Candlemas at St. Paul's

Well, I came home from church tonight a little tipsy, but I'm going to try to recall the service for you anyway.

It was long! It lasted 2.25 hours! I expected on the low side of 1.5 to 2 hours....the bishop who was principal celebrant and preacher talked unusually long so that's probably what bumped up the time.

Tonight they had the Blessing of Candles, Procession of Lights, and Solemn Pontifical Mass for Candlemas, or the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple. Principal celebrant was the Rt. Rev'd E. Don Taylor, Bishop Vicar of New York and the former Bishop of the Virgin Islands.

The St. Paul's orchestra played tonight, so it and the combined choirs were set up in the narthex. The orchestral Mass setting tonight was Mozart's Mass in C Major "Orgelsolo," K. 259. It was a nice Mass since Mozart got down to business and went straight through the text without a lot of repetition. Soloists were Rebecca Littig, soprano; Naomi Pomerantz, mezzo-soprano; Gerald Stacy, tenor; and William Heim, baritone.

During the blessing of the candles, the choir did an introit antiphon, a Nunc dimittis sung to Mode VIII, and Charles Wood's "Hail, Gladdening Light." The video clip above is the Wood. The offertory was "Senex puerum portabat" by Tomás Luis de Victoria. During the Solemn Procession, the choir and congregation sang four hymns, Edmonton (O Zion, open wide thy gates), Iste Confessor (That which the Prophet's reverend assembly), Regent Square (In his Temple now behold him), and Old 120th (Hail to the Lord who comes). Other hymns tonight included Pleading Savior (Sing of Mary, pure and lowly) for the post-communion ablutions and all eight verses of Daily, daily (Ye who own the faith of Jesus) for the recessional. The Anglican chant for the Psalm was by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry.

The organ prelude was Fugue et Choral by Arthur Honegger and the postlude was Movement VI. Final from Symphonie I, Op. 14 by Louis Vierne.

His Grace the Bishop, aside from talking two or three times longer than he should have, was a very engaging speaker. He made a lot of observations about modern society and behavior and our crises of faith. He talked about how the biggest issues and questions he gets deal with how people in modern American society suffer from great loneliness and constantly question their faith and the existence of God. He spoke about how God does things in His own time, and then he managed to tie together his talk with the theme of Candlemas, that being how Jesus was presented in the temple and to the world and became the Light.

After Mass, they had a little reception up in the parish hall. It was a little different than usual. In past receptions there has been a huge variety of foods and part of the fun was traveling around from table to table looking for the various unique treats and goodies. Tonight, though, it was very standardized, with each table having a liver paté, cornichons, a cream cheese-based dip, firm and soft cheeses, red grapes, and slices of stollen-like cake. And, of course, at the far end of the hall, they had lots and lots of wine.

I ended up running in to John Bohl, organist at Old St. Paul's Baltimore, and Brian Harlow, organist at St. Paul's Morristown, N.J., (it was a Pauline night at St. Paul's!) both of whom were there to hear the service. We had a long chat, and it was nearly ten before we left the church. Here's a pic of the two of them: