[Magdalen] Parish in crisis, was Re: Some Christmas music

[Scott Knitter]

On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 10:08 AM, Marion Thompson
<marionwhitevale at gmail.com> wrote:
> Worshipping a moment in time like a fly entombed in amber for all time.  So
> sad, so destructive.

Very true. And the thing is, it's not like the first time change has
happened in the parish liturgy, and even now the changes have not
amounted to anything like a dismantling of our Catholic heritage, as
they claim. And guess what: some of the stalwart, orthodox, Catholic
rectors of the past made momentous changes themselves. One gradually
instituted the non-communicating High Mass (if you want Communion, go
to 8 o'clock) and another accepted the rector job only on condition
that non-communicating Masses be done away with. The rector in the 70s
embraced the review process for the eventual 1979 BCP, having the
parish try the green book and zebra book and submit lots of feedback,
having Rite I for a month and Rite II for a month, settling on Rite II
but with Rite I congregational settings of the Mass. There was
probably upheaval when the church was reordered and the choir sent to
the west gallery. Or when gas lighting was put in and then when
electric ones arrived.

Change happens! And it is usually not all-disruptive, and it can be
embraced. The Save Ascension group really seems bent on a
scorched-earth approach to getting 100% of its own way: rehire the
organist and choirmaster Fr. Cobb dismissed, do everything the way it
was done when they were on the staff, and we'll all be happy. Will
anyone be in the pews, though?

O Wisdom, who came from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end
to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly: come, and teach
us the way of prudence.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8-xOvFeCK6aOGMzNDc0NjAtZDg1MS00NWFlLTkxNjEtZWJjNmZmN2Q2NTBk

-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA