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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: What should I look for in a Bishop's Ordination?
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PentEcclesiastic
Shipmate
# 12098
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Posted
Tomorrow morning, I will be attending the ordination of the new bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. As a person who is interested in the liturgy, I have been told that that this service will be some of the best that southern Episcopalianism can offer.
As a cleric from another tradition, what should I look for in this service? How can I sit critically and observe and also let the service happen to me at the same time?
Any tips would be appreciated.
I'm also thinking of wearing a clerical, but I'm not sure if that is frowned upon or not.
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We are called to be Holy.
Posts: 186 | From: Atlanta, Georgia | Registered: Nov 2006
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
Will you be sitting with the clergy or in the congregation? Either way, I should think you would be correct in your clerical attire. If sitting in the congregation, you should wear what you would usually wear when going out in public. If with the clergy, you should wear what you would wear in your own church when not actually officiating at a service.
There will be lots of symbolism. The new bishop will be officially welcomed and led into the cathedral. The mandate proclaiming him a bishop will be read. The symbols of office will be presented to him. He will be anointed by all other bishops present, who will lay their hands upon him to represent the succession that stretches back to the apostles themselves.
I do hope that you will Mystery Worship the event.
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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PentEcclesiastic
Shipmate
# 12098
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Posted
Thanks. I won't be sitting with the clergy; I can use some of the MW questions to analyze the service and help me organize my thoughts. That was very helpful. Thanks.
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We are called to be Holy.
Posts: 186 | From: Atlanta, Georgia | Registered: Nov 2006
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Spike
Mostly Harmless
# 36
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
If with the clergy, you should wear what you would wear in your own church when not actually officiating at a service.
Is that so? It may be different in the USA, but usually in the CofE at services like that, the clergy are told what to wear, whether it be surplice & stole, or choir dress or whatever.
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"May you get to heaven before the devil knows you're dead" - Irish blessing
Posts: 12860 | From: The Valley of Crocuses | Registered: May 2001
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PentEcclesiastic
Shipmate
# 12098
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
If with the clergy, you should wear what you would wear in your own church when not actually officiating at a service.
Is that so? It may be different in the USA, but usually in the CofE at services like that, the clergy are told what to wear, whether it be surplice & stole, or choir dress or whatever.
The clergy are wearing red stoles. Since I'm not not TEC clergy, I didn't think that applied to me.
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We are called to be Holy.
Posts: 186 | From: Atlanta, Georgia | Registered: Nov 2006
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Angloid
Shipmate
# 159
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Posted
Don't forget to observe the ceremony of the Removal of the Backbone. (Or is that only in the Cof E?) ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
About vesture for visiting clergy: Anglican priests may well be given instructions on what to wear, but ecumenical clerical visitors will not be expected to conform to that. As you say you will be sitting in the congregation, it's irrelevant, but should you sit with the clergy Miss Amanda's advice still holds good: whatever you would wear in your own church.
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Brian: You're all individuals!
Crowd: We're all individuals!
Lone voice: I'm not!
Posts: 12927 | From: The Pool of Life | Registered: May 2001
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Spike
Mostly Harmless
# 36
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Angloid:
About vesture for visiting clergy: Anglican priests may well be given instructions on what to wear, but ecumenical clerical visitors will not be expected to conform to that.
You're quite right. I missed that bit in the OP.
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"May you get to heaven before the devil knows you're dead" - Irish blessing
Posts: 12860 | From: The Valley of Crocuses | Registered: May 2001
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Olaf
Shipmate
# 11804
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Posted
It doesn't so much apply here, but if you are ever part of an ecumenical delegation that will process and sit in a special place, it is fairly common to wear a cassock. The Orthodox show up in all black robes, the Catholics wear choir dress, the Lutherans wear cassock alb and stole, the Episcopalians wear cassock, Methodists wear Geneva gown or cassock alb. It depends on whether you want to wear your normal Sunday stuff or not.
Posts: 8953 | From: Ad Midwestem | Registered: Sep 2006
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FCB
Hillbilly Thomist
# 1495
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
He will be anointed by all other bishops present, who will lay their hands upon him to represent the succession that stretches back to the apostles themselves.
Anointed? Really? I didn't know that was part of the Anglican ordination rite.
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Agent of the Inquisition since 1982.
Posts: 2928 | From: that city in "The Wire" | Registered: Oct 2001
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sebby
Shipmate
# 15147
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Posted
I attended an Anglican ordination two weeks ago and the new priest's hands were anointed.
Most movingly for me is the moment in some ordinations when the candidate lies prostrate. The deacon to be ordained priest did just that. It looked a wonderful act of humility and prayerfulness and struck everyone who was present for this solitary ordination, in what is really a fairly 'soft AffCath' parish.
I'm not sure why this should be regarded as particuarly 'high', or why anyone could possibly object, although I acknowlege it as part of the Roman rite. It is the part of the service probably most known by people who have no Christian affliation at all.
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sebhyatt
Posts: 1340 | From: yorks | Registered: Sep 2009
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
What should you look for? A pointy hat, a crook and a pectoral cross. And possibly a pair of those little frilly sleevy things which bishops so seem to like these days.
Ordination and Installation (where the Bishop is led to his stall in his own Cathedral) seems to happen on two separate days, IME. But perhaps that is not always so?
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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PentEcclesiastic
Shipmate
# 12098
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Posted
Well I'm back and I think I'll try to make this into an MW report.
And let me just say, there was raw silk everywhere.
Chorister, he will be seated tomorrow.
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We are called to be Holy.
