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Questions & Answers QUESTIONS & ANSWERS were compatible with the Prayer Book but had ditional catholic worship involves all our senses, fallen out of use. Candles, crosses, incense, proces- they are also ways of worshipping with our bodies. Is this a Roman Catholic sions, private confession, devotion to the Blessed They are not requirements of the liturgy or tests of Church? Virgin Mary and Benediction of the Blessed Sacra- membership. If you feel comfortable with them, No, the Church of St John the ment were all introduced. use them. If you don't, ask one of the clergy to Evangelist is a parish of the explain more about them to you. Why do we call ourselves Anglo-Catholics? Anglican Diocese of Montreal, The word "catholic" comes from a Greek word Who are all those people at the Altar? which is part of the Anglican meaning universal. The Catholic Church literally High mass is a pageant with many participants. The Church of Canada and the means "the church that is according to the whole". purpose of the whole action is to worship God "in the Anglican Communion around Catholic also refers to Christians, especially in the beauty of Holiness" and to celebrate the sacrament in the world. In the United Sates West, who consider themselves to be in continuity which Christ becomes present and real for us in the for historical reasons, the An- with the faith and traditions that have come down bread and wine, the body and blood of Christ. Each glican Church is called the from the early church through the pre-reformation person who serves the Mass has a part that helps in Episcopal Church. Catholic Church. "Anglo-Catholics" are Anglicans this process. The priest gathers the faithful and presides at the altar. The deacon of the Mass assists, I have been to an Anglican Church before but this who, in following the Oxford Movement and their reads the Gospel, serves at the Altar and gives the one seems to be, well, rather different? successors, believe that this universal church and inclusive Western Catholic tradition is continued in dismissal. A sub-deacon, usually a layperson, We are an Anglo-Catholic parish in the Anglican the theology and liturgy of the Book of Common reads the Epistle and also servers at communion. tradition. The Anglican Church includes many Prayer and the life of the Anglican Communion. These are the three "sacred ministers". There different styles of worship from the plain and simple are other assistants called servers or acolytes "Low Church" to the beauty and rituals of what you Why all the ritual and ceremonial? who help the priest and deacon do their work. see here at a "High Church". The Anglo-catholic "Ceremonial and ritual is empty and meaningless," There is also a server, called a thurifer who tends tradition in our Church is a result of the Oxford the incense and swings the censor or thurible; and a movement of the 19th century, which sought to some people have been heard to say, "Just give me simplicity". Yet anthropologists and sociologists server who looks after the whole proceedings, restore the ancient customs of the Church, which called the Master of Ceremonies were lost during the English Reformation. have discovered that ritual is intrinsic to what it is to be human. We rely on countless rituals to bring meaning and order into every aspect of our Where do our customs come from? What are they wearing? lives. The classic example of an everyday ritual [at We wear the traditional, historic vestments that have Our liturgy is according to the use of the Canadian least in most parts of North America] is a hand- Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church of come down to us from the ancient church, which shake, [here in Quebec perhaps the kiss on both are the street clothes of late antiquity. The alb [the Canada 1959 and is supplemented by materials drawn cheeks] which not only signifies but also actualizes the from the Anglican and the Western Catholic white robe with loose fitting sleeves] the amice, friendship that it symbolizes. [If you doubt this, which is a piece of cloth worn around the neck, se- traditions. Worship at St John's reflects our then consider the impact of refusing to shake foundations in the tradition of the Oxford movement. cured with a rope girdle, replaced the toga as a someone's hand!]. Our worship engages us in the basic garment. Over this people wore a tunic Although there had always been a "High Church" fullness of who we are as human beings; and that party in the Church of England, the Oxford [which comes down to us as the dalmatic worn means that it engages us by means of ritual proces- today by deacons & sub- deacons], and what is a movement began in 1833 when John Keble preached sions, bows, signs of the cross, and so forth. [And his sermon "On National Apostasy" which objected sort of poncho [now called the chasuble, which is hopefully they are fun!] Yes, rituals can become worn by the chief celebrant]. The stole worn over to the civil government's interference in church empty when we perform them absent mindedly affairs. both shoulders by a priest probably originated without paying attention to their meaning. The solu- as a badge of office, and the deacon's stole, worn tion, however, is not to jettison the rituals but rather to over the left shoulder, and the maniple, worn over Keble, Pusey and Newman sought authority from the revivify them by performing them thoughtfully, the wrist by all three sacred ministers, seem to writings of the early church Fathers and emphasized prayerfully and with joy and happiness be vestigial server's napkins. These historic the importance of the creeds and the reality of the clothes are not made-up fancy dress, but rather serve sacramental life. The next phase of the "catholic Is everyone suppose to do all those gestures? as a means of connection through the centuries with all revival" in the Church of England advocated a No, not unless you want to. These gestures, the the Christians who have gathered to celebrate the restoration of catholic forms of worship and devotion sign of the Cross, bowing, genuflecting and other Sacraments. The colours we wear developed only which originated in ancient and medieval times and actions are all acts of personal piety. Since tra- in the last 1000 years and reflect local customs, Eastward position of the Altar. Everything in the Why do we use such old-fashioned language? which have become universal. The sequence church draws the eye to the High Altar as the focal While worship in everyday English is perfectly valid, of colour helps us identify and symbolize the sea- point of our worship. When this church was built in many liturgical traditions set apart a special lan- sons of the Christian year. [White - festivals; Red - 1878 it was not common to have the Eucharist as the guage for worship — from the Latin of the Roman martyrs and Pentecost; Green - the ordinary sea- normative Sunday service in the Anglican Church. Mass to the Church Slavonic of Russian Orthodoxy. son; Purple - Lent and Advent] Indeed this parish was one of the early Anglican In almost all Jewish Synagogues large sections of parishes to have a Sunday Sung Mass and in fact to the liturgy are in Hebrew. Here at The Church of St Why do we use Incense? begin a daily Eucharist in 1868. St John's is one of John the Evangelist, Montreal our liturgical lan- The tradition of using incense in the liturgy dates the few Anglican churches built with the specific guage is Tudor or Elizabethan English. Its origin back to the ancient Hebrews, as recorded in intention that a daily Mass would be offered in it. dates back to the 16th century and the birth of the Psalm 141 "Let my prayer be set forth in Thy sight Book of Common Prayer. For the most part, it is as the incense". As this verse suggests, incense Why does only the choir sing parts of the service intelligible to the ears of modern English speakers, symbolizes the prayers of the faithful rising up that the entire congregation sings in some other even if a bit strange sounding at times. But even to Heaven. Incense in the Bible also appears in as- churches? with it archaisms and occasionally difficult con- sociation with visions of the Divine, most notably An important part of the music program of our par- structions, it is oddly haunting and beautiful. In in the book of Isaiah and the Revelation to St John ish is to preserve and strengthen the Church's tradition worship, we approach God with holy things set apart the Divine. The smoke itself is associated with of choral Mass settings. From the late Middle for holy purposes — such as vestments and sacred ves- purification and sanctification, thus we cense Ages through the modern period, composers have sels. Likewise, in corporate liturgical prayer, we can the consecrated elements of the Mass to show set the texts of the Ordinary of the Mass — the Kyrie, employ a special language set apart for holy pur- that they are set apart, and when we cense the Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei — to music poses. people we are not only purifying them but ac- sung by a choir. Instead of singing along the congre- knowledging that they are set apart by their Bap- gation is invited to mediate on the texts as the Why does the service take so long? tism.
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