Catechizing at Evensong

So recently it came to my attention that according to the 1662 and other editions of the BCP, a catechtical session is in theory supposed to follow the Nunc Dimitis, but in practice this is rarely if ever done, and I have never heard it. That said, a part of me is intrigued by the idea of responsorial reading and perhaps discussion of the Catechism at evening prayer, particularly since as I have recently discussed with Paidiske and Shane, most Anglican parishes lack the resources they had into the early 1970s that allowed for widespread Choral Evensong at a level comparable to the major cathedrals. For example, in the US, the only Anglican parish I am aware of which has those resources is the extremely well funded St. Thomas Fifth Ave. in New York, which has also been home to several noted expatriate English church musicians, for example, T. Tertius Noble, famously associated with York Minster (which is my personal favorite Anglican cathedral, musically speaking; the repose earlier this year of Francis Jackson, memory eternal, at the age of 103 was a sad moment for me)*. More recently, the choir director at the Collegiate Church of St. Peter in Westminster (Westminster Abbey), which as I am sure most of you are aware is a Royal Peculiar and not a Cathedral, but like most Royal Peculiars it has spectacular musical resources, indeed probably the best anywhere in terms of financing, was an English expat at St. Thomas Fifth Ave before returning to the UK. I am not sure if he is still there or not, I hope so, because he was in charge at the Royal Wedding in 2011 and did a very good job.

However, since it is so unusual for a parish church to have such excellent resources (and St. Thomas Fifth Ave is truly extraordinary in this respect: it might have the best musical program of any Anglican church in the Americas), and since Evening Prayer, where it is available at all, is frequently a said service, the idea of adding something by enhancing the service with a catechetical session as is theoretically supposed to happen according to the BCP strikes me as interesting, so I am curious if any of you have heard of anyone trying it.

*In 2002 in the course of two days a relative and I visited both Canterbury Cathedral and York Minster, and the CD I bought at York Minster, Masters of Music, contributed greatly to my love of Anglicanism.

Arcangl86 said:

Where is this supposed requirement found? I just looked up Evening prayer on the CoE website and there is nothing about that.

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So its not actually in the rubrics for Evening Prayer, but is rather a rubric where one would not expect to find one: in the footnotes for the Catechism. Thus I did not realize it was there until I read about it in the SCM Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship, as in reading through the catechism it did not even occur to me that there would be rubrics at the end, and thus my mind just tuned out the italicized text (my 1662 BCP being a cheap one without the style of rubrication I prefer).

The rubric is:

The Curate of every Parish shall diligently upon Sundays and Holy-days, after the second Lesson at Evening Prayer, openly in the Church instruct and examine so many Children of his Parish sent unto him, as he shall think convenient, in some Part of this Catechism.

Arcangl86 said:

Where is this supposed requirement found? I just looked up Evening prayer on the CoE website and there is nothing about that.

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By the way insofar as neither the SCM editors nor I are aware of anyone actually doing this, bearing in mind that the BCP has been around since 1549 and it is possible that in, say, the mid 17th century when the current edition was produced that this sort of thing was de rigeur, I would hesitate to call it a requirement or even a supposed requirement since no one has in recent memory, if ever, required it. It’s more of a nominal instruction.