They don’t seem to know what they want to be. Well, other than more and more like Southern Baptists, Pentecostals and Seventh-Day Adventists. Are those denominations trying to be more and more like Anglicans? Ha! No, it seems to be only one-direction.

Gospel music at a Coronation in an Anglican Liturgy? I’ve seen it all now! Yes, the world has gone insane. Was this done in the name of “inclusiveness?” I call it political correctness run amok.

Gospel music and the “appearance” of incense in the same Liturgy at the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Paul (aka Washington National Cathedral)? Yes, that’s all part of the Century of Insanity. Never mind that they didn’t put any coals in the thurible at WNC. Who made that decision/change? I guess they said: “We just like to give the “appearance” that we’re using incense — not actually using any — on the odd occasion.” I’m referring to the First Sunday of Easter. How long before Cathedral Organist Thomas Sheehan is shown the door? I mean, they don’t really need him since they have that tacky praise band. Then they won’t have to tune the Cathedral Organ.

Some High Church Anglican parishioners are asking if the Anglican/Episcopal Church has been infiltrated/hijacked by a bunch of evangelicals, especially since the ordination of women, and that some of these syrupy Low Church women priests are really evangelicals. I wouldn’t doubt that. Some women priests come to mind for me and they could easily pass as Southern Baptists, I can tell you that.

For the Coronation, they had a Black group in the Nave singing and dancing in place a gospel piece right after the reading of the Gospel. WTF? The looks on people’s faces showed they were put-off by this. This fed the stereotype that only Blacks can perform gospel music which of course is absolute rubbish. Speaking of Low Church, I saw no one in the Nave bowing to the processional crosses and no one — including the Dean — made the three signs of the cross before the Gospel reading. She was as bottom-basement Low Church as the rest of them! Don’t the priests in the C of E bow to the High Altar as is done elsewhere? I haven’t seen a priest in the C of E bow to anything, including each other. They can easily pass as Southern Baptists who don’t do anything but sit and stand.

I only saw part of the Coronation — a few minutes is all I could take — because nearly all networks were talking over the Organist and the Choir of Men and Boys of Westminster Abbey, and giving a “play by play.” They never talk over a pop culture musical group though. No, it’s only “classical music” they enjoy disrespecting. The talking head on France24 was telling us what the Choir was singing — a piece by William Byrd — but because he was talking over it we couldn’t hear the piece. Ugh. These people!

I’ve noticed that the Royal Family is about as Low Church as you can get. When The Queen was alive, she was described as “notoriously Low Church.” She usually looked bored by the whole thing just like the rest of them. The only time any of them perked up was with Kate and William. They really got into some of the descants that the trebles sang at St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral. William looked down the row to see The Queen’s reaction to the descant: deadpan. Couldn’t care less. Camille always looked like she wanted to be somewhere else and was also utterly bored as she mumbled the words to the hymns.

There was a time — years ago — where I would have looked forward to watching the Coronation and seeing a High Church Liturgy and HEARING the Choir of Men and Boys and the Organist. These days? Forget it. I’ve learned that the Liturgy will be disrespected by being talked over and High Church is non-existent before cameras in the C of E.

Even the Low church parish that I was Organist in years ago I now realise was more “middle” than Low, even though they called themselves Low Church. They weren’t. They bowed to the processional cross (it was a short procession), genuflected at the side of the pew, blessed themselves, made the three signs of the cross before The Gospel and so forth. None of this I see in the C of E today. As if they have abandoned it all, if they ever did any of that in the first place.

Or is it that the Church of England — especially the priests — doesn’t want to do anything that looks at all Catholic? Anglicans and Catholics already do different things at different places in the Mass. When Notre Dame de Paris was open, if I remember correctly, when the processional crosses passed, the congregation genuflected in place and or blessed themselves. They did not bow as Anglicans are taught to do in Confirmation Class. For the Gospel, at Notre Dame they once again blessed themselves. They didn’t make the three signs of the cross as Anglicans do (make a cross on the forehead, mouth and heart for thought, word and deed). And Notre Dame was High Church. They even used Sanctus Bells which seems to have disappeared in the Anglican Communion. Southern Baptists and Pentecostals have never heard of Sanctus Bells so maybe that’s why they have disappeared in Anglican churches.

Anglicans need to decide who and what they are, since at the moment they don’t seem to have a clue, especially in the low church Church of England and at Washington National Cathedral with their praise band which they — for now — sanitise by calling it “The Cathedral Contemporary Ensemble.” How Orwellian. It’s a fooking praise band in a church of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

A friend of mine asked me where did High Church (Anglo Catholic) protocol begin? He asked: Did it begin in the States. No. It began in the Church of England in the Oxford Movement:

“Anglo-Catholicism traces its immediate roots to a time when the Church of England was in crisis during the mid-1800s. For decades modernity had been slowly infiltrating the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Church of England and producing an anemic church that lacked much of a soul.J ”

That sounds like today. History is repeating itself.

“What is the origin of Anglo-Catholicism? Anglo-Catholicism, movement that emphasizes the Catholic rather than the ‘Protestant’ heritage of the Anglican Communion. It was an outgrowth of the 19th-century Oxford Movement (q.v.), which sought to renew Catholic thought and practice in the Church of England.”

I know that the conservative BBC — in their black and white world where one is either “Protestant” or Catholic — thinks in terms of the Anglican Church/CoE as “Protestant” but it really isn’t and I’ve never talked with any Anglicans who thought of themselves as “Protestant.” Maybe the Low Church crowd does but I never hung out with them. In fact, the last time the Book of Common Prayer and The Hymnal were updated in the States, they removed the word “Protestant.” The old books read “The Protestant Episcopal Church.” The new books read, “The Episcopal Church.” Related: Are Anglicans “Protestant?” (No.)

Assuming that Anglo Catholic in England means the same/is the same definition of that which I’m writing about, there are many Anglo Catholic churches in England, including London. But clearly Saint Paul’s Anglican Cathedral and Westminster Abbey are not one of them. I guess they appear on the “bottom basement” Low Church list. And Washington National Cathedral appears on the “waiting list” for approval in the Southern Baptist Convention. Or upon reflection, I think Pentecostal is more appropriate for them based on the gospel music one hears there from their praise band.