Anglican/Episcopal Liturgical Question
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    When I arrived at the Episcopal parish I currently work in, they were singing a (random) Hymn in the place I know of as "the Gospel Acclamation." As a guest to their denomination, I did not want to simply walk all over their traditions and customs, but I thought the practice was odd. It was made odder to me by the fact that they called this hymn "the Gradual."

    I dutifully read the current BCP. No mention of either an Alleluia as I know it nor of this thing they called a Gradual. I was pretty sure I knew what a Gradual was, but (as I know many Anglican practices are "take-offs" of pre-Concilliar RC practices) I did my best to research what a Gradual was in the Rite now called the Extraordinary Form. I also looked into several Books of Common Prayer that predate the current one in use. No mention of this practice in the ones I could find.

    The closest thing I could find is that, in the current BCP, there is a rubric that says that a suitable Hymn or Song may be sung AFTER any of the lessons.

    The clergy were of little help on this point. They were happy to support any decision I made, but they couldn't offer any guidance. They simply were unaware of any practice out side their own, and were somewhat surprised by the way that their custom differed from the official Prayer Book.

    So anyway, I replaced it with a Gregorian Alleluia (Mode VI... and yes I know that's for Easter. But I thought it had the greatest chance of being familiar). We do it accapella and I chant the proper verse (finding the same each week, given the difference between the Rev. Comm. Lectionary and the Catholic Lectionary, being a minor irritant each week). Everyone likes it, and it is one less piece of music to pick out and rehearse each week.

    But!
    I have recently watched (on the internet) and attended a handful of Episcopal (US) and Anglican (in England) Masses, and the practice of singing a Hymn seems prevalent. To make matters even more confusing for me, some places like to call this thing a "Sequence" or a "Sequence Hymn." None of my local Episcopalians seem to have any idea what I'm getting at when I ask about it- and indeed often seem somewhat incensed that I'm suggesting that they are doing something different than what is in their beloved Book of Common Prayer (which they dutifully hold during services, but never open- the same being used primarily as a clipboard for their printed programs).


    For all my heresies and liberalism, at heart I'm a rubrics guy. I like to do liturgy correctly. But I'm kind of stymied here. My working hierarchy of rubrical rule-following for my current job goes something like:
    1. Does the current BCP say anything? If no, go to:
    2. Does a previous ECUSA BCP say anything? If no, go to:
    3. What is the accepted practice in the Church of England (based on their BCP)? If no answer, go to:
    4. Is there a precedent in another Chruch within the Anglican Communion? If no, go to:
    5. What is the current Roman practice? If no precedent, go to:
    6. What was the Roman practice before the reform? If still no answer:
    7. What do I feel like doing? // What have I been told to do? // What are they currently doing?

    I hardly ever get all the way to number 7.

    The problem arises because there seems to be some kind of unwritten additional set of rubrics and traditions that accompany the Prayer Book.
    (For another example, they sing "Praise God From Whom all Blessings Flow" after the Offertory Hymn, every single Sunday. And a local composer who wrote a Mass setting for his parish included that text in his setting- so the assumption seems to be that this is done. But I can find no precedent for it on paper, and didn't see it when I attended services at Trinity Episcopal in Boston).


    Keeping in mind that "ask the priest" isn't a viable option in this case (they love me, they will support whatever I do, but other than a "High-ish" Church preference, they can offer little guidance on the matter of historical liturgical praxis)... Does anyone have any suggestions for how one proceeds?
    I'm particularly curious about the Gospel Acclamation thing (although, practically, it doesn't matter since we've already made the change). I'm also curious about the Doxology after the Offertory. And generally, curious about this phenomenon and how one handles it.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    Listen to the podcasts at St. Clement's, Philadelphia, and look over their music lists. This is High Church and may be useful.
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 763
    Adam,

    Anglicans don't usually sing a psalm during a communion service - that's reserved for Matins and Evensong. The Gradual hymn goes where the gradual psalm would be - i.e. between readings and Gospel. I believe this to be a custom of high church origin, as a nod to Roman practice. The Anglo-papalists might have chanted a psalm at this point. Others would have inserted a psalm-based anthem or hymn. Over time, the connection to the gradual psalm was largely lost, only to be acknowledged through the name for the hymn: the Gradual.

    Health warning: that's a layman's interpretation. I'm not an historian, so can't back this up with footnotes. Perhaps a passing historian can help out here?
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 763
    ps No need to get too worried about doing the right thing. Anglicans are seldom rubricists, unless you try to take something dearly loved away from them, or they're low church and suspect you're trying to foist Popish Practises on them. But it is good to understand what's going on.

    pps if you haven't seen it already, you may wish to explore this site.
  • Maureen
    Posts: 679
    Well, obviously I have no idea what's going on here because I don't do Anglican, but you might want to check out things like the various Episcopal/Anglican hymnal supplements. There seem to be Vast Tracts of Essays in those things. And of course, it might be some bizarre Sarum interpretation of which I am unaware. But it probably is just local custom.
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,092
    There seems to be a great variety of practice in ECUSA. St. James left ECUSA over 30 years ago (though still part of the Anglican communion), so may not be relevant, but it's been liturgically consistent for the last 20 years at least. FWIW we do the Burgess English Gradual psalm-tone Gradual and Alleluia in that place (no hymns until after the Offertory). And we don't do a Doxology or the Decalogue.
    Here's the list from Ian's site, compared to us:

