Seeing Beyond the Veil

Circumstances have forced me to be away from the parish on a couple of Sundays recently. All I can say is that “absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

During one early service at an Anglican parish in another province, I was treated to the homelist singing Puff the Magic Dragon. We were also given whistles to blow and pom-poms to wave. To be fair, the priest did tie things together in his sermon, and I got the sense that this type of thing is considered to be a form of engagement in the broad-church tradition. People are being brought together somehow. It is necessary to provide some form of entertainment to replace the sense of mystery which has been totally discarded.

We at St. John’s are often criticized for having outdated liturgical traditions that elevate the priest above the people. I don’t understand that criticism at all. Our priests face us when they are addressing us, and we all face in the same direction when we are addressing God. It is a communal activity in which we all play our parts.

What I see happening in the contemporary Eucharists is activity which is almost completely centred on the minister. How are we to think that we are about to touch Jesus in the Sacrament – as surely as Thomas touched His side after the Resurrection – when we are waving pom-poms? Perhaps my faith is just not deep enough to behold the Mystery under these circumstances. Perhaps my weakness requires the use of bells and incense and vestments to help me see beyond the temporal into the eternal. So be it. I am glad that I our liturgy helps me to see beyond the veil.