I've heard of this on the ship but never seen it. I think most CofE parishes would regard having a set of vestments, hangings etc. that could only be used once or twice a year as extravagant and a bit twee. It is, though, also why this Sunday's Advent candle is pink or technically, I think, 'rose'.
Since Common Worship came in, this Sunday has belonged to John the Baptist in the Advent sequence Patriarchs, Prophets, John the Baptist, Mary the Mother of the Lord. He's the subject of the gospel reading and is likely to be at least referred to in the sermon.
Pink/rose vestments really don't go with a man who wore rough clothes and ate locusts and wild honey!
The idea that pink is a female colour is a modern phenomenon. In the past men often wore pink (it is a really easy natural dye colour). I’m not suggesting it was worn in biblical times but just that it’s connotations are different.
Some churches use pink vestments today - Advent 3 aka Gaudete Sunday (though I'm not sure why).
Properly, I believe, those vestments and paraments are termed “rose,” not “pink.” (Today’s candle on the Advent wreath is also often rose.)
As @Forthview says, the name Gaudete Sunday comes from the incipit of the traditional introit of the day: “Gaudete in Domino semper, iterum dico vobis gaudete/Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.”
The violet/purple of Advent (and Lent) signifies penitence. As we are just over halfway through Advent, and in keeping with the introit, the idea is that people are given a little respite from penitential nature of the season. As rose is a lighter shade of violet/purple, the rose colored vestments and paraments (and candle) reflect the “lightened” penitential nature of the day.
The same use of rose vestments and paraments happens—at least at those places that have them—on the Fourth Sunday in Lent, or Laetare Sunday. (On that day, the traditional introit begins “Laetare Jerusalem/Rejoice Jerusalem.”)
Yes, *rose* is a better word, and Our Place's chasuble is indeed a very nice rose colour. I know of a church in central London whose rose vestments can only be described as lurid...
The chasuble used at Uppsala Cathedral today was, to my eyes, a sort of pale lilac:
Yes, *rose* is a better word, and Our Place's chasuble is indeed a very nice rose colour. I know of a church in central London whose rose vestments can only be described as lurid...
Perhaps the shade denoted in these parts as “pank”?
The idea that pink is a female colour is a modern phenomenon. In the past men often wore pink (it is a really easy natural dye colour). I’m not suggesting it was worn in biblical times but just that it’s connotations are different.
Indeed, and in art Mary is usually portrayed wearing blue
I find it fascinating when customs are taken from one country to another and then changed perhaps to suit different circumstances or given different explanations because people in the new area do not always know how things were done in the old area.
A good example of this is the Advent wreath which like the Christmas tree originated in the German lands of Central Europe. Almost every house would have and still has its own Advent wreath with its own candles, usually all red or occasionally all white. the larger Advent wreaths to be found in churches would be similar/
It was when they started to be introduced in UK churches,just under 50 years ago that the colours of the candles took on the liturgical colours of the Roman rite in Advent (three purple and one rose)and that has now gone back certainly to Austria where the Advent candles in churches follow that pattern. In non-Catholic UK churches people are not always sure of the origins of the colour sequence and will therefore, understandably, make up their own explanations as to the reason for the rose coloured candle - and why not ? these things are not parts of the deposit of faith and so can be explained in any way which one finds useful.
In many UK churches one also finds a white central candle which represents Christ and which is lit on Christmas day. I have never seen that in Central Europe but once again I would say,why not ?
In speaking of the origins of the term 'Gaudete 'Sunday it reminds me that next Sunday's liturgy in the Roman rite traditionally begins with the Antiphon 'Rorate,caeli,desuper et nubes pluant justum' (Drop down dew,oh Heavens, and let the clouds rain down the just one).
There is a beautiful Central European custom of the 'Rorate' Mass held in the early mornings of Advent, particularly on Saturdays, It is held only by candlelight and in white vestments in honour of the Virgin Mary. The Gospel reading is always that of the message of the Angel to the Blessed Virgin. It should be timed that ,as the faithful leave the church sunlight is breaking through and they hear the final words 'Ecce Dominus veniet' (Behold the Lord will come).
It is only in the last two years that I have heard of such a Mass being celebrated here in Scotland and I would like to know if any others in the UK,particularly in Anglican churches,have heard of this custom.
Pink/rose vestments were indeed rare in the C of E until recent years. They were mentioned as an option in some of the high church Kalendars, but I never saw any in the flesh, as it were. Until Common Worship (2000) suggested it as an official possibility; since then they have been cropping up all over the place and not just in exotically a-c parishes.
St Obscure's has a single rose set which was worn yesterday. I cannot tell you what colour the other clergy wore as I think due to cold weather they were both absent. They had certainly not present by the time I got there to clear up.
I am an evening mass attender where there was, as usual, just one cleric but at present I do the Sunday morning clearing where usually there are more as the parish has two retired curates.
In the days when we had a liturgical Deacon, he would wear a purple dalmatic in default of rose-pink, which (to my eyes) clashed horribly with the chasuble...
As he was a Reader, a plain alb, along with his blue scarf, would have looked better IMHO.
It was when they started to be introduced in UK churches,just under 50 years ago that the colours of the candles took on the liturgical colours of the Roman rite in Advent . . . .
