Continuing Home

The ongoing saga of a Continuing Anglican church home, as seen by a member of the laity.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

St. Thomas and Webster Groves MO

Attended St. Thomas' Morning Prayer & Eucharist, for the last time because I fly home this evening.

The service is interesting: Fr. Jonathan Erdman reads through the entirety of Morning Prayer before proceeding into Holy Communion, but manages to keep the entire service under 40 minutes. It may help that he seems to be a master of the short but pithy homily; in just a very few minutes today we learned about Pride and Envy (which Rome and the Orthodox respectively ascribe to Satan's fall) from today's readings, as well as elements of the story of the Tower of Babel (I'd never known what bitumen was and had always thought of coal, but he noted the Hebrew was clearer on this).

In a brief chat before my departure he noted that their services can be heard online. I checked and sure enough, you can hear the service I heard last night online.

Interestingly, his online bio says he's from Webster Groves, Missouri. I wonder if he knows Anglican blogger andcommentator Christopher Johnson, who lives in Webster Groves?

Update: Many, many thanks to the (presumably) regular parishioners at Morning Prayer + Eucharist who made this unnamed stranger feel welcome. The message in St. Thomas this week of (desired) "unity" came through loud and clear.

posted by Continuing Home @ 6:52 AM  

2 Comments:

  • At 8:20 PM, Blogger Ecgbert said…

    Fascinating. Thanks for this. I've only been there once and it was being renovated so there was construction going on inside (I was chased out!).

    I've been told it's straddling Prayer Book Catholic and 'brass and class' high, very Anglican with nothing uniquely Roman old or new, and that the rector's SSC (sometime rector of Good Shepherd, Rosemont).

    A very old-school Episcopalian establishment air.

    Also I think an Anglo-Catholic, Ralph Adams Cram, designed the place.

     

  • At 6:35 AM, Blogger Continuing Home said…

    So far as I can tell, your description is accurate. It is straight 1928 BCP, except some unfamiliar verse/response at the opening of Morning Prayer, and as noted that the Creed is slightly shifted in the order of service and they have the dreaded "Peace."

    And the church itself is beautiful. I only wish I had had the time after the Sunday service to take the tour, but I had to return to my meetings. I was just fortunate to have had the break I had.

     

Post a Comment

<< Home