Society of Saint Gregory

The Official Liturgy of the CofE is still the Book of Common Prayer, but Common Worship (2000) is an authorised alternative - and confusingly includes both modern and traditional language alternatives of the Offices, as well as (for the Holy Communion) both the Cranmerian shape, and the modern ...

If you're going to have a hymn in the Liturgy of the Word, let it be a Gospel hymn after (and reflecting on) the Gospel, in the Methodist tradition. That could provide an opportunity for a substantial response from the assembly to the highpoint of the LoW, rather than just a muttered 'Praise to you ...

Gradual Hymn? Explain, please. A hymn between the New Testament reading and the Gospel. Interestingly the 1549 Prayer Book and the 1905 English Hymnal both contain the propers for each Sunday which includes the Gradual, translated into English which were chanted at some high very high Anglican ...

Ref. music in Anglican churches. Yes, interesting divergencies between what I encounter in the North of England(mainly rural parts of the NW) and what others find in the South and in London; although this is no more than what one would expect, given regional differences in Catholic behaviour. The ...

If we return to the original message, I note that it relates to an Anglican church. So, here is a 'narrow' response to the question. In the Anglican church 'traditional' and 'contemporary' is to some extent determined by the type of liturgy used. So, by this yardstick the following lines could be ...

I didn't want to start a new thread so ask here, does anyone use 'Eternal Father, strong to save' on Trinity Sunday? Definitely a Trinity hymn, but it seems it is usually only used as the sailors' hymn. I love this hymn too, but have never thought of it in the context of Trinity Sunday. I think ...

I went to a beautiful Tenebrae service at St Barts the Great last year. Here is the link to the notes about this year's service: http://www.greatstbarts.com/Documents/M ... Friday.pdf

The Vigil was particulalry joyful this year and the church was packed. 3 readings (Genesis, Exodus and Ezekiel) plus the Psalms, sung litany, Offertory hymn was At the lamb's high feast we sing and Thine be the Glory for recessional. The choir sand Wondrous Love during Communion. Almost everyone ...

What do you have in mind, londonchurchman? Here is the music page of our website http://www.rcrainham.freeuk.com/music.html . The webite is being re-designed so any comments would be welcomed. I need convincing that posting music lists is productive, though it would save me emailing them to the ...

I simply found week after week a depressing picture of silent congregations, poor choirs, inappropriate hymn choices... Choir and hymns, IMHO, are two of the paths to poor liturgical music. We need to start from scratch, get back to basics. I know I keep banging on about the priorities as laid down ...

Having been on the road for the last 6 months and attending mass across the country I would be more interested to know where the parishes are that have good liturgical music that others can learn from. I am afraid I simply found week after week a depressing picture of silent congregations, poor ...

Pope Benedict reminded us that we don't always have to sing for the music to help our participation in the Liturgy - listening works too. Let me be clear - i'm in no way in favour of silencing the congregation, merely saying that at the Mother church of England and Wales one ought to expect to hear ...

On the subject of assembly music at Mass, I once said to an Anglican friend, “Your advantage is that you have a 500-year tradition. Ours is just 50 years old.” He replied, “And your advantage is that you have a 50-year tradition and ours is 500 years old.” Hymn singing is part of CofE tradition. Man ...

One of the things that annoys me about big Anglican occasions is that they think that foursquare hymns is all the congregation is capable of singing so that's all they give them. I attended one big service in St Paul's a few years ago which had no less than nine hymns for the congregation. Ugh! If ...

Talking of Carols, are most of you also planning a Carol service based losely on the Nine Lessons tradition? My local chuch made a valiant attempt last year, and are doing the same this year on the evening of the 23rd.