At St Chrysostom’s we attempt to do our best to be a welcoming and inclusive church. As we do so it is important that our liturgy reflects the diversity and range of those who worship at St Chrysostom’s. We are so blessed with such a hugely varied group of people.
Most of our priests are white males, much of our congregation is more varied than that.
Andrew and Fr John wearing the new white tunicle and dalmatic.
We are revising in significant but subtle ways the way Mass is celebrated on a Sunday at St Chrysostom’s. Its a slow and careful process. What we have decided to do is extend the number of ‘High Masses’ we have on Sundays. We are also adapting the way High Mass itself is celebrated, to enable different lay people to be minister at the altar, robed, with the priest. We are actively recruiting more members of the congregation to join our serving and ministry team. These are steps towards making our liturgy visibly even more inclusive.
Last Sunday Fr Chris blessed new dalmatics and tunicles – robes for the ‘deacon’ and ‘subdeacon’ at High Mass. We are beginning to train lay people to take these roles at High Mass.
The new robes, a dalmatic and a tunicle for each of the main four liturgical colours, have been given to our church in memory of Fr Mark Dalby, and we are very grateful for this generous gift which will enrich our worship, and help us celebrate and enhance our inclusive nature.
Someone at our Church here in Florence was asking did we have High Masses? I was not sure what they were but now I know. Do you have to have two deacons and a priest and why is it High surly HC is just that? Darren