February 6

Church Triumphant

In 1978 and 1979 when I first retired from the Navy, I lived in WashingtonDC working with what’s locally called a “Beltway Bandit,” a consulting firm of retired officers doing contract work with DoD; while at the same time I was establishing myself as a private consultant with the Australian DoD, the Canadian Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce, and a particular office of the Navy Department with whom I developed and participated in seminars all across the country for over five years. Actually from 1978 until 1984, when I was ordained priest and we moved to Apalachicola.

Mostly I’d drive home to Harrisburg on Friday, but when in Washington over the weekend I would go to one of two Anglo-Catholic parishes on Sunday mornings. St. Paul’s K-Street was an active church with lively social outreach that then or certainly later had an early Sunday morning ministry called the “Grate Patrol.” After early Mass, members of this ministry (I was not one) loaded up vehicles with bags/boxes of prepared meals and delivered to homeless people who slept on the large grates around the city, that were — vents I suppose — that emitted warm steamy air on bitter cold winter nights. They were always crowded with homeless people, unwashed and inadequately clothed for the weather. It was common to see "grate people" wet with the warm steam that billowed up beneath them. St. Paul’s Grate Patrol delivered a hot meal to them all over the city at least once a week. Anyone who read Doonesbury in those years will remember the homeless characters Alice and the deranged Elmont, both of whom regularly slept on the steamy grates. Alice and Elmont eventually married, which not only let Alice move up on the housing list, but also, as I recall, allowed them to sleep on the same grate. They may have spent their honeymoon on a grate, I’m not sure, it was a long time ago for me. 

Anyway, St. Paul’s had elegant liturgy, including once I phoned the rector on Saturday to ask what Sunday services would be, to which he replied, “Litany and Solemn.” It was magnificent, the Litany chanted by celebrant and choir as they shuffled around the aisles of the Nave and, as I recall, enveloped in smoky, aromatic incense. Solemn High Mass was Rite I Holy Eucharist. I went there often when in town and the church was always packed.

“My” other Episcopal parish in WashingtonDC was Ascension and St. Agnes up north on embassy row, where Mass always began with celebrant cum aspergillum shaking holy water over the congregation in an opening rite of purification. The same is served by the Collect for Purity which, theologically, cleanses the worshipers, like washing up before coming into the presence of God. I’ve never been to worship in a mosque, but I understand that Muslim practice involves a thorough cleansing, perhaps including shower, before going in to prayers. 

One thing I learned at Ascension and St. Agnes was about "Years Mind." The liturgy prayers always included Year’s Mind calling by name those who had died this time a year ago, or two, or ten, remembering lovingly before God and here in Christ’s Church Militant, loved ones and friends now around the throne in Christ’s Church Triumphant. May the souls of all faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Thos+ still here in Militant
ho anaginowskown noeito