Choral Evensong at Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis
Our conference hotel, the Sheraton City Centre Indianapolis is across the street from the Episcopal Christ Church Cathedral. The Cathedral and their staff are showing wonderful hospitality to our conference faculty and attendees: use of their choir room and church for rehearsals, hosting our organ breakout series. Their organist, the award-winning Simon Thomas Jacobs will present a recital on June 2nd. And as a special treat, their choir is performing a Choral Evensong for us on Monday evening, the opening day of the Colloquium.
The Evensong Service is the crown jewel of the Anglican musical tradition. The Book of Common Prayer combined the two canticles originally sung at Vespers and Compline, the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis, which are sung sequentially at Evensong. Other music includes sung preces (short petitions), an anthem, psalmody with antiphons, as well as an organ prelude and postlude.
Christ Church Cathedral has a well-known choral program including a choir of men and boys, a choir of girls, and a Spanish language choir. The principal choir has recorded and toured extensively, so hearing their music will be a delight.
The canticles on Monday, June 30th, were composed by Harold Friedell (1905-1958), best known as the director and organist and St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York City. The contemporary anthem “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing” is by the British composer Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988). Here’s a performance of that work by the Leicestershire Chorale:
Choral Evensong is a great tradition among the cathedrals and large churches of England. The BBC has broadcast these live for years and now the programs are archived on their website. So you can find all varieties of music within the framework of this service.
And our thanks to Christ Church Cathedral for share their musical gifts with the CMAA Summer Colloquium.
I'm always glad to see ecumenical connections happen involving a choral Daily Office and Liturgy of the Hours. Here's to more of that, in more places! These are liturgies we can pray together.
"It is not licit for the faithful by any manner to assist actively or to have a part in the sacred [rites] of non-Catholics"
"Passive or merely material presence can be tolerated for the sake of honor or civil office, for grave reason approved by the Bishop in case of doubt, at the funerals, weddings, and similar solemnities of non-Catholics, provided danger of perversion and scandal is absent."
Hmmmm. Good to see that the CMAA is supporting the attendance of, even participating in, a protestant evening service.
You are quoting the 1917 Code of Canon Law, which was superseded 31 years ago by the 1983 Code. Please see the Directory for the Application of the Principles and Norms of Ecumenism approved by Pope St. John Paul II and issued in 1993.
So, participating in an heretical sect's evening prayer service is all of the sudden laudable in the "post-Conciliar" Church. We are just being friendly, welcoming, and cordial to our fellow "Christians," even though they have rejected Christ's Church. No wonder the number of conversions has drastically decreased . . . why become a member of Christ's Church when heresy is okay, too?
The effects of Vatican II at their finest.
I'm sorry to see that your parents misspelled your name, "Guiseppe". If you ever want to correct it, I'm sure it'll make your life easier.
The troubles in the Church began before V2: the doctrinal crisis, the widespread defection on morality. But don't let that stop you from blaming them on the Council.
I'll just say this and be done, I didn't see Popes kissing books of non-Christian religions and rings of impostor archbishops before the beloved Vatican II. The Council of Trent, naturally, denounced protestantism – the church hasn't abrogated that council, so how can collaborating with and participating with protestants all of the sudden be seen as "okay?"
I believe a wise, revered Pope once wrote, "What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful." Now, you know the origin of that sentence as well as I do, but I do believe it relates here.
Thanks for the chat.
If you don't believe that preserving the heritage of sacred music is a legitimate area of cooperation with non-Catholic Christians, then of course you should follow your conscience and not attend such a service.
I have to admit that this is an element of the Colloquium I'm not comfortable with. It's very gracious of Christ Church to host this event for us, but it's hard to see how this doesn't subtly promote religious indifferentism. If you read their website, you can see that this particular group of Anglicans believes some very different things from us, including blessing gay relationships. I tremble to think what Saint John Chrysostom or Saint Peter Damian would say about associating with a church which practices something so radically contrary to the gospel.
I would gladly attend a concert, but joint prayer (no matter how beautiful) seems to me to be a step too far. Otherwise, we risk reducing the faith to aesthetic considerations and pretending these massive doctrinal differences don't exist.