I know @Frogman has a story about this

On three fronts -

1) SSPX chapel I attend is growing in families. Our choir has grown exponentially.
2) Diocesan Latin Mass choir has welcomed two members. May not seem like much, but considering the short history of our group, this is providential.
3) The chant group at my university has had the largest student-turn out, topping the last two year by at least double digits. We have enough women now that the rehearsals actually require sectional practices. We've begun our first recording project, mainly at the insistence of one of the student's initiative. That being the key word - a group is growing when initiative isn't limited to one person or small group.

In each of these groups, there are two old adages I keep in mind to help keep the group growing as well as to keep it fresh
1) It's not about goals, it's not about concepts - it's about people. Not in an anthropocentric sense, hell no. It's about realizing the souls you come in contact with, and the beauties of the Faith which you are imparting to them, and helping to make it their own as well. This is how we grow up the Mystical Body of Christ. (In many senses it is the Salesian model - putting a "happy face" on orthodoxy.)
2) As C.S. Lewis said, "don't try to be original. Be honest. Then originality will follow naturally." Don't try to be an innovator. Be faithful. Be honest. It's at that point when God really allows your natural talents to flow through and express themselves.

I hate Strunk and White, but I'd redo-
"surge
attribute
worshipping body
a fan of
service...on the brink....built from scratch"
in order to avoid running the questions up a flagpole to see.....

("...without announcers..." !
Our parish does have announcements prior to every Mass, and they haven't changed in... a good while. I'm not sure that they are/were at all necessary, when they say what's in the bulletin, anyway, or just say that we don't do the "sign of peace" during Mass.)

Instituted acolytes and instituted lectors. That is a terrifically good thing. I wish this practice were everywhere.

Attendance at your service? In our tiny Gold Rush Episcopal Parish; slight upswing due to new, young Priest with a wonderful cantoring voice and great Homily chops. At Compline with one of our four Compline choirs; huge upswing. The late night office, patterned after the style of the late Peter Hallock, kind of a Roman-Anglican harmonized-version is the absolute best outreach we have. As a result many who came to Compline now attend Mass. More than half of the Compline choir members are not from our Parish. A full 2/3's of the attendees are not members of the Parish; maybe not even believers but respond to what i call 'facing your God in the dark for short trial run with candles'. For some, this is as close as they get to the Mass. Compline, or the completion is the final short prayer service of the Monastic day and strips bare our own mortality and increases our humility. It has a way of making us face our own death. We try to produce a mystical service that touches one not in the here and now, but in a separate continuum of saints and sinners with no connection to the woes of the world. The soothing, simple format and periods of silence offer a sober, 25 minute platform for inner peace and the oh-so Roman "examination of conscience". Peter Hallock, my mentor, told me that all may fall away over time from compline except the chanting of the Psalms. Dead center in the office, and an important anchor is the chanting of, "In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum", some of the last words spoken by Jesus on the cross, probably in Aramaic, and some of the last personal rites afforded to people on their deathbed.

CGZ,
half of our Compline choir members are Roman, so this makes them feel at home. Also, our exiting priest was an orthodox Anglican and closet Roman and called it Mass. He was also fond of saying, "In the end, we're all Catholics." I hope this is not cultural appropriation. (I am 1/64th Mohawk, I'm told, but not flashing my headdress) The freedom I receive, and it's a gift, from just doing Compline at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church is the ability to cherry pick the best and most effective parts of the Anglican and Roman traditions, not the protocol prescribed by either hierarchy. Every decision I've made in my life has pointed me in the direction of Compline. Now, in the 11th hour, it's all I do. I was director of the Moravian Trombone Choir (sssaaatttbbbcb, up to 100 players) for 25 years and spent much of my life composing and doing arrangements for this unusual renaissance instrumentation. Combine that with my 35 years of church choir conducting and add being adequate in Sibelius. The fact is, there was lots of carryover of style and substance when I finally came to Compline. Mass? Service? Order? My only built in bias is to make it work. jefe

Jefe, Jackson,

As a former Episcopalian myself, I was taught (by both sides, since many Catholics did their duty at the Cathedral and then came to sing beautiful music at the Episcopal Cathedral just 2 blocks away) that Mass was what those Catholics called it, and ours was specifically not the Mass.

Alas, they have everything but the magisterium,...

Will someone tell me when Apostolicae Curae was rescinded? Did I miss it? I think it is still official Catholic teaching. So, if that's the case, the Catholic position is that Anglicans and Episcopalians are lacking a lot more than the teaching office of bishops. They're lacking validly ordained bishops, period. And that leads to a hosts of other "lacks." But they do have valid baptism. And lots of great music. But having a "Catholic mind" does not make a valid Mass.

Jackson,
Your points (all of them in the last two posts) are well made and worthy of serious consideration. More's the pitty that a valid Mass can be said so badly and a non-valid Mass can be executed with such beauty. Then again, Our Lord, scourged, is really God, and Judas, 30 pieces of silver or no, is still NOT God.

Pope Benedict gave us great gifts: Summorum Pontificum and Anglicanorum Coetibus, which will go down as far greater examples of pastoral solicitude than Franciscan Synods. We must pray for the return of those separated from the Church, so that they may return to their Mother, and we must pray for renewed holiness in the members of the Body of Christ. Imagine a vernacular Mass with music by Bairstow, Howells, Gibbons and Tallis…… Love them both!