Advent wreaths have been in the US since the 1920s, brought here by German Catholics and Lutherans. From what I’ve read, it appears to have been American Catholics who, very soon after Advent wreaths were introduced here, began using candles in the liturgical colors rather than white or red candles. Perhaps that arose from the wreaths being used in churches and not just at home; I’m not sure.
The Advent wreath we had in our home when I was a child (the 1960s) had white candles. I can remember my mother saying she knew they ought to be purple and rose, but she preferred white.
I grew up with red for the Sundays in advent with a white Christ candle, or all five white. Now I do the buying I stick with the former, both because I find the 3 purple, 1 pink arrangement a little fussy and because if I'm going to make Presbyterian heads explode I want to at least do it over something worthwhile.
Presbyterian heads here would expect purple/rose candles, or blue if that’s the color otherwise used in Advent. You’d get puzzlement and questions if you used all white (“Why aren’t the candles the normal colors?”) and real puzzlement if red candles were used.
There is a set of Christmas quiz questions somewhere on the internet which states there are four candles on an Advent wreath. This gets annoying at workplace quizzes when you know that most churches in the UK would have five candles! I think I once wrote “If you actually go to church the answer is 5, but if you just found this quiz online it will say 4”.
Presbyterian heads here would expect purple/rose candles, or blue if that’s the color otherwise used in Advent. You’d get puzzlement and questions if you used all white (“Why aren’t the candles the normal colors?”) and real puzzlement if red candles were used.
Yeah, in this part of Presbyland liturgical colours are considered Rank Popery (and I'm only slightly exaggerating).
Presbyterian heads here would expect purple/rose candles, or blue if that’s the color otherwise used in Advent. You’d get puzzlement and questions if you used all white (“Why aren’t the candles the normal colors?”) and real puzzlement if red candles were used.
Yeah, in this part of Presbyland liturgical colours are considered Rank Popery (and I'm only slightly exaggerating).
Yeah, I imagine the folks in the (small) Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the (even smaller) Bible Presbyterian Church have a similar view. Maybe some in the Presbyterian Church in America, too, though there I get the sense that robes and paraments and are being shed altogether as Not Contemporary.
But in the PC(USA), while a few pockets exist where such things are considered Rank Popery, they are indeed very few and far between.
Thanks for the information,N.T.. I never saw Advent wreaths in the UK until the beginning of the 1970s.Since then you find them in lots of churches of various denominations.
Yesterday I went to a church concert where the choir performed Rutter's Gloria but before they did a professional storyteller/actress came up and read the English translation of the Gloria in a contemporary, spoken-word style. It was a Presbyterian church (PCUSA) but they used the much-criticized most recent RC English translation rather than some variation of the earlier ICET translation - @Nick Tamen or anyone else, do you know if the PCUSA has an official translation that it uses of the Gloria, if the Gloria is used at all in its liturgies, and whether it is the 1975 ICET one or something older or newer?
The current RC English translation of the Gloria (and the rest of the current translation of the missal) is so clunky but hearing her speak it made it seem quite beautiful and incredibly modern (I am sure that this was NOT the intent of those higher-ups who threw out one new translation by ICEL in the 90's then hacked to pieces the one ICEL made about 10 years later in response to Liturgiam Authenticam in order to give us what we have today).
Granted, the same reader also read the text to the Advent carol "People, Look East" (why? I have no idea) and made it sound like a modern poem, so maybe the reason that translation of the Gloria sounded good was all down to the delivery.
Still, it did make me rethink a bit what makes "good liturgy." The Gloria in English we say or sing at RC mass on Sundays outside Advent and Lent flows oddly if you just recite it or if you sing it to any of the common settings or chants, compared with the Latin or with much earlier translations like the one used by most Anglicans until the mid-twentieth century (I'm not a fan of the 1975 ICET translation either because it made big and unnecessary deletions from and rearrangements of the Latin text it was based on, but it was more singable than what we have today). But maybe with a theatrical, playful, questioning, and somewhat staccato way of reading of the current RC translation, we better understand what the text really means (although, seeing that it is an ancient hymn, its real meaning is inseparable from the text received as song - and in particular plainsong).
Yesterday I went to a church concert where the choir performed Rutter's Gloria but before they did a professional storyteller/actress came up and read the English translation of the Gloria in a contemporary, spoken-word style. It was a Presbyterian church (PCUSA) but they used the much-criticized most recent RC English translation rather than some variation of the earlier ICET translation - @Nick Tamen or anyone else, do you know if the PCUSA has an official translation that it uses of the Gloria, if the Gloria is used at all in its liturgies, and whether it is the 1975 ICET one or something older or newer?
No, the PC(USA) does not have an official translation of the Gloria. Official or prescribed texts (beyond the baptismal formula and the ordination vows) aren’t really our style, if you know what I mean. The only liturgical texts I can think of for which we have official translations are the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, because they’re in our Book of Confessions.
I’ve checked our Book of Common Worship (2018), and the Gloria there is the ICET text, slightly modified in the second line—“and peace to God’s people on earth” rather than “to his people.”
I can probably count on one hand the times I’ve heard the Gloria sung liturgically in a Presbyterian service. While our services in general have moved to being much more in line with the general Western Ordo (though not with weekly Communion in most places yet), use of the Gloria just hasn’t caught on. I regularly hear/sing a Kyrie and a Sanctus, and I don’t think anyone bats an eye at them anymore. I occasionally hear/sing an Agnus Dei, but singing the Gloria just doesn’t happen. The common thing at that point in the liturgy is to sing a Gloria Patri or a verse or two of a hymn. (And in a departure from many other liturgies, the Peace generally follows that.)