Posts: 186 | From: Atlanta, Georgia | Registered: Nov 2006
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malik3000
Shipmate
# 11437
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Posted
I live not far from where the ordination took place and was so looking forward to going, but unforeseen last minute circumstances made that impossible. When I got home I caught the last bit on streaming video, a link being at the episcopalatlanta.org website -- unfortunately apparently live streaming only and no replay option as yet (i HOPE there will be one). At the abovementioned episcopalatlanta.org home page there is a link to the service booklet (a PDF file)
(I got my Master's Degree diploma in that very chapel and James Baldwin was there being given an honorary degree. I went to Atlanta University, now Clark Atlanta.)
[ 14. October 2012, 01:54: Message edited by: malik3000 ]
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God = love.
Otherwise, things are not just black or white.
Posts: 3149 | From: North America | Registered: May 2006
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
The MW report has been filed and is being edited as I write. It should go up later today.
The .PDF of the service booklet is a little hard to find on the diocese's website, but is here.
Also, I don't see a video of the event -- just a photostream of (copyrighted) still shots. Double pity.
[ 14. October 2012, 14:10: Message edited by: Amanda B. Reckondwythe ]
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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jugular
Voice of Treason
# 4174
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Posted
One of the things that interests me about US episcopal ordinations and installations and whatnot, is that the predecessor takes a visible role in proceedings. In Australia, this is unheard of and would be considered completely inappropriate. Here, the predecessor would be expected to send a polite note, and stay home.
Is this a pond/hemisphere difference?
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We’ve got to act like a church that hasn’t already internalized the narrative of its own decline Ray Suarez
Posts: 2599 | From: Australia | Registered: Feb 2003
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Barnabas Aus
Shipmate
# 15869
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Posted
Indeed jugular, to the point where it is considered appropriate for a bishop to retire to a different diocese, so as to allow the new bishop clear air. Our present bishop's announced intention to retire within the diocese has raised some eyebrows, and I understand the former +Ballarat has made a recent unwelcome intervention into discussions of church affairs there.
Posts: 375 | From: Hunter Valley NSW | Registered: Sep 2010
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PD
Shipmate
# 12436
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Posted
It seems to be that if the preecessor is still looking at the grass from the top (s)he will tae a fairly prominent role in the proceedings. However it seems to me that if the new Bishop is being consecrated as Coadjutor (i.e. with right of succession) the outgoing bishop will usually be one of the three named consecrators. If (s)he has already retired they will not usually be one of the three named consecrators but will lay-on hands and perhaps present the vict - erm - candidate. In my own case (not TEC, but follow TEC custom) I was consecrated as suffragan in the see to which I later succeeded so the principal consecrator was my predecessor. It was not at all unusual in TEC at one time for the PB to delegate the consecration of suffragan to the Diocesan (s)he would be serving under assisted by other bishops of the same Province - III, VII. etc.)
PD
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Roadkill on the Information Super Highway!
My Assorted Rantings - http://www.theoldhighchurchman.blogspot.com
Posts: 4431 | From: Between a Rock and a Hard Place | Registered: Mar 2007
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Emendator Liturgia
Shipmate
# 17245
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Barnabas Aus:
I understand the former +Ballarat has made a recent unwelcome intervention into discussions of church affairs there.
Do you mean +David or +Michael?
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Don't judge all Anglicans in Sydney by prevailing Diocesan standards!
Posts: 401 | From: Sydney, Australia | Registered: Jul 2012
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New Yorker
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# 9898
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Posted
So, the ordination of this bishop did not take place at St Philip's Cathedral?
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Ceremoniar
Shipmate
# 13596
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by New Yorker:
So, the ordination of this bishop did not take place at St Philip's Cathedral?
No, it was at the MLK chapel at Morehouse College.
Posts: 1240 | From: U.S. | Registered: Apr 2008
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Ceremoniar
Shipmate
# 13596
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by jugular:
One of the things that interests me about US episcopal ordinations and installations and whatnot, is that the predecessor takes a visible role in proceedings. In Australia, this is unheard of and would be considered completely inappropriate. Here, the predecessor would be expected to send a polite note, and stay home.
Is this a pond/hemisphere difference?
In the US, the predecessor is just as involved at RC installations, as well.
Posts: 1240 | From: U.S. | Registered: Apr 2008
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Barnabas Aus
Shipmate
# 15869
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Posted
emli, I am referring to +Michael.
Posts: 375 | From: Hunter Valley NSW | Registered: Sep 2010
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malik3000
Shipmate
# 11437
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ceremoniar:
quote:
Originally posted by New Yorker:
So, the ordination of this bishop did not take place at St Philip's Cathedral?
No, it was at the MLK chapel at Morehouse College.
This was done specifically because it became apparent that more people wanted to be at the ordinatopn than St. Philip's could hold and MLK Chapel has more seating space.
Bp. Wright's first formal service at the cathedral was the next day.
I was part of a mass choir that sang at the installation of RC archbishop Marino and that took place at thr Atlanta Civic Ctr, not the cathedral.
[ 15. October 2012, 19:30: Message edited by: malik3000 ]
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God = love.
Otherwise, things are not just black or white.
Posts: 3149 | From: North America | Registered: May 2006
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Oblatus
Shipmate
# 6278
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by malik3000:
This was done specifically because it became apparent that more people wanted to be at the ordinatopn than St. Philip's could hold and MLK Chapel has more seating space.
Bp. Wright's first formal service at the cathedral was the next day.
Similarly, our current Bishop Jeffrey Lee was consecrated in the House of Hope, the largest megachurch in Chicago, on a Saturday and seated in the Cathedra(l) the next day.
Posts: 3823 | Registered: May 2004
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
I'm sure you've all discovered it already, but just to keep the thread clean, here's the link to the report.
So, PentEcclesiastic, what did you end up wearing? I see from the report that the other clergy had no trouble recognizing you as a brother or sister of the cloth.
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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