Category Archives: Anglican

Sarum Office Hymns

I took a walk on the wild side of M’s hymnal collection. Poking through them I found a 1904 edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern (which I’m 99% sure was a gift from the Lutheran Zephyr). This was the edition that was roundly mocked at the time of its publication for its attempt to be too “historical.” (IIRC, Percy Dearmer was in on this edition but I don’t see the editors listed.) In the front is a table of “Sarum Office Hymns”; happily, the entire contents of this volume are posted online at Oremus.org. [Update: Or not. It seems some hymns had to be removed for reasons of copyright.]

Here is the list of Office Hymns as they appear in the front of Hymns Ancient & Modern, 2nd Ed., 1904. The hyperlink will take you to where the English text ought to be at Oremus.

Warning: Many of these files no longer exist on the Oremus server. Furthermore, the links that are active will begin playing a midi version of the hymn when you open it.

Table of Ancient English Office Hymns*

Advent
43 Creator of the starry height (Conditor alme siderum) E.**
44 O Word, that goest forth on high (Verbum supernum prodiens) M.
45 Loud rings the warning voice round (Vox clara ecce intonat) L.
34 To Thee before the close of day (Te lucis ante terminum) C.

Christmas
55 O come, Redemeer of the earth (Veni Redemptor gentium) E.
57 O Christ, Redeemer of our race (Christe Redemptor omnium) M.
56 From east to west, from shore to shore (A solis ortu cardine) L. & E.
58 Of the Father’s love begotten (Corde natus ex parentis) C. (York)
67 O Saviour of the world, we pray (Salvator mundi Domine) C.

Epiphany
79 Why doth that impious Herod fear (Hostis Herodes impie) E. & M.***
80 The Father’s sole-begotten Son (A Patre unigenitus) L.
67 O Saviour of the world, we pray (Salvator mundi Domine) C.

From the Epiphany to Lent
2 O splendor of God’s glory bright (Splendor paternae gloriae) L.
15 O blest Creator of the light (Lucis Creator optime) E.
34 To Thee before the close of day (Te lucis ante terminum) C.

[Before Septuagesima
89 Alleluia, song of sweetness (Alleluia, dulce carmen) (Anglo-Saxon Hymnals)]

The first fortnight of Lent
92 By precepts taught of ages past (Ex more docti mystico) E.
93 O Thou Who dost to man accord (Summi largitor praemii) (8.8.7 D) M.
94 O merciful Creator, hear (Audi, benigne Conditor) L.
105 O Christ Who art the Light and Day (Christe, qui lux es et dies) C.

The second fortnight of Lent
95 Lo! now is our accepted day (Ecce tempus idoneum) E.
96 It is the glory of this fast (Clarum decus ieiunii) M.
97 O Jesu, Thou didst concecrate (Jesu quadragenariae) (CM) L.
105 O Christ Who art the Light and Day (Christe, qui lux es et dies) C.

From Passion Sunday**** to the Wednesday before Easter
106 The Royal banners forward go (Vexilla regis prodeunt) E.
107 Sing, my tongue, the glorius battle (Pange lingua gloriosi praelium certaminis) M. & L.
108 Servant of God, remember (Cultor Dei, memento) C.

Eastertide
141 Up, new Jerusalem, and sing (Chorus novae Jerusalem) E.
142 Light’s glittering morn bedecks the sky (Aurora lucis rutilat) M. & L.*****
143 The Lamb’s high banquet call’d to share (Ad cenam Agni providi) E.
145 O Christ, the heav’ns’ Eternal King (Rex sempiterne caelitum) (Anglo-Saxon Hymnals)
163 Jesu, the world’s redeeming Lord (Jesu Salvator saeculi) C.

Ascensiontide
167 O Thou, Eternal King most High (Aeterne rex altissime) E. & M.
168 O Christ, our Joy, gone up on high (Tu, Christe, nostrum gaudium) L.
176 Jesu, our Hope, our heart’s Desire (Jesu nostra redemptio) (CM) C.

Whitsuntide
178 Now Christ above the starry floor (Iam Christus astra ascenderat) E. & M.
179 O joy! because the circling year (Beata nobis guadia) E.
67 O Saviour of the world, we pray (Salvator mundi Domine) C.

Trinity Sunday
188 Be near us, Holy Trinity (Adesto, sancta Trinitas) E. & M.
189 Father most Holy, merciful and loving (O Pater sancte) L.
190 All hail, adored Trinity (Ave colenda Trinitas) (Anglo-Saxon Hymnals)

From Trinity to Advent
15 O blest Creator of the light (Lucis Creator optime) E.
36 O Trinity, most blessed Light (O lux beata Trinitas) E. (Saturday)
34 To Thee before the close of day (Te lucis ante terminum) C.

