two visits to St. Mark's

[kivrin]

August 27, 2004

On Monday evening I went to evening prayer and mass at St. Mark’s, an Anglo-Catholic church not far from where I work. I’d admired the building when I came down to interview, and noted that they offer evening prayer every weeknight. The service wasn’t what I expected. The text was a mixture of Rite II and either Rite I or something older. It worked, and it was quite nice, really, but it was unfamiliar and a bit difficult to manage, especially at the pace the priest was taking us through it. The pace of the entire thing was far, far too fast – sort of a Cmplt Wrshp Srvc (abgd), or a Big Sacred Tongue Twister. If you’re going to use the pretty words, how about we hear and say the pretty words, not gabble them? If we’re going to gabble we can read a Biblical paraphrase and use some The Mod Mass for the liturgy. And despite the handy little red xes on the order of worship, I couldn’t get all the crossings right, and certainly not the bows, and even after nine years (holy… wow) of intermittent attendance at high-ish Episcopal churches I genuflect like a Baptist. And the choir stalls were so high that when I knelt the rail was level with my eyes, and short is a word that’s never been used to describe me.

***

Today
Last night I went to evening prayer at St. Mark's again. I was the only person there, aside from the lay officiant who was leading, which was nerve-wracking until I'd bobbled a few times and realized he wasn't going to be annoyed, but would just prompt me and keep going. I don't know if he fluffed the Magnificat because I rattled him or simply to make me feel better, but we grinned at each other across the chancel, backed up and started again. I'm still not best pleased with the pace they seem to favor taking things, because it feels like the very worst evangelical nightmare of liturgy when people start muttering "hailmaryfullofgracethelordiswiththee" as if the subtext is "I say these words not because they have any inherent meaning but because the repetition has some kind of magical effect... A-men." When I had a handle on things, though, it was lovely, our two voices in the dim vaulted church.