These customs, which remind me of medieval English customs, in fact survive in a number of places on the Continent.Except that in the tract I quoted yesterday, Percy Dearmer said
Before the Reformation there were no communion rails, and houseling cloths or 'Easter towels' were held by assistants under the hands of communicants as they knelt for their annual communion.Which goes yet again to the fact that people add what they will to fantasies of Olde English Catholicism, or Anglicanism, or "Angelicanism". But wait, there's more!
My regular correspondent pointed me to this story of a Presbyterian parish in Ontario that decided it, too, needed houseling cloths. This usage has a long and twisted history that in part doesn't match my childhood memories of Presbyterian services.
In 1830 in Scotland, Rev. Thomas Chalmers found himself with a dilemma most 20th century ministers would welcome. He was drawing so many people to Sunday worship, the celebration of Holy Communion was becoming a time-consuming practice. And the customs of the congregation were not designed for speed.Well, at least by the 20th century in PCUSA/PCUS, communion was celebrated with little glass thimbles of grape juice and tiny cubes of Wonder Bread. No wine. And this was fine, since the Real Presence wasn't involved, and if the grape juice was spilled or a cube of bread fell, not a biggie, it'd be wiped up with a Kleenex or vacuumed later. Exactly why a houseling cloth would be needed is obscure, although even among Catholics, patens made them superfluous if not an impediment. But:. . . Chalmers' solution? Make tables out of pews. Strips of linen or 'housling' cloths, were placed on each pew. The bread and wine were passed from the end of the pews, the large cups of wine refilled from flagons carried by the elders.
The congregation of Knox Church, Burlington, Ontario, began using housling cloths in 1927 under the leadership of Rev. Robert Moorehead Legate. Legate's ministry to the congregation came to an abrupt end when he resigned over the session's refusal to change a Communion date so he could attend the Church of Scotland General Assembly on behalf of the national church. The use of housling cloths at Knox continued, however, and today, they are used at four Communion services yearly.An illustration at the link isn't entirely clear, but it looks like the entire back of each pew is draped with fitted white linens. But at least in the US, there are little wooden brackets with holes on the pew backs where communicants place their grape juice thimbles after they've been distributed, as well as after the communion, so they can be picked up, washed, and stored. Either Canadian Presbyterians have some other method of dealing with the thimbles, or some method of reaching the wooden brackets under the houseling cloths has been devised and taught to catechumens at that parish.This meaningful and stately custom does not come without cost. There is a lot of work involved. The linen must be washed, ironed, rolled and placed on each pew using small, metal clips.
After 70 years, it is obvious Knox Church finds the work worthwhile, and the fabric of the congregation strengthened through its use of housling cloths.
But this is all the more reason to consider a Presbyterian ordinariate in North America. The practices at Knox Presbyterian, Burlington, ON, should be made universal. Consider as well the decline in apparent interest we've seen at the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society blog. The Society's good offices can now be put to use considering the myriad customs and doctrinal points that attach to the whole question of houseling cloths -- and once ordinariate members have mastered the issues relating to chapel veils, they'll certainly be in a position to advance to houseling cloths at all their parishes.
