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Ship of Fools: Ascension and St Agnes, Washington, DC

The Mystery WorshipperThe Mystery Worshipper Shipmate
edited January 2022 in The Mystery Worshipper

imageShip of Fools: Ascension and St Agnes, Washington, DC

Beautifully executed liturgy and expert choir – and a smile on our Mystery Worshipper’s face

Read the full Mystery Worshipper report here


Comments

  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited January 2022
    I think it may well be true that Covid has put the mockers on coffee-hour, at least for the time being. Our Place has done away with it now, as so few were staying as to make it not worthwhile to heat the Hall!

    What was the after-service *conversation* or talk referred to, though? Was it informal chat, or some sort of address?

    The ad orientem use of the free-standing altar may seem a little odd, but it certainly looks OK in the photo, with the eye eventually focusing on the tabernacle on the high altar in the background.
  • MarsupialMarsupial Shipmate
    I remember Ascension and St Agnes from back when I was living in Washington in the early 1990s. I attended a few services there but ultimately ended up making my parish home somewhere else. Very high up the candle, in a way I found somehow off-putting, but I think I remember later hearing that they were going through an unusual incumbent at the time. Good to hear they are still going strong.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Bishops Finger wrote: »
    The ad orientem use of the free-standing altar may seem a little odd, but it certainly looks OK in the photo, with the eye eventually focusing on the tabernacle on the high altar in the background.
    Hmmm. It looks very odd to me. But then again, I’m not an ad orientem kind of guy, so grains of salt may be called for.

  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    Well, fair enough, but the effect (to me) is of the congregation and clergy all facing in a *Godward* direction, rather than having a sort of conversation with each other.

    It's difficult to explain, and I accept that what seems natural to some may not appear so to others. It seems to work in this church, and I certainly wouldn't say that one way is right, and t'other wrong.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Bishops Finger wrote: »
    Well, fair enough, but the effect (to me) is of the congregation and clergy all facing in a *Godward* direction, rather than having a sort of conversation with each other.

    It's difficult to explain, and I accept that what seems natural to some may not appear so to others. It seems to work in this church, and I certainly wouldn't say that one way is right, and t'other wrong.
    Yes, I get that. (Though I’d say pretty much the same of an versus populum position—that all are facing in a Godward direction because God is in the midst of God’s gathered people, not off in the distance somewhere.

    But the pros and cons of ad orientem and versus populum wasn’t my point. My point was that I thought it looked odd (in the photo at least) to stand at the free-standing altar, which judging from their website and their YouTube channel, is only one or two steps above the nave and might be movable, and assume an ad orientem position. If an ad orientem position is desired, I would have thought the free-standing altar would be removed and the high altar used. And if the desire is to use the free-standing altar, I would think that a versus populum position looks more natural. Combing the ad orientem presiding with the smaller free-standing altar, while another bigger and more elevated altar can easily be seen some feet to the “East” just looks odd to me.

    Though some googling and looking at their YouTube videos seems to show that the high altar is also free-standing, so I’m not sure why they have the other altar at all.

  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    ISWYM, but maybe they feel that using the *free-standing* altar brings the clergy closer to the people, whereas the *high* altar is a bit too far away?

    I don't know. I wonder if it's something of a compromise between the two schools of thought?
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited January 2022
    Bishops Finger wrote: »
    I wonder if it's something of a compromise between the two schools of thought?
    Quite possible, I suspect.

  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Bishops Finger wrote: »
    I wonder if it's something of a compromise between the two schools of thought?
    Quite possible, I suspect.

    And compromise being a part of the Anglican tradition of course.
  • ZappaZappa Shipmate
    But compromise with good taste of course (in theory: I think it looks twee) ... they could though have had it on a sort of diagonal to please north-enders, too (or theatre in the round, a la Whatshisname, Giles?)
  • Hookers_TrickHookers_Trick Admin Emeritus
    I occasionally pop round to Ascension - most recently I was there on Easter Day, my own church having been oversubscribed (#COVID). A&StA was traditionally THE bastion of fusty, unreconstructed, unapologetic nosebleed Anglo-Catholicism: birettas (doffed at the name of Our Lord and the Patron), asperges, Anglican missal, 1940 Hymn Books and 1928 BCP in the pews, Angelus, Latin motets, fiddleback chasubles, eastward-facing, all-male clergy (obv). The previous rector very gently and very sensitively dragged them into the late 20th century, but the ethos was still recognisably "Traditional". The presence of a lady deacon, and a free-standing secondary altar, makes a change indeed!
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    A quick question to the MW. It's hard to make out from the photograph if the free-standing altar is on a small and slightly raised platform, or is that just a trick of the eye from the tiles?
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited February 2022
    Gee D wrote: »
    A quick question to the MW. It's hard to make out from the photograph if the free-standing altar is on a small and slightly raised platform, or is that just a trick of the eye from the tiles?
    I did some googling and looking at the YouTube videos when the report was posted, and I believe that the freestanding altar is on a platform raised above the floor of the nave by two steps.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    edited February 2022
    Thanks - a bit dangerous then.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited February 2022
    Gee D wrote: »
    Thanks - a bit dangerous then.
    Doesn’t appear to be at all dangerous to me.

    “Platform” was probably the wrong word to use. The chancel floor appears to be raised one step at the altar rail, and then another step a few feet in from the rail. The floor at that level extends beyond full width of the chancel arch—the chairs you see to the left in the picture and the man standing on the right are all on the same part of the floor as the altar and celebrant.

    You can maybe see it a little better in this picture, in which the portable altar is not there. The step is immediately behind the two acolytes. There’s plenty of room.

  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Thanks for that photo.

    I think we were talking at cross-purposes. When I said free-standing, I was referring to what you describe as portable. Your photo makes it very clear that that altar was not on a step, but on a level floor. It has the optical illusion in the photo with the MW report of a step from the rows of black tiling.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Gee D wrote: »
    Thanks for that photo.

    I think we were talking at cross-purposes. When I said free-standing, I was referring to what you describe as portable. Your photo makes it very clear that that altar was not on a step, but on a level floor. It has the optical illusion in the photo with the MW report of a step from the rows of black tiling.
    No, I understood you. I used “portable” simply because in the various pictures and videos I looked at, the free-standing altar is sometimes there and sometimes not. It doesn’t seem to be a permanent fixture.

    And yes, depth and surfaces are difficult to discern given the wood of the riser and the carpet on that floor under the altar against the tiled floor in the MW report photo.

  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    All the little details that go towards life. With covid as it is, and our advancing years, it's most unlikely that we'll ever be worshipping there, but we now have a much better idea of the church. The church and its parish sound to have lots of parallels with CCSL here, birettas and all.
  • Alan29Alan29 Shipmate
    As an aside, when the first portable altar after Vat 2 was put into Westminster Cathedral it was nicknamed "Meals on Wheels." Not altogether kindly.
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