Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Gifts

Posted by Reverend Ref + at 9:40 AM

You may recall that a parishioner of mine died a month or so ago. I have officiated at lots of funerals since I have been here, but he was the first parishioner to die.

Tom was an . . . interesting . . . man. Imagine the ZZ Top dudes in their mid-70's and that's sort of what Tom looked like. He was a history buff who helped to organize the Virginia City Ball (remember that service using the 1789 BCP?). I had heard that he worked on a nuclear reactor. Or maybe he just talked about it, I'm not sure. He graduated from seminary with one of my adjunct professors (one Lee Mitchell who wrote Praying Shapes Believing as well as Lent, Holy Week, Easter and the Great Fifty Days: A Ceremonial Guide, and Pastoral and Occasional Liturgies: A Ceremonial Guide). He was a priest at the Episcopal church in Anaconda. He left TEC to become a bishop in the Church of Christ house church movement. He played St. Nicholas every year. His crozier was a lobster hook. His wife lived in Connecticut until they were divorced a year or so ago. He was a character of Virginia City.

And now one of his daughters is here in town cleaning out the house and settling the estate. She called me up yesterday and had some questions about stuff she was finding and wanted to know what to do with it. I invited her to come over to the office and we'd talk it over.

She brought: a chasuble, stole, maniple, veil and burse SET (it's mainly white but employs a red cross and trim); a sterling silver chalice and paten (the chalice has a diamond centerpiece and the paten has a trinitarian fish engraved on it -- she wants to give the diamond back to her mother and replace it with a garnet from this area and then send it back to me); a couple of corporals and palls; a cassock from Wippell (that should fit someone 6'7" just fine); and a box of incense (now if she could just come across a thurible). She also offered to give me clergy shirts, but I suggested she drop them off at a seminary instead. And she wanted to give me his "bishop stuff" (cope and miter at the minimum), but I had to decline that offer.

Somewhere in that conversation, she mentioned I was "high church." I replied, "I'm not high church -- I just like to make sure the liturgy is done correctly."

And tonight, she and her husband are taking us out to dinner. Can't beat that.

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8 comments:

~**Dawn**~ | 12:51 PM, December 12, 2007  

If by "make sure the liturgy is done correctly" you mean: done traditionally, I tip my hat to you. My church (I am LCMS Lutheran)finally had enough complaints about our services trending more & more in the direction of contemporary that they broght back a *traditional* service, actually done straight out of the Lutheran Book of Worship. Ahhhh... I finally feel like I am going to church again. I know that worshipping should be able to be done in any setting, but I feel like I just can't settle down at church to absorb & think & reflect when things get too contemporary. (I know this is a very sensitive subject, so I hope my comment doesn't step on any toes...)

Reverend Ref + | 3:32 PM, December 12, 2007  

Well, when you say, "done traditionally," I follow the BCP; so,yeah, I guess it is done traditionally.

I'm not a big fan of contemporary worship either; but I know that any worship can be done well and intentionally. One problem I have with contemporary worship is it usually seems like someone says, "Hey, let's get a guitar and worship!" Along with all of the other stuff going on (hand clapping, body swaying, all of the "Yes, Jeeesussss!"), it's doubly worse when it isn't thought out. And no, I'm not talking about some spontaneous worship experience in the mountains kind of thing, I'm talking about regular Sunday morning stuff.

High, Low, Traditional, Contemporary ... whatever, it can all be done well.

And THAT'S what I meant about doing worship correctly.

(Talk about stepping on toes . . . )

~**Dawn**~ | 3:44 PM, December 12, 2007  

I can agree with that. Before my church offered the Traditional Service, they had what is now called a Blended Service, and while I missed the hymnal & the Order of Worship, it was a very well done service, so it "felt worshipful." It began trending more & more contemporary though, the reasoning being that "contemporary is more identifiable for bringing in people from the community who do not know Christ." While I can appreciate the need to spread the Word of God, I hate feeling like those of us who wish to worship traditionally get lost in the shuffle. But on the note of a any service having the potential to be a well-done service, our Advent services do not follow any order of service in our hymnal, but are done so well, that they are very worshipful services.

I absolutely agree with you that any well-thought-out worship service is one that can be done well. Maybe part of my problem with associating "contemporary" services with not feeling worshipful is that I have yet to be exposed to one that is actually well-thought-out -- and thus my predisposition to feel as though they are all that way. Totally unfair of me to place a broad generalization like that though. Maybe what I mean by "traditional" could really be translated by what you call "well done."

Sheesh, I am really struggling to actually express my thoughts today in the way that I mean them.

~**Dawn**~ | 3:48 PM, December 12, 2007  

Oh & one of my dearest friends (and the mother of my god daughter) is Episcopalian, so i am famaliar with the BCP -- and yes, that is in going with what I was trying to say by "traditional."

Tripp Hudgins | 4:26 PM, December 12, 2007  

Dude. Hold on to that Bishop's stuff. You may know someone who needs it some day.

Heh.

And you are not High Church. That's true. I cannot disagree. But ain't that a synonym for doing church right?

;-)

Jane Ellen+ | 7:32 PM, December 12, 2007  

"High church?" Gee... too bad you can't show her your "John Calvin" award from seminary.

On the other hand, the Lutheran pastors here decided I was "high church" when I could correctly identify the "sursum corda" and "memorial acclamation" by name. Turns out that they don't do either with any sort of regularity... depends on how they decide to do things that week.

Oy.

Reverend Ref + | 9:12 AM, December 13, 2007  

I have a feeling that the Anglo-Baptist might be more high church than some of your Lutheran colleagues.

Ecgbert | 5:07 PM, December 14, 2007  

What marvellous gifts!

From what I know at a distance the Lutheran worship wars are part of a long history of tension in those churches in America between the 'high church' (theologically unique, quasi-Catholic liturgical) tradition brought from Europe and the pressure to blend into American Protestantism.

The only time I run across a memorial acclamation is at a Byzantine Rite Liturgy: 'We sing to thee, we bless thee, we thank thee, O Lord, and we pray to thee, our God'.

I just like to make sure the liturgy is done correctly... I'm not a big fan of contemporary worship either...

You mean we actually share views and a heritage? ;)

Of course all the Anglican theological-college products :) here can tell you that 'high church' has meant different things to Anglicans over the centuries - from 'Obey the bishop, obey the king!' in the 1600s to Catholic views on the church and sacraments (related to 'Obey the bishop!') to the by-product of that, 'wanting to do church right' with an interest in ceremonial, which it usually means today.

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