Lesser Feasts

"For when by heavenly mercy we arrive by our various roads at the homeland for which we now sigh, we will rejoice all the more that we have been called back from our diverse places of exile and now come together." -- Anselm of Canterbury, letter to Henry, a monk of Bec, c. 1070 Now Anselm is talking about heaven, as he so often did, not about Sewanee (aka God's Holy Mountain [aka Anglican Disneyland]). But he is also talking about friendship: the sorrow of friends when they are apart, and the marvelous joy of friends when they are reunited. At Tuesday's Eucharist, the celebrant prayed, "Remember those of our number who are grieved that they cannot be among us, and those whose absence we grieve." So many times during the week I thought "I would have loved to see the look on his face when that happened" or "I wish I could have talked with her about that bit." There was the sorrow of friends when they are apart. May God call them all back ne...

Tuesday There are, no doubt, some who think that the Mozarabic Preface is a bit much for a ferial Eucharist in the Season after Pentecost. They are, however, incorrect. And, more to the point, they are not celebrating the Eucharist in the Chapel of the Apostles today. The celebrant has remembered to put on his black shoes. He will maintain an unblemished record of black-shoe-wearing throughout the week, for the first time ever. Wednesday The Conference celebrates Solemn Eucharist, Rite One, with the propers For the Departed. The celebrant (who, to be fair, has been an Episcopalian for only forty years) mangles the Summary of the Law. The first performance of Malcolm Archer's setting of "Faire is the Heaven"  (beginning at 29:39) is beautifully sung. The thurifer, sacristan, and crucifer are all highly competent, flexible, and delightful. The person who runs the sound board and keeps me from having to keep turning my microphone on and off -- microphones are, of course, an ...

The view for Morning Prayer (Antiphon for the Venite : "Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness") After Morning Prayer I headed down to Manchester, where my sister is building a house. It was great to spend some time with her and my younger niece, who turned 18 last month and is heading off to college at Western Kentucky University next month. The house is really lovely, and thanks to my sister's handling of the finances, they're coming in well under budget. It's all quite impressive. Then back up the mountain for registration. How wonderful to see so many familiar faces (masked though they were) after a three-year hiatus! I caught up with our chaplain, the inimitable Barbara Crafton, who for health reasons is handing over the officiating and presiding to me, though she will continue to do all the preaching, thanks be to God. I'm always happy to preside, though chanting the liturgy at a conference of church musicians brings a certain amount of pressure with...

Tess The Sewanee Church Music Conference begins tomorrow. It's our first time meeting in person since 2019, and the usual family-reunion atmosphere will be all the more intense, all the more joyful, for our long absence from one another. Malcolm Archer will be our conductor, Fred Teardo our organist, and Barbara Crafton our chaplain. I will preside at some of the liturgies, but mostly I will rehearse and sing with the choir (the choir = everyone attending the conference), which is what I prefer. As always I have headed up to Tennessee a bit early to spend time with my Mom and Dad, who live in Spring Hill, about thirty miles south of downtown Nashville and ninety miles northwest of Sewanee. I haven't posted in quite a while because there hasn't really been much to talk about. I've been working hard on page proofs for Anselm: A Very Short Introduction  and Anselm: The Complete Treatises with Selected Letters and Prayers and the Meditation on Human Redemption , both of wh...