On How I Was a Supernumerary Deacon (I Think)
Published on 19 Aug 2008 at 4:30 pm.
15 Comments.
Filed under Anglican Thoughts.
Last Thursday in one of our clergy group meetings, I asked what we were doing in the parish for the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin. There was much laughter among the clergy at the idea of our parish doing any sort of service for the Feast of St. Mary. I was surprised, since I was taught in seminary that parishes are supposed to have special services for all of the major feasts in our calendar. Probably more true in theory than in actual practice in parishes, I’m beginning to suspect.
However, since it was a major feast day, I did feel it was necessary for me to find some service I could attend. I decided to try one of the Anglo-Catholic parishes in the area, hoping for a solemn mass. After much scouring of the internet and a few phone calls I decided upon St. Paul’s K Street, a historic Anglo-Catholic parish in the Episcopal Church.
I sent an e-mail out to the few folks I know in the DC area who might be interested in attending with me and also copied the e-mail to the curate at St. Paul’s (who I had met at the Anglican Covenant Conference in New York City earlier this year). Fr. Humphrey promptly wrote me back, asking if I’d like to vest, sit in the chancel, and administer the chalice. Since it seemed doubtful that anyone would decide to go with me on such short notice, I readily agreed and got the information about how I should vest for the service. He said appropriate vesting would be cassock for the devotions and then cassock and surplice for the solemn mass. They’d provide the rest, he said.
At about 4:25 in the afternoon, I put on my black cassock and band cincture (which I have worn twice since I bought it), put my surplice in a bag, and headed down to the King Street Trolley. I took the trolley up to King Street Metro Station, got a fare card, and took the Metro from Alexandria down to the Foggy Bottom Metro Station in Washington, DC. I got a few curious looks from people at the sight of me in my cassock, but I just smiled at them and enjoyed the ride.
Once I arrived, I went up the stairs out of the station (the escalator was broken) and began navigating my way to the church. I found my way inside and sat up at a pew near St. Paul’s shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham. The parish is beautiful and dark and as I sat in the pew it felt as if I’d gone back in time. The clergy came out of the sacristy at 5:30 and Fr. Humphrey gestured for me to come near him. Everyone stood around the shrine as a lay person led us in the devotions. The lay person passed out a stack of cards, indicating everyone should take a few. As I took my share of the cards I saw that they were prayer requests people had left at the shrine. We said the Salve Regina along with some other prayers and then went around the group, offering up the intercessions that were on our cards. After all the cards had been read (around 40), we said some more prayers and then dispersed.
Fr. Humphrey invited me up into the sacristy to meet people and prepare for mass. I had been planning on attending evening prayer before mass, but it quickly became evident that I was going to be otherwise occupied. He introduced me as one of the “supernumerary deacons,” I think. I’m not sure. I couldn’t quite catch the word and have tried googling it this morning to no helpful result. I think it just means that I was an extra deacon.
I met the Master of Ceremonies and the Assistant Master of Ceremonies who took me into the chancel to explain how things would work. As I realized this service was going to be much more complex than when I had served chalice at other times, I began to wish I had a notebook to take notes. I listened carefully and began praying that I wouldn’t screw up or break something. He told me that, since I was serving, after the Lord’s Prayer I was supposed to go to. He said some strange words, it sounded French or Latin maybe. I said, “Sorry, where do I go?” And he said it again. I said, “I’m sorry, I work at a very low parish, we just have a small altar in our chancel, I don’t know any of the fancy words for a big chancel area.” So he gave it another name. “Sorry, I don’t know what that is either.” Then he said, “The top step of the altar.” “Ohhh,” I said, “I know what that is, thanks!”
I think he was a little nervous at me serving from that point on.
We went back in the sacristy and once everyone was gathered, the MC’s came around and vested all the clergy with copes. I had never worn a cope before, but was excited at the prospect. My immediate thought when it was put on me was, man, this thing is heavy. I snuck over towards a mirror to see what it looked like. I wish I’d had a camera. I went back to where I was standing and all the other lay and clergy participants began to gather in a circle. The MC’s passed out cards with a small prayer service we were apparently going to do before mass. After handing me mine, the assistant MC graciously nudged me to the other side of circle, to stand with the clergy. We all faced one direction (north, not east, to my surprise) and began the prayers.
