WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP THERE?
Years ago, when my wife and I wrote the book, “To God be the Glory,” we entitled one of the chapters, “Why we do what we do.” I wrote this in response to excellent questions asked by people who wanted to know more about Liturgy, and in particular the manual actions at the Altar. I had originally written that chapter as a series with a number of matters being addressed in each Tract/pamphlet. I wrote them in the era of immediate post-liturgical movement/reform/renewal. For Roman Catholics that usually meant “Vatican II,” but the effects of that Movement were realized in other Western Liturgical Churches. For Anglicans, it is terribly difficult now for me to assess how that has operated since my life as an Anglican is highly effected by both the Oxford Movement and the Ritualist Movement, and as a Bishop of a “Biretta Belt Diocese” there were not too many variations from a type of Anglo Catholic norm. I used to joke, back then, that the difference between a “renewed/Liturgical Movement” priest and a Low Church priest was that the former knew why he no longer did what the latter never did.
I have been asked quite a few liturgical questions of late by clergy and laity, who ask me, partly because I am an Anglo Catholic and I have lived through the Fortescue/Ritual Notes/Anglican Missal/American Missal/English Missal (with a wink at the 1928 BCP) and the remarkable changes of the Novus Ordo “style” Liturgical Renewal with Missa ad Orientem and also Versus Populum. Although one can build a case, as the late Liturgical Theologian, Fr. Louis Weil did and would say, “Each has its own integrity and it’s a packaged deal” I think that my age, 79, and my years of ordination, 51, and my seminary career, 1971-1974, allows me to say candidly that what some thought was set in stone simply is not, that local customs and even idiosyncrasies of dioceses, bishops, parishes, and seminaries, often become a type of “norm.” But...I am seeing some unexpected changes! So…when I am asked (quite innocently) “why do priests and bishops (fill in the blank)” I am very cautious about my response.
Admittedly, as those who know me well would know, I am careful in making certain that what I do at the Altar (apart from the most important - the spiritual element) has precedent and can be identified in Liturgical sources. One of the reasons is that I would not want someone to “do what I do,” without having the confidence that I have a reason for doing what I do the way that I do. Also, admittedly as I make various Parish Visitations, I have never had a priest tell me that his parish intentionally does everything the wrong way. Gathering priests together to discuss “correct” Liturgy would be like gathering my wife’s family together to determine the one correct way to make spaghetti sauce!
Therefore, with some fear, given the level of opinion regarding Liturgy, I will begin answering the questions that have come my way, and will probably write something about once a month. Having served on the Standing Liturgical Commission in The Episcopal Church twice, and having served in the ACNA on the Prayer Book and Liturgy Task Force since its inception, and having been a member of the Association of Diocesan Liturgists and Musicians, I will do my best to assume that the questions and answers will be designed to be helpful, not judgmental and never condescending.
I will “tease” you with the first questions I will address in the near future. “Do manual actions change when I am celebrating Eastward Facing versus Westward Facing?” Homework: which sources do you use when you ponder that question? (No — “I have never and will never celebrate facing West” is not a helpful retort.)
Until next time…