[Magdalen] Clergy-musician dispute redux.

[Jay Weigel]

Here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia it's a little different. There is
no secular Advent as such, but there is definitely a religious one. There
aren't a lot of Episcopalians (one big church in Harrisonburg, some small
ones elsewhere), but there are a LOT of Lutheran churches large and small,
and there is a big Mennonite presence...and Mennonites observe Advent, not,
perhaps quite as we do, but they observe it. And so it kind of spills over
into the Presbys and the Methodists a bit. The Baptists, being mostly
either Southern Baptists or that "independent" kind of the Falwell stripe,
don't truck with that "papist" kinda stuff, so there you are.

In my parish in Tennessee, we were big on Advent, although on the last
Sunday thereof we did have the Christmas pageant. When the priest who
eventually ran me out of that parish arrived, he decided after a couple of
years that the pageant was not happening again on that Sunday and moved it
to what is colloquially known as the "zoo mass", the Christmas Eve 5 pm
"family service" to which people bring their kiddos who otherwise never
attend church and don't know how to behave.

On Mon, Jun 12, 2017 at 11:59 AM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

>
>
> In a message dated 6/12/2017 11:11:58 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> jay.weigel at gmail.com writes:
>
> Well,  now that's just silly, Grace! Advent is Advent, after all! What the
> actual  heck did they expect? If they wanted Christmas carols they should
> have gone  to a Baptist church where they don't know what Advent is! /s
> (Advent is  actually one of my very favorite seasons and has some of the
> best music,  especially in the Lutheran  church.)>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>
>
>
> In my hometown in NW WI, the ELCA Lutherans, Methodists, and Baptists
> have all capitulated to the secular introduction of Christmas music
> during the Advent season.  Only the RC's are holdouts. *The  nearest
> Episcopal church is 50 miles away at Spooner, WI in the Episcopal
> Diocese of Eau Claire - hence my "discovering" the Anglicans while
> listening to the Coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953.
>
> It doesn't even occur to my relatives on both sides of the family,
> that there is an Advent season, though they have all embraced the
> Advent wreath and candles, most often with the third rose candle.
> There are early Christmas "cantatas", and by the first week in Advent
> the local high school has had its Christmas concert.
>
> A fellow British resident in dermatology at UM-Minneapolis used to
> describe American Christmas as "a month of foreplay without orgasm."
>
>
>
> David S.
>
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