A Heretical Creed

From the viewpoint of one who loves The Episcopal Church, its prayer book, and its liturgy, St. Paul’s’ 8:45 Sunday service has little to recommend it. For a service described as “Family-Friendly,” it does little to inculcate appreciation for our Anglican heritage in young people.

Perhaps the most depressing aspect of the service is the singing of “The South African Creed” in lieu of reciting the Nicene Creed. The words to this song are the following:

I believe, I do believe, truly I believe it,
Truly I believe it, truly I believe it.
I believe, I do believe, truly I believe it,
Truly I believe it, truly I believe it.

I believe in God the Almighty Lord Creator,
Mighty Lord Creator, Mighty Lord Creator.
I believe in God the Almighty Lord Creator,
Mighty Lord Creator, Mighty Lord Creator.

I believe in Jesus the Savior of the people,
Savior of the people, Savior of the people.
I believe in Jesus the Savior of the people,
Savior of the people, Savior of the people.

And I do believe in the Power of the Spirit,
Power of the Spirit, Power of the Spirit.
And I do believe in the Power of the Spirit,
Power of the Spirit, power of the spirit.

As a statement of faith, this formulation is both boring and nearly devoid of content. In four verses, it articulates three concepts. The Nicene Creed offers more content in its first sentence. Even if one harbors reservations about orthodox Christian dogma, we are hardly doing our children a favor by “protecting” them from knowledge of it. All this creed does is acknowledge the Trinity, and that imperfectly.

David Mills, writing for Touchstone, had this to say about the South African creed:

At any rate, the South African creed is certainly sung to a very singable tune and does get the singers to declare their belief in God. It suffers only in being heretical. For though it has a trinitarian form, it does not say anything about the nature of the Trinity itself and the relations of the three Persons. God is Father before he is Creator, and Jesus is Son before he is Savior, and the Holy Spirit is he who proceeds from the Father before he is the giver of power to men.

I recommend reading all of Mills’ essay.

Somehow, the use of “The South African Creed” seems to have become an essential feature of the 8:45 service, a fact that provides an excellent reason to avoid the service and to keep our children away from it as well.

Summer Singers and the Bulletin

The Summer Singers, a group of professional musicians that rehearse at St. Paul’s in the summer, provided an exciting prelude and postlude last Sunday. I heard the group rehearsing “Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho” just before the choir rehearsed in the church. I was impressed, though I couldn’t hear the group as well as I wanted to from my chair behind the singers. I was hoping to hear them better when they sang during the service.

I checked my bulletin to learn when “Joshua” was going to be sung. I could not find the spot in the service order. As it happens, the postlude was left off the bulletin. (It was later pointed out to me that the information I was seeking was mentioned under “Music Notes,” though it should have been listed after the dismissal as well.) Anyway, the more I stared at the order of service, the more confusing it seemed. As it happens, the problem was that the music for the Memorial Acclamation and The Great Amen were simply in the wrong places.

The errors in the bulletin were surprising, since we used Eucharist Prayer A both this week and last, so the only differences between the two bulletins should have involved music. However the problems crept into the August 11 bulletin, here is the offending text (click for larger image):

I rushed out to the nave after the dismissal, and was in a good position to hear the very exciting rendition of “Joshua.” The Summer Singers are presenting a concert at St. Paul’s at 7 PM next Sunday (August 18). It should be well worth attending.

New Doors

New door nearest elevator lobby
(click on image for larger view)

I was excited to read in the weekly electronic newsletter from St. Paul’s that new doors had been installed to the parking lot. I had to stop by on the way home to see how they look.

There are three new doors, each of which is perforated by and flanked by large glass panels. The doors are sturdy and seem to seal particularly well. The expanse of clear glass is a bit disconcerting, but the new doors, qua doors, are quite attractive.

I’m sure parishioners (and certainly our sextons) will appreciate the latest building improvement. I do have three concerns about them, however.

First, there is the color. The doors are brick red, not the scarlet typical of Episcopal churches and the color used on the doors at the front of the church.

Second, I was disappointed that the door nearest the elevator lobby does not sport an electric door opener, a feature I expected and one that would be very helpful to the handicapped or to visitors carrying bulky loads into the church. I don’t know if a door opener is in the works. I hope it is.

Finally, however attractive the new doors may be in the abstract, they appear to be a Bauhausian addition to an English Gothic church. No doubt, we will get used to them. For me, now, however, the doors seem shockingly out of place.

Bye-bye Coke Machine

I was surprised to see Sunday that the Coke machine was gone from the cloakroom off the undercroft. The vending machine had lots of customers several years ago, when St. Paul’s offered after-school snacks and (occasionally) conversation. Apparently, the machine was getting little use of late, however.

 I am not going to lament the loss of the Coke machine, as I used it only once in a blue moon myself, and I don’t recall seeing others using it either.

Of course, the departure of the Coke machine frees up a bit of space in the cloakroom, though it isn’t an area with an obvious use. On Sunday, it was already occupied by a ladder and dolly. Alas, the cloakroom still seems to be thought of more as extra storage space than a welcoming place for members and visitors. (See “Cloakroom.”)

Air Conditioning Side Effects?

My seat in the choir puts me behind the organ console. This limits what I can see of the church. What I can see well are the lamps on or hanging from the ceiling, as well as lamps on the roof trusses.

Yesterday, I noticed something I had never seen before, namely significant swinging of the nave lanterns. Three of the lanterns on the font side of the church exhibited very conspicuous swinging, and two others swung almost imperceptibly. The movement was not constant, however; it came and went. I cannot say that the swinging was synchronized with the cycling of the air conditioning, but I suspect that it might be. Curiously, I saw no such motion on the pulpit side of the church, even though the church (and the air conditioning vents) are symmetrical.

The motion does not seem dangerous, though it is a bit distracting, at least if you’re trapped behind the organ console. Do you suppose the new air conditioning is responsible?

Why Millennials Are Leaving the Church

I don’t usually use a blog post simply to call attention to a story or essay elsewhere, but I’m making an exception here.

Although I can enumerate the things I like to see in a church, I don’t trust my instincts about what others are looking for, particularly what young adults are seeking. A CNN blog post by Rachel Held Evans seems pretty credible, however, and I recommend reading it for whatever lessons it might hold for St. Paul’s.

You can find “Why millennials are leaving the church” here.

Mission Trips

Youth mission trips have become quite popular at St. Paul’s. Many events help fund these trips. No doubt, much good work is done on these trips, and they seems to be much appreciated by the kids who participate.

I have long asked myself, however, if it would not be better to have our youth doing work in the Pittsburgh area. Not only would this help build our own community. It would also be an eye-opener for St. Paul’s youth, who might find that, say, Wilkinsburg is rather different from Mt. Lebanon. Additionally, although a mission trip in Greater Pittsburgh would lack the glamor of a trip out of town, the funds expended on such an enterprise would go a lot further with fewer travel-related expenses to fund.

A Facebook friend posted an article about mission trips that echoes my concerns. it also suggests another advantage of mission projects close to home—such a project can continue beyond a single week in the summer. Here is a sample paragraph from “Rethinking the $3,000 Missions Trip”:

I believe in missions. I also believe in short-term mission trips. Yet the longer I work in the resource-poor inner city, the more frustrated I become with the amount of money God’s people spend on these brief trips. We seem so eager to spend thousands of dollars sending our people overseas for one week without stopping to ask, “Would some of this money be better invested in my own community?”

You can read the whole article here.