Fr. Humphrey made the sign of the cross, saying, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.” He then joined his hands and said, “I will go unto the altar of God.” We all responded, “Even unto the God of my joy and gladness.” The prayers continued, as the priest and the ministers went back and forth, praying for God’s forgiveness. I think we were using the English (Knott) Missal and I noticed aspects of the Sarum rite in what we did. Specifically, during the confession, when the priest first prayed the prayer of confession to us and we all prayed for God to forgive him. Then we prayed the prayer of confession and he gave us absolution.
After we finished the prayers I felt more more prepared than I’ve ever felt to enter the Divine Liturgy. We lined up in the hall way and processed out of the sacristy. We walked slowly from the sacristy the the chancel, clouds of incense filing the air with a rich and heavy scent while the choir sang the introit taken from Revelation 12:1 and Psalm 98:1:
There appeared a great sign in heaven: a Woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet: and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. Ps. O sing unto the Lord a new song: for he hath done marvelous things. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
The deacon sang out, “Let us go forth in peace,” to which the congregation responded, “In the name of Christ, Amen.” Then as we sang Sing We of the Blessed Mother, the whole procession, choir and all, exited the chancel, processed down the middle aisle to the back of the church, turned right, processed up the side aisle, turned right again and processed so that we were all standing between the pews and the chancel steps. Then everyone turned around to face the way we had come (so that we were all now facing the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham). We then prayed some more.
Celebrant Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee,
People Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of they womb.
Celebrant Let us pray. O God, who didst vouchsafe that thy Word should be made flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the message of an Angel: grant to us thy humble servants ; that we, believing her to be indeed the Mother of God, may by her intercession find favour in thy sight. Through the same Jesus Christ thy Son, our Lord. Who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Then we sang what I think was the actual opening hymn of the mass, Immaculate Mary, Thy Praises We Sing, and we processed back the way we came, down the side aisle to the back of the church and then back up the middle aisle and into the chancel. We reached the steps of the altar and the AMC gestured for us to stop and told each group when to genuflect then led us back to our seats. The opening acclamation was called the “Station at the Chancel Steps,”
Celebrant Be glad, O ye righteous, and rejoice in the Lord.
People And be joyful, all ye that are pure of heart.
Celebrant Let us pray. O God, who didst endue with singular grace the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of our God and Savior Jesus Christ; grant us to follow her example of humility and purity; through the same Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
The choir then sang the Kyrie eleison and the Gloria in excelsis, both of which were magnificent. In fact, all of the service music was magnificent. I found afterwards that the setting of the mass we had used was from the Missa Brevis, Opus 50, composed by Kenneth Leighton. Then we moved on to the Collect of the Day and I realize we were finally in a place in the service that I recognized. This put me a bit more at ease.
The lessons clearly grew in solemnity during this part of the liturgy. The Old Testament lesson was read by a lay person, the choir sang the Psalm and then the subdeacon chanted the epistle. The sequence hymn was Tell Out My Soul, one of my favorites and clearly appropriate to this feast day. We then sang a rather alleluia with the verse with the cantor chanting the verse in between, “Mary is taken up into heaven: the hosts of angels rejoice.” Then the deacon chanted the gospel. The chanting of texts was particularly exciting for me to hear. We learned how to do it in the Senior Chant Practicum at Sewanee, but I had yet to see it done in a liturgy. The preacher spoke well, though his sermon seemed to spend an awful lot of time arguing how Marian devotion was appropriate (a little too much “preaching to the choir,” if you ask me). We then sang a rather complex plainsong setting of the Nicene Creed (Mode V, if you know what that means) followed by the deacon leading us sung prayers of the people. The peace was nice, though very decently and in order, as I would have expected.
At the offertory I got to watch all the work that went into setting up the altar. The Antiphon was set to Tone II and was the sentence, “I will put emnity between thee and the woman: and between thy seed and her seed.” That was followed by one of Rachmaninoff’s motets, “Hail Virgin Mother of God” (from the All-Night Vigil, Opus 37).
Bogoróditse dyévo, raduisya,
Blagodatnaya Mariye
Gospod s Toboyu.
Blagoslovenna Ty v zhenakh,
I blagosloven plod chreva Tvoyevo,
Yako Spasa rodila yesi dush nashikhHail, Virgin Mother of God,
Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee;
Blessed art thou among women,
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
For thou gavest birth to the Saviour of our souls.
