Oh, just the usual thing you know; we're C of E of course,
But beautify the service from a medieval source,
With various processions, and in case you shouldn't know,
There are tunicled assistants who will tell you where to go;
And should you in bewilderment liturgically falter,
Just make a little circumambulation of the altar.
The blessing, like bishop, you majestically sing,
But apart from these exceptions, just the ordinary thing.
He was vicar of Leighton Buzzard where Frs. Berrett and Robinson (Keith) were curates
ReplyDeleteA former Anglican minister (now a Catholic bishop) told me once of his experience celebrating the main Sunday Mass at Westminster Cathedral, whereupon he quoted the very phrase above, "And should you in bewilderment liturgically falter, / Just make a little circumambulation of the altar", for there were so many servers and clergy to direct and assist him that the liturgy went swimmingly; one of the servers had no other task, apparently, than to go to the altar, genuflect before it, and return.
ReplyDeleteWhat for him made it so uniquely moving was that, as a young Anglo-Catholic layman many decades earlier, he had slipped in and knelt at the back pew while Solemn High Mass was offered, never dreaming that one day he would be the pontiff offering the Divine Victim at that same altar. Ad multos annos!
I am still in possession two books of Fr Forrest's verse, purchased in the 1970s: Parson's Play-pen 1968 and Our Man at Saint Withits .
ReplyDeleteMy favourite verse, probably because it is even more relevant today than it was in the 1960s is the following:
Shrugged Off
When her child was put on probabtion by the magistrates, a mother was heard to complain,"It's not fair, my other two boys were sent to a special school!"
Take our tiresome child away,
Take and educate him;
Feed him, clothe him, teach him tricks,
Mind him, mend him, mate him.
Give him everything he wants.
All except religion,
Both his parents did without,
That is not his pigeon.
If he lands himself in jail,
Should the rozzers floor him,
We are not responsible,
We did nothing for him.