This post will be continuously updated.
A Word From Dean Randy Hollerith, 17 January
I understand the strong disagreement many people have with the decisions to accept an invitation for the Cathedral choir to sing at the Inauguration and for the Cathedral to host the Inaugural Prayer Service. I am sorry those decisions have caused such turmoil and pain. Yet I stand by those decisions — not because we are celebrating the President-elect, but because we want to model for him, and the rest of the country, an approach to civility.Understand that civility does not mean endorsing a president’s views, behavior or rhetoric, nor compromising our own Christian values. Our willingness to pray and sing with everyone today does not mean we won’t join with others in protest tomorrow. We will always strive to bridge the divide and repair the breaches in our life together. As a Cathedral, we have decided that we will approach this moment as open-handedly as possible.
Samuel Carabetta, St. John's, Georgetown Parish, Washington, D.C. (received by email 15 January, and Facebook post)
The announcement that the Cathedral Choir of Men, Boys and Girls will perform during the musical prelude to the Jan. 20 inauguration ceremony is extremely unfortunate and unwise. It contributes to “normalizing” the election of the most notorious and divisive person ever to become President of the United States, a man who has trampled on the church’s teachings time and again. This is not a normal occurrence and certainly not a normal President. It lends the moral authority of the Episcopal Church to Trump and all he represents. It also reduces the Cathedral Choir to nothing more than one of the “acts” at the event in question.There is a vast gulf between praying for our elected leaders and praising them in this way. Yes, at a time when emotions are raw, it is important to offer spiritual solace and the healing gift of transcendent beauty; however the leaders of our church have chosen the wrong person and the wrong audience. Many years ago, at another time of deep national division, the Very Rev. Francis B. Sayre established Washington National Cathedral as a spiritual home and source of inspiration for those who opposed McCarthyism, racism, poverty, and the Vietnam War. Lending aid and comfort to the Trump inauguration tramples on that legacy.
Gary Hall, former Dean of the cathedral, quoted in
Jenkins, Jack. "Washington National Cathedral under fire". Thinkprogress.org, 13 Jan 2017
“I would not have held the inaugural prayer service, nor would I have allowed the choir to sing because the positions Trump has taken are so inimical to the gospel. I know it has been our tradition to do it, but this is a really different kind of candidacy and presidency—and it’s a time, really, for the church to be the resistance to this kind of authoritarianism instead of legitimizing it by allowing it to use the symbols of Christianity.”
A full statement from Hall on 17 January: "Washington’s National Cathedral should not bestow a blessing on Donald Trump", Religion News Service
A Message from National Cathedral School, from Kathleen Jamieson, Head of School (web, accessed 18 Jan 2017)
I urged the dean and the bishop to reconsider having our children participate in this particular transition of power, given that many in our community see it as in conflict with our school values of excellence, service, courage, and conscience. This was a rare occasion in my 14 years of working collaboratively with colleagues at the Cathedral where we did not agree.
Letter to Bishop Budde, Dean Hollerith, Fr. Barnett, and Mr. McCarthy, 13 Jan 2017, John M. Russell, Christ Church of Hamilton & Wenham, Mass.
I find it puzzling at best, and reprehensible at worst, that any entity within The Episcopal Church would desire to offer such support and affirmation to this particular individual… I remind you that the President-Elect is someone who has mocked a disabled person in front of a crowd, has repeatedly spouted clear racism and bigotry, has advocated for war crimes, has invited the interference of a foreign power in our electoral process, and whose blatant misogyny is well documented. How you can possibly believe that it is appropriate to encourage children to participate in an event whose purpose is to honor and support such a person is not only disturbing but such an encouragement borders on the immoral. I wonder how a young boy in the Cathedral Choir will realize, 10 or 15 years from now, that trusted adults in his life suggested and supported the proposition that he offer his God given musical talent in support of a person whose reputation and behavior is so vulgar and despicable.
"Hold Fast To That Which Is Good", 14 Jan 2017, Nicholas White, St. Paul's School, Concord, N.H.
It’s not enough to see both sides of the argument. It’s not enough to be all things to all people. It’s time to stand up against evil and hold fast to that which is good. In other words, don’t accept invitations to do things that run counter to your core values. You cannot be a strong leader of an institution, offer mere platitudes, and simply say that you see both sides of the situation.
Labels: Donald J Trump, Episcopal Church, National Cathedral
There has been much conversation and consternation among Episcopalians since the St. Louis (hooray!) Post-Dispatch broke the story that Choirs of the National Cathedral will sing at the inauguration of Donald Trump.
I appreciate very much yesterday's statements by the Very Rev. the Dean, the Right Rev. the Bishop, and the Most Rev. the Presiding Bishop, and I commend them to you.
I have great respect for my colleagues at the National Cathedral. And I don't envy any of them, especially not now. The National Cathedral is a tremendous place that has chosen to intersect with civic life in our nation's capital, and in so doing it has taken seriously its role to serve as a kind of spiritual locus of the nation at times of national significance.
But in light of the decision to have the Choirs sing at the inauguration, I want to reflect on something for which I believe they fail to account: the inauguration itself is a liturgy.
At its center is that sacramental holy of holies, the oath of office (administered by a secular cleric in robes!). Then follows the homiletical inaugural address, the ritualistic ascension of the past president by helicopter, the eucharistic presidential luncheon, the processional to the White House, etc.
Then there are poems (if the inauguration is for a Democrat!). And of course the whole thing is surrounded by music.
It is a tightly scripted pageant of civic liturgy we see every four years, and it is meant to evoke a certain kind of feeling.
In a marvellous essay about worship the theologian James Alison draws a distinction between civic liturgies, like presidential inaugurations, and what he perceives to be "True worship."
Using the extreme example of a Nuremberg rally to help draw the distinction between the civic ("Nuremberg") liturgy and the "True" liturgy (the "un-Nuremberg"), Alison writes:
The liturgical organisers of the Nuremberg rallies knew exactly what they were doing, and did it remarkably well. You bring people together and you unite them in worship. You provide regular, rhythmic music, and marching. You enable them to see lots of people in uniform, people who have already lost a certain individuality and become symbols. You give them songs to sing. You build them up with the reason for their togetherness, a reason based on a common racial heritage. You inflame them with tales of past woe and reminders of past confusion when they were caused to suffer by some shame being imposed upon them, the tail-end of which woe is still in their midst. You keep them waiting and the pressure building up. All this gradually serves to take people out of themselves; the normally restrained become passionate, unfriendly neighbours find themselves looking at each other anew in the light of the growing “Bruderschaft”. Then, after the build up, the Führer appears, preferably brought in by means of a helicopter or airplane which has been seen from beneath by the gradually effervescing crowd, and before long, the apotheosis takes place, and he is in their midst.
(The whole essay is worth a read, now more than ever).
Alison's point is that civic worship is about getting people excited around a particular person for a particular purpose; it is "dangerous and dehumanising." On the other hand, the True liturgy of Holy Communion is actually supposed to be "boring" because there's nothing left to achieve. God has already won the victory! We're not supposed to "get" anything from Christian worship.
So yes, as the Bishop of Washington notes, the inauguration is "an occasion for prayer and an opportunity to offer the balm of beauty." And yes, as the Dean writes, "[m]usic is a precious gift that holds the potential to point our hearts toward something larger than the things that divide us."
But when music is used in the service of Alison's "Nuremberg", the "something larger" may be rather incongruous with the mission of the church.
Update: 13 Jan 2017, 2:12 p.m. Earlier today the Washington Post published a story called "Washington National Cathedral’s decision to participate in Trump’s inauguration is creating tension".
On Facebook, Diana Butler Bass laments:
For any of you holding out hope that this would be a "truth to power" moment, please note this line from the article:"Trump asked that there be no preaching during the interfaith service, she [the bishop] said. 'This is not the occasion that we will use to address particular issues of policy or concerns we might have about the direction he’s taking the country.'"
Maybe it is time to stop being so naive and admit that Trump is creating his own religion reality show here? And that it is being legitimized by the Episcopal Church?