    Introit Hymn = Asperges, (Processional hymn on some important feasts), Introit
    Kyrie (optional)=not optional
    Gloria (except during Lent)= same
    Creed = Gradual/alleluia
    Psalm (optional) = nope, Gospel reading here
    Gradual Hymn = Creed (sung in chant w. congregation), homily
    Offertory Hymn = Offertory chant, offertory hymn
    Sanctus and Benedictus (yes, generally storming on, though Fr. Crume has experimented with moving the Elevation to between them)
    Agnus Dei
    Anthem = Communion chant, sometimes an anthem
    Communion Hymn
    _________________________ =dismissal, last Gospel, Angelus
    Final Hymn
    Voluntary
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    unless you try to take something dearly loved away from them, or they're low church and suspect you're trying to foist Popish Practises on them.

    Those two unlesses are my central concerns.
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 763
    Adam, as long as you ask them first you shouldn't have any problems. If they want to say 'no' I'm sure they will - and they'll probably appreciate the consultation. From what you've said, they don't exactly sound like hot prots or charismatics.

    At the Anglican church where I sing once a month we got away with a Gregorian Kyrie, Sanctus and Agnus in Lent: we asked them first and the congregation choose to go there because they're open to that kind of thing (outside of Lent we sing a polyphonic same + a motet).
  • zechariah
    Posts: 10
    In fact, the Prayer Book (1979) makes it clear that "a psalm, hymn or anthem may follow each Reading" (p.357) In most parishes this will probably mean a Psalm after the OT reading, and an Alleluia or "Sequence Hymn" after the Epistle. The Sequence might take the form of one of the proper Sequences or, more likely in practice, any hymn related to the reading prior to the Gospel.

    Like the Roman Rite, a hymn between the Gospel and Sermon is not permitted. This means the silly practice of singing one or two verses of the sequence prior to the Gospel and one or two verses after the Gospel is not allowed--though in more Proddy Anglican churches, this practice still obtains.

    In the parish where I work, I inherited a "Sequence Hymn." I moved them from that to something like the "Celtic Alleluia" which has various verses with an Alleluia refrain. From there it was short work to the normative pattern of Alleluia, verse, alleluia.

    It is true that there is a wide variety of practice in the Church of Canterbury (like the Church of Rome). But much of that practice is contrary to the rubrics of the BCP. If one were to follow the rubrics faithfully, one would find it hard to distinguish (outwardly at least) from the Novus Ordo.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    "After the Epistle" and "before the Gospel," while both meaning the same moment in time, have very different semantic meanings. The "Gradual Hymn" they were doing was definitely "before the Gospel."

    the silly practice of singing one or two verses of the sequence prior to the Gospel and one or two verses after the Gospel is not allowed--though in more Proddy Anglican churches, this practice still obtains

    This is exactly what they were doing. We now sing Alleluia x3 (intone), Alleluia x3 (congregation), Verse, Alleluia x3 before the Gospel, and 2x Alleuia x3 afterwards, to cover the "Procession" back from the center of the Church where the Gospel was read. (Apparently Star Wars music is also acceptable here).


    An additional problem (or layer of complexity) is that the parish has a good number of ex-RCs, who all have their own (usually 1970s weirdo) ideas about what Mass ought to be like, as well as a number of people who think Anglo-Catholic means something wholly different than I understand it to mean. (Perhaps we should coin the term Novus Ordo Episcopalians). The issue is further complicated by the weird goings-on of the Fort Worth Diocese (which seceeded from ECUSA...) I'm in a loyalist parish, and the effect of the political changes can definitely be seen in Liturgical practice. It's a fun time down here, let me assure you.


    Anyway- I'm very blessed to be working for welcoming people who are open to my ideas and (totally faked) expertise in these matters. I'm not too concerned about rocking any boats or anything like that- I just want to do things correctly. Whatever that means.
    Thanked by 1MHI
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,424
    A gentle suggestion: perhaps you could introduce (over time, if prudent) the complete cycle of propers. It sounds as if your people might be open to this. You could take them from the Anglican Use Gradual, the (Palmer-Burgess) Plainchant Gradual, or one of several other sources. The Alleluya from the AUG would be especially nice, since it is almost universally known in High Church and Anglo-Catholic parishes. As pointed out above, singing a hymn in lieu of the proper gradual or alleluya and calling it a 'gradual' or a 'sequence' was/is a common practice among Episcopalians. Ditto, the doxology following the offertory (which you should 'get rid of'). A brief Anglican/Episcopalian glossary: Low Church and Broad Church - these are the most numerous and are essentially varieties of evangelicals dressed up in beloved Prayer Book services; High Church - these range from a low church theology to a tepid catholicity and are characterised by some or a lot of ceremony and incense; Anglo-Catholics - these are (like the Old Catholics, the Polish National Catholics, the Orthodox, etc.) quite authentically Catholic in faith, practice and liturgy, and are lacking only in communion with the Church of Rome. Is your parish actually still an Episcopalian one? Or is it part of one of those break away groups?
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    I'd love to do the Propers.

