Anglicans and their identity crisis
Low Church infiltrates High Church? In an attempt to change it? Well, they’re not able to do that because the priests remain High Church at Anglo-Catholic parishes despite what the plebs in the congregation are.
But that’s what seems to have happened especially since the COVID pandemic. I first noticed this frustrating situation where Low Church people are in the pews at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue. But based on what I read online about the parish, people who had been to Saint Thomas for a Liturgy pre-COVID described the parish as, “the devout of the devout.” Well, they’re certainly not now! Then the COVID pandemic came and Saint Thomas installed their video production system, and then some congregation returned to the pews under COVID protocol. Pre-COVID (only audio available of their LIturgies), their congregational singing sounded like the Nave was full of people and they sounded almost rehearsed. They had the best congregational singing I had heard anywhere. Today that’s not the case at all. Did most of the congregation leave New York City during COVID? As of November 2023, most in the pews are not “the devout of the devout” at all. They’re just the opposite. They remind me of Southern Baptists and Southern Baptists don’t do anything but sit and stand. Then I looked at another parish of the Anglican Communion and they’re similar.
Has this been a deliberate effort amongst Low Church people to infiltrate or change the congregation of what few High Churches there are? Perhaps. With some people that’s the case, but what I see in the pews where I look are people who look like they’re in the wrong church. Some are usually standing with their arms crossed, not taking part in the Liturgy at all. They’re often in the back. They look like they think they’re in a museum or something and don’t know what to do, so they’re watching. Some of them look like they’re waiting for a bride to come down the aisle during the procession. Do they think they’re really at a wedding? They turn to watch the procession. What’s there to watch? This turning to watch the procession is also new from my experience. I’ve not seen that before. When I’ve been in congregations in Anglican Liturgies, the congregation remained facing the High Altar. No one turned around to watch the priests or the Choir of Men and Boys or the thurifer or the processional crosses. When the processional cross passed our pew, we bowed (we didn’t lamely nod like many do today). I don’t see much bowing today. Why? Don’t put yourselves out people! What has happened to Anglicans and these churches?
Genuflecting at the side of the pew to the reserved sacrament? I rarely see that anymore anywhere, including Saint Thomas Church. What about bowing to the processional crosses? Depending upon the Liturgy, a few do but most do not. Can’t be bothered? Then why are they even there? And with many people, lame quick nodding has replaced bowing. Again, don’t put yourselves out people! Pathetic.
Then I watched parts of a Liturgy from Saint Mary the Virgin in Times Square, or “Smokey Mary’s” as it’s called due to their proper use of incense. That was High Church, but I saw no one in the pews in the Nave bowing to the processional crosses either or genuflecting to the reserved sacrament. WTF? What has happened to Anglicans?
Then I watched Trinity Wall Street. Sigh. I watched their Introit, which was, “Take him Earth for cherishing” a piece by Herbert Howells. That was excellent and sung by The Trinity Choir — mostly all new choristers from the days that I followed them — but I didn’t understand why they didn’t sing the Introit from the back of the Nave rather than in the Sanctuary area where it looked like a performance. Then to “cancel that out” or to be “all things to all people” (roll eyes), the recessional hymn was that tacky hymn, “When the Saints Go Marching In.” WTF? In an Anglican/Episcopal church? That’s a first. That’s what I expect from Southern Baptists or Pentecostals. Reminds me of Anglicans and their identity crisis. Then they had a grand piano parked over on the right side of the Sanctuary area. What’s that doing there? Pianos typically don’t sound good in a church because of the “ringy” acoustics. They sound twangy. Their new organ console at Trinity looks like a short desk — who made the mistake of choosing that design?! — and why is the console in the odd place that it is? Typically in Anglican parishes and cathedral churches the organ console is out of sight or hidden in the Choir area — it’s typically way over on the left or right out of sight — or it’s up in the back of the Nave. This short desk-looking console is oddly stuck out in the congregation area on the left side in front of the pews. That’s an odd place for it. Again, that’s more like what some Southern Baptist churches do. Then they had brass seated in front of the organ console and a woman directing the brass. That was annoying because it was unnecessary. The brass didn’t need her directing them. They could hear the hymn and play their part without her. Aren’t these professional musicians? Or did she feel she needed to conduct to feel important? But the recessional hymn was such a clash in styles from the rest of the Liturgy, and when I think of “When the Saints Go Marching In” and incense being together, there’s also a clash there. Unfortunately, they still have that tacky Family Choir there. Yes, they were also there. Is that why an Anglican Chant was not used for the psalm because The Family Choir can’t sing Anglican chants? Of course The Trinity Choir are masters at Anglican Chants.
One thing we were taught at the Conservatory where I trained in the Church Music Programme was to be mindful of the clashing of styles and “You don’t mix styles and genres because it creates a mess.” And that’s what I observed at Trinity Wall Street, just like what I’ve observed at one well-known cathedral church in the Anglican Communion. This is more of this “trying to be all things to all people.” So let’s have Southern Baptist one moment and Anglican/incense the next. This mess at Trinity started under the former Director of Music who was fired. He was superb with The Trinity Choir but I didn’t like some of the Low Church stuff he was doing with the music, and from what I could tell from him and his wife, they were both very Low Church.