Labels: Donald J Trump, James Alison, National Cathedral
I moved to St. Louis exactly a year ago, and I knew that there was a great big arch here. Everybody knows about it. It's the totem of this region, like the Space Needle in Seattle, or the Eifel Tower in Paris.
What I didn't know is that it looms so large. You can see it from many different vantage points throughout the city. You see its image plastered everywhere. And the arch itself is a sublime chameleon of the urban skyline.
On a dark winter day I've seen it as a foreboding bent rod of cold iron. When all is gray I've seen it as a careful charcoal sketch in the distance. In the spring I've seen it covered with gleaming foil. One memorable approach I saw it penetrate a persistent December cloud from underneath, the two arms thrust up defiantly into the late-night muck, the top of it invisible to me but still meeting together somewhere in the chaos. Of course it can entirely disappear in the rain, but it still lurks. You know it's still there. It lingers. It looms.
You live with the presence of the arch in this town. It is captivating. And maybe I'm a little obsessed with it. And being a musician I can't help but consider the sonic implications of its form.
When I moved to town a year ago I was sure that the arch was a Howells Psalm-Prelude: an "arch form", as music theorists like to say. Something that starts soft, rises to a thundering climax, and then recedes once again into memory.
But that's not quite right. This concept of the arch form assumes that the listener is taken along for the ride, tracing the sweep of the arch. And while it is interesting (really cramped and a bit bumpy) to ride a tram to the top of the Gateway Arch, this isn't really the point of the structure. And much to Howells's chagrin, there is no such thing as a smooth ride to the top. At least, not with this arch.
No, it is really something else. It is, as its name suggests, a gateway.
The gateway involves movement. Movement toward or away, or around. But ultimately (even if it is only in the psychological dimension) movement through.
And there is perhaps no piece of American music more suggestive of this kind of movement than the Passacaglia from Leo Sowerby's Symphony for Organ.
It is a new kind of "arch form", one that music theorists have overlooked. So today I hereby introduce you to the "St. Louis arch form", or, more accurately "Gateway Arch form".
I might say that my symphony [for organ] has no "program" or extra-musical significance or intent. It is as much a piece of architecture in sound as any of the works of the masters of the Baroque, though I do not pretend to make any further comparisons.Sowerby, in the liner notes for RCA Victor Musical Masterpiece Series M-894, a recording of the Symphony for Organ by E. Power Biggs, quoted in A Performer's Companion to Leo Sowerby's Symphony in G Major for Organ, a doctoral dissertation by Robert William Parris, Eastman School of Music, 1982. Emphasis added.
Sowerby wrote the Passacaglia first, likely before the rest of the Symphony was conceived. The work was completed in 1930 and published by Oxford in 1932.
The theme, remarkably, is in major. Most organ Passacaglias tend to be firmly in minor. I remember in an organ improvisation class with Jeffrey Smith that he asked that students bring in a ground bass in a major key (other than Pachelbel, which I think we identified during the class). At the next session someone had found something (I think by Handel), but that was it. Just a window into 1) how rare Passacaglias in a major key are and 2) how this Sowerby Passacaglia seems to be on the edge of obscurity.
The theme itself is an arch, and it's high point is in the middle (a rarity for a passacaglia theme).
There is a blue note when Sowerby places a natural sign on the second-highest pitch in the theme, an F. But this isn't by accident. If Sowerby is to be believed, he spent an entire day just crafting the theme of this passacaglia.
One of the best bits in Robert Parris's dissertation is Example 8, found on page 40. It chronicles the harmonic exploits of this F-natural at its every appearance in the piece.
The piece is a model of organic compositional development. But Sowerby guides the music's natural inclinations as only a master composer can do.
I think it's interesting to note the similarities in "organic" composition between Sowerby, an American, and Jean Sibelius, the famous Finnish composer. It's more intriguing still to think that the architect of the St. Louis arch was Eero Saarinen, a Finnish American.
The ethos of the passacaglia is telestic, teleological. It's rooted to an idea, but it's going somewhere. It has big plans. It is transformative.
