Ship of Fools: Christ Church Bronxville

Thread: Christ Church Bronxville Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Patrick (# 305) on :

Christ is Risen,
Although some of the parishioners at Christ church Bronxville would refer to the "Sarum Rite", most of us knew it to be a good, if not unique, example of English Use ceremonial in the New York Diocese. Of course, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine inclined towards English Use. I served as Master of Ceremonies for about five years. Missals were never used, but the rite was almost exclusively American Prayer Book (1928, then Green Book, then 1979) and ceremonial from the Parson's Handbook or, while I served, the Alcuin ceremonial guides. On Sundays, 8 AM Eucharist, 9:15 AM Solemn Eucharist and 11 AM Solemn Eucharist (1st Sunday of month) or choral Mattins. The Holy Week rites were more accurately "Sarum", thanks to Canon Stone and Fr. Hohley, including the blessing of palms, the stripping and washing of the altar on Maundy Thursday and the procession with the triple candle accompanied by singing of Inventor Rutile at the Paschal Vigil. The altar was vested and had riddel posts with angels bearing candels. There was a hanging pyx for the Sacrament in the Lady Chapel. We used all the English Use colors for our vestments, except yellow, and all albs/amices were appareled in a colors complementing or contrasting that of the chasuble, dalmatic and tunicle. The clerk wore a tunicle and bore the cross at all liturgical services. We had seasonal liturgical features: a festal processionsl cross, a wooden one of red and black for Litany in procession in Lent. the trendle hung up for Christmas. Fr. Dearmer would have approved that all metal work for the chancel and altar area was executed by local artisans. We were on the "Catholic" side, so to speak, of English Use: the clergy did a full prostration at Humble Access and the servers bore torches at the Anaphora.
My understanding from the review is that apparels are no longer used and that the ceremonial is, let's say, more post Vatican 2 then English Use. The music still seems up to snuff.

Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :

Link to the report here.

Can the Mystery Worshipper, or anyone else who knows, explain the apparently strange position of the organ console? From the picture, it appears to be blocking the congregation's view of the altar. Shurely shome mishtake?

Posted by Vade Mecum (# 17688) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Angloid:
Link to the report here.

Can the Mystery Worshipper, or anyone else who knows, explain the apparently strange position of the organ console? From the picture, it appears to be blocking the congregation's view of the altar. Shurely shome mishtake?

The organ bench also looks curiously like a sedilia. Pretensions of grandeur or a moonlighting priest? It's a little like those grand Elizabethan marble tombs which the gentry tended to erect in prominent places... like in front of the altar.

Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :

I am also a bit bemused by the reference to 'Sarum Rite'. Surely that is what it says, a liturgical rite with its own text (and accompanying ceremonial, naturally). An Anglican church that uses an official Anglican rite cannot be said to be 'Sarum rite' no matter how many odd ceremonial features are used. 'English Use' is a more useful description of such churches, though more often that means Percy Dearmer's simplification of that for the Prayer Book rite. More recent rites have necessitated further adaptations of course.

[edited to add apology: the report itself doesn't refer to Sarum 'rite', but 'Sarum (or English) use'. However the Sarum reference is rather confusing IMHO.]

[ 21. May 2013, 18:22: Message edited by: Angloid ]

Posted by lily pad (# 11456) on :

From Christ Church Bronxville's website

quote:
Worship Notes
What is the Sarum Use?
The Sarum Use is an elaborate and beautiful worship ceremonial that started at Salisbury Cathedral in England. Sarum is Latin for Salisbury. This is a truly English liturgical style and was brought to Christ Church in the 1930’s by Father Harold Hohly and Canon Morton Stone. Since that time Christ Church has been widely known as an exponent of the Sarum Use (we call it the English usage).