Then we were all censed, each in order. The celebrant offered the intentions of the mass and praying the “Orate fratres ac sorores,”
Celebrant Pray, my brothers and sisters: that this our sacrifice may be acceptable unto God the Father Almighty.
People May the Lord receive this sacrifice at thy hands, to the praise and glory of his Name, to our benefit and that of his holy Church.
Then the Eucharistic Prayer (Rite I, of course) began. The thurible kept smoking and so more and more clouds of incense rose in the chancel area and the line from Isaiah 6, “The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.” Indeed, as the Celebrant sang the prayer, moving his hands among the elements, assisted by the deacon, I could feel the palpable weight of the service pressing upon me and was sorely tempted to cry out like Isaiah, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
At the conclusion of the Eucharistic Prayer, the celebrant offered one of my favorite invitations (I wish it was an option in our Prayer Book),
Celebrant †Behold the Lamb of God; behold him that taketh away the sins of the world.
People Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my soul shall be healed.
At this point, I rose from my prie-dieu and took the stole that was lying across it, laying it over my left shoulder and tying it at my waist. (Fr. Humphrey told me that it was custom at this church to only put on the stole when doing explicitly clerical things like celebrating, serving communion, or preaching. I went to the top step, with great fear and trembling, and was once again grateful for an eastward facing altar (because the people couldn’t see me). Fr. Humphrey led us all to genuflect together, then handed me a chalice and gave me some brief, but very calm instructions that helped allay my anxiety. I made my way down the steps only to be stopped by an AMC who wanted to “fix” my stole.
“You just need to hang it around your neck,” he said.
“No,” I responded, “I’m a deacon it’s supposed to be across my shoulder like this.
“No, just around your neck, here let me get it for you.” He reached over to untie the stole.
“No, trust me,” I said, “I’m a deacon, this is how it is worn.”
“Ok, fine,” he said, though he clearly still thought I was wrong. I mentioned it to Fr. Humphrey later and he said he was a new MC and must have been confused because I obviously should not wear a stole like a priest. I was glad that I stood my ground.
The choir sang a lovely setting of Agnus Dei while we administered communion. There were several people who wanted me to dip the bread in the wine for them and then place it in their mouth, something I had not done very often before. As we neared the end, I ran out of wine and went to the MC. The other chalice bearer finished up the last couple on my rail and then Fr. Humprey directed him to give me his chalice and for me to follow Fr. Humphrey down into the nave to bring communion to a couple people who could not make the stairs.
This was the coolest part.
We went down into the nave, walking slowly with great solemnity, with a crucifer going with us. As we walked near the first person, I noticed that everyone genuflected when we approached. Then we went to the other side to administer communion to the other person and, again, it was like a sea of genuflection as we walked. The power of the sacrament for that parish community was powerful, especially to me, a guest.
We said the postcommunion prayer, Fr. Humprey blessed us, and the deacon sang the dismissal. The MC’s masterfully guided everyone to line up properly, gesturing when to genuflect again, and then led us out of the chancel and back to the sacristy. Fr. Humphrey asked me to come out into the nave and stand at one of the side doors to greet people as they left while he went to the main door, and I happily obliged. Everyone was very friendly and warmly welcomed me to come back and visit anytime. To be honest, I felt more like I was being greeted than I was doing the greeting.
Afterwards, Fr. Humphrey took me to dinner at a nice restaurant in DC where we unpacked the service a little and talked about Anglo-Catholic theology and spirituality. That conversation was splendid, but is probably best left for another blog post. The one thing he said that really stood out to me, was that it was important for there to be parishes in TEC who ministered to the more conservative in our church. As someone who believes strongly that to be truly catholic means to be concerned with the whole of Christendom, his comments resonated with me and will be something I’ll have to ponder for sometime to come.
He said he’ll invite me back a few more times so I can get a bit more experience with that sort of liturgy, and I’ll be sure to go back myself just to be in the pew. It was a glorious night and though it was a long train ride back to King Street with a long walk to my car in my black cassock, I felt fed and at peace with God and the world.