Meanwhile, I agree completely that sometimes hearing liturgical texts as texts can help us get a better handle on what the text is saying. Perhaps it’s the removal from the overly-familiar?
@stonespring I hope it doesn't upset you my saying this, and I can't speak of the US Episcopalian forms as I've never encountered them, but for all that many people here grumble about them, I think the CofE seem as a general rule to be able to write better liturgical English than the RCC. That applies to both the 1662 version and the various modern ones. I suspect it comes simply from their having being more used to worshipping God in their own language for so much longer than the RCC. So it comes more naturally.
From everything I’ve read about the most recent RC translations, I think a lot of it comes from having people in charge of the translations, or with veto power, for whom English isn’t their first language, together with a focus on exact translation from the Latin over any poetic nature of the texts.
@stonespring I hope it doesn't upset you my saying this, and I can't speak of the US Episcopalian forms as I've never encountered them, but for all that many people here grumble about them, I think the CofE seem as a general rule to be able to write better liturgical English than the RCC. That applies to both the 1662 version and the various modern ones. I suspect it comes simply from their having being more used to worshipping God in their own language for so much longer than the RCC. So it comes more naturally.
No offense taken! Also, the most senior people overseeing the RCC’s most resent translation of the missal were more concerned that the Latin/Greek (but usually Latin) was translated word for word - and that the Latin terms for theological concepts were not translated at all but turned into Anglicized versions of the Latin words like “consubstantial” -than they were with writing good Liturgical English. The idea was that the purpose they wanted to emphasize of translation was to better understand the Latin it was based on, and that if you don’t like the translation, you can always just use the Latin (not that that is realistic at all).
From everything I’ve read about the most recent RC translations, I think a lot of it comes from having people in charge of the translations, or with veto power, for whom English isn’t their first language, together with a focus on exact translation from the Latin over any poetic nature of the texts.
Yes, although Cardinal George Pell of Sydney was quite influential on the Vox Clara committee that basically sidelined ICEL (the translation committee that had existed since the creation of the Novus Ordo). I think ICEL made a translation based on the new, more literal translation guidelines, Vox Clara then made many suggestions that made it even more literal and stilted and ICEL came up with a new draft to satisfy them, but then some people at the Vatican - no one is quite sure who - made final changes to the text that in some cases made the translation less literal (but more awkward) and in other cases were absurd (like translating the Latin word that looks like the English word "incline" as "to incline" rather than "to bow"). ICEL then politely said that there might be some problems with the last minute changes, so some of the bizarre parts were taken out, but many of them were left in and that is what we are left with. I think some people felt that they had to put their personal stamp on it - because they were ideologically pure and anyone with a degree in liturgy must be ideologically suspect - and yes, English might not have been their first language.
Meanwhile, I agree completely that sometimes hearing liturgical texts as texts can help us get a better handle on what the text is saying. Perhaps it’s the removal from the overly-familiar?
One the one hand, having an actor read a text dramatically seems like the opposite of liturgy to many, and it did feel a bit affected. (As I said, a spoken word performance of "People, Look East" - which despite being written in the early 20th century is basically dripping with Victorian sentimentality - just seems a bit too much. It's the liberal equivalent of the kind of thing you might see on the annual broadcast Christmas performance of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir ("with this year's celebrity guest!")). Not that other, less touchy-feely US churches than this one, that rather than feeling like a a Very Special Episode of an 80's family sitcom try instead to out-English-the-English with their rendition of the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols are also not a bit twee in their own way.
On the other hand, though - it felt that this particular English translation of the Gloria which is a bit from outer space the first time you read it actually made sense when read all dramatically in the style of a Poet Laureate at a Presidential Inauguration. It may just be a coincidence. As I and others have said, this was not the intention of the translators, who did not entirely know what they were doing.
The funny thing is that the choir director or whoever programmed this likely did not know all the politics of the current translation and probably picked it rather than what is in the Book of Common Worship because it is the only official-sanctioned-somewhere-in-this-country more literal translation in modern language that is well known.
The funny thing is that the choir director or whoever programmed this likely did not know all the politics of the current translation and probably picked it rather than what is in the Book of Common Worship because it is the only official-sanctioned-somewhere-in-this-country more literal translation in modern language that is well known.
Actually, my guess is that a choir director in a Presbyterian church, if they didn’t use the version in the Book of Common Worship, would have gone for the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, unless maybe they had a Catholic background. I’d be surprised if “officially sanctioned” was even a slight a consideration.
That said, I don’t have the music to Ritter’s Gloria handy, but it wouldn’t be at all unusual for music of that sort to include an English translation.
There is a set of Christmas quiz questions somewhere on the internet which states there are four candles on an Advent wreath. This gets annoying at workplace quizzes when you know that most churches in the UK would have five candles! I think I once wrote “If you actually go to church the answer is 5, but if you just found this quiz online it will say 4”.
