From the January 5, 1901, issue of The Living Church.
From many correspondents we have reports of joyous Christmas services, which would almost fill the paper if they should be printed in detail. Everywhere the altar was replete with flowers and generally with additional lights, signifying the brightness of the festival of the Incarnation.
At the Epiphany in Chicago there were 401 communicants during the day, an increase of nearly twenty percent over last year, and most of the gain was at the early celebration at 7 o’clock. At this service there was a special choir of 25 voices, while at the high service the usual excellent choir of 65 voices rendered an elaborate service. The Christmas offering was about 20 percent larger than last year. On Christmas Eve about fifty of the choir, accompanied by the rector, choirmaster, and organist, visited various neighboring hospitals and sang Christmas hymns and carols. Christmas offerings at St. Andrew’s aggregated $600.
From Philadelphia we have reports of a number of special festival services. An interesting note from St. Mary’s, West Philadelphia, is that among the communicants at the early celebration was Mr. William Howard, aged 104 years, who walked nearly half a mile and in very forbidding weather to attend the celebration. At St. Andrew’s there was a celebration beginning one minute after midnight. At St. Mark’s there were four celebrations between 6:00 and 9:00 a.m., while at the high celebration at 11:30 there was a high function. …
Bishop [William] McVickar addressed the Sunday School children of Holy Trinity on the afternoon of the Sunday previous to Christmas and celebrated Holy Communion in the same church on the morning of Christmas Day. At the Seamen’s mission (Church of the Redeemer) a reception was given to the seamen of the port on the evening of St. Stephen’s Day, when presents were distributed.
At Montreal there were four celebrations on Christmas morning at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, the Eucharistic vestments of silk being introduced for the first time. The high celebration was full choral, with Woodward’s Communion Office sung for the first time in Montreal. Canon Wood, the rector, was the celebrant. At St. George’s, the dean preached the sermon.
From Boston, we have interesting accounts of the joyful services at the Advent, where worship is always rendered in accordance with the beauty of holiness. The odors of pine and balsam mingled, so our correspondent states, with the perfume of the incense from the swinging censers.
The great altar was ablaze with the light of many candles and the glow of red in the sanctuary lamps. Red flowers were clustered over the marble reredos and the rood screen was topped with twelve great candles, the golden crucifix twined with laurel and pine, towering over all. Below the crucifix was a star in red immortelles and over all the blazing star of Bethlehem. The altars in the side chapels were also ablaze with lights and the nave of the large church was tastefully adorned. The high celebration began with a solemn procession around the church, led by the crucifer, followed by acolytes and choristers, with candles, banners, and censers interspersed. At the close of the service the chimes were rung.
At Trinity Church a tall Christmas tree was pushed inside the chancel rail and baskets of gifts for the children of the Sunday School were hung from the limbs. The candles and censers at the Advent gave way to squeaking dolls, wooly lambs, and fat cornucopias at Trinity, thus showing, as some might possibly declare, that whether with or without “anarchy,” the ceremonial of this Church may be varied to a considerable extent. The Christmas tree was moved into the chancel immediately after it had been vacated by the Unitarian minister of King’s Chapel, who officiated at the Burial service of the late ex-Governor [Roger] Wolcott.
At the Cathedral in Atlanta, a Christmas Evensong was rendered on the eve of the feast by the students of the Bishop Elliott School, after which followed a tree and carols, with the patrons and friends of the school in attendance. Through the generosity of a devoted churchwoman the bishop was able to send presents to the children of the missionaries of the Diocese of Georgia.
The article’s mention of ceremonial “anarchy” references the then-raging controversy over the use of episcopal regalia and Catholic ceremonial at the “Fond du Lac Circus,” the November 1900 consecration of Reginald Heber Weller as Bishop Coadjutor of Fond du Lac. The charge that was lobbed at the service by low-church opponents is here being leveled against Boston’s famous liberal Protestant Trinity Church for hosting a Unitarian funeral for the former governor of Massachusetts on the eve of the feast of the Incarnation.
The Rev. Mark Michael is editor-in-chief of The Living Church. An Episcopal priest, he has reported widely on global Anglicanism, and also writes about church history, liturgy, and pastoral ministry.
