- Nov 26, 2019
- 11,180
- 5,708
- 49
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Generic Orthodox Christian
- Marital Status
- Celibate
I find myself extremely bothered this evening, because, looking at this list of churches in Cambridge, MA, it dawned on me that the only churches there where one has some assurance of traditional theology, the Roman Catholic parishes and Christ the King Presbyterian Church (PCA) have the potential, or in the case of Christ the King, certainty, for unpleasant contemporary worship music. The Novus Ordo Missae does not guarantee the solemnity of the traditional Latin mass, which Pope Francis is cracking down on; in much of the Southwestern US, it is difficult to find a Roman Catholic Church where the canons prohibiting the use of the guitar and piano in worship, or the Papal Encyclical of Pope Pius X Tra le sollecitudini prioritizing Gregorian chant and the most traditional of polyphonic misick such as Palestrina, are followed, with the exception of parishes offering the TLM.
I became even more annoyed when I realized that among Protestant churches in greater Boston, I can think of only one particularly well known church that has some assurance traditional theology and worship, Park Street Church, the last church in Boston that is a conservative Congregationalist church as opposed to a parish we lost to the Unitarians, or a parish of the liberal United Church of Christ, and Park Street Church also has contemporary music at their Sunday evening service, which strikes me as such a waste, as there are a number of beautiful Congregational liturgies which could be served in the evening.
Probably it is in Continuing Anglican churches that traditional worship among Protestants is most assured; the ACNA unfortunately is not free from the menacing shadow of the electric guitar. And also, the existence of contemporary worship in Episcopalian churches is doubly depressing, given the left-leaning theology which increasingly seems out of touch with the moderate sensibilities of most Episcopalians I meet, who would be happier if the Episcopal Church had remained committed to the moral values espoused in the 1979 BCP, hence the severe decline in membership (only the United Church of Christ has shrunk more dramatically among the mainline churches).
Traditional worship, with organ music and no “praise and worship” or rock style music in some denominations, such as the Methodist and Nazarene churches, the Baptist churches, Presbyterian churches, whether PCUSA or PCA or OPC or eCO, or the Stone/Campbell movement, is becoming hard to find on a national level.
Finding traditional Western-Rite worship in the Western US is becoming difficult regardless of denomination. Only the Eastern churches, whether Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian, or Eastern Catholic - with the notable and dramatic exception of Maronite Catholic parishes, which sadly frequently use music scarcely different from that found in the Missalettes sold to Novus Ordo Roman Rire parishes, rather than the beautiful traditional hymns of the West Syriac Rite, which thankfully remain dominant in Syriac Catholic and Syriac Orthodox churches, but there are some unique Maronite hymns which are becoming disused.
This loss of church music culture and traditional theology becomes particularly sad in the case of the Moravian Church, which does not yet have a confessional church providing alternatives, and where the beautiful hymns, many of which are unique to that denomination, are slowly disappearing along with the traditional moral theology.
It depresses me to consider that nearly all churches proximate to my current location will be providing worship that is, to varying extents, not traditional, tomorrow morning. The exceptions are predominantly either Continuing Anglican, Traditional Latin Mass RC, or Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, plus one Quaker meeting house. Now, this is the Southwest, and things are worse here in this respect than in other regions of the United States, where there is far more access to traditional worship, but why should I have to travel two thousand miles to sing the same hymns as my grandparents?
As I see it, maintaining conservative moral values and traditional theology is inadequate if we allow for contemporary worship, on the basis of lex orandi, lex credendi.
I became even more annoyed when I realized that among Protestant churches in greater Boston, I can think of only one particularly well known church that has some assurance traditional theology and worship, Park Street Church, the last church in Boston that is a conservative Congregationalist church as opposed to a parish we lost to the Unitarians, or a parish of the liberal United Church of Christ, and Park Street Church also has contemporary music at their Sunday evening service, which strikes me as such a waste, as there are a number of beautiful Congregational liturgies which could be served in the evening.
Probably it is in Continuing Anglican churches that traditional worship among Protestants is most assured; the ACNA unfortunately is not free from the menacing shadow of the electric guitar. And also, the existence of contemporary worship in Episcopalian churches is doubly depressing, given the left-leaning theology which increasingly seems out of touch with the moderate sensibilities of most Episcopalians I meet, who would be happier if the Episcopal Church had remained committed to the moral values espoused in the 1979 BCP, hence the severe decline in membership (only the United Church of Christ has shrunk more dramatically among the mainline churches).
Traditional worship, with organ music and no “praise and worship” or rock style music in some denominations, such as the Methodist and Nazarene churches, the Baptist churches, Presbyterian churches, whether PCUSA or PCA or OPC or eCO, or the Stone/Campbell movement, is becoming hard to find on a national level.
Finding traditional Western-Rite worship in the Western US is becoming difficult regardless of denomination. Only the Eastern churches, whether Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian, or Eastern Catholic - with the notable and dramatic exception of Maronite Catholic parishes, which sadly frequently use music scarcely different from that found in the Missalettes sold to Novus Ordo Roman Rire parishes, rather than the beautiful traditional hymns of the West Syriac Rite, which thankfully remain dominant in Syriac Catholic and Syriac Orthodox churches, but there are some unique Maronite hymns which are becoming disused.
This loss of church music culture and traditional theology becomes particularly sad in the case of the Moravian Church, which does not yet have a confessional church providing alternatives, and where the beautiful hymns, many of which are unique to that denomination, are slowly disappearing along with the traditional moral theology.
It depresses me to consider that nearly all churches proximate to my current location will be providing worship that is, to varying extents, not traditional, tomorrow morning. The exceptions are predominantly either Continuing Anglican, Traditional Latin Mass RC, or Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, plus one Quaker meeting house. Now, this is the Southwest, and things are worse here in this respect than in other regions of the United States, where there is far more access to traditional worship, but why should I have to travel two thousand miles to sing the same hymns as my grandparents?
As I see it, maintaining conservative moral values and traditional theology is inadequate if we allow for contemporary worship, on the basis of lex orandi, lex credendi.
