Wow, that's quite a poetic beginning. :)
The ancestral roots I have been able to trace thus far are more plain. St. Mary's, Swansea, Wales was the church my Great Grandparents were married in in the mid 1800s. It was bombed in the Blitz February 1941 and not rebuilt until the 1950s. 1770 is the earliest I have been able to trace back on another of my Anglo ancestral branches. It was the year my GGGG Grandparents married in the Church of England in Lincolnshire England.
I don't know how many generations back my family were members of the Church of England but it might be my catechism which influences me still. I don't even know if the Episcopal Church offers Catechism classes anymore.
I was an all A honors student who studied little and played hard so I figured Catechism classes would be a breeze. They were not easy and required much reading and turning in weekly written assignments. Our final written test was difficult with no easy guesses and we also had long essay questions.
The visiting Bishop for my Catechism gave a very moving sermon. I felt the weight and believed my responsibility for receiving the Holy Spirit and entering the Church as an adult member despite my young age.
Yes, the music is something I dearly miss when I attend Catholic Mass.
Thank you for your very kind offer. I would love to chat with you more about this.
My pleasure. FReepmail me any time, all I can tell you is the sort of roundabout way we got where we are, but maybe it will help you some. I would collar Mad Dawg too if you can catch him -- he's much more knowledgeable than I.
The old Catechism was a bit XXXIXish for a high churcher, but it contains some very good bits:
"My duty towards my Neighbour is to love him as myself, and to do to all men as I would they should do unto me: To love, honour, and succour my father and mother: To honour and obey the Queen, and all that are put in authority under her: To submit myself to all my governors, teachers, spiritual pastors and masters: To order myself lowly and reverently to all my betters: To hurt nobody by word nor deed: To be true and just in all my dealing: To bear no malice nor hatred in my heart: To keep my hands from picking and stealing, and my tongue from evil-speaking, lying, and slandering: To keep my body in temperance, soberness, and chastity: Not to covet nor desire other men’s goods; but to learn and labour truly to get mine own living, and to do my duty in that state of life, unto which it shall please God to call me."
St Mary's Swansea is a beautiful church. The old English churches are magnificent. You have to kind of look around to find anything this beautiful in the U.S.