The Sarum Use at Christ Church has been revised quite a bit over time to reflect changes in liturgical understanding and to best fit the architecture of Christ Church. However, the importance of this carefully lived liturgy remains the same – to create an atmosphere through which the Divine might be encountered in a lasting, reverent, and deeply meaningful way. No gesture in the Sarum Use is without meaning. It all points to the necessity and beauty of our relationship with God and with one another.

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Vade Mecum:

quote:
Originally posted by Angloid:
Link to the report here.

Can the Mystery Worshipper, or anyone else who knows, explain the apparently strange position of the organ console? From the picture, it appears to be blocking the congregation's view of the altar. Shurely shome mishtake?
The organ bench also looks curiously like a sedilia. Pretensions of grandeur or a moonlighting priest? It's a little like those grand Elizabethan marble tombs which the gentry tended to erect in prominent places... like in front of the altar.

Just guessing, but it would seem that the organ console is moveable (many newer ones are), and that the photo was taken with it in 'concert' position. That's just a back-rest on the organ bench; many organists like them, others of us think they're just in the way.

Posted by stonespring (# 15530) on :

I know that Sarum-type ceremony is associated with Dearmer, who was very influential in Prayer Book Catholicism. I also know that the Sarum use before the Reformation was in Latin. However, isn't it worth pointing out that a very important part of the Sarum use was the Roman Canon? Does the Liturgy at Christ Church Bronxville use that?

Posted by PD (# 12436) on :

I suspect the parson was making a somewhat inaccurate reference to the fact his parish uses the "English Use" ceremonial popularized by Percy Dearmer. By the sound of the report, they still need to work on it a bit. You cannot, of course, make use of the full Sarum Use without the permission of the bishop as it is not an authorized liturgy of the Church. I used to have a regular disagreement with one of my clergy who go a-whoring after the 1549 BCP. He would sneak it in without permission, someone would complain to me, I would have to have an unfriendly word, he would say 'sorry you caught me' and we would be OK until next time.

PD

Posted by dj_ordinaire (# 4643) on :

Indeed - a key element of Dearmerite English Usage was to ensure that traditional ceremonial was used in the context of legally-authorised contemporary liturgies. Hence, it was informed by the Sarum Rite but would never have been intended to resurrect the Latin liturgies of pre-sixteenth century England.

In other words, I rather approve!

Posted by LQ (# 11596) on :

I'm away from home at the moment, and so don't have American Sarum to hand, which chronicles the evolution of the parish usage and includes the text of Rite II as celebrated there.

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

I would have welcomed more detail in the report as to exactly what did take place at the mass. We'd then be in a better position to comment.

Posted by PD (# 12436) on :

I should perhaps add, in the interests of full disclosure, that I am an 'English Use' man myself

PD

Posted by Patrick (# 305) on :

Christ is risen!
As I said, the rite at Christ Church was strictly Prayer Book, except for Holy Week, when we supplemented the BCP with material similar to that used at the time by Associated Parishes. No ashes on the first day of Lent, for instance. I had a collection of the supplementary material, and its inspiration was the medieval English usages. I first visited Christ Church in 1968 while Fr. Raymond Ferris was Rector, on Pentecost Sunday, when the festal procession was so well done, as, indeed, all such processions, including the Litany, were. I believe the sometime Bishop of New York, Mark Sisk, was a curate under Fr. Ferris. A verger always proceeded the processional group. On Thanksgiving, the General Thanksgiving was recited in procession. While I was at Christ Church there were still parishioners that remembered the founding fathers of the use, Fr. Hohly and Canon Stone, so I learned as much as I could from the still living oral tradition and the little that was in writing, mostly service bulletins. No written customary was to be found, although I was asked by the Rector to prepare one for our adaptation to the 1979 BCP.
The 8 AM Eucharist and the 11 AM Eucharist or Choral Mattins were directly out of the Parson's Handbook. The entire Eucharistic Rite was executed at the altar, with deacon and subdeacon aligned with the celebrant for the collects and Anaphora, along side the celebrant when prayers were collectively recited, and turned in towards each other when the celebrant greeted the people. The 9:15 rite was the creature of the then Rector, Fr. Christopher Webber, a fascinating, effective preacher. We celebrated the Liturgy of the Word before the gate to the chancel, the celebrant, or "Presider" as the Rector preferred to say, in a cope, assuming the chasuble only when the sacred ministers ascended to the altar at the Offertory (at which time we invariably sang, "Let all mortal flesh keep silent", at all Eucharists). There were additional musical texts provided in Paschaltide for the 1979 use, such as the text accompanying the Breaking of the Bread. The organist, Robert Owen, was a firm supporter of the English Use, and, although some of the anthems he used were obscure, they were always interesting and executed beautifully.
I recently revisited the parish, on my way back from a dental appointment in Bronxville. I suspect that most of the reliable oral traditions about the Bronxville Use is now inaccessible, since I located in the columbarium most of those to whom I owe my knowledge of Christ Church history. Memory Eternal!

