... you believe that Sacraments are to be administered, not passed around.
... you hold the doctrine that whatever is worth doing is worth overdoing.
...you think of the Wippell's catalog as liturgical porn.
...you get more exercise genuflecting, kneeling, and prostrating than running, jogging, or walking.
...most of the volumes in your library have been out of print for over a century.
... the primary causes of your violating the Tenth Commandment are found on the pages of Wippell's.
...You'd consider going over to Rome if it didn't mean giving up being catholic.
...on hearing the parable of the Good Samaritan, you wonder what the priest and the Levite were wearing.
...on Easter morning in your parish, the men at the altar wear more lace than the women in the congregation.
...you believe that the current controversies over the Bishopric of Jerusalem, the Open Pulpit Canon, the ordination of women, the new Prayer Book, and the Bishop of New Hampshire can be settled amicably but that the Alcuin Club and the Society of SS. Peter & Paul may need separate provinces.
...you believe that 'old-time religion' was what we had before Pius XII started mucking around with Holy Week.
....you'll fight to the death for the 1928 Prayer Book, provided it's never actually used.
... you are willing to receive a visitation from your bishop, but would go to the barricades to keep cassock-albs out of your parish.
... you think that "Almy" is French for Methodist.
...you think that "On Eagles' Wings" is where Low Churchmen read the epistle.
…you have trouble breathing if there’s not enough incense at Mass.
Borrowed from OCICBOV.
Great Land o'Goshen! Great Jumpin' Jehosephat!
ReplyDeleteIs the Alcuin Club sitll around???
When I was twelve, and swinging the incense was still fun, an ancient priest gave me four books, two of which were Alcuin Club publications... "A Directory of Ceremonial" and "Illustrations of teh Liturgy." If I remember correctly they are green board covers holding hand made deckel edged paper. The other two books are Percey Dearmer's "The Parson's Handbook" and a pre-WWII edition of Fortesque's "The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described." This last was just in case I ever got to be an altar boy during the entombment of the relics of a martyr in an altar.
He would coach us, and put his arm around our shoulders as he led us around the chancel showing us where to stand for this, and where to kneel for that. Sometimes there would be the faintest of little pats of the butt. Poor fellow, at his age patting butts was probably all he was capable of doing.
I think we were the last church in the diocese to actually own and use a set of gramiels. That's probably spelled incorrectly.
There are times when I miss all that. I wish I still believed in all of it.
http://www.alcuinclub.org.uk/what%20is%20the%20alcuin%20club.htm
ReplyDeleteAlive in the CofE, apparently.
I was an acolyte, too. Order of St Vincent (still have the handbook around somewhere).
I just posted this because I thought it was funny, for those who have "been there, done that." I am a product of Episcopal schools up until I was 10 years old, where we had chapel every morning, the priest at the parish wore a biretta, there were smells and bells, the whole 9 yards. I was taken by the ritual, then we moved to New Hampshire and the parish (in VT) was started as a mission and was very low church. I'm comfortable anywhere, but I prefer the more "broad church" way of liturgy now. Colour me: hazy? Haha....
Thanks for checking in, Josh!