I don’t mean to give them ideas, but: How long before Trinity Wall Street brings in or starts their own Praise Band as a way to “be all things to all people.” Is that why they didn’t install permanent Choir stalls when they remodeled the church awhile back? They chose to use chairs that can be moved out of the way, to make room for the Praise Band? And disband The Trinity Choir? It won’t surprise me when and if that happens at the rate things are going with parishes and cathedral churches of the Anglican Communion and their identity crisis, as some of these churches run away from their past and their legacy and try to be more and more like Protestants, especially Southern Baptists and Pentecostals.
So now I’m wondering: Is there any parish or cathedral church of the Anglican Communion these days where the congregation and the clergy “match” — meaning the parish is Anglo-Catholic and so are the majority of the parishioners? Not that I know of. This reminds me of my article I wrote sometime ago about Anglicans and their identity crises.
I’ve already written about how Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue is a mess in this regard. There, I’m also fed up with the music since Jeremy Filsell’s arrival. Particularly how he’s very anti-descant and no longer uses descants for most hymns where under their former Choirmasters the boys sang beautiful descants which made monotonous hymns much more interesting. Former Choirmaster Gerre Hancock said that “a Liturgy is not complete without at least one descant.” Obviously Jeremy disagrees. Then there’s the drab and “dry as dust, by-the-book” monotonous hymn playing. And the Organist’s “doodling”** quietly after The Gospel — and the inept camera crew and their obsession with windows, statuary, the crevices of the High Altar, banks of candles and the ceiling of the parish. To be clear, the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys are superb, and my complaints are not about them.
Also, the Jeremy Filsell Show will be in full swing with more programming of his compositions towards the end of the school semester. I don’t recall ever seeing a Director of Music programme his own compositions in the Liturgies as much as Jeremy Filsell does. He’s big on promoting himself. He’s also programmed himself in the church’s concert series (Rachmaninov Third, for example). Considering the congregation they now have — which I sense does not care about the music at all considering the low attendance I saw for one of the piano and organ performances Jeremy gave; I had expected the Nave to be full — does anyone care about Jeremy or even know who he is, even though his name is printed on the service leaflet each week?
When I was Organist/Choirmaster in an Anglo-Catholic parish, the congregation was the “devout of the devout.” They matched the parish, unlike nearly all that I see these days. When I was in the resident congregation of a cathedral church, it was not Anglo-Catholic but the music made the cathedral more High Church, but most of the resident congregation followed through on the things I’ve mentioned here that we were taught in Confirmation Class and why Anglicans do what they do. Also, when I was Organist/Choirmaster I didn’t promote my own compositions on a regular basis. I wrote a couple of Anglican chants occasionally and used one every few months or so.
I don’t think things are any better in the UK. From what I’ve seen of the mother church, the CofE (Church of England), the churches where state ceremonies are held — and where the Low Church Royal Family attend — are also Low Church, particularly Saint Paul’s Anglican Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. There are some High Churches around London, or there were. Have they also been infiltrated with so-called Anglicans who more resemble Southern Baptists?
I see the pews at Saint Thomas empty out after Communion, so people come just for Communion thinking they can fool The Holy Trinity, and then they leave even though the Liturgy is not over. Tacky. The Nave of these churches is not full except when the “Christmas and Easter” fake Christians show up for those two High Holy days, twice a year, having been brainwashed that “you must go to church on Christmas and Easter.” Why?
Anglicans definitely have an identity crisis over what they want to be as they try to be like Southern Baptists and Pentecostals. If people want those denominations, they will go to those churches, won’t they?
So as of this writing, unless I find a parish or cathedral church of the type I’m looking for, my plan is to leave the ones I’ve been watching and stop writing about them, because they’re too frustrating. I live under no illusions that they’re about to change anything just because I’m complaining about them. And if I find one that is High Church and the congregation is Anglo-Catholic, then I’ll write about them. But I’m not hopeful that I’ll find a place like that. Church attendance is way down across the board. Religion is dying from what I can tell. And not being religious myself — I’m an Anglican atheist — I’m there for the music and for the theatre of the Liturgy. Whereas many others are there for what’s known as “the spoken word” — just like the Catholics who couldn’t care less about the music — and “the spoken word” is the same every time.
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** Up above, I mentioned the Organist’s “doodling” after the reading of The Gospel. Yes, here they have this grand and glorious (new) pipe organ, and that’s what the Organist does with it! What I call quiet “doodling” is what he does with it. Anybody could do that. Oh, on the odd occasion he plays some High Church grand and glorious improvisation. But most of the time it’s the “doodling” which I find quite frustrating for a supposed High Church. “Doodling” is Low Church, people.
Related: The days of descants at Saint Thomas Church are over