Which art in heaven

The Radio 4 morning service today was from St George's Chapel, Windsor and was a service of Matins. Matins is not as common these days as it once was so it was good to hear it done well.

I particularly liked the old language of the Lord's Prayer.

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

The C of E needs to hold onto the traditions of the past. I doubt that other faiths have updated their prayers for years!

Latin and vernacular speak

I am no linguist: witness my Grade E at French 'A' level in 1976. Similarly, I was hopeless at Latin.

I have, of course, sung plenty of Latin texts and so I can convert (I hesitate to say translate) some Latin into English. It is obviously easier when one knows the English anyway. So "Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris” is "(Thou) who sits at the right hand of the Father" and Pater Noster is how the Lord's Prayer begins.

In my last teaching job, which involved training the school's church choir, the Head said to me, when I was planning my first Carol Service, "You aren't going to pick lots of 16th century Latin carols are you?" This was because he thought that all organists (from the same stable as me) were dead keen on Latin church music. I do agree that an ordinary congegation members do not know what a choir is singing about when they use a Latin text so they just have to sit back and admire the music.

I am really glad that I was exposed to Latin both at school and in my church career and, I think, were I to study it now I would find it more of an intellectual puzzle than a punishment. (Note - I do not enjoy Sudoku puzzles because they remind me too much of working out music timetables)

Most people do not meet much Latin in church which is fine. It is also the case that many hymns contain English vocabulary which young people neither understand nor care about. How many 10 year olds know what a Paraclete is - do I really? When I was a chorister I sang, in the psalm 48 "Mark well her bulwarks" There is a useful page of difficult words HERE.

It is the case that hymn language can enrich one's vocabulary so we encounter phrases such as "tempestuous sea", "resounding all the day" and "With every fleeting breath" as just 3 examples.

There is a trend in worship to move away from 'traditional' hymns and just keep singing "Oh Jesus, Jesus, I love you" I also cite

Make my life a prayer to you
I wanna do what you want me to
No empty words, and no white lies
No token prayers, no compromise.

Books

 

I took this photo last Sunday and forgot to upload it from my phone. It is the bookshelf behind the organ bench and on it are stored books from yesteryear.

The Church of England managed with the Book of Common Prayer for many years then, at some point, somebody started to update the liturgy. By the time I was a chorister in 1968, Series II communion was pretty well established and a few years later Series III came out. These were again replaced by the Alternative Service Book (ASB) in 1980 a complete waste of time IMHO. Many churches invested cash in buying the volume which was obviously wasted.

Roll on and we now have the dreaded Common Worship of 2000. A more pathetic publication it would be difficult to imagine. Using it for communion services requires one to turn back and forth depending upon which Eucharistic prayer is used: to be fair, once one is used to the cue for the Sanctus one need not bother to follow the prayer, especially as various interjections and acclamations are seldom sung. I do dislike the many rubrics, symbols and icons which are meant to assist navigation of the book.

The line I REALLY hate is "that we may do justly". 'Do'? Who decided this? "That we may act justly" I suppose it means. See here.

The photo above shows the many volumes which are no longer in use, such as hymn books. Many places now use Hymns Old & New in which the harmonies and arrangements are of varying quality and the language has also been changed.

Ah, progress.