There was a sign on the door of the Anglo-Catholic parish of which I was a member when I lived in Washington, DC. It said in all capital letters, “THE MISSION FIELD BEGINS HERE, NOW.” This sign was a not-so-subtle caution against thinking we can go to Mass, receive the Sacrament, and then go on living our lives for the rest of the week as if nothing had happened. Believe me: plenty of people do this! But it is in leaving the Mass, having been fed with the Body and Blood of our Lord, that we are to go into the world to live as people changed by the Gospel and to live as if we are changed. In the words of Frank Weston, a former Anglo-Catholic Bishop of Zanzibar, in a sermon to a gathering of Anglo-Catholics in 1923, “you have got to come out from before your Tabernacle and walk, with Christ mystically present in you, out into the streets of this country, and find the same Jesus in the people of your cities and your villages. You cannot claim to worship Jesus in the Tabernacle, if you do not pity Jesus in the slum.” (http://anglicanhistory.org/weston/weston2.html)
And so it may be that the Dismissal of the Mass is at times the most neglected part of the Mass, when indeed, the Dismissal is the moment where the rubber hits the road, where what we profess with our lips must take shape in our lives. Beginning on Sunday, September 10, we will begin standing for the Dismissal of the Mass. We typically kneel for the Blessing, which is appropriate, but it seems most logical and fitting as we use our bodies in worship to stand and be sent into the world for the Dismissal. This is a seemingly small change (and reflects what most Episcopal parishes tend to practice), but it says everything about what we are being asked to do in the Dismissal.
There is one other ceremonial change that we will see on September 10 when we begin our new program year, and it also has to do with the Dismissal. (I do not call it a liturgical change because it is extra-liturgical in nature.) For the past several years, it has been the custom to recite or sing the Angelus at the end of the 10:30 a.m. Sung Mass, but this has not been a long-standing practice at Good Shepherd. The Angelus is a traditional prayer of the Incarnation recited at 9 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. At Good Shepherd, on weekdays, the Angelus is prayed as Morning Prayer begins and at 5:30 p.m. as Evening Prayer begins. When our Tower bells are once again able to ring in a timely fashion, the Angelus will also ring at noon. I love the Angelus, because like the rhythm of the liturgical year, it is a powerful sign of the sacred breaking into our quotidian lives, summoning us to pray. However, the Angelus placed at the end of Sung Mass has tended to obscure the liturgical thrust of what the Dismissal is intended to do. (Its addition at the end of Mass is a remnant of pre-liturgical reform tendencies to add more and more accretions to the Mass, when in fact, the Sunday Mass is primarily about the celebration of the Lord’s Day. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer emphasizes that the Lord’s Day and its focus on our Lord’s saving actions are of primary importance for the Sunday Mass.) When the Angelus is used to end Mass, we are sent ceremonially and ritually from the Altar not into the world but to a side shrine for an extra-liturgical devotion. So, it seems most fitting to move from the Dismissal at the Altar to the Tower doors, where we are visually being sent into the world. True, we may go to coffee hour more directly, but you get the point! Beginning on Sunday, September 10, we will no longer end Sung Mass with the Angelus but with a hymn and procession to the Tower doors as a visible sign of the heart of the Dismissal. This also allows me to be present at the church entrance to greet those leaving the church in a more timely fashion.
A few more thoughts: the Angelus will continue to be prayed publicly eleven times on weekdays at Good Shepherd. I realize that praying the Angelus is dear to many of your hearts; it is to mine as well. This change at Sung Mass does not mean that we are dispensing with a devotion but rather restoring it to its customary time of 12 noon and allowing it to have its own place, quite appropriately, apart from the Mass. Devotion to Our Lady is a major characteristic of the piety of Good Shepherd and of Anglo-Catholic parishes. We have an entire Lady Chapel dedicated to her, and I encourage you to ask for the Blessed Mother’s intercession in both that chapel and at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. And when our Tower bells are once again ringing correctly and as the Angelus bells sound at noon on Sunday, I would encourage us all to pause and say the Angelus together. Historically, this has been the custom at Good Shepherd on Sundays.
This Sunday change is not a change in devotional practice but an intentional shift to allow the Mass to be the Mass and to let our ritual action reflect the Eucharistic theology behind it. May we remember the crucial words at the door of the church as we leave: the mission field begins here, now. May our lives be the Dismissal in action.
Yours in Christ,
Father Kyle