The wreath itself has only four candles, one for each Sunday of Advent. The candle in the center is the Christ Candle. That is separate from the Advent wreath. Customarily the Advent Wreath and Christ Candle are lit up on Christmas Eve, but then on Christmas, and the Christmas Sundays the advent wreath is removed and the Christ Candle alone is lit. Granted a number of churches have continued to use the wreath and Christ Candle through Christmas tide too. Nevertheless, the wreath has four candles. The Christ candle stands alone. More churches are continuing to light the Christ candle through Epiphany too. Natural Advent wreaths would be too dry to continue into Epiphany.
This may be true where you are @Gramps49, but not in my experience in the UK where a single stand holds all five candles, and where natural greenery seems to last fine until Epiphany.
From everything I’ve read about the most recent RC translations, I think a lot of it comes from having people in charge of the translations, or with veto power, for whom English isn’t their first language, together with a focus on exact translation from the Latin over any poetic nature of the texts.
The current translation reminds me of those Supraphon LPs of the 1960s that originated in eastern Europe. The blurb on the back of the cover always read as though it had been translated word by word using a dictionary by people with no knowledge of English.
The current Gloria poses particular problems for composers - its clunky irregular rhythmic stresses make it difficult to come up with memorable congregation-friendly melodies, and paraphrases are now forbidden. This has led to a decline in the singing of this text.
I am a member of several RC musician/composers groups and organisations. I have yet to meet a single member who thinks the current text is successful or worthy. My view is that, in reaching for a more elevated tone, they have come up with something that sounds like a bin man attempting to talk like a duke.
This may be true where you are @Gramps49, but not in my experience in the UK where a single stand holds all five candles, and where natural greenery seems to last fine until Epiphany.
That’s my experience, too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the wreath removed and just the Christ candle left at Christmas or during Christmastide. That would be impossible with our church’s Advent wreath, which hangs from the ceiling.
And as for the greenery, often, of course, it may be refreshed/replaced over the course of Advent.
Our Place has the wreath (with greenery), along with four purple candles, one pink one, and the central white one for Christmas Day. I can't recall offhand when it's actually removed - it may stay for Christmas I, or perhaps is taken away at some point during the week after Christmas Day.
Talking of vestments again, I mentioned Uppsala Cathedral's pale lilac pink chasuble, worn by the celebrant last Sunday. I'll be interested to see what they use this coming Sunday (yes, I really should get out more) - a video of the service on Advent 4 last year shows the Diocesan Bishop sporting a very elegant blue chasuble, and the other clergy in the very long surplice (is it a sort of alb? or a cross between surplice and alb? often worn by Swedish ministers, accompanied by blue stoles.
The Church of Sweden is, of course, Lutheran, and so is not bound by Roman Catholic rules, but it does seem to have a wide variety of colours and usages. The Easter Sunday eucharist this year had the Archbishop in white/pale blue/gold chasuble, and the Dean in a pale blue cope. Two other clergy wore red/light brown (!) copes, and yet others sported albs and cream stoles...
There is a set of Christmas quiz questions somewhere on the internet which states there are four candles on an Advent wreath. This gets annoying at workplace quizzes when you know that most churches in the UK would have five candles! I think I once wrote “If you actually go to church the answer is 5, but if you just found this quiz online it will say 4”.
Re the Gloria, and other texts mangled by the revised RC liturgy, we managed to restrain Father F***wit from introducing the Roman Rite entire by pointing out that the musical settings we knew, and others in our default hymnbook, were all written for the ICEL texts.
Unlike the Places @Alan29 mentions, we therefore continue to sing the Kyries, Gloria, Sanctus/Benedictus, and Agnus Dei.
We have the RCC confession, and the RCC *consubstantial* version of the Creed, but retain the Anglican Collect, Readings, and Eucharistic Prayer B, though FatherInCharge sometimes uses the RCC Preface.
One of the helpful things about the use of Latin as the liturgical language was that the congregation could sing their own texts while the priest said his prayers in Latin.
Nowadays the congregations have to stick to the prescribed texts.
Of course it is much more of a communal event.
Yes, it's much more of a dialogue between priest and people, or so ISTM, rather than the priestly monologue (with occasional very Umble interpolations by the Miserable Sinners) of the C of E's 1662 Prayer Book!
(Would those who love Cranmer's matchless prose please stand aside whilst I make for the door?)
With the liturgies of many Anglican and Lutheran churches all following much the same basic structure as the RC Mass, albeit in various tongues, at least one knows roughly what's going on, even if the actual words are not understood.
I have just learned a lot that I did not know about the Advent wreath. This was on the German language Wikipedia article on ADVENTSKRANZ. You get differing explanations on different language sites but basically it all started in Hamburg in 1839 when the Lutheran pastor Johann Hinnrich Wichern who was responsible for a children's home called DAS RAUHE HAUS which still exists today, had this idea of counting out the days to Christmas. He took a cart wheel and put on it four large white candles for the Sundays of Advent and 19 smaller red candles inviting the children to light one candle each day. He hung the cart wheel from a beam,just as it is usually found in German churches today.
It wasn't until 1925 that the Advent wreath reached Catholic Cologne and then by 1930 Bavaria. The Catholics introduced the custom of having candles in the liturgical colours of Advent.
The National Socialists took the Advent wreath and renamed it der SONNENWENDKRANZ (Solstice Wreath).
It wasn't until 1945 that the Advent Wreath reached Austria and the largest hanging Advent wreath in the world is said to be found in the National Austrian Catholic pilgrimage site of Mariazell.
