Worship music at the Anglo-Catholic congress

Updated after attending the services.

At the Forward in Faith sponsored International Catholic Congress of Anglicans in Ft. Worth this week, there will be four choral evensong services (Monday-Thursday) and four noontime communions (Tuesday-Friday), all held at nearby St. Andrew’s.

The liturgy for these services have been posted. Not surprisingly, none use the new ACNA liturgy or Rite II. However, despite the participation of key 1928 BCP clergy and laity — and the use of the 1928 BCP at St. Andrew’s — all eight services use Rite I from the 1979 ECUSA prayer book.

Evensong

For the evensong, the opening and closing hymns are traditional, while the anthems are more modern. The service music uses the Hymn #601 responses; however, the remaining service music emphasizes work by Chris Hoyt, the conference music director and the music director at REC’s Dallas cathedral (that uses the 1928 BCP).

Day	Processional Hymn	Anthem	Closing Hymn	Service Music
Mon	Come thou almighty King (H40: 271)	Palestrina: Veni Creator Spiritus	Come down, O love divine (H40: 376)	Psalm, Magnificat, Nunc dimittis: Hoyt
Tue	Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven (H40: 282)	Townend: How Deep the Father's Love for Us	Dear Lord and Father of mankind (H40: 435)	Psalm: J.W. Meachan adapted by Hoyt; Magnificat: Hoyt; Bendedic: Ouseley
Wed	Come ye sinners poor and needy†	Perry: How shall they hear the word of God?	How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord (H40: 564)	Psalm, Magnificat: Hoyt; Bendedic: Ouseley
Thu	Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (H40: 434)	Deep River	O day of rest and gladness (H40: 474)	Psalm, Magnificat, Nunc dimittis: Hoyt

† From Southern Hymnal (1835), set to tune Restoration with a 2015 arrangement.

It was pretty straightforward to find the “Benedic, anima mea” by English composer Frederick Ouseley (1825-1889) — it’s Hymn #677 in H40. With some digging, I was able to find reference to Jerome Webster Meachen (b. 1930), onetime organist of St. John’s (Waterbury, CT) — but did not find any reference in the four most relevant 20th century hymnals (TEH, H40, H82, NEH).

After Monday’s (lengthy) visit to the 16th century, the evensong anthems the rest of the week take on a decidedly contemporary slant:

• “How deep” dates to 1995, but Stuart Townend is best known for his 2001 CCM smash hit “In Christ Alone” (#11 in the most recent ranking of church-performed CCM)
• The text for “How shall they hear” by Michael Perry (1942-1996) and tune by Christopher Hoyt were published in 1982 by Hope Publishing
• “Deep River” uses a 1948 arrangement of this Negro spiritual by Roy Ringwald (1910-1995)

Holy Communion

The hymn selection for the mid-day holy communion is more eclectic, with some very familiar hymns from H40 and some brand new ones. Interestingly, three of the four anthem composers — Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924), Herbert Howells (1892-1983) and Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) were English composers active during the same period, while Harold Friedell (1905-1958) was an American 13 years younger than Howells.

Day	Processional	Gradual	Anthem	Offer-tory Hymn	Closing Hymn	Psalm
Tue	For all the saints (H40: 126)	Come all Christians, be committed (2015)	Stanford: Ye Choirs of New Jersualem	O love, how deep (H82: 449)†	I bind unto myself today (H40: 268)	Jerome Webster Meachen
Wed	The Church's one foundation (H40: 396)	Come labor on (2014)	Howells: Like as the Hart	Thy hand, O God (TEH: 545)	I love thy kingdom, Lord (H40: 388)	Chris Hoyt
Thu	Glorious things of thee are spoken (H40: 385)	Humbly I adore thee (H40: 204)	Friedell: Draw Us in the Spirit's Tether	Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness (H40: 210)	Alleluia! Sing to Jesus! (H40: 347)	Chris Hoyt
Fri	Not by the wisdom of this world (Hoyt, 2012)	Faith of our fathers, taught of old (NEH: 479)	Vaughan Williams: Antiphon	Rise up, O men of God! (H40: 535)	Lift high the cross (H82: 473)	Robert Knox Kennedy

† The tune used was not the familiar Deus Quorum Militium (H40: 344; H82: 448), nor Eisenach (TEH: 459; NEH: 425) nor Cornwall (NEH: 424)

The (uncredited) service music (Kyrie, Gloria, Nicene Creed, Sursum Corda, Sanctus+Benedictus, Lord’s Prayer) is the same for all four days, and appears to correspond to John Merbecke’s 16th century setting (the first ever English language setting).