    To the extant that Roman Propers are correlated to the Roman Lectionary, would those knowledgeable about such things suggest attempting a calendrical calibration via Gospel-matching? I do this currently for the Gospel Acclamation versical.


    My parish is loyal to ECUSA. The congregation actually split when the Diocese seceded. There is litigation in progress, but currently the secessionist are occupying the parish's buildings. The loyalists have taken up residence in a Wedding Chapel (with a freaking amazing acoustic, I might add).
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    Adam, my boss had me read a book called "The Priest's Handbook". It describes, in great deal, the ceremonies of the BCP, including a GIRM-type listing of all the music in the service. It should answer your questions.

    Edit: I don't mean "shut up and don't bother us." But rather, pointing to what is widely considered the definitive source for Episcopal liturgics.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    I was hoping someone would tell me there's a book or something. This is half the problem- not only do I not know what I'm doing, I barely know what questions to ask or whom to ask them to.
    All I've got is you guys. (I've thought about seeking out an Anglican/Episcopal forum, but if I doubled the amount of time I spend talking about Church music online, I would never get any work done).

    Thanks!
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    MJO:

    I would love to get rid of the post-Offertory-anthem Doxology. It drives a big train right through the middle of the musical and liturgical action.

    1. What's you reason for saying I should ditch it?

    2. I fear that would be tampering too much, though. Any thoughts as to a way to proceed? What's the precedent for this practice?
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,424
    Well - it's a hallmark of the low-Protestant end of Anglicanism. It's emphasis is not generally perceived to be other than as a doxological accompaniment to the solemn-high offering of the Collection as opposed to what is really offered at the Offertory. As such it is has certainly the effect of warping if not utterly masking the true liturgical nature of what happens at this point of the mass/holy communion/eucharist. One could go on... The appropriate thing to be sung at this point is the Offertory Antiphon, followed by (time permitting) an appropriate Anthem, or a Hymn very proper to the day or to the specific liturgical offertory action taking place.

    Gavin's suggested handbook is a good one. For a more classical treatment of the subject, in the finest of Anglican tradition you should certainly acquire
    1) The Parson's Handbook by Percy Dearmer, and 2) A New History of the Book of Common Prayer by Francis Procter & Walter Howard Frere.
    Also of interest to you and (probably your clergy) would be vols. I & II of A Directory of Ceremonial, Alcuin Club Tracts XIII & XIX, published by A.R. Mowbray Ltd.
    It may tax your ingenuity to find any or all of these, but your efforts would be well rewarded.
    Possible sources: The Anglican Bibliopole: 858 Church Street, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866-8615; Tel. 518-587-7470; E-mail AnglicanBk@aol.com, and Loome's Books in Chicago.
  • dvalerio
    Posts: 341
    You have The Parson's handbook, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer and A Directory of Ceremonial all online. Of course you may want to have them printed on paper, but to get started these versions will surely do.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    MJO: Thanks for the info on the Doxology. I know the Rector tends toward a Catholic understanding of Eucharist and Liturgy, so that explanation would help. It does feel particularly Protestant (which doesn't bother me too much since, in essence, they are)- my big concern is the oddly interruptive nature of it: The choir sings a nice piece of choral music (frequently accapella) and then, before the congregation is able to exhale and inhale again, the organist wails on the last phrase of OLD HUNDREDTH. My artistic sense is much more offended than my theological/liturgical sense. (Although, once we did an a capella OLD HUNDREDTH with the actual 100th psalm [All People That on Earth Do Dwell] that worked out.)


    Thanks for the book references. Especially them being online. Money's tight over here, so that sort of thing really helps.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    Organists often improvise from the key of the offertory music into an intro for the Dox to try and ease the transition.

    Some then do a improv that softens to get back into a more solemn frame as people sit. If they sit.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    davalerio:
    That project Canterbury page is a fantastic resource, BTW.
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    I usually wait a good 20 seconds for the anthem to sink in, then introduce the Doxology.
  • dvalerio
    Posts: 341
    The Project Canterbury page is indeed very good, as well as the page with books on the BCP. I was never an Anglican, but took some interest on Anglicanism, and the books on these websites helped me very much to appreciate the Liturgy and the value of the external part of worship (and to see that many Anglicans care more for the Liturgy and the Tradition than many Catholics of our days). And this helped me very much to deepen my Catholic faith.
  • guymu012
    Posts: 1
    Hello. I realize it has been some time now, since the original conversations. As with all of these comments, the average Episcopal church, does use a variety of music. Fortunately, over 30 years I have been associated with 3 different average Episcopalian congregations. Churches, organists, and choirs do what they are interested in the most. Read all the help pages in the BCP, not just one. There is a lot of variety possible, instead of having only one "funeral" service each week. By the way, we don't have Cardinals and a Pope for a reason; we aren't Roman Catholic!
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