I’ve had an interest in Christian denominations since I knew they existed. I remember scanning Mead’s Handbook in High School, trying to decide where I would worship once I was on my own. This is an article I would have definitely related to 5 years ago and it’s a fun read even now.
If my religious experience were an ice cream truck, the only thing in the freezer would be vanilla pops. And, once every quarter, some grape juice.
and
Roman Catholic
At 8:55 a.m., the parking lot is almost full. I watch maybe two dozen people exit their cars and enter the building, but none of them are carrying a Bible. Huh. I leave mine in the car, too, because when in Rome …
. . .
Everyone does this routine—genuflect, cross, kneel, pray—before being seated. Me? I just plop down all Protestant-like. I might as well have been wearing a “Luther is my homeboy” T-shirt.
HT: Ragamuffin
David Bennett
Jennifer
asimplesinner
Fr. J.
Chad Toney
Jorge Flores
Jonathan B
carmelbennett
nicenehobbit
Jason S
jaybird68
papaz
May 6, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Very strange that his impression of TEC liturgy was that it was ancient and therefore attractive. It was Rite II which could be telling us something.
May 8, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Honestly, I felt the same way when I first attended a local Anglican church. Rite II isn’t perhaps as “traditional sounding” as something from the 1928 BCP or certainly the Tridentine Mass, but it’s a well written liturgy I think that is reverent and rich. Now that’s using form “A” which I like best. I think maybe some of the alternate versions get goofy.
How they treat the music I think adds to the feel of it as well. We sang parts of the liturgy like the Sanctus and the Lord’s Prayer, plus a litany or two. There were no modern instruments, just the organ.
Then again, it’s probably mostly the background he and I both come from…very informal services with hardly any liturgy at all. Virtually anything against that background would feel ancient.
May 8, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Because the organ is so ancient? :) Byzantines would claim that is modern - Ethiopians would tell you to stick to liturgical drums, bells and trumpets which is more ancient still!
“Ancient is as ancient does” - to paraphrase a mentally slow fictional character.
The funny thing about “ancient” is that “ancient” can be either “is” or “seems”.
The Byzantine Liturgy - in its current rescension as prayed in different nations (no, it is not uniform - the Russian abbreviation is different from the Romanian is different from the Greek) dates back (in its current forms) to (in some places) just before the Reformation or (in other places) a century after the reformation. What I used to think was so darned “ancient” was in fact just more “foreign” - that is to say, very Greek and very late middle ages. Only more recently am I shedding my quixotic search for “perfect” “ancient” “authentic” “Golden age” liturgy. Enjoy a TLM as much as I may once in awhile, I am under no illusion that it - or any other liturgy - is the end all, be all.
OTOH, loathe as I would have been a decade to admit it, the Pauline (ordinary form) of the Mass as well as certain Eastern liturgies (Chaldean, Maronite) that I always thought were “modern and Latinized” in fact come far closer to sounding like the Eucharistic liturgy of the Didache (ca. 180 AD) than either the Tridentine Mass or the Byzantine DL, or the late Modern Armenian, etc…
That only manages to open up the can of worms of “antiquarianism” v. “authentic” and possibly sets folks up for debates on “tradition” v. “Tradition”….
For the most part, with Evangelicals and the unchurched, I have learned that the very minute a congregation can pull of plainchant polyphany accapella to fill a church with echoing sound, something in the DNA responds and the “ancient” receptors start to work. It may not be all that ancient, but there is something ancient about the ability.
If you have ever attended a weekday Mass with no music - like Saint Patricks downtown where 15 people chanting the Agnus Dei at 7am on a Tuesday in a dark church seem to bring the sun itself to rise by the power of the unison and haunting chant, you know of what I speak. If you sit in the first row and don’t look behind you, you swear their must be 150 people, and not 15.
May 8, 2008 at 9:15 pm
As an evangelical discovering Anglican worship 5-odd years ago, I know exactly what Ragamuffin is talking about.
In a sense, anything older than Worship-Leader-making-stuff-up was ancient to me.
May 9, 2008 at 11:49 am
I understand the sense of what Ragamuffin was speaking. No doubt about it.
May 14, 2008 at 11:28 pm
You’re exactly right. It sounds ancient to me because it is indeed a good bit older than me and it’s far more traditional than the “Worship-Leader-making-stuff-up” Chad described or the “Jesus is my boyfriend” mushy adult contemporary that’s permeated evangelicalism.
I do love me some Gregorian Chant though.