Beautiful churches, vestments, sacred music and liturgies

[The Liturgist]

There have been some unpleasant threads lately for those of us in the Traditional Theology community, and it occurred to me it might be quite nice to invite my friends who participate in this forum, who include but are not limited to @MarkRohfrietsch @public hermit @concretecamper @prodromos @ViaCrucis @dzheremi @Pavel Mosko @Andrewn @tampasteve @hedrick @Paidiske @Jipsah @Deegie @chevyontheriver @Andrew.H @SamanthaAnastasia @Athanasius377 @Carl Emerson @RileyG @bekkilyn and everyone else to share beautiful services they experienced for Ascension, Pentecost (or Whitsunday as I prefer to call it, since technically Pentecost is the Monday after, but I am quirky that way), Trinity Sunday or the Feast of All Saints, depending on whether one is a Western Christian or Eastern Orthodox (I can’t remember what the first Sunday after Whitsunday is in the Syriac or Coptic calendar), and Corpus Christi for our Roman Catholic and high church Anglican brethren.

For that matter, I would love to see some beautiful vestments and paraments. The Eastern Orthodox adorn their churches in green on Palm Sunday and Pentecost, and usually on All Saints Day, and also on Whitsunday decorate the church with greenery, which interestingly corresponds to the practice in Jewish synagogues. Western Christians wear red on both Palm Sunday and Whitsunday. The symbolism for Pentecost is of course red indicates the tongues of fire, whereas green symbolizes new life. Also, in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Pentecost Sunday is the feast of the Holy Trinity, and also the name day for Greek women named after flowers. Of course, the Syriac Orthodox traditionally have no set liturgical colors, and concelebrated liturgies can be quite colorful, however, the cathedral of the Archdiocese of the Eastern US appears to be implementing standard liturgical colors, which is a new practice. Copts always wear white and gold vestments, with readers wearing red stoles, except in Holy Week when black vestments and black or dark blue stoles are used. The Armenians have a system of liturgical colors, but frankly I have no idea how it is configured.

It would also be splendid to hear some lovely traditional church music. I feel particularly in the mood for contemporary settings of the Greek Orthodox and Antiochian Orthodox liturgy, such as those by Michaelides and Tikey Zes. I have been viewing liturgies from St. Sophia in Los Angeles, and there, contemporary music is frequently used in the Divine Liturgy, with Byzantine Chant used elsewhere, whereas at the nearby St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral, Syro-Byzantine chant predominates, a form very different from the eight mode West Syriac chant or the chant of the Assyrian Church of the East. St. Sophia Cathedral has an organ, and uses it; these are controversial in Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy, and they seem to be problematic in the Syriac Orthodox Church, however, the St. Sophia does a splendid job with their organ, which was recently upgraded. St. Sophia is also somewhat noteworthy for being the parish church of Tom Hanks, who converted to Greek Orthodoxy when he married a woman of that faith (this prompted him to produce My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which was amusing, but I felt it gave the impression that Eastern Orthodoxy is something obscure and incomprehensible to Western Christians, something people do not convert to except for matrimonial purposes, when this is not the case).

Lastly, I would love to see some photos of beautiful church architecture. I always love seeing beautiful churches.

 

[The Liturgist]

In Leipzig, St. Thomas Church gets all the attention due to JS Bach being the Thomascantor, however, less well known is that he was also in charge of the music for St. Nicholas Church. I find this church to be more beautiful, architecturally, and it has a stunning organ. It was also in this church where, in 1989, meetings were held between citizens disaffected by the DDR, which was quite a risky thing, as the dreaded Stasi secret police were in full operation right up until the moment when a senior minister misunderstood a directive that would have eased travel restrictions, and unwittingly set in motion a chain of events that led to the opening of the border and the fall of the Berlin Wall, without bloodshed. And it started in Leipzig, at St. Nicholas Church. On Apple Music there are two splendid albums available of its organ, by Jurgen Wolfe, and I just love the sound of that instrument.

The exterior of the church is particularly harmonious with the surrounding neighborhood, yet possess a compact and distinctive beauty.

When I visited in 2000 and 2001, the church had not been refurbished since the DDR era, and the paint was worn off the kneelers in the pews, which I found deeply moving.

Here is the beautiful organ. I love the palm tree motif and pastel green on the ceiling, indeed, I love the entire color scheme.

 

[Andrewn]

 

[Andrewn]

 

[The Liturgist]

Splendid!

 

[Andrewn]

 

[dzheremi]

(I can’t remember what the first Sunday after Whitsunday is in the Syriac or Coptic calendar)

Can't speak for the Syriacs, since I don't know their calendar, but in the Coptic Orthodox Church, we go straight from the Feast of Pentecost to the Apostles' Fast, which we've been in for a week by this point. This will end with the Apostles' Feast (for the martyrdom of Sts. Peter and Paul) on July 12th.

 

[Anthony2019]

Norwich Cathedral where I visited a couple of days ago.....

 

[BravoM]

I like the more ornate church but not the ones with precious metals all throughout. Better use of that like helping the needy in the world and not part of some church.
Where are the commandments and instructions for building such costly, precious metal included churches? Those hats, robes, and all leather shoes are expensive.
Pretty sure the life of a church leader is to be humble not all blinged out like some religious gangta rapper.

