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

[Marion Thompson]

Where there is no change, no evolution however slow, only closed minds, 
there will be stagnation and ultimately extinction.

Marion, a pilgrim

On 12/17/2015 11:28 AM, Scott Knitter wrote:
> 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
>