But this is not your usual passacaglia. Composers so often become hostage to the form's own intensity and cannot help but build the music in one ceaseless, massive crescendo. Sowerby provides another solution.
In "Gateway arch form" we discover that the journey is every bit as important as the destination. At a certain point we "arrive", and then we stop and look up in quiet wonder.
photo by the author
We wonder about what we have done, and where we have been. We wonder, with James Agee, about the miraculousness of life together and wonder "who shall ever tell the sorrow of being on this earth." We wonder what we have lost, and what we will gain. We wonder about who we are, and who we will become.
So halfway through Sowerby's Passacaglia, we arrive. And it really is halfway; there's a symmetry to this, like the arch itself. There is a thundering climax. Massive textures. And then the variation ends abruptly, and a new quiet one simply begins, as it was always destined to do. And after a moment, we emerge from our unexpected contemplation and take a step through the other side.
We keep walking. The arch is a portal. It's not the destination. We have another place to go.
This is hopeful, expansive music. This is American music. This is music to accompany a great journey: one of an individual, one of a family, one of a nation.
This is sacred music. It is a great piece of architecture in sound.
Labels: architecture, Gateway Arch, music theory, National Cathedral, Saarinen, Sowerby, St. Louis
Today, January 18, is the Confession of St. Peter the Apostle.
Confession is a dirty word to many modern people. For today to be called the Confession of St. Peter it almost makes it sound like Peter did something bad. Spoiler alert: he didn't.
Liturgical Calendar Joke If he did, the liturgical calendar would surely include the Punishment of St. Peter on January 19. You can check if you want to, but I'm pretty sure it's not there. Okay, I checked. Jan. 19 is Wulfstan.
Next week, on January 25, it's the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle. This is a little bit easier to understand. Everyone knows what a conversion is, even folks who aren't particularly interested in having one.
Maybe you've heard of these two fellows in tandem, Peter and Paul. You might even know that they're commemorated together in the liturgical calendar on June 29.
The liturgical calendar's linking of these two saints is important and has a great deal to say about the nature of the Church. It's not just June 29 that they appear together. Their two flagship acts, one of confession and one of conversion, complement each other and are commemorated exactly one week apart.
“You are the Christ”
Peter's confession is about who Jesus is. When asked "who do you say that I am?" Peter confessed, "you are the Christ" (Matthew 16:15-16).
Jesus seems pleased with Peter's response, to put it mildly.
[Jesus is speaking:] "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matt. 16:18-19; pictured above, Jesus hands over the keys)
“Who are you Lord?”
While Peter passes this pop quiz with flying colors, Paul, on the other hand, is thrown into a state of confusion. There's a blazing light that knocks him to the ground and then a voice which prompts him to ask the question "who are you, Lord?" (Acts 26:15).
These two four-word phrases, "You are the Christ" and "who are you Lord?", are responsible for the Church as we know it.
This can be seen clearly in the architecture of the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington. The entrance of this massive building is flanked by two towers, one named for Peter and one named for Paul.
Supporting the doorway to Christian worship and Christian life are the two great acts of these saints. And the space inside the Christian Life is filled by those who confess (in the Peter sense) who Jesus is and those who ask who Jesus is. We each must do both. And the Church itself is a space where this activity occurs. They are like the two Great Commandments to the church.
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."
"Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?…"
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
"Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?…"
It's important to note that not even Peter could always confess who Jesus was. He is perhaps better known for his three denials of Jesus than he is for his Confession. But if the Church's very rock can waver we must know that the Church itself is a dynamic space which is supported by this ongoing movement of those who confess (in the Peter sense) and those who ask. It surely exists for both, just as surely as the cathedral entrance in Washington has two immense towers.
And just as the National Cathedral proclaims that it is "a house of prayer for all people" so the big-C Church must also strive to live in harmony with itself. At any given point in the life of the greater Christian community there are those who are able to confess who Jesus is and those who are asking the question "who are you"?
The international ecumenical observance of The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity" is held in the octave between the Confession of St. Peter and the Conversion of St. Paul. The point being, I think, that if the Church as a whole is formed by and for those who confess and those who ask, this same impulse is continually calling all Christians into communion.
