[Magdalen] opening churches

[Grace Cangialosi]

Sounds like it went well, Ann—congratulations!

> On Jul 5, 2020, at 3:48 PM, Ann Markle <ann.markle at aya.yale.edu> wrote:
> 
> Well, we had church this morning, and it was pretty good.  We had chairs
> set out in the parking lot, and a couple of the older folks just didn't get
> it, and insisted on moving their chairs, which required a little
> rearranging for family groups, etc.  I learned more than I cared to about
> how the sun moves into the parking lot over the course of an hour or so,
> but could see how we need to rearrange a little for next week.  The weather
> at 9 was perfect, though, and it was so good to be back together to
> worship.  We did Eucharist, which our Bishop permitted, though he preferred
> we do Morning Prayer.  Bread only, I consecrated just a sip of wine and
> consumed it myself.  People filed forward.  All masked, and everyone was
> cooperative.  I think we were all just happy to be back together, and we
> even had maybe 1/3 of our Sunday School kids there.  I was too excited to
> sleep much last night, and was exhausted after just the one service!  We
> had old prayer books to distribute and everyone took theirs home to bring
> next week.
> 
> Ann
> 
> The Rev. Ann Markle
> Buffalo, NY
> ann.markle at aya.yale.edu
> 
> 
>> On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 1:13 PM Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> I agree with you, Grace+, about full Eucharist with no one at all receiving
>> the elements. The Celebrant is required to receive at minimum (with the
>> expectation that at least one other will receive as well). IMHO if no one
>> will receive, just do a Liturgy of the Word, or the Daily Office.
>> 
>> I think sometimes there's a slightly misplaced sense of politeness that
>> says if the people can't receive, the Celebrant should politely not receive
>> either, but then there is really no point in doing the Liturgy of the
>> Eucharist. I'd say the Celebrant's reception of the Sacrament completes the
>> sacrificial action. (Which is also why the Celebrant receives first and
>> then takes the Sacrament to the people, also sometimes reversed by a
>> misplaced sense of politeness.) I think the theology matters and is
>> sometimes replaced by what seems right to individuals.
>> 
>> All this is IMHO, of course, and I'm open to corrections and other views.
>> 
>> On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 11:39 AM Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> First of all, with regard to the sermon, I absolutely agree that it needs
>>> to be relevant, both to the external situation and to the particular
>>> context of the congregation. When I pastored two small mountain mission
>>> churches and went on vacation, I tried at first to use sermons from a
>>> service provided by the national church. But they were totally irrelevant
>>> to our situation, and since a whole year was given at once, they couldn’t
>>> address current issues.  So I ended up having to write my own sermons and
>>> leave them for Morning Prayer.
>>> 
>>> All of that being said, the sermons our diocese is providing are being
>>> done by one of the bishops or diocesan staff and are very current. We
>> only
>>> get them the week before the Sunday they are to be given, and I preview
>>> them. I just figured out last week how to actually plug them into Zoom.
>>> I’ve listened to some of the others, and the quality is mixed. There was
>>> one a couple of weeks ago that I thought was pretty weak, and I wouldn’t
>>> have used it.
>>> 
>>> As to doing the service from my kitchen, it’s the room with the most
>>> light, and I’ve put a cross and a lovely picture on the wall behind me.
>>> This week I’m going to try for a fake background, hopefully using a
>> picture
>>> of the inside of the church.
>>> 
>>> Rolls sound lovely, but I’m only using the Liturgy of the Word portion of
>>> the service of Eucharist, through the peace. Then I’m essentially doing
>> the
>>> last part of Morning Prayer with the Lord’s Prayer, a few prayers from
>> the
>>> BCP, one of the general thanksgiving prayers, Blessing and a Dismissal.
>> It
>>> makes the service short, depending on the length of the readings, but
>>> without music it’s just not a long service.
>>> 
>>> We are allowed to do the full Eucharist if there is another person
>> present
>>> for the consecration, but then we have to use the prayer for a Spiritual
>>> Communion and we are asked not to receive the elements, since no one else
>>> can. That’s the way they’re doing it at the National Cathedral, and I
>> find
>>> it very unsatisfactory, so I’m not doing it that way.
>>> 
>>>> On Jul 5, 2020, at 11:29 AM, Roger Stokes via Magdalen <
>>> magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Grace,
>>>> 
>>>> I have long felt that a sermon should consider the context in which it
>>> is delivered, i.e. be relevant to the congregation. Decades ago I was in
>> a
>>> diocese where the Suffragan "guided by the Spirit" was known to deliver
>>> basically the same sermon whatever the context with a minor variation
>>> according to whether it was a confirmation or the institution of a new
>>> priest. It was a joke around the diocese until I wrote to him to say
>> that I
>>> felt his normal confirmation sermon was not appropriate for the
>>> congregation I was serving then. That must be a problem for anybody
>>> recording a sermon to be played back for congregations up and down the
>> land.
>>>> 
>>>> When you said you deliver the service from your kitchen the naughty
>> side
>>> of me wondered about having some fresh-baked rolls which you take out of
>>> the oven at the start of the service and then use for the sacrament of
>> the
>>> table. (When I was at university we had a roll for communion in the
>> college
>>> chapel.) The kitchen would also be a suitable venue for a week when the
>>> Gospel admonishes us to be like the leaven which leavens the whole dough.
>>> That would go down well with Zoom and a "here's one I made earlier" bit.
>>>> 
>>>> Roger
>>>> 
>>>>> On 05/07/2020 15:07, Grace Cangialosi wrote:
>>>>> We are allowed to have outdoor worship with no more than 50 people,
>>> masks,
>>>>> no group singing and no sharing of communion.  Some churches are doing
>>>>> this, some aren't.  We aren't, for a variety of reasons.  Churches may
>>> also
>>>>> record or stream services from their buildings with no more than the
>>>>> numbers necessary to do that.  We don't have the technology for that.
>>>>> I'm still doing services on Zoom from my kitchen.  Last week and this
>>> I've
>>>>> patched in sermons by our bishop and another staff member.  They're
>>>>> offering us one each week as a break from preaching, if we want. I'm
>> not
>>>>> going to make a habit of that, but it was nice to have a couple weeks'
>>>>> break from preaching. I'd only missed one week of preaching since
>>> December,
>>>>> except Easter, when I sent everyone to the Cathedral website and went
>>> there
>>>>> myself.
>>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Scott R. Knitter
>> Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA
>>