Not the hymn, which I think will be with us in some form — recovered or new — for a very long time, but the compiled and printed hymnal that I both love and which often fails to impress me. And sometimes fails congregations.
Hymnals are frozen in time. Because they are expensive to produce and […]
Apart from my internship church — which was either the largest or second largest church in the Unitarian Universalist Association at the time — all of the churches I’ve served, regularly supplied or pastored have been small. All but my last pastorate — which would be in the smallest 25% in terms of Sunday attendance […]
Does anyone know of the use of a flaming chalice qua real, lit object used in congregational worship that’s older than the work of the Congregation of Abraxas, say, before 1976? Before 1980 even?
When reading works suggesting liturgical directions — “the ceremony” — you’ll quickly come across compass directions: north, south, east and west.
These don’t mean the same things in churches as they might if you were hiking. Traditionally, altars in Christian churches — in the West anyway — faced east towards Jerusalem. So anytime you face […]
I was a little surprised to see Percy Dearmer — known for his landmark work in The English Hymnal — suggest in The Parson’s Handbook that parish choirs be smaller than the custom then and now, and that they might well be put in a west gallery if the church has one. The chancel — […]
I’ve made it to page 43 — but still in the Introduction — in The Parson’s Handbook, with much of the intervening text more concerning with period controversy about the licit use of ancient ceremonial which, however interesting and useful it might be to Anglican liturgists, is of limited utility here.
Then Dearmer writes about how […]
Dearmer, in his introduction, reviews the poor esteem his Church then held for the arts: how commercial purchase has replaced patronage for its decorations and furnishings. Little wonder — it follows — how little concern artists have for the Church. In case the Unitarian Universalists out there have glazed-over eyes, I should point out it […]
Later. This was post #2000.
From the fourth edition of The Parson’s Handbook, pages iii and iv:
It is indeed essential to remember that, important though the artistic side of public worship must be, the ceremonial question is primarily a moral one. We have to be honest and straightforward in obeying the rules we are pledged to […]
For a Broad Churchman (with more than a passing antipathy for the Anglican Communion), I have a remarkable admiration for Percy Dearmer and his magnum opus, The Parson’s Handbook. (Wikipedia)
I can think of no work that has been more influential in shaping Anglican worship, taking the High Church standards and making them the norm. In […]
Hafidha Sofia (Never Say Never To Your Traveling Self) wrote today about a simplified approach to worship; doing so, she jogged loose something specific that’s been rolling around my head for a couple of weeks and appealing to some convictions I’ve had for years: we put too much into Sunday worship.
I forgot which blogger had […]
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