O God, who hast taken to thyself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of thy incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of thine eternal kingdom; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our
Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The Postulant on 19 Aug 2008 at 5:54 pm: 1
So presumably this is how your wedding liturgy will be done. Fortunately your deacon has experience chanting the Gospel — and in COTA, no less!
Thanks for this lovely post.
Charles on 19 Aug 2008 at 9:17 pm: 2
Thanks for this beautiful post! Too bad your parish doesn’t celebrate such an important feast day.
Dave Vanderah on 19 Aug 2008 at 9:52 pm: 3
Thanks for a moving commentary on
your participation at this liturgy.
Your Excited Reverence at being in this company of believers came across
vividly. Tbe beauty of this church of ours is that there can be a variety of ways of celebration.
Indie on 19 Aug 2008 at 10:23 pm: 4
I love this line:
Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my soul shall be healed.
I visited a Roman Catholic mass once which had a similar line and I found myself meditating on it for weeks. So beautiful.
The Postulant on 20 Aug 2008 at 5:38 am: 5
Indie: it’s Matthew 8:8.
Fr. Bob on 20 Aug 2008 at 9:42 am: 6
Well, you get the whole enchilada at St. Paul’s K Street. What a wonderful description and so typical of Anglo-Catholic parishes right down to the arcane vocabulary of the M.C. who can never trust visiting clergy to know how to do it “correctly.” Glad it was such a rich and worshipful experience.
Sarah on 20 Aug 2008 at 10:10 pm: 7
Jared, this is a great post. As a parishioner and acolyte at St. Paul’s, it’s nice to see someone’s perspective of us from the outside. Sometimes I think our liturgy is very weird (I came from a low-church background as well.) or I think it’s absolutely perfect. I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, and come back to see us!
Anglo-Catholic — Again « Grain and Wine and Oil on 21 Aug 2008 at 11:23 am: 8
[…] Scribere Orare Est by Jared Cramer and On How I Was a Supernumerary Deacon (I Think) […]
John on 21 Aug 2008 at 9:14 pm: 9
Are women allowed to serve at this parish? In my experience, the higher the liturgy, the more conservative the theology.
Jared Cramer on 22 Aug 2008 at 7:30 am: 10
John,
This parish does not have women clergy serve in any sacramental way. I didn’t find that out until after the service, and it did actually put a damper on the whole experience. It got me thinking about the necessity of another “catholic revival” in Anglicanism, only one that was comprised of people who, like myself, come to liberalism by way of catholicity.
Kirkepiscatoid on 23 Aug 2008 at 4:36 pm: 11
Well, and in that light, his use of the word “supernumerary” to describe you is rather funny. In medicine, the most common use of the word “supernumerary” is before the word “nipple”…to describe one of those little vestiges of when, in the womb, we had a “milk line” for a few weeks on our chests…about 5% of people, if you look closely, have a supernumerary nipple!
Lauralew on 24 Aug 2008 at 9:22 pm: 12
Jared, before we moved to DC we went online to find churches that fit us as both liberal Christians and as military. St. Paul’s K Street absolutely was a fit for the military side, but we quickly figured out the lack of women in all sorts of leadership thing, and never visited.
I have to laugh at Kirkepiscatoid’s comment above, as I also did a double take at the use of the term supernumerary–for the same reason.
Jeffrey on 25 Aug 2008 at 9:14 am: 13
But St. Paul’s K Street is absolutely correct in how they used the term supernumerary-a vested person whose liturgical role is just to help out, with no real assigned function.
On more serious note, it’s sadly often true that the “higher” a church is, the more conservative it tends to be. My church is very progressive, and we used to describe ourselves as Anglo-Catholic, but we no longer use this term, since it signifies to many people a type of church that we no longer are, and would turn off the very people who might find us a good fit.
Norman on 27 Aug 2008 at 5:56 pm: 14
Jared,
I thoroughly enjoyed your commentary. I, too, was at St. Paul’s for the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin, along with 14 of my classmates from Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS). I have been a friend and regular attendee of services at St. Paul’s for many years. It was great to re-live such a magnificently glorious worship experience.
Caelius Spinator on 1 Sep 2008 at 6:51 pm: 15
“Probably more true in theory than in actual practice in parishes, I’m beginning to suspect.”
Yes, indeed. And I bemoan it. If you ever have the authority to do so, please celebrate all the bold feasts in the kalendar.