for Sunday. The choir can rehearse the hymns, psalms, and canticles. The altar servers can practice their roles at the Sunday services. The alter guild can put new cloths on the altar and prepare the cruets and alter bread for mass the next morning. The priest can put the finishing touches on his sermon for the next day. At the end of this period, all those present meet for Compline.

On most Saturday nights this will be the end of the preparation, but on the Eve of particularly important Sundays: Septugesima Sunday, Easter Sunday, and Whitsunday, a late night service and a vigil kept through the night before the high altar, are called for.

As to the service, call it Matins or Vigils or Nocturnes or Nine Lessons and Carols, but whatever you call it have nine songs (Psalms, Canticles, or Hymns) and nine scripture readings, pray and then end the service. The Vigil service for Easter is right there in the BCP.

As to the vigil before the Altar, put out a signup sheet two or three weeks before the Saturday in Question and have people sign up for one or two hour stretches. Put a kneeler in front of the altar, put a bible, and prayer books on the kneeler. It is done.

Before closing this post, I cannot help but note that the other thing which traditionally has been begun on Saturday. That is the Eucharistic Fast, the practice of not eating beginning at the end of the night on Saturday and continuing the fast until the Eucharist on Sunday Morning. I mentioned in my post on Sunday’s that to serve those who chose to keep the fast, that an early Sunday Eucharist is a good idea. That we should all endeavor to engage in this pious practice is obvious, but in my experience it is observed mostly in the breach. Changing that is another way we should expect more of ourselves and our fellow parishioners.

Sermons

Regarding preaching, I don’t want to say to much, because I am not a theologian. However a there are a few things that every priest should be told upon ordination.

First, you are not a standup comic. One laugh line per sermon is enough. Make sure that at least every month you preach a sermon that is completely serious, without being depressing.

Second, despite what they may have taught you at St. Roosevelt Divinity School, the New York Times are not holy rit. If you are quoting articles from the Times with anything approaching the frequency of which you quote from any one of the four gospels or if you mention the Grey Lady more frequently than Our Lady, then you need to stop.

Third, there is nothing more topical than the next Holy Day that falls on a weekday. Remind your parishioners that though we do not have Holy Days of Obligation, we do have Holy Days of Expectation.

Fourth, you can and should preach on any one of the three creeds, any of the seven sacraments, or on the importance of Daily Prayer.

Fifth, though we are a protestant church it is perfectly legitimate to preach on the church fathers, the ecumenical councils, the rule of St. Benedict, or almost anything from the 2,000 year history of the church.

Expecting More on Sunday

The purpose of this post is to explore how to deepen and enrich the typical Sunday experience at a typical Episcopal parish. Father John-Julian has for example expressed exasperation at the slackness in celebrating feasts and praying the daily office among Episcopalians. I agree with him, that we need to expect more, but how is that to be accomplished?

I want to suggest that by building a fuller experience on Sunday, we can improve the situation. By a fuller experience, I mean how can we recapture the idea of Sunday as the Lord ’s Day. The Book of Common Prayer has a wealth of material that can be useful in this regard, as does tradition. Setting aside for a moment, the early morning Eucharist, I want to explore how services ought to be structured.

First, I believe that in keeping with our traditional Daily Office piety and our historical practice, the services should start with Morning Prayer. 9 a.m. would be a good time at most parishes. If possible, this should be choral service or at least have music. It should be lead by the deacon or a lay officiant, so that the Priest can meditate and relax. This should last about half an hour. At the end of the service, the choir and clergy process out.

What happens next depends on the day of the month. I don’t insist on the following exact pattern, but I present it so that people understand the basic idea.

The first Sunday of the Month is baptism Sunday, the clergy, altar servers, and choir reform and enter singing the Te Deum followed by the B suffrages from Morning Prayer, followed by the Litany of Thanksgiving. Having collected the persons to be baptized and their sponsors, they process to the font were the baptisms are performed and the congregation renews their vows.

The second Sunday of the Month is Penance Sunday, the clergy, alter servers, and choir reform and enter singing the Great Litany or the Cantle of Penance from the BCP. They process to the chancel where a priest or deacon leads the Penitential Office from the BCP including the Decalogue and the seven penitential Psalms.

The third Sunday of the Month is Hymn sing Sunday, the congregation sings a combination of seasonally appropriate and their favorite hymns for half an hour. The latter have been solicited via a suggestion box or the like.

The fourth Sunday of the Month, assuming it is not the last Sunday of the month, is Exhortation Sunday. The clergy, alter servers, and choir reform and enter singing the Creed of St. Athanasius. They process to the chancel where the Rector gives a short sermon on the importance of the sacraments or perhaps reads from Henry’s Defense of the Seven Sacraments and reads the exhortation.

The last Sunday of the Month is What Next Sunday, the clergy, alter servers, and choir reform and enter singing a hymn. They process to the chancel where the Rector gives a short sermon on the Red letter feast days coming up in the next month and why people should come to services on those days. He also makes announcements for the coming month.

