Service notes: Church of the Resurrection, Franklin, Tennessee

I should probably just sign up to be a Mystery Worshipper at Ship of Fools, but I'm too lazy. Anyway, as I travel, I'll post notes on worship at the parishes I visit.

Today I attended the 10:30 Eucharist at the Church of the Resurrection in Franklin, Tennessee. The Rector was out of town. The Rector is always out of town when I visit somewhere. It was a smallish congregation for the size of the church, which I take it was built for growth. It wasn't built for singing, certainly: there's carpet everywhere. (In the special musician's edition of the Bible, the Ten Commandments say nothing about adultery or murder but do include "Thou shalt not carpet the church" and "Thou shalt not reaspirate during thy melismas.") Generally when I'm in Franklin I worship at the venerable Saint Paul's, but I thought I'd try something different. Saint Paul's has a lovely building and excellent music (not to mention a very handsome music director), but it drives me crazy the way they overelaborate the offertory rite. It's worse even than the Roman Rite, which at least limits itself to prayers over the bread and the wine. At Saint Paul's they also pray over the money.

All together now: it is the Eucharistic Prayer itself that offers the bread and the wine, plus the money, plus our very selves. So those post-offertory prayers are redundant in the worst possible way. I don't know what it is that compels Episcopal priests to embellish the offertory rite with presentation hymns and sentences and extra prayers and all the rest of it. The Prayer Book (remember the Prayer Book?) gets it exactly right. The first words out of the priest's mouth after the offerings are received should be "The Lord be with you."

Naturally, at Resurrection the priest overelaborated the offertory rite.

But let's back up. The words out of his mouth was that stirring and heart-warming admonition, "Please stand." Honestly, do Episcopalians really need specific instructions to stand when the opening hymn starts playing? Are they going to think, "Gosh, we've stood for the opening hymn every Sunday morning since Henry VIII's eyes first started wandering, but maybe this Sunday they want us to stay seated"?

(Brief GOE digression: yes, I know they didn't sing opening hymns in Henry VIII's day. Leave me alone.)

Still, there was so much that worked, and so little that was distracting, that I could effortlessly worship. Sure, the sermon tried much too clumsily to pull in all three lessons, but it was a noble effort. There were announcements, but they were so well done and so brief that I didn't even mind. The soloist was marvelous, the organist was proficient (if over fond of 4-3 suspensions), and the hymns were good.

Why is it, though, that no one observes the silence after the Fraction? That has to be the second-most-violated rubric in the Prayer Book. The most-violated rubric is the one that calls for ministers to instruct their congregations about the duty to make wills: see BCP 445. I have never heard a Rector talk about wills, but I have seen a handful of priests keep the silence after the Fraction. If I'm ever ordained, I'm going to kneel for an appreciable period of silent prayer and maybe lay on some extra incense, just to even things out.