Latin in the Church of England....

Reading Bishop Edwin's blog has inspired me to include a notice from our Mass Sheet:

I understand that a few people were surprised by the use of a Latin Mass Musical Setting on Christmas Day. Perhaps those who were so surprised missed the first use of this setting in our parish when Bishop Andrew came to bless the reordering on Ascension Day last year. Certainly there were no expressions of surprise on that occasion.

There are those who sometimes think that the use of Latin in Anglican Liturgy is “not the sort of thing that should happen in the Church of England” or shows that “the Vicar is leading us to Rome.” The latter betrays a barely disguised rank prejudice against Roman Catholics which is deeply un-Christian and not worthy of a response. The former is a view that is sometimes held because of a lack of experience of the sheer breadth of Anglican Worship or because people mistakenly think that Latin is never used in the CofE.

English may have been the language used in much of the Book of Common Prayer, but, when read carefully, we will discover that it is littered with Latin. Following the Reformation Henry VIII, Queen Mary I, Edward VI, Elizabeth I and many of their successors had worship entirely in Latin in their Chapels. The great Cathedrals of our church used Latin Mass Settings and Anthems and still do to this day. How many times have you been to a Eucharist in a Cathedral and listened as the Choir sang much of the Mass in Latin to the music of Mozart, Schubert, Widor, Duruflé, Palestrina etc? In many of our large Parish Churches which still have robed choirs Latin Mass settings and Anthems are sung regularly (sometimes on a weekly basis). In virtually every one of these cases the person in the pew cannot join in with the Latin (as beautiful as the music may be) as they are not even provided with the words in Latin, never mind the English Translation—which is a situation that I find regrettable, but I doubt these Cathedrals and Parish Churches are reproached for their use of Latin. The use of Latin in Church of England liturgy is certainly not an innovation on my part, for indeed, the great composers with the Deans and Chapters of our Cathedrals, and clergy and choirs of our large Parish Churches have continued, and furthermore encouraged, the practice from ancient times. And what about “Spem in alium” written by Thomas Tallis in the reign of Elizabeth I, and received with such rapturous acclaim locally?

The Setting that we used on Christmas Day was a simple musical setting designed for the choir to sing parts and the people to sing the refrains in the Gloria in excelsis; and for everyone to be able to join in singing completely the Sanctus and Benedictus as well as the Agnus Dei. For each part the text was available on a card with both the Latin and the English translation side by side so that people would be able to understand what they were singing. It is important in any Parish Church that a wide range of music is used—this is not to reflect personal tastes but to embrace the rich and wide musical treasure that the Christian Church is most fortunate to have. Similarly, our choir should be encouraged to expand their repertoire and our organist, Dr Andrew Storer, should be congratulated on rescoring part of the Mass Setting used. So occasionally a Latin Anthem or Mass setting (with the translation) may be used and the Canons of the Church of England make it quite clear that it is the parish priest that chooses the “chants, hymns, anthems, and other settings, and in the ordering of the music of the church.”

One final point: at school we were taught that English was a language comprising Latin, Old English/Middle English, Old Norse & Old French so if Latin were never to be heard in church then we are going to have to decimate our native tongue, particularly our multi-syllable words.