I am leaving my “secular” job and now entering into the Triduum of Easter. Tonight, Maundy Thursday services begin the three days of Jesus’ Passion leading to Easter Sunday.
I have been thinking a lot lately of the appeal of High Church liturgy (whether Anglo-Catholic or simply High Church) for many people, particularly younger people, coming out of American-Evangelical/Pentecostal/Charismatic churches. There are an increasing number of young people from these backgrounds migrating to St. Paul’s and our “non-fussy Rite I Anglo-Catholic” church. I really only have to look as far as myself to see this phenomena in action. (Okay, okay, so I’m young in spirit if not so young in fact – age is an attitude of the mind and dependent on perspective – right!?)
I thought the other day, at the Renewal of Vows for the Diocese of Long Island, as Prof. Jim Farwell (my former liturgy professor) was talking about the Triduum liturgies, that it seems that a connection between Pentecostalism (or at least “experiential” forms of Evangelical Christianity) and Anglo-Catholicism is that both are truly experiential. In different ways, of course, by they still share this common aspect.
I don’t know. There is something out there right outside my reach to explain these ambiguous thoughts going through my mind. I’ve been thinking, too, of doing some surveys and asking non-cradle Episcopalians (and particularly the non-High Church) what attracts them to this kind of liturgy/service. A book, perhaps.
So, off to Maundy Thursday and the continuing and deepening discovery of the slow yet persistent work the Seasons of the Church and their liturgies, the Word, and the Sacraments have on the formation of one’s Christian self.