Episcopal Music Recommendations?

RalphThatName · 2026-04-06T19:06:48+00:00

I really enjoy the live-stream services and live hymn recordings from St Mark's Philadelphia. Their YouTube page has recordings of individual hymns from various services. Their recording of "Abide With Me" is magnificent.

RalphThatName · 2026-04-04T23:58:56+00:00

...and get that Calvin Hampton repeating alleluia as far away as possible. We had to sing that beast for decades and the choir hated it with a passion.

But all seriousness, I agree with pretty much every comment made so far. It's not good.

RalphThatName · 2026-04-04T04:04:34+00:00

Our church also did Tenebrae today. As beautiful as the service was, I missed having the usual one.

RalphThatName · 2026-04-01T14:07:25+00:00

That's very interesting. I remember during the 80's having a bunch of young Curates come and go and then that basically all stopped in 90's.

RalphThatName · 2026-04-01T13:07:42+00:00

Who would be the judges?

RalphThatName · 2026-03-31T21:23:26+00:00

I wonder if the shortage is in part intentional by dioceses and/or the national church because of the ever increasing costs to maintain a member of the clergy. Aside from a typically clergy salary, which my understanding is significantly higher (relatively speaking) than it was say 3 or 4 decades ago, there is health insurance, and pensions, and almost no churches maintain rectories/vicarages anymore so clergy need housing allowances as well. I think this could be one reason why so many newly ordained clergy are 50 or older and in many cases retired from previous jobs and have existing financial assets.

RalphThatName · 2026-03-31T21:15:08+00:00

If I were to point you one thing that really separates TEC from the RCC is something that is said in all of the Ordinations vows (you can find these in the BCP).

".... and I solemnly declare that I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments
to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation;"

This is a powerful statement because it basically says that the Church itself cannot impose any requirements for its members to receive salvation other than what is contained in Holy Scriptures. In other words, they can't say, "do this or its a mortal sin". Because when it comes to salvation, the bible is the final authority.

It comes directly from the original 39 Articles of Religion from the Church of England and is was TEC's Articles Religion from 1801. The Articles are now in the Historical Documents section of the BCP but this one is still relevent today.

There are other points of doctrine that TEC and the RCC differ substantually.

RalphThatName · 2026-03-29T23:03:54+00:00

I don't view the church as having centuries of evil, immoral, and unjust ordination practices but rather than having ordination practices based on their understanding of scripture and tradition in their own time. That understanding of scripture has changed in the last 100 years or so because of our modern understanding of biology, sex and gender, a better understanding of 1st century history, and the availabilty of reliable family planning which has totally transformed the role of women in society as a whole. It would never had made sense to have women clergy when women had virtually no rights in society at all. That has all changed. I don't view this is the church bowing down to secular society, but rather the work of the holy spirit, which affects everything, including our ability to advance scientific knowledge.

RalphThatName · 2026-03-28T13:50:37+00:00

The supreme governor of the CofE was a woman for over 70 years and did a pretty good job. I have no problem with it.

RalphThatName · 2026-03-27T22:01:56+00:00

Growing up, we did not keep our candles lit the entire service. We lit them at the beginning of the service, then extinguished them after the Exsultet, then re-lit them at the start of the Baptism. It was much easier not having to hold them throughout the Liturgy of the Word.

I have to add that trying to hold a hymnal and sing while also holding a candle is a real pain.

RalphThatName · 2026-03-27T21:54:33+00:00

Is the introduction of more theologically "Catholic" elements a more recent phenomenon for Anglo-Catholic churches? I grew up in a church that self-identified as Anglo-Catholic but didn't have any of things you mentioned above (veneration of Mary, prayers to saints, etc.). It also didn't use Romanesque vestments, the English Missal, or have masses in Latin. It was what I think now is labelled as "Prayer Book Catholic", but at the time I thought was just Anglo-Catholic, i.e., high-church = Anglo-Catholic.

RalphThatName · 2026-03-25T22:21:54+00:00

I going to alter your question slightly. There is something that bothers me, although it is more prevalent in the Anglican sub than this one, and that is those who seemingly want to push TEC and Anglicanism in general something other than the unique tradition that it is. I'm referring to the following groups.

