Yeah, I finally made it to church

This morning I was going to go visit a couple of different churches with service start times throughtout the morning and I just kept getting involved in other projects and never made it out. So, I made myself go to Solemn Evensong and Benediction at St. Paul's K Street, not just because I've been really bad this past week but because my friend John from Baltimore was playing the organ tonight. And, poor John! He's been sick in bed for the past four days, but I thought his organ playing sounded lovely and he looked much better than I had anticipated.

Tonight's service was sung by the Choir of Men and Boys, with about a dozen boys and eight gentlemen.

Not sure who the officiant was. He's not on the full-time staff. I think I've seen him before, but I'm not sure. He had on a lovely cope, though, with a matching stole. It was deep beige silk with bamboo designs woven tone-on-tone into the fabric, a light olive green lining, and a fully operational hood.

For the prelude, John played a soft reedy thing called "Folk Tune" from Five Short Pieces by Percy Whitlock. I noticed the choirmaster was turning pages and he was having trouble getting the music to stay open.

The canticles were Evening Service in B-flat, Op. 10 by Charles Villiers Stanford. The choral Anglican chants were by Peter Godfrey for Psalm 8 and C.H.H. Parry for Psalm 84. The office hymn was Nunc dimittis from the old Hymnal 1940. Their anthem was "Before the Ending of the Day" by Healey Willan.

For the postlude, John played "Fanfare" by Kenneth Leighton. It was fun....modern, but not too dissonant.

Here's a picture of John after the service. I must admit, though, that I was quite taken aback to see him looking so naked! I didn't see his hood anywhere!

Playing a funeral

Sometimes the quiet and introspective days can metamorphosize into lots of fun. I guess the sunny, warm weather was a sign—yesterday was sandwiched between Friday's chill, brisk winds and today's cold, freezing rain.

My friend Kevin's grandmother died earlier this month and I was pleased to be asked to play the piano for her memorial service yesterday. I dug out a dark charcoal suit with a subtle windowpane pattern to wear, accessorizing it with a lovely little black foulard Armani tie. Kevin picked me up at 12:45 and drove me up to Maryland to the assisted living center where she had lived the past several years and where they were holding the service. The center had set up rows of dining room chairs in what I guess they call the sitting room, with overflow into the game room. I didn't count, but I'd guess that about forty residents and staff attended, plus members of the family.

My part was easy—just a quick little prelude and then opening and closing hymns (two of my three least favorite hymns in the world). For the prelude, I did a Bach partita and then the Samuel Barber "Adagio," perfectly timing the ending of the Barber—all in the best Westminster Abbey tradition, of course—to straight up 2:00, when we were set to begin. But, just as I got to the last page of the Barber, I got word that the service was being delayed pending the arrival of another grandson. Eh. So, I played some Chopin préludes in a suitably somber and sepulchral way. Finally, at 2:10, I saw a typical, disheveled-looking, prep school boy wander in the front door, so I switched to Bach's Prelude No.1 while the boy's mother got him straightened up and the knot of his tie pulled up to within half a foot of his neck. And then we started. My quick little prelude ended up being a twenty-some minute mini-concert, but, hey, it's the first time I've had access to an in-tune piano in months.

The minister for the service was the pastor of one of the big, local MCC parishes (for the uninformed, Metropolitan Community Church a/k/a the "gay" denomination). He looked very familiar to me and I couldn't place him, until I remembered where I'd seen him. Last summer, he and his partner were "Adam and Steve" on their church's float in the gay pride parade.

Anyway, what I found really nice is the fact that he had been pastoring Kevin's grandmother—who was 99, by the way—for the past several years and they had become good friends. There is always hope for American society when good, Christian, nonagenarian matriarchs enjoy the ministry of the openly gay clergy.

Church and politics

This morning I went to the early Mass, since I didn't want to be rushed getting between church and our costume call for our final Romeo and Juliet this afternoon. So, it was off to St. Stephen's for a quick and dirty, get in and get out, "medium" Mass. There's no choir at this service.

I sat behind a lady today who, aside from the fact that she was black, looked exactly like my friend Linda in Indianola, Oklahoma!!

