Midnight Mass '07

Christmas Eve, Laurent and I strolled over to St. Paul's K Street for Midnight Mass. It was a lovely evening, and the weather very temperate. We'd had a hard time weighing the pros and cons of where to go to church. There are a lot of Catholic and Episcopal churches in D.C., and they started their services at all different hours and had all kinds of different approaches to the festal day. Ultimately we chose St. Paul's because of the announced music to be sung, and also because they always have a huge champagne buffet up in the parish hall after the service! Does that make us "rice Christians"? LOL

St. Paul's is always a fun place to go for the big high holy day services, since they've a particularly splendid choir and organ and they are masters at High Church Anglo-Catholic ritual and liturgy. There's also a sense of history, too, since it is widely believed that the very first "Midnight Mass" to be held in an American Episcopal (Anglican) church was here at St. Paul's in 1870.

Since Christmas, I've heard from several friends that their churches were full but not packed for Midnight Mass. Thus was the case at St. Paul's, too. We showed up 45 minutes before the start time to get a good seat (and we got great seats!), but I think we could have showed up 30 minutes early and still gotten a good place. While they set up a few chairs in the narthex for overflow, the pews in the nave all could have had a few more people packed into them, so we were quite comfortable.

About quarter til, John started the organ prelude. He played Widor's Andante sostenuo from Symphonie Gothique, Op. 70, No. 9; Bach's In dulci jubilo, BWV 751; and Langlais's La crêche, Les anges, Les bergers, and La sainte famille from La Nativité. At the conclusion of the service, he would play Henri Mulet's Carillon-Sortie for the postlude. There's a picture of John in my post for Christmas Day.

Hymns for the formal Solemn Procession opening the service were Irby, Regent Square, and Adeste Fideles. Other hymns included Winchester Old for the sequence, Noel (an English tune for "It came upon the midnight clear") after the offertory, Stille Nacht during post-communion ablutions (the choir sang a verse in German), and Mendelssohn for the recessional (and the way John used the tuba mirabilis for Mendelssohn, it was more like, "Hark! The herald tubas sing!").

The Mass setting was Mozart's Coronation Mass, K. 317. They had a particularly excellent soprano soloist during the Mozart. Choral anthems were Poulenc's "O magnum mysterium" for the offertory and Britten's "Of one that is so fair and bright" during communion (with an antiphonal choir in the side chapel). The choir also did Anglican chant by John Goss for the psalm and chanted plainsong antiphons for the introit, gospel alleluia, offertory, and communion.

As always at St. Pauls, the reception following the service was quite lovely. There was a truckload of champagne, and I think they had a little cranberry spritzer for those not wanting alcohol. The food tables were laden with vegetables and dips, cheeses and cheese spreads, miniature ham sandwiches, sausage puffs, deviled eggs, and I think probably every shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico. We were there at the reception for quite some time, and still, they kept bringing out the shrimp!

The rector chatted with us a bit and complimented Laurent's Christmas tie. Laurent proudly told the priest that he was wearing Christmas boxers, too, and then, mustering up all his droll British dignity, the priest thanked Laurent for his unexpected confession. I just can't take that boy anywhere.