In Italian and French the wreath is called a 'crown' (corona in Italian and couronne in French)
Acc to the Italian website the four candles indicate 1.Prophets 2.Bethlehem 3.Shepherds and 4.Angels
Acc to the French site the candles indicate 1.pardon 2. faith 3.joy 4.peace
Das Rauhe Haus in Hamburg-Horn where it all started still cares for over 3000 people in homes for street children,homes for handicapped children and adults,home visiting for people in need and schools.
Yes, it's much more of a dialogue between priest and people, or so ISTM, rather than the priestly monologue (with occasional very Umble interpolations by the Miserable Sinners) of the C of E's 1662 Prayer Book!
(Would those who love Cranmer's matchless prose please stand aside whilst I make for the door?)
With the liturgies of many Anglican and Lutheran churches all following much the same basic structure as the RC Mass, albeit in various tongues, at least one knows roughly what's going on, even if the actual words are not understood.
Hehe...when I acted as sidesperson at the 8am Holy Communion (BCP) at the Church of my Youth, I sometimes found it hard to keep myself awake as the Vicar droned on...and on...and on...
When we eventually started to use the contemporary-language Series 3 (in 1973 IIRC), I found it much easier to remain A Lert, and to follow the liturgy. We only used Series 3 at 8am on alternate Sundays, and that for just a few months before the traditionalists forced a return to 1662 every Sunday.
A compromise was reached by using 1662 at 8am on Sundays, but Series 3 at 1030am once a month, 630pm once a month, and 915am every Wednesday. This was what would now, I think, be called an *open evangelical* church.
One of the helpful things about the use of Latin as the liturgical language was that the congregation could sing their own texts while the priest said his prayers in Latin.
Nowadays the congregations have to stick to the prescribed texts.
Of course it is much more of a communal event.
How was it "helpful" to have the congregation all pray their own devotional prayers, each person's one being a little different, while the priest prayed the liturgical ones? And as for singing, the congregation would not sing anything unless they were led in singing hymns that although not part of the official liturgy were still something the clergy had approved. I wasn't alive at the time but I doubt you just walk into mass and start singing whatever Catholic hymn you wanted. But maybe I am misunderstanding what you mean?
This rarely happened in the UK but in German speaking lands usually there would be lay led Mass texts,say for the Eucharistic prayer,which would be read at the time that the priest would be saying the prayers quietly in Latin. There was a good number of musical settings which accompanied both the Ordinary texts (Kyrie,Gloria etc) as well as songs to be sung at the beginning ,at the Offertory,at the Consecration etc. The best known of these settings is Schubert's German Mass. The Sanctus started 'Heilig,heilig,heilig,Heilig ist der Herr,Heilig,heilig,heilig,Heilig ist nur Er' (Holy,holy,holy, Holy is the Lord.Holy,holy,holy is is alone He)
In the UK in the 1940s and 1950s at a 'Children's Mass there would often be prayers read in English which would accompany the priest's celebration.
Otherwise there was little in the way of vernacular instruction and people were left to read their missals ,or say the rosary privately. The missals would have all sorts of series of prayers from those which followed exactly the Latin texts,often side by side with the vernacular as well as those which had completely different texts to be read privately during the priest's celebration.
This rarely happened in the UK but in German speaking lands usually there would be lay led Mass texts,say for the Eucharistic prayer,which would be read at the time that the priest would be saying the prayers quietly in Latin. There was a good number of musical settings which accompanied both the Ordinary texts (Kyrie,Gloria etc) as well as songs to be sung at the beginning ,at the Offertory,at the Consecration etc. The best known of these settings is Schubert's German Mass. The Sanctus started 'Heilig,heilig,heilig,Heilig ist der Herr,Heilig,heilig,heilig,Heilig ist nur Er' (Holy,holy,holy, Holy is the Lord.Holy,holy,holy is is alone He)
In the UK in the 1940s and 1950s at a 'Children's Mass there would often be prayers read in English which would accompany the priest's celebration.
Otherwise there was little in the way of vernacular instruction and people were left to read their missals ,or say the rosary privately. The missals would have all sorts of series of prayers from those which followed exactly the Latin texts,often side by side with the vernacular as well as those which had completely different texts to be read privately during the priest's celebration.
Priests and people each doing their own thing.
Germany was way ahead in the Liturgical movement and led the way.
This rarely happened in the UK but in German speaking lands usually there would be lay led Mass texts,say for the Eucharistic prayer,which would be read at the time that the priest would be saying the prayers quietly in Latin. There was a good number of musical settings which accompanied both the Ordinary texts (Kyrie,Gloria etc) as well as songs to be sung at the beginning ,at the Offertory,at the Consecration etc. The best known of these settings is Schubert's German Mass. The Sanctus started 'Heilig,heilig,heilig,Heilig ist der Herr,Heilig,heilig,heilig,Heilig ist nur Er' (Holy,holy,holy, Holy is the Lord.Holy,holy,holy is is alone He)
In the UK in the 1940s and 1950s at a 'Children's Mass there would often be prayers read in English which would accompany the priest's celebration.
Otherwise there was little in the way of vernacular instruction and people were left to read their missals ,or say the rosary privately. The missals would have all sorts of series of prayers from those which followed exactly the Latin texts,often side by side with the vernacular as well as those which had completely different texts to be read privately during the priest's celebration.
