Advent 2

Yesterday I felt adventurous, so I decided to try a new church. Well, the church was new to me; the parish was founded in 1712, and their current building has portions dating back to both 1721 and 1775. As far as I can tell, this is the oldest Episcopal parish in what is now the District of Columbia (keeping in mind that the District wasn't created until 1790!).

St. Paul's Rock Creek Parish is a small colonial building in the midst of a large cemetery. The cemetery fills up most of the original glebe of the parish (in colonial times, a "glebe" was land given to a church to support the minister through rents or agricultural bounty). Being one of the oldest cemeteries in the District, it is the final resting place of a number of interesting notables including author Upton Sinclair, the inventor of Wonderbread, Teddy Roosevelt's daughter Alice, the Duchess of Windsor's mother, Alexander Graham Bell's father, Douglas McArthur's grandfather, Edgar Allen Poe's sister, and numerous Supreme Court justices and Cabinet secretaries.

The remaining colonial aspect of the church seems to be limited mainly to external walls, the bell tower, and the interior layout. Due to a fire in the 1920s, the stained glass windows, pews, and ecclessiastical furnishings are all contemporary. In fact, I was struck by how shiny and new everything inside the building looks. Current refurbishments have created a colonial meeting house-style worship space that is essentially a wide rectangle with a small apse containing the altar and organ on the long side opposite the entry doors. A tiny chapel for the reserved sacrament is to the left of the sanctuary area. To the right is a wide passageway to the sacristy. Illumination is accomplished with tall stained glass windows and very large early American design brass chandeliers. The walls are whitewashed and the floors are white marble.

Music and liturgy for the service were quite euphonious. While they are exclusively a Rite 2 parish, the liturgy was dignified and done in a moderately high church style. The celebrant processed in a lovely deep blue chasuble with an assisting priest in alb and (turquoise!) stole serving as deacon and a layreader in girdled alb serving as subdeacon. The choir wore red cassocks with surplices. A verger led the processions.

Given the Rite 2 wording and use of eucharistic prayer D, I was pleasantly surprised to hear Healy Willan's well-known setting for the Ordinary of the Mass. The congregation sang standard Advent hymns from The Hymnal 1982, including "Blest be the King" (Valet will ich geben), "On Jordan's bank" (Winchester New), "There's a voice in the wilderness crying" (Ascension), and "Prepare the way, O Zion" (Bereden väg för Herran). The choir did Canticle 16 to Anglican chant in lieu of a Psalm.

The choir, an octet, sang three anthems. For the introit, they did Palestrina's "I look from afar;" at the offertory, "And the glory of the Lord" from Handel's Messiah; and as a communion motet, Thomas Campion's "Never weather-beaten sail." When the choir processed in, I had to do a double-take, because one of the tenors looks just like my friend Brian in New York.

As all too frequently happens with D.C. smaller parishes, they got way too chummy during the passing of the peace, and many people wandered around greeting people on the opposite side of the room from where they'd been sitting. I greeted those in my immediate vicinity and sat down; strangers kept coming up to me to chat, though, and I kept having to stand up again.

The parish offers gluten-free wafers upon request during Communion. For some reason, that struck me as quite humorous. The communion wine tasted like Gallo port.

The rectoress preached about twelve minutes. The entire service lasted about seventy-five minutes.

All in all, it was a very reasonable worship experience, and I would not be averse to visiting them again.