Ship of Fools: St Peter & St Paul, Godalming, England

The Mystery Worshipper

Ship of Fools: St Peter & St Paul, Godalming, England

Ship of Fools

Read the full Mystery Worshipper report here

Bishops Finger

I've only just spotted this report, and wouldn't really agree with the MWer that this was *slightly High Church*. With the priest vested in cassock, surplice and stole, I'd say it was more Middle Of The Road (MOTR), and probably quite typical of many C of E churches.

These matters are, of course, of Vital Importance...


I once knew someone very like the Ranting Lady at coffee-time...the lady I knew joined the Roman Catholic Church.

Nick Tamen

It was interesting to me that the “slightly high church” nature of worship “could be seen by the use of liturgy, . . . .” I know, thanks to the Ship, that the CofE is no longer uniformly liturgical in the way it might once have been (and in the way that the Episcopal Church still is), but I found it surprising that the mere use of liturgy would be an indication of being “slightly high church.”

Bishops Finger

It depends on where you're coming from, of course, but ISWYM!

Sojourner

Bishops Finger wrote: »

I've only just spotted this report, and wouldn't really agree with the MWer that this was *slightly High Church*. With the priest vested in cassock, surplice and stole, I'd say it was more Middle Of The Road (MOTR), and probably quite typical of many C of E churches.

These matters are, of course, of Vital Importance...


I once knew someone very like the Ranting Lady at coffee-time...the lady I knew joined the Roman Catholic Church.

*shudder*

The disparate choir robes ( no surplices for the female choristers) does set the tone of the place…borderline FiF/ traddy triddy for them as thinks the surplice is a priestly garment.

Spike

Sojourner wrote: »

Bishops Finger wrote: »

I've only just spotted this report, and wouldn't really agree with the MWer that this was *slightly High Church*. With the priest vested in cassock, surplice and stole, I'd say it was more Middle Of The Road (MOTR), and probably quite typical of many C of E churches.

These matters are, of course, of Vital Importance...


I once knew someone very like the Ranting Lady at coffee-time...the lady I knew joined the Roman Catholic Church.

*shudder*

The disparate choir robes ( no surplices for the female choristers) does set the tone of the place…borderline FiF/ traddy triddy for them as thinks the surplice is a priestly garment.

According to their website they have a woman priest there. (What’s traddy triddy?)

Sojourner

I wonder whether the ranty woman left when the woman priest was installed ( this report after all dates from 2016).

Traddy triddy= traditionalist and Tridentine ( referring to the counter-Reformation rite promulgated by Pius V in the 16th century and which prevailed in Western Catholicism until the winds of change started to blow in 1964.

No doubt you are aware that traddy trids are a very small and extremely noisy minority who can collectively be extremely nasty.

Bishops Finger

The choir members at The Tin Tabernacle Of My Youth (Anglican - 1662 BCP Choral Evensong every Sunday) had disparate robes.

The men wore ordinary black cassock and white surplice, the ladies wore dark purple gowns (for want of a better word) with white collars. They also wore rather natty purple hats or caps.

A church in the next town had something similar, but there the ladies' gowns (and hats) were also black.

Sojourner

Oh yes the so-called “Oxford caps”.

I sang ( choral Evensong) for 10 years in an AC shrine church in Sydney and am happy to report that we were all robed in black cassock and white surplice.

Bishops Finger

*Oxford Caps* - yes, just so, but the name had escaped me...

Ex_Organist

In my youth they were referred to as "Canterbury caps".

Bishops Finger

Ex_Organist wrote: »

In my youth they were referred to as "Canterbury caps".

On second thoughts (and a visit to Google), I think those were what our ladies wore, but the Oxford cap appears to be rather similar.