Priests and people each doing their own thing.
Germany was way ahead in the Liturgical movement and led the way.
I think it's true to say that the view in CofE pews would be the opposite. Congregations expect to be able to hear the words, and mentally join in with them.
In 1662 days, they were the same every week, and most people got to know them virtually by heart. Modern services vary more, often by season, but congregations still expect to be able to hear the words, and have quite often got them in a booklet or on a card in front of them. Most of the Eucharistic prayers also now involve responses that they expect and are expected to join in with.
Whatever the clergy might have thought, that was also at the bottom of the quite widespread congregational dislike of 'ad orientem', celebration - turn your back on everyone, huddle over the altar and mumble. Likewise, chanting the readings may be clever, but it makes them much harder to follow.
The best known of these settings is Schubert's German Mass. The Sanctus started 'Heilig,heilig,heilig,Heilig ist der Herr,Heilig,heilig,heilig,Heilig ist nur Er' (Holy,holy,holy, Holy is the Lord.Holy,holy,holy is is alone He)
A favorite of mine. The Heilig, heilig, heilig from Schubert’s German Mass was a standard of the choir at the church of my youth, something that could easily be pulled out at the last minute if need be.
Some decades ago, Richard Proulx did a very nice adaptation of the German Mass that can be used liturgically. (He did update it to accommodate the 2010 translation.)
Comments
Since Common Worship came in, this Sunday has belonged to John the Baptist in the Advent sequence Patriarchs, Prophets, John the Baptist, Mary the Mother of the Lord. He's the subject of the gospel reading and is likely to be at least referred to in the sermon.
Pink/rose vestments really don't go with a man who wore rough clothes and ate locusts and wild honey!
As @Forthview says, the name Gaudete Sunday comes from the incipit of the traditional introit of the day: “Gaudete in Domino semper, iterum dico vobis gaudete/Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.”
The violet/purple of Advent (and Lent) signifies penitence. As we are just over halfway through Advent, and in keeping with the introit, the idea is that people are given a little respite from penitential nature of the season. As rose is a lighter shade of violet/purple, the rose colored vestments and paraments (and candle) reflect the “lightened” penitential nature of the day.
The same use of rose vestments and paraments happens—at least at those places that have them—on the Fourth Sunday in Lent, or Laetare Sunday. (On that day, the traditional introit begins “Laetare Jerusalem/Rejoice Jerusalem.”)
The chasuble used at Uppsala Cathedral today was, to my eyes, a sort of pale lilac:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3pIzVBPDhY&t=4498s
You get a good view of the clergy at the altar at about 9 minutes in.
Actually, that's much closer to what I meant than tinned salmon...
Indeed, and in art Mary is usually portrayed wearing blue
A good example of this is the Advent wreath which like the Christmas tree originated in the German lands of Central Europe. Almost every house would have and still has its own Advent wreath with its own candles, usually all red or occasionally all white. the larger Advent wreaths to be found in churches would be similar/
It was when they started to be introduced in UK churches,just under 50 years ago that the colours of the candles took on the liturgical colours of the Roman rite in Advent (three purple and one rose)and that has now gone back certainly to Austria where the Advent candles in churches follow that pattern. In non-Catholic UK churches people are not always sure of the origins of the colour sequence and will therefore, understandably, make up their own explanations as to the reason for the rose coloured candle - and why not ? these things are not parts of the deposit of faith and so can be explained in any way which one finds useful.
In many UK churches one also finds a white central candle which represents Christ and which is lit on Christmas day. I have never seen that in Central Europe but once again I would say,why not ?
In speaking of the origins of the term 'Gaudete 'Sunday it reminds me that next Sunday's liturgy in the Roman rite traditionally begins with the Antiphon 'Rorate,caeli,desuper et nubes pluant justum' (Drop down dew,oh Heavens, and let the clouds rain down the just one).
There is a beautiful Central European custom of the 'Rorate' Mass held in the early mornings of Advent, particularly on Saturdays, It is held only by candlelight and in white vestments in honour of the Virgin Mary. The Gospel reading is always that of the message of the Angel to the Blessed Virgin. It should be timed that ,as the faithful leave the church sunlight is breaking through and they hear the final words 'Ecce Dominus veniet' (Behold the Lord will come).
It is only in the last two years that I have heard of such a Mass being celebrated here in Scotland and I would like to know if any others in the UK,particularly in Anglican churches,have heard of this custom.
I am an evening mass attender where there was, as usual, just one cleric but at present I do the Sunday morning clearing where usually there are more as the parish has two retired curates.
As he was a Reader, a plain alb, along with his blue scarf, would have looked better IMHO.
The Advent wreath we had in our home when I was a child (the 1960s) had white candles. I can remember my mother saying she knew they ought to be purple and rose, but she preferred white.
Presbyterian heads here would expect purple/rose candles, or blue if that’s the color otherwise used in Advent. You’d get puzzlement and questions if you used all white (“Why aren’t the candles the normal colors?”) and real puzzlement if red candles were used.
Yeah, in this part of Presbyland liturgical colours are considered Rank Popery (and I'm only slightly exaggerating).
But in the PC(USA), while a few pockets exist where such things are considered Rank Popery, they are indeed very few and far between.
That was an advent crown.
