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News and Resources
Thursday Study Group
The Thursday evening Study Group is currently engaged in the study of The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. There is no cost for these studies, except for the book or materials under discussion. Come join us at 7:15 pm every Thursday in the Parlor of Trinity Church.
Monthly Tridentine Latin Mass
The June Latin Mass will not be held on the first Saturday, but rather will be celebrated on 31 May. That date is the feast of The Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen, and we want to close-out the month of Mary with a Latin Mass.
The Word
Abbot Gueranger, OSB
In the Nineteenth Century, Dom Gueranger, the Abbot of Solesmes in France produced an historic and monumental liturgical work, The Liturgical Year. This fifteen-volume commentary on each day of the liturgical year has been republished in the English translation of 1949. A lesser known work is Dom Gueranger's Explanation of the Prayers and Ceremonies of Mass. We found this on the Internet, and translated it into the Adobe .pdf format.
The York Missal
Like many Anglo-Catholic parishes, we have had to produce a loose-leaf edition of an altar missal. We substantially use The English Missal, but have modified it a bit (such as the use of the Proper Prefaces from the BCP 1979 and the three-year lectionary). We call our edition The York Missal. The entire English Missal, with propers, is used every fourth year (and on weekdays), so that we are able to take advantage of both the three-year lectionary and the traditional one. If you would like a copy of our altar edition, click here:
What is Anglo-Catholicism?
That is a question that we are often asked. Saint Alban Church is clearly Anglo-Catholic, but just what does that mean? We found the following essay from Father John Alexander on a website some time ago, and thought it was the best concise explanation we have discovered.
Yet More Liturgical "Goodies"
And, as if all of this is not enough, we have also had to develop some musical settings for the Mass for our own use. The Missa York setting uses a mix of plainchant and "Continental" chant from various sources which are quite singable for small congregations, and the Missal Marialis is, well, the Missal Marialis! We also have the Missa Simplicor of Merbecke, which should be most familiar to Anglicans.
The Anglican Service Book
In the pews at Saint Alban Church one will find copies of The Anglican Service Book. The book is also the basis for the Ashby Churchman's Ordo Kalendar, edited by our Rector, Bishop Barry E. Yingling, CSSS. This excellent liturgical and devotional work is the product of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, Pennsylvania. Because we have had many inqiries regarding the availability and purchase of this book, we have provided an order form, which may be downloaded below.
A Note on the Latin Mass
The Tridentine Latin Mass is celebrated at Saint Alban Church on the First Saturday of each month, and at other times as announced. The Private Prayers of the Celebrant are always recited in Latin.
The celebration of a Latin Mass, whether the Tridentine or the Novus Ordo, is unusual in the Anglican tradition. From the very beginning, however, Anglicanism never completely “outlawed” the celebration of Mass in Latin. The stipulation was that it needed to be intelligible to those who participated, so its use was primarily among the academic circles in Cambridge and Oxford. Although the Tridentine rite (from the Council of Trent) was not the Mass in use at the time of the English reformation, its use has become more universal.
So, why do we celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass at Saint Alban's? One of our missions is to maintain the liturgical traditions of the church that, alas, have been largely ignored since the 1970's. We believe that the worship of Our Lord is a very serious thing indeed, and that the language used to address our Sovereign Lord and God should not be pedestrian. Our usual celebrations of the Eucharist and the Daily Office are in Elizabethan English, not the ordinary language used on the street or in so many churches today. The use of Latin, then, carries us to an even higher realm, addressing God as so many have done since the very earliest days of Christendom.
In short, when we use Latin in the Mass, we link ourselves to the universal use of the church throughout the ages, using language that recognizes the awesome nature of God.
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