Diary of a Newly-Minted Papist

For the nonce I best avoid listening to recordings of Anglican liturgical music. There is no wavering in my love for Holy Mother Church but the hearing of such glorious sounds as Herbert Howells' setting of the Te Deum and Jubilate, its reminder of what this music-loving fool had to walk away from, is almost too painful to bear.

UPDATE: Reader Daniel Muller writes:

I see nothing wrong with stopping in to an Episcopal or Anglican church for Morning Prayer or Evensong. For several years, I would attend Evensong at Church of the Incarnation in Dallas almost exclusively for the music. There is magnificent (pun intended) English service music there.

Realistically, however, Albion is fading into the cultural mists rather sooner than later, so even that option may not remain open long for any of us, Catholic, Episcopalian, or Anglican.

That's a great suggestion, Daniel, and lucky for me, St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, also notable for its music, is mere minutes from where I work. Evensong is celebrated three times a week there and I don't recall anything in the Catechism prohibiting me from attending every now and then.

I wonder if there will ever be an expansion of the Pastoral Provision and Anglican Use. It would be splendid, albeit ironic, if Holy Mother Church ended up the custodian of the Anglican liturgical and musical tradition in this country.