What is the Anglican Liturgy like?

Onesimus

I've never been to an Anglican Liturgy before. What's it like? I assume there are many different types of anglican Churches so I guess I'll go ahead and ask you what the more traditional anglican liturgy is like?

Benny_Cake

As I understand it, high Anglican parishes ("bells and smells" liturgy) are few and far between in the Church of Ireland. St.Bartholemew's in Ballsbridge, Dublin is one, apparently it has an excellent choir. Might be worth checking it out if you're interested. It's a good bit more common in the Church of England.

martinedwards

not every service has Holy Communion.

morning and evening prayer are stand alone services. there are also a bunch of less often used service styles that can be wheeled out at the priest's discression.

I THINK that the rules say thet there should be a prayer book service in the parish church before noon on a Sunday, so that means that so long as ONE service (and that could technically be the priest in his vestry on his own) is read from the book, then any other services can be free form or to another structure.

there was a new version of the Book of Common prayer recently so there is now a choice of 16th century style language or (relatively) modern

here it is online.

http://www.bcponline.org/

as you rightly say, observance is varied depending on the church.

some folks like the trad style with a load of thees and thous, others use it like a ring binder and drop in & out as it suits them.

we're special. we're united Methodist and Church of Ireland, so we don't use it for non communion services, but we do for the Holy Communion. we also use it for the baptism section if there is a baptism.

martinedwards

St George's in High Street in Belfast is Fairly High.

the correct term is actually Anglocatholic.

because of the political connections over the years, it's a term that isn't used much in the north........

In England there were a bunch of Anglicans who switched to Catholicism when they Church of England passed the ordination of women.

As far as I remember, a bunch of clergy switched too making the interesting group of married RC priests.......

HamletOrHecuba

It varies- the services of Traditional Anglican Communion are extremely close to the old Sarum Rite and celebrated beautifully and piously. Anglicans in Ireland and Northern Ireland appear outside of the crowd in St Georges in Belfast come across as almost Presbyterian.

homer911

As a "once anglican", now Presbyterian, I would consider it pretty rigid, although I now think I had a limited exposure to Anglicanism, and the truth is that it varies quite a lot. I much prefer the more informal Presbyterian Service and I have a strong dislike for parrot-fashion prayers. The only thing that approaches what Catholics would call liturgy in the Presybterian Church is the acts of baptism and communion

Brer Fox

I think some of their services are very reverent. I was at one once some years ago with an English friend. I hesitate to repeat it now though.

Onesimus

Brer Fox wrote: »

I think some of their services are very reverent. I was at one once some years ago with an English friend. I hesitate to repeat it now though.

What do you mean you hesitate to repeat it? repeat what?

Brer Fox

It might create confusion to other Catholics and also to the non-Catholics. I guess there is the risk of it promoting religious indifference.

LordSutch

Benny_Cake wrote: »

As I understand it, high Anglican parishes ("bells and smells" liturgy) are few and far between in the Church of Ireland. St.Bartholemew's in Ballsbridge, Dublin is one, apparently it has an excellent choir. Might be worth checking it out if you're interested. It's a good bit more common in the Church of England.

Well said, correct on all counts! St Bart's does indeed have a great choir, and just to add that 'St Johns' Sandymount is another 'High Church' with all the "bells and smells" as you put it. Never heard that expression before, very good ) Re Communion; well most Anglican Churches have Communion on a Sunday once a month, ours (not High Church) is on the 1st Sunday of the month, but I guess it varies from parish to parish.

Benny_Cake

LordSutch wrote: »

Well said, correct on all counts! St Bart's does indeed have a great choir, and just to add that 'St Johns' Sandymount is another 'High Church' with all the "bells and smells" as you put it. Never heard that expression before, very good ) Re Communion; well most Anglican Churches have Communion on a Sunday once a month, ours (not High Church) is on the 1st Sunday of the month, but I guess it varies from parish to parish.

I can't claim credit for "bells and smells", came across it somewhere online before! I hadn't heard of St.Johns, from looking at their website they sing the entire Mass every Sunday, very traditional. An uncle of mine once inadvertently attended an Easter ceremony at a very High Church of England parish in London. It wasn't until after the service that he realised it wasn't a Roman Catholic church, he said his only suspicion was that "it seemed a bit too Catholic"!