O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior, the Prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions; take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us from godly union and concord; that, as there is but one Body and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP 818)
Labels: architecture, Episcopal Church, National Cathedral, Paul, Peter, saints
You might think that there would be fewer Evensong services in the summer, and you would be right.
But there are some wonderful things that happen in the summer that lead to some great singing at Evensong services. I took part in my own at the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) Carolina Course last month at Duke Chapel.
And I'm just back from Evensong from the Washington DC RSCM Course concluding Evensong at the National Cathedral on Sunday, where the service was also splendid.
I'm not familiar with much about the National Cathedral, and I wish I didn't have to be critical of what was a very fine service, but I will say that one of the things that made the Carolina Course evensong so meaningful was the excellent preaching, and the focus on music in the sermon. I think that with choristers from all over the country, (even a couple from Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis!) this was a real missed opportunity this past Sunday.
Girls' Choristers Course at St. Thomas, Fifth Avenue, New York City
- Choral Evensong - Tuesday 30 July
- Choral Evensong - Thursday 1 August
- Choral Eucharist - Sunday 4 August
The Three Choirs Festival
The Southern Cathedral's Festival
Choral Evensong (will air tomorrow, Wednesday 7 August and be available for the week following).
Labels: Christ Church Cathedral (Indianapolis), Duke Chapel, Evensong, National Cathedral, RSCM, St Thomas (New York), Three Choirs Festival
I have to thank a good friend and colleague M+ for introducing me to "Give me that stranger" by Michael McCarthy.
McCarthy is the canon director of music at the Washington National Cathedral. At the Cathedral, this work is performed on Good Friday in the Chapel Joseph of Arimathea.
It seems fitting to mention all of this today on the Feast of Joseph of Arimathaea.
This unusual and compelling text from the Byzantine Liturgy (Troparion for the Burial of Christ) speaks of the devotion of Joseph of Arimathea as he begs for the body of Jesus. The music reflects Byzantine sensibilities, yet is grounded in twentieth century American choral style. A soloist sings in recitative and then against an undulating choral repetition of the title words, telling the story as if speaking to Christ. Chilling and otherworldly.
I have already ordered my copies.
Direct link to mp3 on the web.
Information about the score.
Spelling Tangent: The Episcopal Church seems to like "Arimathaea", but everybody else, "Arimathea".
Labels: Good Friday, Joseph of Arimathaea, Michael McCarthy, National Cathedral
Why does the National Cathedral flout the canons of the Episcopal Church without repercussion?
If you worship at the National Cathedral, you read this invitation to Communion: "All who seek God and a deeper life in Christ are welcome to receive Holy Eucharist."
These are admirable sentiments, but they are in conflict with Canon I.17.7: "No unbaptized person shall be eligible to receive Holy Communion in this Church."
There is no mention of Baptism in the invitation to Communion given at the National Cathedral. But earlier this month General Convention stated that "The Episcopal Church reaffirms that baptism is the ancient and normative entry point to receiving Holy Communion". (Resolution C029).
It seems like a place calling itself the "National Cathedral" would, in particular, want to be normative in regard to the customs of the church as a whole.
I'm picking on the National Cathedral here, but the service leaflets of many other Episcopal churches have similar statements. And yes, I do believe this and other similarly-worded invitations are designed to subvert the intent of Canon I.17.7.
Meanwhile, the Diocese of New York has decided to go ahead with the liturgical blessing of Same-sex relationships and not wait for the Advent, 2012 start date prescribed by Resolution A049 (lines 46 & 47).
These are two instances of open disobedience and disregard for the particulars of our governing legislation that I'm aware of. I'm not trying to be overly-legalistic here, I just honestly wonder what the point of having General Convention is if the results don't really matter on the local level. Why include an Advent start date if some bishops will authorize same-sex blessings before then? Why require Baptism for Holy Communion if churches consistently offer invitations to those who are not baptized?
