Well really it’s the frustrating camera work by Streaming Media & Iconoscope Productions, as well as the Low Church congregation and the “Dry as Dust” hymn playing.

Church camera crews and their Greeting Card Videography: It requires fast-forwarding through the videos to return to seeing the Liturgy, which is what viewers are there for. One does not need to see “religious” images reminding one that one is in a church. Sigh. One already knows one is in a church! (Doh). But church camera crews don’t seem clear on the concept. I suggest they look for another job.

I’m talking specifically about companies like Streaming Media & Iconoscope Productions who produce — what I call — the greeting card videos for Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue (Anglican Communion). Their sheeple greeting card videography sparked this article.

What’s greeting card videography? Greeting card videography is where those behind the camera love to show — as often as possible and at the expense of the Liturgy — the scenes in a church that one would most likely see and want to buy on the cover of a greeting card. Scenes such as stained glass windows or religious statuary or a picture of the High Altar or banks of lighted candles or, of course, flower bouquets. They are all scenes that one expects to see on the cover of a religious greeting card. It’s very sheeple. In the context of a recorded video of a Liturgy, this is also very mainstream and very dumbed-down and it’s intended to play to the sheeple who know nothing about an Anglican Liturgy. Although some viewers may, but those behind the camera lens certainly do not. And the people behind the cameras are ignorant about an Anglican Liturgy as well. In fact, researching for this article, Saint Thomas’s production crew — it was either Streaming Media or Iconoscope Productions — ignorantly referred to the Nave in Saint Thomas as “the Sanctuary.” Wrong! The sanctuary is what Southern Baptists call the main room in the church for their “worship services” as they call them. Anglicans call the main room the Nave, and Anglicans know that the Sanctuary is the area at the front of the Nave, where the free-standing altar is, although Saint Thomas does not have a free-standing altar.

Are Streaming Media or Iconoscope Productions used to mainly working with Southern Baptists? Is that why they are ignorant about Anglican/Episcopal churches?

The Liturgy is the “Story” they’re supposed to be telling

Church camera crews seem to think they have to create a “story” to tell when recording an Anglican Liturgy. They don’t understand that the Liturgy is the “Story” they struggle to present. They should just let the Liturgy play out and happen, and show it. But the “greeting card” camera crews can’t do that. They are easily bored by choristers, by the organist and pretty much anything that one would not see on the cover of a greeting card.

With good camera work, what video viewers should see is the same thing that the congregation sees — the lens of the camera should be no different than the eyes of the people sitting in the pews — but that’s not often the case. So when the congregation sees the acolytes process towards the High Altar after the reading of The Gospel, the video viewers do not get to see that procession because the idiots behind the cameras change the camera to show the same stained glass windows again instead — that one would see on a greeting card — windows they have shown umpteen times already.

Sigh. I give up. It’s too frustrating.

I think the camera crew for Saint Thomas Church should do a series of videos entirely on the stained glass windows. A lengthy video — hours long — on each window where they pan the window over and over and park the lens of the camera on the window. Maybe only then will they get sick of looking at the windows having seen them repeatedly as they subject video viewers to doing.

The “Story” known as the Liturgy is not stained glass windows, it’s not statuary, it’s not the crevices of the High Altar, it’s not about banks of flaming candles, it’s not about flower bouquets. All of those things are accessories to the Liturgy.

And this greeting card videography is why — along with the frustration I’ve experienced in observing the Low Church congregation at a High Church — that I’ve stopped watching the Liturgies at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue. I can’t take it anymore. It has become too frustrating for me to watch. The cameras consistently disrespect/get bored with the choristers, the organist and other parts of the Liturgy. They even get bored when the priest is reading The Prayers of the People during Mass and take the camera off of her and show — can you guess? — more stained glass windows viewers have seen many times before. This production crew is relentless in showing stained glass windows. Sigh. Groan.

Pre-COVID, from what I read online about Saint Thomas was that the (resident) congregation was “the devout of the devout.” That’s what people wrote in comments online who had attended Mass or Evensong at Saint Thomas.

