Travel Log - Day 10

I decided that today was the day for the St. Paul's Cathedral tour - the whole thing, all the way to the top of the iconic dome that survived WWII and had many historic photos taken during the blitz.

Photography is not allowed inside the Cathedral. I listened to the self-guided tour on the main floor, and then headed for the door to the first set of spiral stairs to the Whispering Gallery. This is the walk around the inside of the dome, and still does not allow photography. Then I continued to the Stone Gallery - the level outside at the base of the dome.

 

 

Then on up to the Golden Gallery, with an incredible view of London!

After some lunch and a nap, I went back down to St. Michael's Cornhill, just a couple of blocks from St. Paul's, for an Ancient Society of College Youths 12-bell practice. For the second time with the College Youths, I was able to ring Stedman Cinques (11-bell method) with some coaching from behind.

Afterwards, I was invited for a drink at The Counting House, and the monthly meeting. Not being a member of the society, a ringing friend sponsored me as a visitor. 

 Thank you to the members of the ASCY for a wonderful evening!

Travel Log - Day 9

I went to the Schott Music Store this morning. (Schott is one of the most important music publishing companies, based in Germany.) I didn't find anything I needed for organ, but I found a piece by Satie for clarinet and piano in the sale bin. I bought it for Andrew.

Then I walked over to Selfridges department store. (I had visited Harrads department store on my 2010 visit.) Some things looked more modern that the recent four-season show "Mr. Selfridge".

They still take much pride in their window displays - this season referring to Shakespeare's plays:

And they had some really nice things in the men's department!

In the evening, it was a return visit to St. Vedast, Foster Lane (right across from St. Paul's Cathedral). I had rung there on a Sunday back in 1980. One of the other ringers had been taught by my mentor, Marie Cross.

 

A post WWII poster in the ringing room and the bell:

  

There are only six bells, and the tenor is about the weight of St. Michael's tenor in downtown Charleston. They are nice to ring on.

Travel Log - Day 8

A quiet Sunday after a busy week.

I attended the Latin Low Mass at St. James Spanish Place. They were going to have a High Mass later, but the new rite, so I opted for the Low Mass. I chatted with some nice people at the coffee hour afterwards, including the Celebrant, Fr. Cullinan, who had given a presentation at Sacra Liturgia UK on Friday. Then I went over to the Oratory for the last part of their High Mass.

Later in the afternoon, I took a train from Waterloo Station out to Kingston upon Thames to ring at All Saints Church for their evening service. There were a few ringers there that I had met and rung with before, including Andrew Bolton, who remembered me from the Universities Association ringing tour of 1980! He has sent me an email for contact with the UA for future reference. Maybe some year I will go on that ringing tour again.

Travel Log - Day 6 (addendum)

The camera seems to like the back of my head!

To my left are Jenny Donelson and David Hughes.

More photos of the Mass can be found here.

Travel Log - Day 8 - Reflections on the last week

Liturgical aspects and considerations two days after Sacra Liturgia UK 2016:

Now that Msgr. Newton has met me and knows my Anglican Use background, he asked me after the Solemn High Mass at Our Lady of the Assumption & St. Gregory what I thought of it. I told him I liked it, but … well, it wasn’t what I expected. And I immediately remembered a significant aspect of pre-Vatican II Liturgy that people on both sides of The Pond might not be aware of. I was expecting to participate a bit more than just responses and a couple of hymns. The music performed was wonderful – it was a beautiful Mass. It just wasn’t anything like what we were doing at Our Lady of Walsingham 15 years ago. Fr. Moore and I were on the same page all those years with the level of congregational involvement.

I will expand on that in a moment. Let me first give a parallel.

Sunday morning I attended a Low Mass at St. James Spanish Place. (I might go back there for a High Mass before I leave, but that’s what fit in my schedule this morning.) The Celebrant was Fr. Michael Cullinan, who had given a talk Friday on The Ethical Character of the World Liturgically: Stewardship of Creation and Care for the Poor. We chatted at the coffee hour in the crypt afterwards. I mentioned my surprise that no one responded to anything, and didn’t even follow all the postures I was used to – nor did they say the Pater noster, not even the last line. Only the Altar server responded to anything. Father was greatly surprised when I told him that our congregations respond to all but the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, the way Pope Pius XII had instructed for the “Dialog Mass”. He told me that never happened in any Diocese in the UK! The Bishops were dead set against the congregation doing anything that innovative. He was even more astounded when I described learning at least four of the Gregorian Ordinaries in parochial grade school, and that classes took turns learning the Psalm Tone Propers for High Masses while everyone else present was expected to sing the Ordinary and hymns.