(Oh, oops, you don't have to imagine that. You can realize it. In fact, you might do so on a weekly basis.)

Our attendance is good and growing over time. However, keep in mind that we are the conservative parish in town and the people who are with us are there because that is where they want to be. We are not for everyone.

Frogman Speaks.
Read starting at Page 67.
Knoxville 2009

Any questions?

This, incidentally, was not a job I applied for, nor did I want. Like the US Army, I was sort of drafted, unwillingly.

Maybe it's true that bad things do happen to bad people!

“Until the NO is abrogated...”

You’d probably have to wait until SSPV/X stages a coup d’etat on the papacy (probably around the time when pigs fly...).

Ok then... self eliminated.

improve the OF

ROTFL

I have observed a slow-but-steady growth of the EF here in southern Michigan. A lot of young priests in the area are offering it more frequently, particularly on special occasions, most recently on September 14.

In one parish which offers both forms, OF twice (one ad orientem) and EF weekly, the EF attendance is often more than the other two combined. All major feasts are EF. The OF folks then attend.

The EF in my area had a resurgence in the past decade or so, but it seems to have leveled off now. Meanwhile a lot of parishes have begun offering OF high masses, to the point that some former EF-goers have started going to those. Don’t get me wrong, I love the EF, but saying it’s the future of the Roman Rite is like saying Cole Porter is the future of music. It’ll probably continue to catch fire in some places while not in others.

Out of consideration for the user who posted the original question, can people please direct their answers ONLY to the specific questions asked? Please drop everything else.

If you want to know if a surge has been experienced, not in my area. There was some growth initially, but I think now the people who want to go to an EF do so. The attendance is flat and not increasing.

What is damaging to a worshiping body? With the EF group, they are kind of cliquish and cultish. Having an exclusive, if not superior, attitude doesn't play well with anyone else in the parish and the EF folks are generally disliked.

Services back from the brink/built from scratch? No. A new associate pastor who had been driven out of everywhere else brought his EF group with him. He's now gone, but the group is still present with another priest who is actually doing well. However, the numbers are flat and the EF is not attracting new people, only the folks who would have gone to one anyway.

Stimson, this group is unique. They were hostile and downright weird to begin with. Some of them came from a schismatic chapel to the south of us and they were off the wall. In fairness, some of those folks have left the EF group - one family was so nutty they were even asked to not return - and the EF group is better off without them. They now have a good priest which makes a huge difference.

Theology? I would agree. The EF preserves more of a sacrificial emphasis. I chalk a lot of the differences up to reformers of either ilk having a gift for going off the deep end.

Aesthetic preference? There's that, and I am not convinced God prefers Latin to English, or any other language. He's multi-lingual. Reverence and respect I think he likes greatly.

I would like to meet that grandpa. He sounds like a fun dude.

This will depress many on this site, but it is the reality where I live.

Attendance is declining across all demographics at almost every parish, mostly as a result of younger people not coming to Mass and older people dying. The one exception is the parish that uses evangelical praise and worship music at Mass with guitar and drum ensembles (performed by the stereotypical middle-aged, trying-too-hard-to-be-hip musicians) and has superficial religious ed with lots of fun and games. That parish is more of a Catholic social club than a faith community, but it is bringing in the people and expanding Sunday Mass times because of its growth in membership. The music is performed poorly (I can't stand to listen to it), nevermind it's not suitable for Mass, but people rave about the parish and its Mass, its music and its ministries. I don't get it.

There isn't a parish around that offers authentic worship celebrated well, although some are better than others. The general character and quality of Mass celebration at parishes is uninspiring. But a couple parishes with traditionally-minded, determined pastors are beginning to move in the direction of reverent, beautiful, traditional worship and music. That has had the immediate effect of driving a significant number of parishioners (younger and with families, especially) in those parishes to the aforementioned Catholic social club parish.

I hope that eventually the parishes attempting to move in the direction of authentic, reverent worship will attract people looking for substance. I'm at one such parish, and it's going to be a long road. I pray for the priests and do what I can to help. I hope restoring dignity and tradition and authenticity to the celebration of Mass will attract people seeking true worship and faith.

So, in sum, my experience has been that taking steps to shift from a casual, typical, humdrum celebration of Mass to more traditional worship has the initial effect of driving people away to a P&W style parish. Whether the rebuilding and restoration of reverence and tradition will eventually result in increased attendance at parishes that initially lost members has yet to be seen because we're not quite there yet.

Personally, I've always believed that our job as liturgical musicians is more about leading the horse to water rather than worrying about whether or not the horse will drink the water.

Should we file this under abrogation or self-elimination?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XHKCLe5vTbw&feature=youtu.be

I fear that God is thinking elimination on a much different scale... at which point we may finally see pigs flying through the air.

AITDON

Worse has been done...
http://m.ncregister.com/daily-news/father-pavone-faces-diocesan-investigation-over-aborted-baby-on-altar#.W6GZHaROmEc

“and

As In The Days Of Noe,

so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

For, as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, even till that day in which Noe entered into the ark:

And they knew not till the flood came and took them all away: so also shall the coming of the Son of man be.”