2nd Day in London

OK, here is my second day. I got a fairly good night's sleep of about 8 hours - after being up for about 48 hours! (yes, I slept little on the plane - no more than 5 minutes a couple of times.)

Anyway, Brompton Oratory. This dates from the 1850's, I believe, and was founded by Father Frederick Faber. The Birmingham Oratory was founded by Cardinal Newman and Fr. Faber was a part of that, but they went their separate ways and Fr. Faber founded this one. (Fr. Faber composed "Faith of Our Fathers" - yes that's a Catholic hymn, originally, but to a rather sentimental 19th century tune. I won't hold it against him.) It is right next to the Albert and Victoria Royal Museum which I went into for awhile and which is huge. The museum kind of dwarfs the Oratory, which is itself quite big. A real pile. It is in the Kensington neighborhood which is both quieter and more gentile than London proper. However, there is a shopping district as you go past the Oratory which includes Harrod's and is kind of upscale. I haven't seen anything really upper-class yet, except for the outdoof cafe at Herrod's which seemed to be strictly coat and tie, old boy. And I was in coat and tie, but had already eaten at a French Restaurant [Le Pain quotidien - Daily Bread - panem (nostrum) quotidianum], so I didn't give it a try. Had a real French waitress, incidentally.

The Brompton Oratory is a kind of an Italienate Baroque-cum-19th century-ornamentation structure, unlike Westminster Abbey, which is Medieval-tail-end-of-Gothic with all sorts of clutter added reflecting the oddities of the English national mind set. More about that in a second. The Oratory is a house of prayer. No mistaking that. From the instant you walk in, you want to pray. At least I did. It is partly the fact that people are praying there all the time and all around the place. Westminster Abbey is full of tourists, because it is more famous, and the vergers do make an effort to kick people out at the time for Evensong, Morning Prayer, etc. who are mere tourists - but there is more to it then that, and I don't think it is my Catholic bias.

Let me explain.

The first thing I saw at the Abbey when I walked in at the north chancel entrance (if I remember correctly) were a whole bunch of statues of kings and royalty. Then there is "Poet's Corner" - tributes to Shakespeare, Dryden, etc. I also walked over the grave of Charles Darwin - or at least it was a floor plaque tribute to him in the nave. You see this is the problem. When good old Archbishop Cranmer fundamentally changed the church in England along the lines of a kind of Calvinistic theology in the 16th century, this created a number of problems. This is the law of unintended consequences. He quite sincerely believed that he, among other things (and it should be mentioned that he was an EXCELLENT English stylist, i.e. the Book of Common Prayer) thought he was going to remove all the distractions to worship and emphasize Christ as the sole mediator, this went contrary to human nature which responds to a fact of reality.

The fact is that "holiness" is an objective conforming of oneself to God and a reflection of HIS holiness. People recognize this and honor - but do not adore - such a person. This person can intercede in the same way a friend who is alive can pray for us. But more intensely because they ARE closer to God. This in no way detracts from Christ's mediatorship because, when we are baptized into Christ, we have a share in HIS mediatorship. Anyway, once the concept of "holiness" is lost (i.e. as something that can truly enter into the world), then--for most people--the "holy man" gets replaced by the "famous man" and that is what you see in Westminster Abbey now; a place which honors a man (Charles Darwin) who didn't even believe in God. Absurd, but that is what you see. Not that there is no sense of Christian prayer at the Abbey, there is, but the Catholic void got filled by a kind of national hero worship.

I hear St. Paul's Cathedral is similar. I may have a chance to pop in, but I am afraid I may see a statue of Winston Churchill puffing a cigar.

Anyway, the choir at the Oratory was fantastic - professional - and no more than 10 singers. Better than the Sydney choir visiting the Abbey, yesterday. They sang Benedetto Croce's "Missa Percussit Saul." It sounded very late 16th century "Venetian School" (i.e.antiphonal, block chords with some counterpoint, Gabrielli-ish, organ accompaniment). They also did a Lassus 6-voice Salve Regina. Superb. The Propers were chanted quite respectably and the women in the choir chanted parts. It was very respectable. I don't have any plans for this, but it can work - I have heard this done in other places, like the Colloquium. Vespers wasn't as special as I had hoped - only 3, rather than 5, copes - but it wasn't a special feast. the choir sang the Elgar Ave verum (which we have done) and a 5-voice Magnificat which as anonymous, but sounded 16th century. (They also did a harmonization of the Lucis Creator by one "Wright" which was modern and very good - must investigate.)

The organist was quite good doing Bach's "Fantasia in G minor" at the end of Mass and then Bach's Fugue in G minor at the end of Vespers. The organ seemed to be a 19th century one under decent expression - and some good reeds, esp a 16 one on the pedal that he added at the tail end of the fugue! It was in a balcony just underneath the south transept, which was where the choir sang from. I could here the organ and choir throughout the church.

A few observations about the people: dressed nicely, lots of coats and ties but not snobby. Lots of praying by all ages - and young people coming in at odd hours to pray at side altars, etc. And not goody-two-shoes ones always. Some dressed in slight hip, urban ways. Wonder what they were praying about, but none of my business. Very touching. Kind of reminds me of that young lady coming in to the church to pray in the opera "Tosca" whom the painter Cavadarossi (sp?) spies. But I don't have his, well, dirty mind - or a jealous girlfriend (Tosca).

The people did sing-not great-but they try. Kind of reminds me of Msgr. Schuler's church. A good Novus Ordo-Latin-Ad orientem place. They do the Trid., but I hear that has kind of been taken over, congregation-wise, by a certain type of closed mouth fanatic. Sad. This whole business of not doing responses has a complicated history, but in many ways can be traced back to the immediate post-Trent period when clergy discouraged people from saying/singing the responses at Mass, or even saying their PRIVATE prayers in Latin. There was a deliberate attempt in some quarters to make Latin an exclusively "clerical language." Read Fr. Augustine Thompson's book "Cities of God." It was quite normal for ordinary people in the Middle Ages and Renaissance-long after it was no longer a vernacular--to say their "Pater's" and "Ave's," and to know even more in many cases.

Finally, the British concept of "queueing." They're crazy. At least at Mass. You would think that from a people who are so orderly that they wouldn't do it this way, but they do. When we Americans go to communion we wait for an entire row of a pew to exit, and then, after the last person of the pew ahead of you has come out, the first person in your pew gets behind that person. They don't do that. They just race up to the front. Many people who are at the end of their respective pews will just tear up to the front of the church. I had a lady bump into me. And then they just stand willy-nilly about five feet before the communion rail, waiting like hawks for an opening, and will criss-cross if they see one. Funny.

Well, that's all for now. I will try to go to the "Tate British" (the National Art Gallery) and then to Vespers and Mass (both sung) at Westminster Cathedral. I hope it is Martin Baker and, at least, the Lay Clerks- as I hear the boys are on "holiday." (I hope it is not another visiting choir)

The McDonald's next door claims to have free Wi-Fi, if not I suppose I could come back to this place to blog. Incidentally, it is only £2 per hour, not £10 as I said early. My mistake.
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KP Update: Exactly same crazy aproach to "queueing" in Westminster Cathedral as at Brompton AND I had a lady bump into me there as well!