There are sanctoral propers after this point—I’ll add them later as I have the chance.

* Unless it is otherwise specified, the Hymns represent the Sarum use, and are translated in their original metres.
** The initials represent the Ancient Services of Evensong, Mattins, Lauds, and Compline.
*** My note: IIRC, this is an abcedarian hymn by Sedulius and only part of it is contained here.
**** My note: Passion Sunday is the Sunday before Palm Sunday in the old kalendar.
***** My note: This hymn is split into three parts suggesting some were sung for Mattins, the rest was sung for Lauds.

Breviary Hymns

I’ve had some thoughts on breviary hymns running around in my head the past few days. I’m teaching a class on the Church Year right now, so these issues are towards the front of my brain…

Anciently, hymns were something that appeared in the Daily Office—not in the Mass. Therefore they had a different dynamic than how we currently experience them. In our current church practice we would be shocked if a hymn that we had sung earlier in the season reappeared in that same season unless, perhaps, a hymn paraphrase were being used to replace a standard part of the liturgy like the Gloria. So—repetition is not a big part of our current understanding of hymns. Classically, however, repetition was the name of the game. The Little Hours of the Office—Prime, Terce, Sext, None, and Compline—use the same hymns every day. (The exception is Compline—in some Benedictine systems there was a different Compline hymn for the Winter and Summer halves of the year.) The hymns of the major hours—Vigils, Lauds, and Vespers—changed to fit the season or the observance.

At Lauds and Vespers in particular, the hymn was the largest primary element that changed with the season. Overall, the structure of the Office doesn’t change with the change of seasons as the Mass does; we don’t drop out elements of the Office in the way that the Mass drops the Gloria or formerly moved to a Tract instead of a Gradual. Thus, the hymn became the central element in the Office that gave depth and character to the season. In fact, it’s a discursive transitional point that moves us into the depth of the season. Remember, the traditional Roman patterns for Lauds and Vespers begin with the same essential structure:

  1. opening versicles,
  2. psalmody—typically five psalms although that can get calculated in a variety of ways,
  3. the little chapter—a verse or two usually from Scripture that also changes with the season,
  4. the hymn with an attendant versicle and response, and
  5. the gospel canticle—the Benedictus (Song of Zechariah) at Lauds and the Magnificat (Song of Mary) at Vespers.

In terms of flow, these hours begin with the Old Testament prophecy (as the Church understands the Psalms) that repeats weekly through the year. Then, the little chapter gives you a passage to focus on that relates integrally to the season. Then the hymn clarifies what the little chapter has only hinted at. The text of the hymn lays out a tapestry of biblical citations, allusions, images, and doctrinal understandings to give you a big-picture view of the themes and concepts of the season. As you sing through it, the hymn invites you to discover the presence of these themes and concepts in the psalms that you’ve just completed. As the hymn draws to a close, you now have a body of prophecy experienced through a particular hermeneutical lens that has highlighted certain theological facets that lay latent in the psalms until they were brought to your attention by the direction of the hymn. Now moving into the Gospel Canticle—the hour’s major turn into the New Testament—the newly highlighted prophecies from the Old Testament give a depth and context for the canticles’ discussion of God’s faithful fulfillment of his promises.

Thus, the hymns operated as the hermeneutical lenses par excellence for the season. They taught the themes and concepts, identified key doctrines and more than that helped these images, themes, and doctrines become apparent in Holy Scripture. Because of their daily repetition, the whole Psalter was scanned with these liturgical lenses multiple times, enabling the praise of God to lead into contemplation of the mysteries of redemption hidden in the Scriptures.

One of the praiseworthy features of the ’82 Hymnal is that it has retained many of these classical breviary hymns. Many, in fact, appear twice using the same translation set to two different melodies: a plainchant tune and a later musical form. In our recovery of the Daily Office, these hymns are an invaluable asset to growing deeper into the meaning of the seasons.

The placement of the hymn in the Office has changed—following the rubrics of the ’79 BCP, the hymn now goes at the end of the Office. The prayers separate it from the psalmody and from the two lessons. As a result, using the hymn as a hermeneutical lens for finding the seasonally-connected mysteries of redemption in the Scriptures has to be a more self-conscious process—not impossible, of course, but just not as natural as in the past. It is, however, a process that we would do well to cultivate. As we head towards a new liturgical year and its seasons, I’d encourage you to look into the breviary hymns for the upcoming seasons and, even if you don’t use them daily, at least keep them within your Office rotation to keep contact with the classical meanings of our seasons.