Other possibilities, include: a Rite of Thanksgiving using that litany, the five Laud’s Psalms, the General Thanksgiving, etc.; the wedding of a parishioner; confirmations; the office for the dead if a parishioner has died recently; and etc.

The forgoing having taken about half an hour, the Eucharist begins at 10 a.m. This does not need comment from me, but it is going to get some any way. One of the most important things a church can do is involve its young people in the services of the church. The teen years are a tough time in that regard and I suggest that after confirmation, young people be given an opportunity to do the readings at mass and during morning and evening prayer, in analogy to bar mitzvah. One of the many advantages of the combined Morning Prayer, Eucharist, Noon Prayer, and Evening Prayer is that it radically increases the number of available places for young people to act as lectors on Sunday.

After the Eucharist, the congregation breaks up into smaller groups for Christian education. This could be bible study, or church history, or studying the lives of the saints.

At noon, the congregation reassembles in the church for Noon Prayer. This lasts ten minutes or so, after which, the congregation adjourns to the parish hall for lunch and fellowship. The lunch should have a festal character, in keeping with the Lord’s Day. This does not have to be outrageously expensive, roast or fried chicken with some sides.

After an hour of food and relaxation, is an afternoon program or programs (e.g. a positive cultural activity: classical music, museum, movie, etc. or a parish related activity: choir practice, acolyte training, parish meeting, etc. or a deanery related activity: visiting other parishes, joint missionary work, joint charitable activity etc.)

At 4:30 or 5 p.m. the congregation reconvenes in the church for evensong. This should if possible be a choral service. After evensong everyone goes home for dinner, having spent eight hours together in prayer and fellowship.

Now some will say that no one would come to the whole eight hours, but that is not the point. No one would come to the 8 a.m. mass and 9 a.m. mass and 10:30 a.m. mass at my parish every Sunday, but we have them. More to the point no one can be expected to come to three masses on the same Sunday because once you have taken the Eucharist once for the day, you ought not to take it again without cause and the lectionary readings at the services are all the same.

The point of the schedule I outline is that one could expect people to come to five DIFFERENT services and three other activates. Sure some people might only come to Morning Prayer, while others might only come to the Eucharist. But some significant fraction might come to Morning Prayer, the Baptisms, and the Eucharist and a much smaller fraction to the whole day of services and activities. But the fact that there was a whole day of them would set the expectations of the parish. People could not say, I went to mass three of the last four Sundays. The question would become did I go to morning prayer, the hymn sing, and Mass last Sunday or did I only go to mass. That is moving things in the direction we want them to go in.
It would be a first step towards a fuller celebration of the church Calendar and Daily Office. Anyone who went to the full day would have been at most of the office for Sunday and the Eucharist.

I have thus far dodged the question of the early morning Eucharist. While some think this is disruptive (though I note they NEVER say the same about a family or youth Eucharist) I think it has a place. Not only is it a time to celebrate the rite (I or II) not celebrated at the main service, it is more importantly a way for people who want to keep the Eucharistic fast from the night before to do so without having to wait until 10 a.m.

In contrast, I think the idea of a separate family or youth Eucharist is extremely disruptive to parish life. Families ought to be the heart of the parish. They should be at the main service of the day. My schedule allows families that are just joining the parish to have a half a loaf so to speak. They can go to Morning Prayer, or Evening Prayer or the Eucharist, without committing themselves to the full day’s program. But that full day program is there as a challenge to them, something for every parishioner to grow into overtime.

A View from the Pew.

This blog is just the ruminations an NYC Episcopalian who feels he is always pulling his hair out over the madness that passes for sense in the Episcopal Church.

Let me start with the remark by the Presiding Bishop that it is good that we don’t have replacement levels of children among our parishioners, because that means we are more educated. But of course any educated person would know that it is dangerous for a population to have less than replacement levels of children because it tends to replace evolution by natural selection for fitness with randomness as the basis of the passage of genes. Further since a replacement level of reproduction is prerequisite to a flourishing civilization, educated people with a long term orientation would naturally have a replacement level of reproduction.

Or take the attempts to neuter the persons of the trinity. While it is undoubtedly the case that the Holy Spirit has no known gender, the Son clearly has not only gender but sex, while the Father is so called by the Son. Thus the gender of the first person of the trinity is actually testified to by the second person thereof. Never the less progressive priests try to neuter the first and second persons of the trinity with other three fold language usually, creator redeemer and sanctifier. Unfortunately this involves them in the denial of the creed of St. Athanasius. “Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost.” While we may sometimes wrongly associate the Father alone as creator, this is denied by the scriptures and the creeds.

In other words, the reformers who claim to want to bring our religion more into conformity with science, a goal I do not altogether depreciate, don’t know enough about science or our religion to do so.