St. Mary's reprise

Just around the corner from me in the midst of all the George Washington University buildings is an old Episcopal church called St. Mary's. It was founded in 1867 as an African church in the years following the Civil War, back when Foggy Bottom was the District's predominantly black neighborhood. Noted D.C. architect James Renwick designed the church, which was completed in 1887. St. Mary's was one of the first churches I visited when I got moved into my condo in January, but that morning happened to be a snow day with a limited service, and they met rather casually in the parish hall, since the nave (worship space) was being remodeled.

Earliler this month, the remodeling was completed and the bishop came for a rededication service. I let all the fuss and newness die down, and went to church yesterday morning for a regular service.

The structure is traditionally oriented so the altar is in the east end of the church; since the church is on the west side of 23rd Street, this means one must go through a courtyard between the church and the parish hall to get to the entrance of the church. As one enters, there is no formal narthex, but the end of the long, rectangular church is open to serve that function. The interior design is classically Victorian neo-gothic revival, and the remodel has "cleaned up" the look, rather than radically modifying it. Perhaps the most modern change is the new cast concrete floor throughout the nave. Walls are exposed red brick and pointed arch stained glass windows line the side walls of the nave. Only about the front half of the windows have images; the back half are just filled with art glass. All of the old wooden pews had been restored and were bolted to the new floor; there were no kneeling rails or kneeling cushions, though.

As one looks up towards the front, the space narrows for the sanctuary and chancel, with the vesting sacristy on the left and the organ pipe chamber on the right. A brass pulpit is on the right of the chancel and a large, carved, wooden eagle serves as the lectern on the left. In the chancel, the organ is on the far left with one row of choir pews in front and then three rows of choir pews are on the right side, all facing the center. In the sanctuary, dark, carved, wood reredos fill almost the entire wall behind the wall-attached wood altar, all under a tryptich of stained glass windows, and no altar rail separated the sanctuary from the chancel. There was some lovely dark olive stenciling all over the sanctuary walls which had been cleaned up to stop the peeling, but which would be stunning if they could have a restoration done.

I entered the nave and was greeted warmly by a greeter and by an usher offering a program. The priest was also making his way to the narthex area and he stopped to talk and welcome me. The small congregation was largely elderly black women with a couple of handfuls of white GWU students. The all-black choir was also middle aged-plus and actually had more men than women. I was a bit surprised at the new pew arrangements. About mid-way in the nave, there was a bit of a break allowing for a walkway, but I can't imagine why, since this is not a large church at all. It is space which I think would have been better used at the front of the nave, since it was quite crowded up there. Instead of using the high altar, they had a very narrow, sofa-table looking "altar" set up just below the chancel step which was set with the eucharistic vessels and missal stand.

As I found my seat, the black male organist was playing a rather traditional prelude. I wasn't sure what to expect musically at this service. Rather than being African or gospel, everything turned out to be very "suburban," standard, small parish, Episcopalian. The hymns were St. Anne, Morning Light, St. Petersburg, Liebster Jesu, and Ora Labora. The organist played a long key modulation between the last two verses of the opening hymn, which I thought odd since they certainly didn't need extra time to get the altar party in place (that only took one verse!). The Gloria, Sanctus/Benedictus, and Agnus Dei were a hodge-podge of standard Rite 2 service music. The choir sang a three part offertory anthem I didn't know which was not identified in the service program, but it was a lot of "Praise ye the Lord" stuff. While the choir was clearly not professional or dotted with paid singers as are so many churches around here, it was actually quite pleasant to listen to them.

The priest-in-charge at St. Mary's is an old retired white guy. Mass was very middle of the road Rite 2 without being either high or annoyingly contemporary. Oddly, most of the congregation didn't seem to know the service, as in when to stand, when to sit, etc. The only thing annoying about the service was the passing of the peace—this is one of those places where everybody wanders around and tries to greet everyone, instead of just those in their immediate vicinity. At least this time the priest didn't ask me to stand up and introduce myself! I opted to leave after communion, partially because the ushers had assisted a barely mobile woman into my pew where I was sitting, and partially because I didn't want to have to deal with a bunch of socialization and chit-chat on my way out of church.

So, that's St. Mary's. I said back in January I'd visit again once they got their church done, and I did. It's a friendly church, but I do tend to like a little more structure and ceremony to my regular worship.