Vibrato

Yesterday, Robert invited me up to Takoma to go to church at the little Episcopal parish, Trinity, that's across the road and down a bit from his house. I've seen it many times, and it's a very English-looking, 1930s vintage, stone building in the neogothic style with a Normanesque square tower.

We showed up in time to get a good seat for their 10:30 service. It's a small church, but the pews were filled with a vibrant and interested congregation. It seems as though the active membership of the parish is about 90% African-American, African, and Carribbean.

They started ten minutes late, processing in to In Babilone (Hail, thou once despised Jesus). It was a big procession, including a choir that filled the choir stalls in the chancel, and the rector wore a biretta and chasuble in procession. The parish transferred Ascension Day (last Thursday) to Sunday, so I'm not sure how much of the service was "normal" and how much was for the festal occasion. After the collect for purity, the choir sang "I Sing the Mighty Power of God" as an introit.

Other hymns included Lancanshire for the recessional, Old Hundredth as the offertory doxology, and then, using the Lift Every Voice and Sing II hymnal, "God Will Take Care of You" for the gradual, "I Love the Lord" in between the blessing and dismissal, and for the Mass setting. The Gloria (#243) is very pop music familiar sounding; the Lord's prayer (#264) is an arrangement of the Malotte song, and the Santus/Benedictus and the Agnus Dei were the Schubert German Mass settings. They sang Gerald Near's fraction anthem "Christ Our Passover" in the Agnus Dei spot (before singing the Schubert "Jesus Lamb of God"), having already said the fraction anthem words.

A soprano soloist sang the spiritual tune "I Don' Feel No-Ways Tired" as an offertory solo. Two men sang a duet during communion, but it was not listed in the program. The choir was an interesting group of volunteers. It helped me illustrate to Robert, though, why I don't sing in a non-professional parish choir; they had two women with big, trained voices whose voices clearly stuck out over the choral blend of the rest of the choir (and their big vibratos and the occasional jump-up-the-octave big ending notes didn't help). I just can't sing with untrained voices because I don't want my voice sticking out, and as one approaches the higher notes in one's range, one simply must sing with proper technique (and, hence, volume), or not at all. I understand their dilemma.

A seminarian delivered a very good sermon on the "certain women" mentioned in Acts who were in the upper rooms with the apostles after the resurrection of Jesus. She has a lot of potential. I understand she'll be leaving in the fall to work on a doctorate at Duke.

The congregation seemed very involved in the service. They applauded after the sermon and after all the choir anthems and solos. The acolytes were all trained and very focused on doing things the old, traditional ways. During the prayer of consecration, not only was the tower bell rung at the elevations, an adult acolyte in the sanctuary thrice rang the sanctus bells for each elevation. The priest also fully incensed the altar, but they didn't seem to have any smoke coming from the thurible! They had parishioners reading explanations of the readings before the reader, and one woman was so verklempt from her explanation she dropped her papers and had to run back to her seat. Another woman introduced the preacher. And, then, there was the passing of the peace. OMG! It seemed to take hours as everyone wandered around visiting and chatting and greeting everyone in the church....and one man even sat down at the piano to play a little music whilst people were peace-passing. Then, they did lots of announcements, including having someone out in the nave with a microphone so visitors could introduce themselves; I resolutely avoided looking at the microphone bearer as she kept trying to get my attention to offer me the mike.

The service was long. We didn't get out until nearly 12:30! So, considering their late start, their service was about 1.75 hours.

Trinity is a very warm and friendly parish. I wish them well.