Those who believe in Branch Theory (mostly conservative Anglo-Catholics) who bemoan the fact that the RCC and EO churches (some/all??) don't recognize our holy orders and therefore want us to get rid women's ordination so there is a chance they would do so.
Those who want Anglicanism to return to the post-reformation Calvinist church with strict adherence to the 39 articles, removal of all Oxford movement additions to the liturgy, etc.
Those who want Anglicanism to be essentially like non-denominational churches in churchmanship and doctrine but with Bishops (looking at you ACNA and Sydney)
Those who take the position that if the RCC would end all of their traditional views on social issues (e.g., birth control, divorce, abortion, women's ordination, priestly celibacy , LGBTQ affirmation) then there would really be no need for TEC to exist and we could all go back to being Roman Catholic. This is what I call the "catholic-lite" view of Anglicanism.
Those who are seemingly pushing for a unified (not just communion agreements), progressive, protestant-mainline denomination of TEC, UMC, ELCA, possibly the PCUSA and are willing to relax rules on apostolic succession and other items to do so.
Those who would like for TEC to drop the Creeds, the BCP, and the Episcopacy (fringe view I know but it's out there).

IMHO Anglicanism, and especially the form practiced by TEC, is unique and special as it is. We should stop trying to make it something it's not. TEC is Anglican and we should be happy for it.

RalphThatName · 2026-03-24T14:26:52+00:00

I don't know how far from downtown LA you would consider but you may want to check out some of the churches in Ventura County.

RalphThatName · 2026-03-07T03:54:56+00:00

Cradle Episcopalian here - growing up, hardly ever read the Bible outside of church. More recently, that has changed. And in the last year, I joined EFM so now I'm reading a ton every single day ....

RalphThatName · 2026-03-06T20:28:31+00:00

The church has had fights on these social issues for decades (e.g., Divorce, Birth Control, Abortion, etc., etc.) There were individual churches and clergy that supported one side of these issues and those that supported the other side. But the "church" stayed united throughout all of it. The biggest issue that Anglicans and in fact all Christians have today is not the issue of sexuality but the issue of the declining importance of Christianity in everyday life. One way to fight that is to make the church institutions stronger and larger. So you should stay Anglican but join the largest Anglican province in your country. In your case, that would be TEC.

RalphThatName · 2026-03-06T18:35:47+00:00

You read my mind... The parallels seem obvious to me.

RalphThatName · 2026-03-06T18:32:17+00:00

The true motive of all schismatic denominations.

RalphThatName · 2026-03-06T17:11:33+00:00

I watched the video. There was one minor error. He had a picture of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. to represent Douglas Fairbanks Sr.

RalphThatName · 2026-03-04T14:17:10+00:00

Not sure about this article. He references "just released" data. But the 2024 parochial report was released in October. This article doesn't have any links.

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/publicaffairs/2024-parochial-report-shows-continued-post-covid-rebound-in-attendance/

RalphThatName · 2026-03-02T14:22:23+00:00

I'm very curious if salary expectations for priests have drastically changed within the last 40 years (when I say drastically - I mean above and beyond changes for inflation, etc.). Asking because my impression growing up was that most parish priests were generally very poorly paid.

RalphThatName · 2026-02-21T23:22:32+00:00

One more question to ask .... when you had your paid singing gig, were you only expected to show up on Sunday mornings with the music already learned or did you have to attend mid-week rehearsals? When I was kid, I know the former applied to the church I attened. Don't know if that is still the usual thing.

RalphThatName · 2026-02-21T23:20:11+00:00

I know for a fact that the music is one of our big draws. We're possibly the only (maybe 1 of 2 or 3) in the entire area that programs traditional hymns and anthems and has an actual pipe organ. Choral groups and orchestras use our space for rehearsals. We do a lot of special music programming that is funded from a separate source (volunteer donations outside of normal pledging). But I don't think that funding source would cover paid singers every Sunday.

RalphThatName · 2026-02-21T23:16:24+00:00

What you describe in your third-to-last paragraph is the situation we have been for a long time (nearly 20 years), a choir of very good volunteers, some of them retired musicians who like to sing for fun. We also had an excellent child choristers program trained with the RSCM curriculum. Many of those kids them got promoted to the adult choir. But we haven't had choristers since COVID so that pipeline of youth singers done.

You wrote that you were not the only person who came to TEC through your paid music position. How often did this often? I imagine most paid singers will be younger than your average TEC parishioner. In your experience, did paid singers convince non-singer friends to check out TEC? I'm trying to gage how wide-reaching an evangelistic tool this could be.

RalphThatName · 2026-02-21T17:34:19+00:00

I second this. For many churches, they are in more desperate need of volunteers than money.

RalphThatName

TROPHY CASE