Advent I

Today is the First Sunday in Advent, so I decided to go to Mass this morning at St. Mary's Foggy Bottom. St. Mary's is one of the historically black churches in D.C., and just happens to be a block from the condo.

It's a nice little church that did a major restoration of their nave about a year ago. You can see on the far right above some plastic sheeting over the organ pipes; they are doing some roof repair over them that was generating a lot of dust and debris, so that's why the organ is temporarily not being used. They did have, however, the dreadfully out of tune electronic organ visible on the far left, so they still had suitable accompaniment for the service.

As you can see, they are using an inappropriately small, narrow table as a crossing altar. I hate it. I don't know why they don't just use the real altar, since it's not like it's a big church where the priest would be half a football field away from the congregation (as is the case at the National Cathedral). The celebrant can barely get everything on the table, and during communion, it's very cramped and crowded up there for the communicants. The other thing I don't like (which is the reason I only go here once a year) is the parish is way too friendly. When they pass the peace, they like to wander around the nave and greet as many people as possible, not just those in their immediate vicinities. And, after the service, they made announcements and introduce visitors, making them talk to explain who they are and where they're from. The priest-in-charge didn't remember me, but I deferred, saying that I'd been there before; thankfully, he didn't push. Otherwise, it's a nice little parish and it was liturgically adequate.

Hymns this morning were Merton for the processional, Bangor for the sequence, Richmond for the presentation, St. Flavian during post-communion ablutions, and Helmsley for the recessional. The Mass setting was the Deutsche Messe adaptation of the Schubert Mass. The choir did "From the Rising of the Sun" by F.A. Gore Ouseley for the offertory and "I Want to Be Ready," an arrangement of a spiritual, by R. Nathaniel Dett. I forgot what the sermon was about.