Sunday I went for services at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown St Louis. It was a cold, rainy, windy, and gloomy morning but there was nothing gloomy about the greeting I received as I entered the narthex. A jolly usher, obviously oblivious to the cold dressed in shorts and Hawaiian shirt, gave me a bulletin as others also said hello and held the door for me.
As I came in to this large Gothic church my eyes were immediately drawn to the magnificent Reredos a 35 foot high wall of intricately carved stone. It presents much of the history of Christianity with Saints, Apostles, Prophets, Patriarchs, Martyrs, Angels, Archangels and nearly all the company of Heaven, with our Lord in the center of it all. Here is a link to a guide.
This appears to be a diverse urban congregation White, African American, straight, gay, etc. There were around 150 or so.
The prelude on "St Columbia" gave me a good opportunity to hear the 65 rank Aeolian Skinner organ opus from 1965. Tears welled up as I again realized how much I miss this beautiful sound.
The processional was #645 The King of love my Shepherd is. I have been sick the past few days and struggled a bit in singing it. The Gloria was by Richard Proulx not familiar to me but a very good setting. The readers were excellent, I needed no text and none was provided. We sang the Pslam in simplified Anglican Chant. The Gospel procession stopped right beside me as we sang #343 Shepherd of Souls.
The sermon was delivered by a young Seminarian Jonathan Stratton on his last Sunday before graduation. He was a fine speaker, passionate and with a clear message. Most of his references came from the Acts 2:42-47 reading with its vision of the early church whose members sold their possessions and pooled their resources so that all needs were met. It was an idyllic vision of harmony which he pointed out was not the reality we usually now find in church. But Luke may have embelished the story leaving out the conflict. Luke spoke of three important needs for a spiritual community , community life, immersion in spiritual discipline, and frequent Eucharist. This fine sermon got me to thinking what this bright young man's future might bring. At a recent discernment seminar in our diocese those considering the priesthood were reminded over and over that it was unlikely that they would be able to earn a full living and would need another source of income in order to live and pay off Seminary debts. We are so fortunate that there are good dedicated, intelligent people willing to take on this difficult and uncertain path!
The prayers of the people were short, but the peace went on for a long time. People were very friendly and I did not feel lost.
The Eucharist was celebrated and I went up to receive at the high altar. Most people were communed by name but the priest not knowing mine said with great warmth "Brother , the bread of Christ".
Announcements were after the Easter Blessing and before the recessional which seemed sensible.
Afterwards I listened a bit to the postlude and spoke with a number of people. The choir was quite shorthanded thought they did a fine job. They have six sopranos but only one was well enough to sing today which explained why they had scrapped the Orlando di Lasso communion motet for a simple plainchant with some nice improvisations between verses.
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