The first principle of the Ordinariate is then about Christian unity. St. Basil the Great, the Church’s greatest ecumenist, literally expended his life on the work of building bridges between orthodox brethren who shared a common faith, but who had become separated from one another in a Church badly fragmented by heresy and controversy. He taught that the work of Christian unity requires deliberate and ceaseless effort...St. Basil often talked with yearning about the archaia agape, the ancient love of the apostolic community, so rarely seen in the Church of his day. This love, he taught, is a visible sign that the Holy Spirit is indeed present and active, and it is absolutely essential for the health of the Church.

- Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, Homily on the Occasion of his Formal Institution as Ordinary

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Anglican Use Gradual vs. By Flowing Waters

December 10, 2007

Let's say your parish either has a music program in complete moribund disarray or has no program at all. You have been invited to start from scratch and move the parish gradually toward the ideal, as stated by Vatican II, of giving Gregorian chant "pride of place in liturgical services" (SC 116) along with sacred polyphony.
Parishioners speak English. Of them, 20% are eager to hear more chant, 20% are implacably hostile to it, and 40% don't care as long as you sing reasonably well and mostly in English. There are two resources (online and free) to consider: an English rendering of the Graduale Simplex called By Flowing Waters, and a book (approved for use by former Anglicans now fully in communion with Rome) called the Anglican Use Gradual.
Read in full (there are at least 50 comments) at the Musica Sacra forum of the Church Music Association of America.
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