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Originally posted by dj_ordinaire:
That's pretty much what I've observed leo - some mention in the intercessions and that is about it. I've never worshipped regularly at a rural parish nor participated in any bound-beating, much as I would like to - in Ireland the Anglican parishes are so vast it would probably mean a twenty mile hike in the rain which isn't everyone's idea of fun!

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If we tried to beat the bounds here (unlikely as no substantial Anglican presence at the moment), we'd be looking at around 40+ miles, depending on how precise you wanted to be about all the different bays and headlands.
 

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Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :
 
Our only Rogation-related bit was a sort-of reference in one of the hymns.
Our three-fold lectionary doesn't seem to consider Rogations, either.
And in TEC it would, I think, be unusual to find any beating of the bounds, as most parishes have no defined boundaries.
 

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Posted by Martin L (# 11804) on :
 
Our 'stock' prayers of intercession always include a petition for good stewardship of the earth, so I took the liberty of amping that petition up a notch with some material from the Episcopal Church's Book of Occasional Services. I also used a rogation-related collect at the end of the prayers.

Last year we managed to sing [our newfangled gender neutral] version of All creatures of our God and King. A problem that we ran into was that the Ascension hymn A hymn of glory let us sing is set to the exact same tune, LASST UNS ERFREUEN, so we ended up singing that same tune two Sundays in a row.

This year Rogation was a bit more downplayed. It hasn't really caught on amongst the clergy around here yet, most of whom have raised an eyebrow in an I-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about fashion when it has been mentioned. It is more of an English tradition, perhaps, but it makes perfect sense this time of the year in this community, is backed by the denom's resources, and for those reasons I do think it will eventually catch on.
 

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Posted by PD (# 12436) on :
 
Rogation Monday through Wednesday has its own propers in the US 1928 BCP, so they will be used again this year. We usually begin the Communion service by dragging the Litany out of mothballs on Rogation and Ember Days. I have now been doing it long enough that one of my lay readers - the one who is actually aware of his surroundings - asked if we were doing the Litany tomorrow.

PD

(edited for silly typo)

[ 15. May 2012, 21:32: Message edited by: PD ]
 

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Posted by Wm Dewy (# 16712) on :
 
When I was young and pious, we kept coffee hour in a lovely orchard which belonged to a family in the parish. We car pooled from the church in town to the orchard some ten minutes away, sang a bit of a litany, used some holy water and incense, and followed it up with cider and cakes. I remember the orchard owner telling the rector, “Dammit, Father, you didn’t pray for frost. I knew I didn’t like the new Prayer Book.”

My present parish “beating the bounds” by strolling around a half a city block seems puny by comparison. I’m not sure how else a downtown parish should keep Rogation Sunday.
 

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Posted by leo (# 1458) on :
 
My 'home parish' is by the sea. Back in the 1960s we used to sing the litany in procession down to the harbourside and then pray for 'the harvest of the sea' as the fishing boats bobbed up and down.

I have just looked at their website and discovered that they don't do anything like that any more.l
 

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Posted by Try (# 4951) on :
 
We piped the bounds rather then beating them in my parish last Sunday. The bounds in question were those of our parish's property, which includes a small park which is owned by the church but open to the public. The piping took the form of an outdoor procession led by a bagpiper, followed by a crucifer, thurifer, deacon, priest, and two members of the chior. We had a litany at each station, concluding at the final station with a collect, and the blessing of a wheelbarrow full of soil for parishoners to take home "for your garden".

We are a parish in the county seat town of a primarily rural county, which is as rural as TEC tends to get in my area. Churches in the fields or the villages are usuall Methodist, Baptist, and occasionally Presbyterian in the areas settled by Americans, and Methodist, Lutheran, and UCC in areas settled by Germans. Our parish has a few farm families in the membership, but they are not a majority. On the other hand I think that almost everyone in the parish has a vegetable garden. I ought to start one.
 

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Posted by Mamacita (# 3659) on :
 
I have just had a huge "Aha!" Forgive me for being slow on the uptake. My TEC parish does nothing for Rotation Day. However, we have a huge, multi-day Plant Sale fundraiser this time of year. It's a Big Deal™. We may be a long distance (in time and space) from an agrarian culture, but there we are, with the church grounds covered with flats and pots and baskets, hundreds of things waiting to be put into the ground. How could we have missed the connection?!? Perhaps next year we could do something ... (shock) liturgical ... at the church Plant Sale.
 

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Posted by Strangely Warmed (# 13188) on :
 
Our urban parish observed Rogation once in recent times, with a bicycle procession around the parish, stopping for prayers at, roughly, each of the four corners of our more-or-less square parish. A smoking thurible dangled off the back of one of the bikes.

