I don't feel at home at OLW because as I said before, they could have made it a wonderful liturgical experience like well-done Rite II masses in the beautiful Episcopal churches throughout the USA. Great music, familiar liturgy, "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow" following the offertory, pointed psalms, no mandatory intinction (uncomfortable for those of us who are alcoholics), the same readings as regular Catholic churches have, etc. Instead with all the frou frou thrown in it seems very laborious. The frequent use of the entire Roman Canon is not very episcopalian or at all. Catholic churches use it on solemn occasions not every Sunday. Oh what COULD have been.Mandatory intinction? What on earth does the bishop say about this? I've never been to a Catholic mass that did intinction at all -- isn't it a basic part of Catholic doctrine that communion in one kind is just as good as communion in both, or the other? And in our parish, it's 50-50 the bread in the hand or on the tongue, and I'll bet if you scratch a bishop, he'd prefer on the tongue, simply to be sure nobody walks off with a host. The EM with the chalice is someplace else, and you can just opt to bypass.
The thing that got to me, though, was his previous report of folks coming to mass dressed up as the Cleavers. Actually, I remember this very clearly from my Episcopalian days. These people are phonies. Episcopal parishes are full of them.
Our local parishes are full of people from the Philippines, Viet Nam, Mexico, Honduras, wherever, who are friendly, happy to be here, and not phony.