The current RC English translation of the Gloria (and the rest of the current translation of the missal) is so clunky but hearing her speak it made it seem quite beautiful and incredibly modern (I am sure that this was NOT the intent of those higher-ups who threw out one new translation by ICEL in the 90's then hacked to pieces the one ICEL made about 10 years later in response to Liturgiam Authenticam in order to give us what we have today).
Granted, the same reader also read the text to the Advent carol "People, Look East" (why? I have no idea) and made it sound like a modern poem, so maybe the reason that translation of the Gloria sounded good was all down to the delivery.
Still, it did make me rethink a bit what makes "good liturgy." The Gloria in English we say or sing at RC mass on Sundays outside Advent and Lent flows oddly if you just recite it or if you sing it to any of the common settings or chants, compared with the Latin or with much earlier translations like the one used by most Anglicans until the mid-twentieth century (I'm not a fan of the 1975 ICET translation either because it made big and unnecessary deletions from and rearrangements of the Latin text it was based on, but it was more singable than what we have today). But maybe with a theatrical, playful, questioning, and somewhat staccato way of reading of the current RC translation, we better understand what the text really means (although, seeing that it is an ancient hymn, its real meaning is inseparable from the text received as song - and in particular plainsong).
I’ve checked our Book of Common Worship (2018), and the Gloria there is the ICET text, slightly modified in the second line—“and peace to God’s people on earth” rather than “to his people.”
I can probably count on one hand the times I’ve heard the Gloria sung liturgically in a Presbyterian service. While our services in general have moved to being much more in line with the general Western Ordo (though not with weekly Communion in most places yet), use of the Gloria just hasn’t caught on. I regularly hear/sing a Kyrie and a Sanctus, and I don’t think anyone bats an eye at them anymore. I occasionally hear/sing an Agnus Dei, but singing the Gloria just doesn’t happen. The common thing at that point in the liturgy is to sing a Gloria Patri or a verse or two of a hymn. (And in a departure from many other liturgies, the Peace generally follows that.)
Meanwhile, I agree completely that sometimes hearing liturgical texts as texts can help us get a better handle on what the text is saying. Perhaps it’s the removal from the overly-familiar?
No offense taken! Also, the most senior people overseeing the RCC’s most resent translation of the missal were more concerned that the Latin/Greek (but usually Latin) was translated word for word - and that the Latin terms for theological concepts were not translated at all but turned into Anglicized versions of the Latin words like “consubstantial” -than they were with writing good Liturgical English. The idea was that the purpose they wanted to emphasize of translation was to better understand the Latin it was based on, and that if you don’t like the translation, you can always just use the Latin (not that that is realistic at all).
Yes, although Cardinal George Pell of Sydney was quite influential on the Vox Clara committee that basically sidelined ICEL (the translation committee that had existed since the creation of the Novus Ordo). I think ICEL made a translation based on the new, more literal translation guidelines, Vox Clara then made many suggestions that made it even more literal and stilted and ICEL came up with a new draft to satisfy them, but then some people at the Vatican - no one is quite sure who - made final changes to the text that in some cases made the translation less literal (but more awkward) and in other cases were absurd (like translating the Latin word that looks like the English word "incline" as "to incline" rather than "to bow"). ICEL then politely said that there might be some problems with the last minute changes, so some of the bizarre parts were taken out, but many of them were left in and that is what we are left with. I think some people felt that they had to put their personal stamp on it - because they were ideologically pure and anyone with a degree in liturgy must be ideologically suspect - and yes, English might not have been their first language.
One the one hand, having an actor read a text dramatically seems like the opposite of liturgy to many, and it did feel a bit affected. (As I said, a spoken word performance of "People, Look East" - which despite being written in the early 20th century is basically dripping with Victorian sentimentality - just seems a bit too much. It's the liberal equivalent of the kind of thing you might see on the annual broadcast Christmas performance of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir ("with this year's celebrity guest!")). Not that other, less touchy-feely US churches than this one, that rather than feeling like a a Very Special Episode of an 80's family sitcom try instead to out-English-the-English with their rendition of the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols are also not a bit twee in their own way.
On the other hand, though - it felt that this particular English translation of the Gloria which is a bit from outer space the first time you read it actually made sense when read all dramatically in the style of a Poet Laureate at a Presidential Inauguration. It may just be a coincidence. As I and others have said, this was not the intention of the translators, who did not entirely know what they were doing.
The funny thing is that the choir director or whoever programmed this likely did not know all the politics of the current translation and probably picked it rather than what is in the Book of Common Worship because it is the only official-sanctioned-somewhere-in-this-country more literal translation in modern language that is well known.
That said, I don’t have the music to Ritter’s Gloria handy, but it wouldn’t be at all unusual for music of that sort to include an English translation.
Or maybe they just looked at Google.
The wreath itself has only four candles, one for each Sunday of Advent. The candle in the center is the Christ Candle. That is separate from the Advent wreath. Customarily the Advent Wreath and Christ Candle are lit up on Christmas Eve, but then on Christmas, and the Christmas Sundays the advent wreath is removed and the Christ Candle alone is lit. Granted a number of churches have continued to use the wreath and Christ Candle through Christmas tide too. Nevertheless, the wreath has four candles. The Christ candle stands alone. More churches are continuing to light the Christ candle through Epiphany too. Natural Advent wreaths would be too dry to continue into Epiphany.