A simplified listing of the breviary hymns from the post-Tridentine era can be found on the second page of this document (Anglo-Catholic Style Daily Office), including numbers for hymns that appear in the ’82 Hymnal. A tenth-century English Benedictine list appears here. At some point in the future I may consolidate these for ease of reference (perhaps in connection with scanning the Office Hymns used by the Order of Julian of Norwich) but time currently does not permit.

Liturgy at the Cafe

There’s a post up on The Lead at the Cafe on liturgy. It follows the general thesis that anything traditional must therefore be inhospitable. I disagree…

Hospitality is essential but there any many ways of embodying hospitality. I believe that it is far more hospitable to invite someone to get to know your true self than than to dissemble or disguise. Speaking liturgically, this means that traditional liturgy need not be dispensed with simply because it is unfamiliar. It sends a strong theological message if we dispense with various elements of the liturgy for the sake of convenience—and the message sent is not a positive one…

Note on African statement

No, this isn’t what you think it is.

Rather, I’m drawing attention to the statement from the Anglican Peace and Justice Network.

Note these lines from the recent ACNS email about the communique:

A primary recommendation noted “our firm conviction that the Anglican Communion increase its presence in the regions and countries in conflict, and to be in solidarity with the affected local Anglican provinces and jurisdictions.

“This “increased solidarity” is especially needed, the communiqué says, with the Anglican provinces in the Great Lakes region of eastern Africa.The Great Lakes region includes countries surrounding Lake Kivu, Lake Tanganyika, and Lake Victoria. Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda have a combined population of 107 million people.

The whole Friedman-style flat earth thing is our reality; it has an enormous effect on our worldwide communions—Anglican and otherwise. What I keep discovering, though, is that I am constantly tripping over my massive ignorance about what has and is going on in other parts of the world.

Case in point—the reference in the above statement to the African Great Lakes region. How many of us know where that is? How many of us know what has happened there over the last few decades? While most of know know about the Rwandan Genocide, how many of us know anything about the Second Congo War, aka the Great War of Africa?

One of the pieces that bothers me here is that this war officially ended in 2003. I was a functioning literate adult the whole time it was going on but had no sense that it was happening.

New–and Better–Materials at OJN

Independently Fr John-Julian and Jonathan have both pointed me to new materials up at the Order of Julian of Norwich’s download page. Posted there are both the full chant offices and the Psalter broken into two parts (which doesn’t have the repeated pg. 50 error that mine does…). These files are not scans and are from the source documents and so are much cleaner than the ones I posted.

No More

More news . . . the retired bishop of Newark has decided to send a calculatedly insulting letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The incessant politicking, posturing, and rhetoric will only escalate from here.

I will be posting no more material on the current Anglican Unpleasantness until Martinmas at the earliest. There are plenty of voices of sanity and credibility out there to whom one should listen for such news—just don’t expect any here.

My time and energy will be much better spent in the 10th century. . .

Three More Bishops…

Rwanda’s Anglican Church has just elected three more Americans to be bishops. They are the Rev. Terrell Glenn, the Rev. Philip Jones and the Rev. John Miller. [h/t Thinking Anglicans]

I don’t know any of these folks–but you know who they’re not?

the Reverend William Ilgenfritz

Does that name ring a bell? No? He was the candidate that Forward in Faith put forward to become a bishop by some cooperative foreign Anglican body back in 2002 along with Fr. David Moyer. The call was re-iterated in 2007 when five years later Fr. Ilgenfritz was still not consecrated… (Fr. Moyer was consecrated a while ago by the Traditional Anglican Communion, a group not in communion with Canterbury.)

So—however many American bishops later and Fr. Ilgenfritz has not received the nod. I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t seem to bode well for the place of FiF and traditional Anglo-Catholics in the coming realignment.

[To clarify the confused, I know members of FiFNA and the SSC, have cordidal relationships with them, have learned much from them, but do not agree with them concerning the ordination of women.]

The “New” Hermeneutic

At Mass a bit ago I leaned over to M and asked: “When did this new hermeneutic happen? When did inclusion vs. exclusion become the chief means for interpreting Jesus’ healing miracles–and most other narratives in the Bible–even when it does considerable violence to the text itself?”

I was reminded by this by a number of bloggers’ links to a new review of +Spong’s latest publication where he seems (by their reports) to be quite heavy-handed with this approach. Yes, inclusion is part of the Christian message–but it’s not the whole message. Not by a long shot.