›

Ship of Fools: St Paul's Mission, Staatsburg, New York, USA

The Mystery WorshipperThe Mystery Worshipper Shipmate
edited June 2022 in The Mystery Worshipper

imageShip of Fools: St Paul's Mission, Staatsburg, New York, USA

Miss Amanda revisits the church of her youth and memories come flooding back.

Read the full Mystery Worshipper report here


Comments

  • angloidangloid Shipmate
    Lovely report! It seems like a lovely church community too. But I feel impelled to add to Miss Amanda's incipient rant about cutting hymns short. We Angiicans often tend to the opposite extreme: interminable hymns that bear little relation to their place in the liturgy. Some hymnals (NEH which we use, for example) mark with an asterisk verses that can be omitted without doing violence to the overall meaning: do we ever do that? Not at our place. Also, while I agree that music should not just be a filler or a cover for action (hymns in particular have their own integrity, also silence has its place too, and sometimes it seems people want to avoid it) I wince when a slow ten-verse hymn is chosen (often as a substitute for a psalm) between the readings, and a snappy three verse number supposedly covers an offertory procession, the preparation of the altar, and many censings of it and people, which often take place in embarrassed silence. Not to mention words clearly written to accompany the dismissal being sung at the beginning, or vice versa. That's all before we consider the quality of such hymns or their music.

    If this is considered to be too far a tangent from commenting on the actual report, I apologise. But apart from the hymns, Catholics often achieve a good balance between relaxed ease and formal dignity: St Paul's seems to have got it about right. Though I think our own parish has a similar feel (right down to readers with children in arms).
  • Pangolin GuerrePangolin Guerre Shipmate
    A lovely report, Miss Amanda, a bitter sweet envoi.
  • boston_irishboston_irish Shipmate
    In the original posting of this report we were asked if we could pick out Miss Amanda amongst the First Communicants. I still can’t identify her, as the only picture I’ve ever seen is her thumbnail where she’s holding a tumbler of either apple juice or a single malt.
    Curious in Boston.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Shipmate
    Back row, third from right.
  • boston_irishboston_irish Shipmate
    Ding, ding, ding. No more calls, we have a winner. Thank you for everything. God’s Speed on the rest of your journey! May the road rise up to meet you……
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    This being the first time that either of us had heard of Staatsburg, Madame looked up Wiki. The photo of accompanying the article could be of so many small settlements here.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Shipmate
    The Wikipedia photo shows the old firehouse (left), the new modern extension to the firehouse, and my great-grandmother's boarding house.

    The firehouse extension was built on land originally occupied by an auto dealership, then by a pit stop on a truck route from upstate New York to NY City. Large tank trucks hauled milk from upstate dairy farms. They stopped at the station to be serviced, and for the drivers to get a decent meal, bath, and sleepover at my great-grandmother's boarding house.

    The upstairs room of the old firehouse was a community center of sorts. I can remember attending a Halloween party there, and receiving my Salk polio vaccine there.

    Memories, memories.
Sign In or Register to comment.