 

[dzheremi]

Hi BravoM,

Welcome to the Traditional Theology subforum. Please read over the statement of purpose of this subforum and make sure that what you post is in keeping with that. Saying that the priests, pastors, etc. of traditional Christian churches are "blinged out like some religious gansta rapper(s)" because you'd prefer they not have vestments or vessels made of precious metals is not in keeping with the respect we are to show to the traditions represented here (Orthodox, Roman Catholic, high church Protestant, etc.).

 

[Carl Emerson]

Our organ dates back to about 1850 and some of the pipes are made of a native timber called Kauri which was used for ships masts because it was strong and grew very straight.

 

[Tigger45]

This is of course a very common Lutheran sanctuary setup but I love how the morning sun shines through the stained glass. One Sunday morning I waited until the sun rays were aligned with the center aisle before snapping this shot.

 

[ViaCrucis]

I am rather fascinated by this uniquely American (or at least American-sounding) expression of Orthodox chant

I'll be honest, my love of bluegrass and ancient chant and hymnody makes me REALLY REALLY REALLY love this.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[All4Christ]

I am rather fascinated by this uniquely American (or at least American-sounding) expression of Orthodox chant

I'll be honest, my love of bluegrass and ancient chant and hymnody makes me REALLY REALLY REALLY love this.

-CryptoLutheran

Look for the Christ is Risen Appalachian melody as well. It’s pretty awesome

 

[Andrewn]

I think the Trisagion is the most beautiful hymn in the world.

 

[All4Christ]

Fun fact - St Basil said that O Gladsome Light (Phos Hilaron) was so ancient that they didn’t know who composed it but that they sang it at the lighting of the lamps every day.

I will now adduce another piece of evidence which might perhaps seem insignificant, but because of its antiquity must in nowise be omitted by a defendant who is indicted on a charge of innovation. It seemed fitting to our fathers not to receive the gift of the light at eventide in silence, but, on its appearing, immediately to give thanks. Who was the author of these words of thanksgiving at the lighting of the lamps, we are not able to say. The people, however, utter the ancient form, and no one has ever reckoned guilty of impiety those who say We praise Father, Son, and God's Holy Spirit.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

Our new green paraments have arrived a few months back, and last Sunday they were consecrated and put into service. Green is on the longest each year and our old set was badly faded, and weakened by the UV exposure. The Vail, Pall and Burse were bought by the Elders a couple of years back, not just the green but all the colours, and the paraments were ordered from the same company in the same fabric.

 

[Paidiske]

There's a rather nice photo here of the procession out of my church on Trinity Sunday, which gives a good view of the sanctuary with atrium behind.

The bishop was presiding that day, hence the people in the shot. His chasuble was his ordination chasuble and is a southern African design.

 

[The Liturgist]

I love all of these replies and was writing a detailed reply; forgive me but it will be delayed as I had to go to the ER yesterday and have to return today for testing. Please pray for myself, because I may have had a small heart attack, my relatives, who were frightened by the incident, and most importantLy my fiend Jeff who is not a Christian but a colleague from the realm of computer science who has become mentally unwell and attacked me, resulting in my hospitalization for tachycardia, and has been arrested (for reasons I cannot understand, he blames me for the fact that his wife who left him last year did not reunite with him in November as he had hoped, but she left him due to an incident of possible domestic violence he claims was an accident, and I have never even met her; after he attacked me in March I persuaded him to see a mental health professional, and for one month he was back to normal as was our relationship, then he stopped seeing his psychologist and a few days later attacked me again).

I pray he repents and finds comfort in our Lord; he is not an atheist and believes in quite a lot of pseudoscientific alternative medicine touted by quacks who are so quacky I suspect they are really Daffy Duck in disguise. It is strange how people can dismiss Christianity as irrational while subscribing to healthcare modalities that scientists have not only been unable to validate but whose claims in some cases have been falsified. He has diabetes and sleep apnea and I also worry about his health. He has been a friend since 2007 so the fact that he came close to frightening me to death is deeply upsetting.

So in a few days time I will be posting more content but in the interim if you have anything else you want to add to this thread that would be lovely. I also forgot to ask @Ignatius the Kiwi to join us; he is from ROCOR which is a denomination I love as I attended a ROCOR parish after joining the OCA and moving to a location where the closest nearby Orthodox church was ROCOR, and I had the best confessions of my life with ROCOR priests, who really helped me with bereavement over the death of my father, and also helped me overcome a lifelong fear of hearses. I also count Fr. George Whiteford as a friend and love his liturgical resources site.

So I am hoping @Ignatius the Kiwi might share some ROCOR content with us; his parish raised a massive amount of money for Ukrainian refugees but is one of several ROCOR parishes to be vandalized because the “R” stands for Russian, despite the fact a large percentage of cradle members of ROCOR are Ukrainian, indeed in the US and Canada there are more Ukrainians in ROCOR than in the UOCNA, and the presiding bishop of ROCOR, Metropolitan Hilarion Kapral, memory eternal, who reposed on May 22nd at a young age for a bishop, was a Ukrainian Canadian who I greatly admire, for among other things saving ROCOR’s Western Rite Vicarate after the retirement of Archbishop Jerome Shaw.

Forgive me for posting a downer when the point of this thread was a celebration, but I felt you all deserved to know why I hadn’t replied to you individually until now, and also I wanted to ask for your prayers.

 

[The Liturgist]

There's a rather nice photo here of the procession out of my church on Trinity Sunday, which gives a good view of the sanctuary with atrium behind.

The bishop was presiding that day, hence the people in the shot. His chasuble was his ordination chasuble and is a southern African design.

Beautiful vestments; your appreciation for the Carthusian aesthetic of simple elegance shines through.