Well, I think COVID has changed the congregation. The congregation these days — most of it — could easily pass as Southern Baptists. They don’t follow any of the Anglican protocol I was taught in Confirmation Class. And I suspect most there are not there for the music since most have no musical training or a trained ear for choral excellence. There may be one or two people in the congregation from The Juilliard School or Manhattan School of Music (other than the Faculty in the Saint Thomas Choir School), but I suspect most in the Low Church congregation see the choristers as “they’re just the Choir.” [Scream!] No, the superb, renowned and esteemed Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys are not at all “just the Choir.” They are amongst the finest in the world and within the worldwide Anglican Communion. In fact, Saint Thomas has the only residential Choir School in the United States.

I very much liked Jeremy Filsell when he was Artist in Residence at Washington National Cathedral in the District of Columbia — he filled in for Cathedral Organist Benjamin Straley when Benjamin was on holiday — but I’m not too hot on Jeremy at Saint Thomas. He seems to be an anti-descant guy and his hymn playing with few exceptions is as “dry as dust.” He rarely uses the full resources of the organ, just like the other two organists. He does this — what I call — “doodling” after The Gospel reading. For a High Church, one expects a rather grand and glorious organ improvisation after The Gospel, perhaps in the style of Herbert Howells. But what one gets from Jeremy is what one heard after The Gospel reading on 23 July 2023. That’s a “style” he’s been using lately.

The “greeting card videography” camera work disrespects the choristers and the priests in favour of showing, again, what one expects to see on a greeting card: stained glass windows, statuary, every part of the High Altar, banks of flaming candles and flower bouquets. None of that however is part of the Liturgy. The Liturgy is what is printed on the service leaflet. It’s what the congregation sees happening before them. That’s the Liturgy. I see no one sitting in the pews craning their necks to look up at the stained glass windows, craning their necks to see the details of the High Altar, or standing at the back of the Nave to stare for minutes at a time at flaming candles. I also see no one showing an interest in flower bouquets.

My friend asked:  Are these “greeting card” camera crews trying to copy Diane Bish’s Joy of Music and her production crew?  Is that what’s going on? I don’t know. I think they’re just inept and in the wrong job quite frankly. But if they are trying to mimic Bish’s programme , they are clueless as to what Diane’s camera crew did.  I watched all of her programmes many times when they were on television regularly each night. I take it they never seriously watched her excellent programme. To begin with, Diane was in a different parish or Cathedral Church every week where the interior was different in each church.  She was not in the same church every week like the cameras at Saint Thomas. With Saint Thomas, the interior is the same every week and regular viewers have seen these greeting card scenes I’ve listed over and over and over and over again.  And with new viewers, they have seen similar scenes and these expected sheeple scenes before, just different variations of windows, statuary, candles, altar and flowers. Diane’s production crew (Haney Productions) never disrespected her or the music at the expense of showing the things that the cameras show at Saint Thomas.  Diane’s programme was excellent, it was well-done.  With her programme, I didn’t feel frustrated watching it as I do with the people behind the cameras at Saint Thomas. At Saint Thomas, the people behind their cameras seem to be clueless. 

Recently, when I have been watching the Liturgy, my friend looked at my screen and rhetorically asked, “Have they shown the windows yet?  I said: Yes, many times unfortunately, but I tried to fast-forward through that, missing some of the music from the choristers which the cameras should have been showing but didn’t because the camera was on windows again. The camera returned to the Choir when they sang their last chord of the piece! Sigh. He asked: What about the statuary and the High Altar and back to the windows?”  Yeah, that too. I’d like to tell their camera crew to FO.  I’ve had it up to here with them, which is why I’m going to stop watching the Liturgies from Saint Thomas. He asked: Are the priests aware of any of this? I suspect not. I doubt any of them watch the videos of the Liturgies. They have too much to do.

An Anglican Liturgy should not be frustrating to watch and enjoy, but it is extremely frustrating with the current production crew at Saint Thomas Church.  I can’t stand them.  They’re in the wrong job.