The current translation reminds me of those Supraphon LPs of the 1960s that originated in eastern Europe. The blurb on the back of the cover always read as though it had been translated word by word using a dictionary by people with no knowledge of English.
The current Gloria poses particular problems for composers - its clunky irregular rhythmic stresses make it difficult to come up with memorable congregation-friendly melodies, and paraphrases are now forbidden. This has led to a decline in the singing of this text.
I am a member of several RC musician/composers groups and organisations. I have yet to meet a single member who thinks the current text is successful or worthy. My view is that, in reaching for a more elevated tone, they have come up with something that sounds like a bin man attempting to talk like a duke.
And as for the greenery, often, of course, it may be refreshed/replaced over the course of Advent.
Talking of vestments again, I mentioned Uppsala Cathedral's pale lilac pink chasuble, worn by the celebrant last Sunday. I'll be interested to see what they use this coming Sunday (yes, I really should get out more) - a video of the service on Advent 4 last year shows the Diocesan Bishop sporting a very elegant blue chasuble, and the other clergy in the very long surplice (is it a sort of alb? or a cross between surplice and alb? often worn by Swedish ministers, accompanied by blue stoles.
The Church of Sweden is, of course, Lutheran, and so is not bound by Roman Catholic rules, but it does seem to have a wide variety of colours and usages. The Easter Sunday eucharist this year had the Archbishop in white/pale blue/gold chasuble, and the Dean in a pale blue cope. Two other clergy wore red/light brown (!) copes, and yet others sported albs and cream stoles...
Unlike the Places @Alan29 mentions, we therefore continue to sing the Kyries, Gloria, Sanctus/Benedictus, and Agnus Dei.
We have the RCC confession, and the RCC *consubstantial* version of the Creed, but retain the Anglican Collect, Readings, and Eucharistic Prayer B, though FatherInCharge sometimes uses the RCC Preface.
I call it the *Mish-Mash Mass*...
Nowadays the congregations have to stick to the prescribed texts.
Of course it is much more of a communal event.
(Would those who love Cranmer's matchless prose please stand aside whilst I make for the door?)
With the liturgies of many Anglican and Lutheran churches all following much the same basic structure as the RC Mass, albeit in various tongues, at least one knows roughly what's going on, even if the actual words are not understood.
It wasn't until 1925 that the Advent wreath reached Catholic Cologne and then by 1930 Bavaria. The Catholics introduced the custom of having candles in the liturgical colours of Advent.
The National Socialists took the Advent wreath and renamed it der SONNENWENDKRANZ (Solstice Wreath).
It wasn't until 1945 that the Advent Wreath reached Austria and the largest hanging Advent wreath in the world is said to be found in the National Austrian Catholic pilgrimage site of Mariazell.
In Italian and French the wreath is called a 'crown' (corona in Italian and couronne in French)
Acc to the Italian website the four candles indicate 1.Prophets 2.Bethlehem 3.Shepherds and 4.Angels
Acc to the French site the candles indicate 1.pardon 2. faith 3.joy 4.peace
Das Rauhe Haus in Hamburg-Horn where it all started still cares for over 3000 people in homes for street children,homes for handicapped children and adults,home visiting for people in need and schools.
Precisely.
When we eventually started to use the contemporary-language Series 3 (in 1973 IIRC), I found it much easier to remain A Lert, and to follow the liturgy. We only used Series 3 at 8am on alternate Sundays, and that for just a few months before the traditionalists forced a return to 1662 every Sunday.
A compromise was reached by using 1662 at 8am on Sundays, but Series 3 at 1030am once a month, 630pm once a month, and 915am every Wednesday. This was what would now, I think, be called an *open evangelical* church.
How was it "helpful" to have the congregation all pray their own devotional prayers, each person's one being a little different, while the priest prayed the liturgical ones? And as for singing, the congregation would not sing anything unless they were led in singing hymns that although not part of the official liturgy were still something the clergy had approved. I wasn't alive at the time but I doubt you just walk into mass and start singing whatever Catholic hymn you wanted. But maybe I am misunderstanding what you mean?
In the UK in the 1940s and 1950s at a 'Children's Mass there would often be prayers read in English which would accompany the priest's celebration.
Otherwise there was little in the way of vernacular instruction and people were left to read their missals ,or say the rosary privately. The missals would have all sorts of series of prayers from those which followed exactly the Latin texts,often side by side with the vernacular as well as those which had completely different texts to be read privately during the priest's celebration.
Priests and people each doing their own thing.
Germany was way ahead in the Liturgical movement and led the way.
In 1662 days, they were the same every week, and most people got to know them virtually by heart. Modern services vary more, often by season, but congregations still expect to be able to hear the words, and have quite often got them in a booklet or on a card in front of them. Most of the Eucharistic prayers also now involve responses that they expect and are expected to join in with.
Whatever the clergy might have thought, that was also at the bottom of the quite widespread congregational dislike of 'ad orientem', celebration - turn your back on everyone, huddle over the altar and mumble. Likewise, chanting the readings may be clever, but it makes them much harder to follow.
Some decades ago, Richard Proulx did a very nice adaptation of the German Mass that can be used liturgically. (He did update it to accommodate the 2010 translation.)
I think I've also heard it sung occasionally in Lutheran churches in Sweden.