Hymns today were the ever-popular Protestant hymn Nicaea (Holy, holy, holy) for the processional, Leoni for the offertory, and In Babilone for the recessional. The cantoress sang some responsorial "congregational" hymn during communion, but nobody sang the antiphon, and even I didn't know the song. Other than those unfortunate hymns as "marching music" for the people going up for communion (which seems to be a really bad habit in this diocese, not just St. Stephen's), the organist/choirmaster always does a good job of selecting good, inspiring, appropropriate, and singable hymns....in fact, I get the impression that he must have come from an Episcopal church before coming to St. Stephen, since the lifelong Catholic musicians always pick really, really sucky, saccharine hymns.

They didn't have printed service leaflets today for some reason. In a way, I thought that was actually a good thing, since the cantoress had to announce the hymns, and I think more people actually picked up their hymnals and sang than what happens when people have the hymns in their leaflets.

The GWU chaplain was the celebrant and homilist today. The Gospel reading today was about Jesus going to the synagogue in Nazareth, reading a passage from Isaiah, and then announcing that the promise had been fulfilled. Father took that and told how some Protestant minister taught the youth group to hear things and then say, "So what?" as a means of examining faith and Father thought we should do that, too, but he never really explained to what end. By the time he finished that section of the homily, I was thinking, "So what?" too. Then he launched into his frequent abortion-is-bad commentary, tying it in with some March for Life they are having on the Mall tomorrow.

Eh. I'd be much more inclined to be against abortion if the Roman Catholic Church were to permit contraception and birth control. This particularly struck me today, because after communion, they had some nuns from the Little Sisters of the Poor there to speak and then stand by the door collecting money as people left to help them pay for existing ministries to help the poor; the Catholic Church can't afford to pay for caring for the existing poor, and yet they want those people to continue breeding and having babies? A few condoms here and there would work wonders—if God wants a couple to have a baby, He'll cause the condom to break.

Yeah, I know, you priest readers of mine are having a heart attack right about now, but nobody ever accused me of being a good little Catholic boy.

And that's how my sinful day started. :-)

Biblical amazement

You know the Bible 100%!

 

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
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Well, isn't this amazing! And to think, I'm an Episcopalian!

As far as "personal reader" goes, I don't think so....I've just sung in church choirs for so many decades, I've either heard things read during Mass or I've had to sing about things. I must confess, however (Father, forgive me, for I have sinned....), that I had to guess on several of these questions where I was easily and quickly able to narrow it down to two choices. I've always been a good test taker! LOL

Church and a nice day

Ah, it's such a lovely warm day out today! I wore a light sweater-shirt to Mass this morning, and I got hot! There's a light sprinkle every now and then, but otherwise, it's a nice day. I'm thinking we should go ice skating today so we can have some semblance of winter this year.

This is, of course, in contrast to what I'm hearing from my friends from Dallas to Tulsa to Kansas City to Chicago, where they are buried under layers of ice, with more predicted to come today; it's supposed to stay cold til at least Wednesday, there, too, so it won't melt off immediately. I'm not a great fan of ice. Aside from it breaking major tree limbs and pulling down power lines, unlike snow, it's impossible to drive on.

Meanwhile, I walked to the church this morning without wearing a jacket. :-)

Nothing exciting at St. Stephen's today. Hymns were Abbot's Leigh (to bastardized "inclusive" words based on "God is here! and we are His people") for the processional, Repton (He comes to us as one unknown) for the offertory, and Ellecombe (I sing the mighty pow'r of God) for the recessional. During communion the choir sang the "congregational" walking responsorial hymn with the Christopher Wilcock antiphon "Taste and see the goodness of the Lord."

Mass setting was Proulx's A Community Mass for the Kyrie and Sanctus, How's Parish Communion Service for the Gloria, Nestor's Mass for the Parishes for the Memorial Acclamation and Great Amen, André Gouzes's Non sum dignus, and the traditional plainsong for the Gospel Acclamation, Intercessions, and Agnus Dei. The Psalm antiphon was by Robert Carroll.

For the communion motet, the choir did a very nice job on "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread" by Samuel Scheidt (1587–1654), plus choral interjections on the Kyrie and Agnus Dei.

I forgot what the homily was about.

Now, I saw Monsignor Pastor and had an actual conversation with him after Christmas Eve's midnight Mass just two weeks ago, yet he said this morning that he "hadn't seen me in a while." Hmm. This isn't the first time he's said something like that. Were he not younger than me, I'd wonder if he were suffering from dementia! LOL I guess I'm just not memorable.