To be crystal clear, I am not advocating any kind of Baptism ID card check at the Communion rail -- nor, I believe, is anyone else -- but I do think it's irresponsible to issue an invitation to Communion without mentioning that it is baptized people who are eligible to receive in this church.
Our current Prayer Book references the centrality of Baptism at every opportunity. I think that 30+ years after its publication this should be clear in our liturgical behavior as well (and our liturgical spaces too, but that's another rant). Yes! Let's Baptize people, just like Jesus commanded, and let's make it a Big Deal.
I often listen to the webcasts of services of Holy Eucharist from St. Thomas, New York (it's an occupational hazard), and their invitation to Communion on Easter Day is very clear: all baptized Christians are welcome. In this situation, I've heard the rector immediately go on to say something to the effect of "if you're not baptized and would like to be, please let me know after the service. I would be happy to arrange that for you."
Baptism is freely available to all who desire it. By extension, and normally following the sacrament of Holy Baptism, Holy Communion is also.
If there is any point to keeping this distinction in our Canons, it seems that it's time to do something about non-canonical Communion invitations. I would suggest that diocesan bishops should make contact with those parishes who issue irresponsible invitations to Communion, whether in print or in person.
From what I understand, the Congregational Church (UCC) is one in which pastors and congregations can make these kinds of on the local level. In the Episcopal Church my understanding is that the authority to make these decisions lies with the triennal General Convention and the decisions are carried out by the bishops and everyone under their authority.
As our Presiding Bishop recently said, "If we're aware that there are people coming to the table who have not been baptized, it's time to do something."
I agree.
Labels: Baptism, Communion, Episcopal Church, National Cathedral
The National Cathedral wants you to know that they need help.
Even on this reopening weekend, what should clearly be a joyous occasion, the images plastered on their website are those of plaster, and mortar, and crumbling stones -- the images of a cathedral in disrepair.
The news has not been good lately.
The National Cathedral
photo by the author, June 2008
The budget was $27 million in 2008. It was slashed by more than half in 2010 and 100 staff members were let go.
Then there was the earthquake earlier this year which closed the cathedral indefinitely. The Cathedral reopened this weekend, but $15 million (source) is needed for repairs. (Even this figure was announced with an additional hefty dollar amount -- $10 million -- needed to fund "cathedral operations through the end of 2012.")
I suspect that not wanting to dip into the principal of its $50 million endowment (interestingly, the Cathedral is not a member of the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes, which seems strange) the Cathedral will rely on the approximately 14,000 members of the National Cathedral Association and other donors -- because the 800 members of the congregation surely can't foot the bill.
Let's pause here for a minute.
These dollar amounts don't really work out when you're talking about a congregation of 800.
Of course, this isn't your average congregation, this is an Episcopal congregation. Historically Episcopal congregations haven't been shy about throwing a lot of money around.
And this isn't just any congregation, it's a cathedral, and cathedrals certainly play different, larger roles than parish churches.
Indy choirboys hangin' out with Woodrow Wilson
And this isn't just any cathedral, it's the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in the capital city of the United States: it styles itself as the National Cathedral, and it has occupied a tremendously important place as a spiritual home of 300 million nominally deistic Americans. United States Presidents have been "ordained" and buried here.
But that's only once or twice every four years, or so. And yes, it's a beautiful spot...
But when we start to look at how much money is at stake for a diocesan cathedral -- I'm just going to go ahead and ask the question -- is it worth it?
Is there any cathedral in the country, in the world, that costs so much to operate?
This is a huge building. It's not the biggest, or the longest, or the highest in the world, but it does appear on all these lists.
Major funding for the St Peter Tower
was given by Mr & Mrs Eli Lilly
of Indianapolis.
And really, it was just finished. In 1990 the bell towers were finished, which marked the end of an 83 year construction period. Not bad.
And there it sat for 21 years until it started to fall apart in a big way. Ironically, it was one of those "acts of God" things.
So, here we are in 2011, and while the cathedral is not looking at another 83 year construction period, it is looking at a major repair.