Update: I left out the 16th century communion hymns (sung by the choir):

• Tuesday: Palestrina: Ego Sum Panis Vivus
• Wednesday: Palestrina: Sicut cervus
• Thursday: Tallis: Verily, Verily, I Say unto You
• Friday: Byrd: Haec dies

Also, before I got to Ft Worth I did not have the morning prayer book which each day included a daily office hymn

• Tuesday: Thy Hand, O God, Hast Guided (NEH: 485)
• Wednesday: Awake, My Soul, and With The Sun (H40: 151)
• Thursday: New Every Morning (H40: 155)
• Friday: Father, We Praise The, Now the Night Is Over (H40: 157 2nd)

Anglo-Catholics gathering in Ft. Worth

Next week’s International Catholic Congress of Anglicans bills itself as the first such Anglo-Catholic gathering since the 1920s. Sponsored by Forward in Faith, the (ACNA) Diocese of Ft. Worth, the Reformed Episcopal Church and others, the speakers include Bp. Keith Ackerman, Bp. Ray Sutton (REC), Bp. Mark Harverland (ACC), and Bp. Michael Nazir-Ali, the retired Bishop of Rochester (England) who in 2002 was runner-up for Archbishop of Canterbury.

More than 250 Anglo-Catholic clergy (and a few laity) will gather in Ft. Worth at the downtown Hilton and and for services a few blocks away at St. Andrew’s Episcopal (of the DoFW). The program runs from 5pm Monday until noon Friday, and includes preaching, communion and keynote addresses by a wide range of Continuing Anglican (ACC, APA, DoHC, PNC) and ACNA bishops (including the current and founding ACNA primate). It also includes bishops from Burma, England, Malawi and Tanzania.

The breakout sessions include

• Sacred and secular views of marriage
• Media strategies (with Anglican journalist David Virtue)
• Theological education
• Anglicans for Life
• Church music (with contemporary church composer Chris Hoyt)

I am particularly excited about the two sessions on Anglo-Catholic church planting: an organizational meeting I’m helping organize on Monday night, and a presentation by Fr. Chris Culpepper (of Christ the Redeemer Ft. Worth) and Fr. Lee Nelson (of Christ Church Waco) on why Anglo-Catholics should be more in active church planting.

I‘ll be there all week, looking to meet others interested in traditional Anglo-Catholic hymnody (and planting new churches to continue the faith):

J. West
anglicanmusic <()> gmail
http://anglicanmusic.blogspot.com
@AnglicanM

Volume II of ACNA liturgy now online

On Wednesday, the ACNA website published the initial chapters of Volume II of its Texts for Common Prayer, available for free download at the ACNA website. These include services for Baptism, Confirmation and Renewal of the Baptismal Vows.

Like a software company, the ACNA is using version numbers and is now publishing a “Change Log” so the public can track the new liturgy versions as they are released.

Change Log
Volume I

• 11-16-13 Version 1.1 released. This release corrects typos found in the original.

• 10-17-13 Version 1.0 released.

Holy Eucharist

• 11-16-13 Version 1.1 released. This release corrects typos found in the original.

• 10-17-13 Version 1.0 released.

Morning and Evening Prayer

• 11-16-13 Version 1.1 released. This release corrects typos found in the original.

• 10-17-13 Version 1.0 released.

The Ordinal

• 11-16-13 Version 1.1 released. This release corrects typos found in the original.

• 10-17-13 Version 1.0 released.

Volume II

• 7-8-15 Version 1.0 released.

Baptism

• 7-8-15 Version 1.0 released.