Congressional Cemetery

This morning I wandered around Congressional Cemetery way out in southeast Washington. This cemetery was established 200 years ago in 1807 by Christ Church (the original Episcopal parish in D.C., founded in 1794) as the parish cemetery, but by 1817, much of the grounds had been set aside for legislators and government officials. Even though it bears the "congressional" name, the cemetery is still privately owned by Christ Church and managed by a non-profit organization; funding for maintenance and upkeep is an ongoing challenge. The chapel where I attended Mass this morning was built just after the turn of the 20th century.

Here are a few scenes:



Today being the Feast of the Epiphany and the last of the Twelve Days of Christmas, I was particularly touched to find this Christmas wreath by a grave over fifty years old. The totem poles were put up as a memorial to the Indians who died in the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon.



Many famous people from the early part of the nation's history are buried here. Amongst them are John Phillip Sousa, the famous march composer, and J. Edgar Hoover, former director of the FBI (and, some twelve graves away, Hoover's "longtime companion," Clyde Tolson). Both the Sousas and the Hoovers have big family plots. I found it interesting, though, that the Hoovers have a bench as a part of their plot. Matthew Brady, the famous Civil War photographer, is also buried here, but I wasn't able to find his grave.



For a slide show of about 20 black and white photographs of the cemetery I took this morning, please click here.

Mass in the cemetery

There is a tiny, old chapel on the hill in Congressional Cemetery here in Washington, and the congregation in residence happens to be Our Lady of Mount Carmel Old Catholic Church. What is particularly interesting about this parish is not its historic location, but its tradition as the "Dog Chapel." What I didn't know until today is that the cemetery sells memberships for it to be used as a private dog park in order to raise funds for upkeep and maintenance of the cemetery. Since the chapel is within that cemetery/dog park, the dogs like to go inside, too, so it has become the tradition of the parish to allow people to come in for services with their dogs. They even have water bowls and doggie treats.

One of my other motivations for going all the way across town today was to see my friend Father Steven, who is now Bishop Steven, at work. He served as celebrant this morning for the low Mass.



The service opened with We Three Kings of Orient Are and closed with What Child Is This, both sung a capellla by the congregation. None of the dogs joined in or howled.

None of the rest of the service was chanted or sung except for the Gospel acclamation (Alleluia). A pastoral associate gave the rather long homily.

After the service, all the dogs ran outside the doors of the chapel where the priest and Bp. Steven passed out doggie treats.



Since I'd never before been to Congressional Cemetery, I took the opportunity after Mass to walk around and look at some of the famous graves there.

Christmas is over

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, the day the church commemorates the three wise men who travelled from the east to visit the Christ Child, and it ends the Christmas season (tonight is Twelfth Night, when the Christmas tree bonfires are done and today is the Twelfth Day of Christmas from the popular carol). I have to take down all the decorations and tree now.

So, why the picture above? Well, that's a picture of nephew Ryan last month explaining a painting at the National Gallery of Art by Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi ca. 1445 called The Adoration of the Magi. It's actually considered to be a very important painting, not for its religious significance (especially today, Epiphany), but because it's considered to be the bridge between medieval and Renaissance symbolism in painted art. Quite by coincidence, Ryan wrote a paper on this painting for one of his art history classes at Dartmouth last spring. We made a point to take his picture by it last month, since he has the same professor once again for another art history class this term, and the photo was a great way to suck up to the professor.

I also had some pictures of me taken in the late medieval and early Renaissance galleries. Had some good pictures of the famous Giotto painting, but I looked hideous in them, so we had to select some lesser-known artists. Below is a picture of me standing by a triptych of Mary and Baby Jesus called "Madonna Enthroned with Saints and Angels" done ca. 1380 by Agnolo Gaddi. As you can see, I wasn't very photogenic that day. This was going to be my Christmas card photo—why buy a card with a Madonna and Child on it when one can have a photo of himself by one of the famous Madonna and Child paintings? It was great logic. I never did, however, get around to sending Christmas cards last month. Oh, well.

Funeral procession

The funeral procession for President Ford passed three blocks from my home this morning. Here are a few snapshots of what I saw.







Click the photo to go to my Flickr page to see larger versions.

Order of Service for the Ford Funeral

Here is the Order of Service for the State Funeral of President Gerald Ford to be held later this morning at the Washington National Cathedral.

Click on each jpg to go to my Flickr account, then click "All Sizes" to enlarge the pages so you can read them.