So, in the USA, both Catholic and Episcopalian congregations were far more “active” than their counterparts in the UK. All American hymnals, both Catholic and Episcopalian, have had Mass Ordinaries (or Communion Settings) for generations. No hymnal in the UK has ever had any of that – ONLY hymns. And both EF Masses and Anglican Ordinariate Liturgies in the UK are going to lean heavily on choral music, while in the USA both are going to allow the congregation to share in more of the singing. Until chatting with both Msgr. Newton and Fr. Cullinan, I had not realized this. I’m not sure they realize it either. This means that everything we talked about at the Conference, when it comes down to practicing in the parishes, is probably not going to as “universal” as we might expect.

Is this a problem? I don't think it's as big a problem as the over-arching need for Liturgical Catechesis. It might not even be as important as allowing Laint in the to be the tool of evangelization that it can and should be, or for the Ordinariate to blossom and grow in its own patrimony. I'm just suggesting that we all be aware that our Liturgies are still not going to be all the same - and noticeably so.

Travel Log - Day 7

And now, for something completely different!

Duxford! Spitfires! Mustangs! and more!

The Flying Legends Airshow is one of the largest and most popular airshows in Britain. It takes place at IWM (Imperial War Museum) Duxford (just south of Cambridge), which has been an active air field since WWI. During WWII, it was the closest field to London, and had the first squadron of Supermarine Spitfires. This most successful fighter was designed by R.J. Mitchell, and was produced in many variants, but only just over 50 are airworthy today. There were 12 of them here (and one Hawker Hurricane)!

There was also a MK I Blenheim bomber built by Bristol:

Two Messerschmitts and a herd of Mustangs:

Here is some Spitfire action:

The Finale was the "Balbo", i.e. all the fighter planes in the show flying by. In this case, that includes them taking off in groups of three, in close succession, most of them from the grass as they would have back in the day, but that video is larger than I can upload here. So here is the finale fly-by:

There are also museum buildings for land warfare, the largest collection of American air power outside the USA, and a collection of British civil air travel, propeller driven through Concorde. You may be aware that there is a decommissioned Concorde at the Air & Space Museum in D.C., and also another at the USS Intrepid museum on the Hudson River in NYC. But this one was the prototype - the one that was used for extensive testing. It actually flew faster than the production model. Now you can pay the price at either US museum, and get somewhat close in DC, and walk through in NYC. But at Duxford, £3.00 buys an adult ticket to ALL 10 AIRCRAFT!

(You can follow the links above to see more. I didn't take photos of everything!)

Travel Log - Day 6

I can't believe it's over already! Four days have flown by so fast!

Here is the room where we received all the papers and had our discussions:

At the beginning of this morning's session, we all sang the "Veni Creator". I had a short lunch break with Michael Andrews, Director of the Office of Worship in the Diocese of Lansing, at the Imperial College cafeteria. He knows Jason Vaughan.

The main focus this afternoon was the Anglican Ordinariate. Msgr. Andrew Burnham gave a talk on the process and sources used for the recently publish "Divine Worship: The Missal". He also mentioned how, with all the prior work done over the last 20 years in the US producing the "Book of Divine Worship", the dominating use of Tudor/Elizabethan English has been made even more traditional in The Missal, and British members of the Oridnariate are having trouble getting used to it. You see, they have been using, even while still in the C of E, the RC Sacramentary of 1974. They desired the authority of the Pope in place of the ultimate authority of the British Parliament - since neither the Monarch nor the Archbishop of Canterbury have the final say on what happens in the Church.

I finally got a photo taken of me as I responded to his talk:

I sort of apologized for the US Anglican Use having given them a starting point so "high", but that, since the Pastoral Provision for the Anglican Use was strictly limited to the US, we were sort of on our own to produce everything we needed. I also asked for prayers for Fr. James Parker and his wife, Mary Alma, both of whom have died within the last couple of years. Fr. Parker was instrumental in just about everything that happened in and to the Anglican Use. He was also our Ancient Order of Hibernians Chaplain for many years.