Posted by LostinChelsea (# 5305) on :

LQ referred to "American Sarum," which is available here. From the website: "The history of Anglican Christian worship spans more than fifteen-hundred years, and touches the life of each parish in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. This book narrates how one American parish has owned that history, intentionally incorporating the riches of the medieval Sarum Use into its weekly worship while remaining faithful to the catholic and reformed tradition of the Book of Common Prayer. After nearly 100 years of such worship, Christ Church, Bronxville, New York, has become in its own right an American Sarum."

It's written by a Christ Church priest, now deceased.

I'd give you my own take on the book, but it's sitting on my desk, freshly unwrapped, with about 15 other books that I pretend I have time to read.

Posted by PD (# 12436) on :

The inference I drew from the report was that the parish is straight 1979 BCP. I also got the distinct impression that in a more-or-less full church the reviewer was having a heck of a job seeing what was going on.

PD

Posted by LQ (# 11596) on :

quote:
Originally posted by LostinChelsea:
It's written by a Christ Church priest, now deceased.

Oh my God, I hadn't heard.

Posted by Patrick (# 305) on :

Christ is Risen!
Although we used the Passiontide vestments shown in the photograph on the cover of the book, the Host was never elevated during the Anaphora at Christ Church until, it appears, fairly recently. Prayer Book Catholic, High Church very much so, but no Anglo Catholic ceremonial. Although Dr. Dearmer has the celebrant raise paten and chalice at "which we now offer unto Thee", following the analogous practice in the Byzantine Liturgy, he never, to my knowledge, would provide for the elevation of the species. So, is this still "English Use"?

Posted by LQ (# 11596) on :

That's a D'Ambly set, no?

Posted by Patrick (# 305) on :

Christ is Risen!
The older Eucharistic vestments at Christ Church were, no surprise, Wareham Guild. Perhaps later on they were executed by nearby Almy's clerical apparel.

Posted by Sarum Sleuth (# 162) on :

Virtually everything in the photo is remarkably similar to Warham Guild work still used at Primrose Hill.

SS

Posted by PD (# 12436) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Patrick:
Christ is Risen!
Although we used the Passiontide vestments shown in the photograph on the cover of the book, the Host was never elevated during the Anaphora at Christ Church until, it appears, fairly recently. Prayer Book Catholic, High Church very much so, but no Anglo Catholic ceremonial. Although Dr. Dearmer has the celebrant raise paten and chalice at "which we now offer unto Thee", following the analogous practice in the Byzantine Liturgy, he never, to my knowledge, would provide for the elevation of the species. So, is this still "English Use"?

The first edition of the 'Parson's Handbook' allowed for the elevation of the host and chalice at the Words of Institution. However, by 1902 he decided that the 1549 prohibition of the elevations had never been repealed.

PD

Posted by LQ (# 11596) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Patrick:
Perhaps later on they were executed by nearby Almy's clerical apparel.

Perhaps, but at least in this case I would appear to have remembered aright.

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