And for a building this size and of this scope, this will not be the last. But as cathedrals go this is a brand new place, and if it's going to be around for another 1,000 years before being rebuilt then these are just growing pains.
However, we live in a very different climate now than 1907, and while I in no way mean to diminish the vision and perseverance of those who built the cathedral, I feel that it would be unfair at this time not to ask some questions.
The Episcopal Church grew steadily from the beginning of the twentieth century through the mid-1960s, but has been shrinking steadily since 1966.
Current membership levels in the church are those that we first surpassed in 1939.
And that's not all. Sunday morning attendance -- the actual butts in the pews/cathedral chairs -- is at a much lower level than it was in the 1930s. And these patterns are changing rapidly.
In the diocese where I work Sunday worship attendance has declined by 25% in less than a decade. (I find this statistic terrifying, which is why I keep repeating it)
If we see a trend toward fewer people in church nationally, why should those supporting a very large church building, the National Cathedral, continue to do so? At what point does it become throwing good money after bad?
What functions do cathedrals have in this country anyway? They simply aren't native to this soil -- they're definitely imported from our mother church where they sprang up organically over many hundreds of years.
While I raise these questions in good faith, I don't pretend to know how to begin to propose another way forward. And it wouldn't even really be my place to think about this, except for that moniker "National" Cathedral. But it might be worth allowing the cathedral and the diocese, with their new bishop (congrats, by the way!) to take a deep breath in regard to the priorities and the timetable.
(For instance, when is the next Virginia earthquake? How much will need to be spent to repair it then?)
All of these issues are in God's hands, and these things will work themselves out in due time.
Labels: National Cathedral
Beginning at 9:30 a.m. EST today, you can watch the National Prayer Service at the Cathedral Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Washington. President Obama will be in attendance.
President Obama has been around the Episcopal Church a lot lately.
On Saturday, Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire gave the invocation at the Lincoln Memorial (video). Bishop Robinson detailed his experiences in a post entitled "i thank you God for most this amazing day", the first line of a poem by E. E. Cummings.
Yesterday, Cummings's words were sung in a setting by Eric Whitacre at St. John's, Lafayette Square, just a block from the White House. Then president-elect Obama was in the front pew.
Labels: Episcopal Church, National Cathedral, Obama, Whitacre
The Prelude should draw one into the service. In this instance, listening to "America the Beautiful" arranged by Carmen Dragon, I believed I was being drawn into a late 1930s Disney cartoon.
Luckily, Erik Wm. Suter was able to create a much more suitable prelude on the organ using America the Beautiful as a theme for a very refined improvisation.
But little does it matter on an occaision of such "civil religion", because there is a great deal of unscripted maneuvering that has to occur. There are a couple of band numbers after Suter's prelude and before Bishop Chane's reception of the body.
But from what I can tell from the streaming audio, and my memory of Ronald Reagan's funeral (11 June 2004), this manuevering music is performed from outside the cathedral, and so it is the organ that has the last word from the liturgical authorities.
There's only so much of the state that the church should let inside, really. And thank goodness for that. Only those of you who were able to watch on television will know whether George W. Bush was able to follow the verger this time. Judging from the audio, he does seem to get to the microphone very quickly.
The Old Testament Lesson, Isaiah 40:28:31 was also read at Reagan's funeral. This lection, however, is not perscribed by the Book of Common Prayer. Neither is the New Testament Lesson as it was read (through the first part of verse six, not the entire verse). So I have to agree that it was a silly case of scripture splicing, but I think it's unpastoral to hold Gerald Ford and his family to BCP rubrics on this reading, and not the other two.
Tangent: Robert Certain alluded to the 2006 General Convention in his sermon. Turns out he updated a blog during the convention.
Labels: BCP, funeral, George W Bush, Gerald Ford, National Cathedral, organ, scripture, verger
Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States has died. He was an Episcopalian.
We at Sinden.org are looking forward to his televised funeral and plan to watch it Reagan style: with the Book of Common Prayer in hand a few cold ones nearby. It should be good!
You know, because the choirs at the National Cathedral just haven't had a whole lot to do lately.
Labels: Gerald Ford, National Cathedral
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