This year it was observed in name only, duly noted as the title of the day, but the impending Ascension and reflections on the Diocesan synod of the previous two days occupied the sermon time.
 

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Posted by +Chad (# 5645) on :
 
We used the CW propers for Rogationtide at Mass on Sunday and then went out into the churchyard for the CW Litany. As a town-centre parish 'beating the bounds' could be a bit iffy - walking down the middle of a busy trunk road or the railway line.
 

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Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :
 
Part of our bounds are down the centre of a river. But fortunately there is a footpath either side. My dedication doesn't stretch THAT far, even if it is hot weather.
 

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Posted by Alogon (# 5513) on :
 
In the U.S. it was Mother's Day. There is a dearth of appropriate hymns in the hymnal. Mother's Day is not on the liturgical calendar. Churches which make a big deal of it are silly (IMHO), especially when their ostensible rationale for ignoring most of the traditional church calendar is that nothing should dilute or contaminate the primacy of Sunday as The Lord's Day. But I do like to give a nod to nearby secular holidays with an allusive hymn when possible. So the coincidence of Mother's Day and Rogation Sunday at least allows us to sing about Mother Earth.

A good Rogation Sunday hymn is "Father, we thank
Thee, Who hast planted". The text is from the Didache. Therefore, aside from those which use or paraphrase lengthy scripture passages, it is the oldest hymn in the hymnal.

Although it doesn't have anything to do with planting crops, the proper introit is "With a voice of singing, declare ye this...". If Martin Shaw's anthem with this text is in your choir's repertoire, this would be the best time to get it out.
 

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Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :
 
I'm sorry to say that in England Mothering Sunday is always the Fourth Sunday in Lent. Lent is tending to be forgotten...
 

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Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
The Bishops of Southwark and London have sometimes done little ceremonies halfway across London Bridge. And I think the Dean of Southwark Cathedral and the Rector of St Magnus the Martyr do it quite regularly. No idea if it happend this year though.
 

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Posted by Alogon (# 5513) on :
 
Well, we can look on the good side. To observe any secular holiday on a floating basis, according to the church's complex algorithm for finding the date of Easter, evinces considerably more patience with ecclesiastical ways than we would find in the U.S. In the book Calendrical Calculation, which is basically for computer programmers but also offers fascinating cultural background, we read that this algorithm, and the clergy's need for it in order to do their job, singlehandedly kept mathematics alive on the frontiers of Christendom in the dark ages.
 

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Posted by Adrian1 (# 3994) on :
 
We used to do Rogation Sunday with a "beating of the bounds" in our benefice but it fell by the wayside. "Beating of the bounds" has since been revived but at another time of year when the weather is deemed to be more reliable.

A cathedral local to me does have a Rogation Service and walk but I've noticed in recent years that they've done it on the Fifth Sunday of Easter, i.e the Fourth Sunday after Easter, rather than on the Fifth Sunday after Easter. Whether there's a practical reason behind that or it's down to the unhappy confusions caused by the Common Worship calendar, I don't know.
 

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Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Adrian1:
the unhappy confusions caused by the Common Worship calendar, I don't know.

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quote:

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Originally posted by +Chad:
We used the CW propers for Rogationtide at Mass on Sunday

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quote:

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Originally posted by Adrian1:
A cathedral local to me does have a Rogation Service and walk but I've noticed in recent years that they've done it on the Fifth Sunday of Easter, i.e the Fourth Sunday after Easter, rather than on the Fifth Sunday after Easter. Whether there's a practical reason behind that or it's down to the unhappy confusions caused by the Common Worship calendar, I don't know.

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The super-green would probably put it down to global warming.
 

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Posted by leo (# 1458) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Angloid:

quote:

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Originally posted by Adrian1:
the unhappy confusions caused by the Common Worship calendar, I don't know.

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You could just as well say the unhappy confusions are caused by certain peoples' bloody-minded attachment to a misleading system. Sundays in Eastertide are not 'after' Easter because they are still in it.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Adrian1:
A cathedral local to me does have a Rogation Service and walk but I've noticed in recent years that they've done it on the Fifth Sunday of Easter, i.e the Fourth Sunday after Easter, rather than on the Fifth Sunday after Easter. Whether there's a practical reason behind that or it's down to the unhappy confusions caused by the Common Worship calendar, I don't know.

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quote:

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Originally posted by venbede:
The only beating of the bounds I've attended was ON Ascension Day at All Hallows by the Tower.

Since the boundary runs through the Thames, we got into two boats and on one of them a small boy was held upside down over the side of the boat so he could beat the hell out of the boat with his cane.

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quote:

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Originally posted by venbede:
The Sunday before Ascension was Rogation Sunday, and the RCL lectionary reflects the tradition.

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