I had a nice snack after the conference was over with Jenny Donelson, David Hughes, and Fr. David Friel. Then we went over to Our Lady of the Assumption & St. Gregory on Warwick Street (in Soho) for the Anglican Ordinariate Solemn High Mass. It was very beautiful, but quite different from what we used to do at Our Lady of Walsingham. The church is quite small, and they have both regular OF Mass and Ordinariate Mass in the same sanctuary requiring quite a bit of furniture shifting between Masses. If the Conference photographer doesn't upload any photos of the final liturgy, I'll go to Mass there later in my visit and take some photos to post here.

As I said, this week has flown by!

Speaking of flying, I'll go out to the Flying Legends Airshow outside of Cambridge tomorrow. That's sort of the last day I have totally scheduled - then I can just be a tourist next week.

Travel Log - Day 5

Yet another super day, weather wise! I decided it was time to break out the seersucker and white bucks - just a bit chilly in the morning, but perfect by noon.

The talks were good today. The most notably to me was Bishop Alan Hopes who is part of ICEL (International Committee on English in the Liturgy). He explained the process and progress of the new translation of the Divine Office including the Office Hymns.

(All of this year's talks will be available soon on the Conference's website.)

I had a very nice lunch, picnic style in the park behind the Oratory, with my friend, Eve Farren. We had met back in 2010 looking for the Catholic Cathedral in Edinburgh to go to Mass, and have been friends since. We had a very nice chat.

Then, after the Mass, Dr. William Mahrt and I had a very nice dinner at the Genting Casino Cromwell Mint. No, we didn't play any roulette, but the dinner was exquisite and the service high class!

Tomorrow's last presentation will be by Msgr. Andrew Burnham, of the UK Anglican Ordinariate. The final Liturgy will be a Solemn Mass using the Divine Worship Missal at the church of Our Lady of the Assumption & St. Gregory, with Msgr. Keith Newton celebrating.

Travel Log - Day 4

Another really nice day in London!  Interesting talks in the morning, but the afternoon included a talk about music in priestly formation at the seminaries by my friend, Jenny (Dr. Jennifer) Donelson. Then there was a panel discussion on sacred music in general, with some emphasis on how to sing the Propers instead of hymnody. I posited from the audience (an American on British soil) that everyone should consider adding Anglican Chant to there repertoire of Psalm singing options.

The closing Liturgy of the day was Pontifical OF Mass (new rite) with Cardinal Sarah. Here are a couple of the published photos that include me - barely!

You can see all the photos here.

Then I had dinner with Mary Jane and Elizabeth again - this time just up Knightsbridge Street from the Oratory at "Bunch of Grapes" pub.

As Scarlet said, "tomorrow is another day." And with that, I'm "Gone with the Wind"!

Travel Log - Day 3

Sacra Liturgia UK 2016 began today! I registered in the morning, but the first session was Solemn Vespers of St. Anthony Maria Zaccaria from the 1961 Breviary at the London (aka Bromptom) Oratory. The Celebrant was Most Reverend Dominique Rey, the Bishop of Fréjus-Toulon. The music was provided by the Oratory Choir. The music was a beautiful mix of Gregorian chant and polyphony, with the congregation singing on some of the chant. Photography is not allowed in the building, so here are a couple of internet photos.

Then we had the official convening of the Conference, with all the introductions, etc., leading up to the opening presentation by His Eminence Robert Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Within his talk he called for a study of the "Reform or the Reform", that virtually no Catholic has really seen, 50 years later, the correct implementation of Vatican II. He also called for priests and bishops to "return to the Lord" by changing their orientation at Mass to the liturgical east - with, of course, sufficient catechization beforehand - this coming Advent Season. You can follow the proceedings on the Conference's FaceBook page.

Then we heard the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory School, directed by Charles Cole, across the street at Holy Trinity, Prince Consort Road.

Finally, I had dinner with a long-time friend, Mary Jane Ballou and her sister (also attending the Conference, as last year as well) at a nice Italian restaurant with a strolling tenor.

A nice day, and I'm ready for another.