Confirmation

• 7-8-15 Version 1.0 released.

Reaffirmation

• 7-8-15 Version 1.0 released.

I am guessing that (like the NIV) they won’t be making the old version available, but (hopefully) unlike the NIV the revisions won’t contain major theological changes.

The Liturgy and Common Worship Task Force presented a report at last month’s ACNA Provincial Council in Vancouver. (Since the retirement of Bp. Bill Thompson, the TF is chaired by Bp. Bob Duncan, former ACNA primate). The task force has five subcommittees:

1. Calendar, Collects and Lectionaries is developing a 3-year Sunday lectionary based on Common Lectionary (not RCL) as well as a daily office lectionary and a (reduced) list of saints days.
2. Episcopal Office is working on services for the consecration of church and for “celebration of new ministry.”
3. Psalter and Music is producing a new Psalter and an online resource “that would offer hymnody, praise songs, and traditional anthems related to the lectionary of every Sunday and season of the Christian year” as well as service music. It also states explicitly: “There is no plan to produce a hymnal.”
4. Offices of the Hours and Occasional Rites plans services for noontime and compline prayer services.
5. Pastoral Offices is working on marriage and baptism services.

The report also says it hopes to finish all “working texts” by 2017 so it can begin to incorporate feedback from the trial use (so keeps those cards and letters coming!)

Too much of a good thing

At a recent service, we sang “I bind unto myself this day,” (H40: 268) the traditional St. Patrick’s Day hymn. The Hymnal 1940 Companion helpfully notes:

[The hymn] is attributed by legend to St. Patrick [and] is first found in two eleventh century mss. ... Whether actually by St. Patrick or not, it has many element of a Druid incantation, superstitions of a sort which have long survived in Ireland and elsewhere.
...
The translation, or rather metrical paraphrase, was made by Cecil Frances Alexander for use on St. Patrick’s day in 1889. It was printed in leaflet form and sung throughout Ireland on that day. It first appeared in the [US] Hymnal in 1916.

The setting we use combines St. Patrick (or St. Patrick’s Breastplate) as the tune for most of the verses, and Deirdre for the penultimate verse — a combination created by Vaughan Williams for The English Hymnal (#212). H40 and H82 (#370) have the same seven verses, while the New English Hymnal (#359) moves verse 6 to a separate hymn (#278) with a different tune (Gartan).

I like this familiar hymn, but when we were singing the hymn, I must admit I got bored really quickly. Each verse (except #6) is long and slow, and there were six of them (plus the interlude). TEH would have been worse with nine verses.

Fortunately, both H40 and H82 indicate that verses 3, 4 and 5 — after the introduction of the melody and before the interlude — are optional. In most cases (outside Christmas or maybe Easter) I think five verses are enough, and in this case (IMHO) the music director should have omitted the extra verses. I’d especially take the cut in order to add other music (say a 2nd communion hymn) elsewhere in the service.

So with 3 or less verses, there is no need to mark optional verses, but otherwise — or with particularly long verses — they are merciful for both the singers and the congregation. I’ll keep that in mind if I ever serve on a hymnal committee.

Update: An unusual coincidence: this is the closing hymn of the first communion mass (Tuesday at noon) at next week’s International Catholic Congress of Anglicans. So nearly 300 of us will be singing all 7 verses.

Culture wars in perspective

Luke 1:68-73 (ICEL translation), excerpted from the July 2 Morning Prayer (Rite I) in the 1979 prayer book:

16 The Song of Zechariah Benedictus Dominus Deus Luke 1: 68-79 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;* he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty savior,* born of the house of his servant David. Through his holy prophets he promised of old, that he would save us from our enemies,* from the hands of all who hate us. He promised to show mercy to our fathers* and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham,* to set us free from the hands of our enemies, Free to worship him without fear,* holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.

From an interview with Russian martyr Aleksandr Menn (1935-1990):

No living creature, except for a man, is able to take a risk, and even the risk of death, for the sake of truth. Thousands of martyrs who have lived are a unique phenomenon in the history of all our solar system.