Midnight Mass...Episcopal or Catholic?

[RickardoHolmes]

So here is the deal

Each and Every Christmas Eve, at around 1030 PM Local time we attend an evening Christmas Service. Usually, this is at a large Episcopal church, but on occasion, we have attended one at a Catholic church instead.

Here, we seek out an Episcopal High Mass, and have been attending one in an older cathedral type church for many years.
Sometimes, we spend Christmas out of town, and have to find one to attend wherever we are visiting.

I am accompanied by my oldest son, who is in college, (but home of course). His suggestion was that we instead the service at the Catholic cathedral adjacent to the Episcopal church we usually attend. They are larger, more ornate, and have a great organ, but I have so far been able to gather no intel on the actual service. My main concern is that it will not offer the aesthetics that the Episcopal High Mass offers.

The best idea we have, would be something akin to attending a restaurant for the first time. Show up around 10 PM, ask to see the program. (Like walking into a restaurant and asking to see a menu before sitting down.) IF The service looks promising, the music, the musicians, the order of the Mass etc looks inspiring and worth watching, we will stay. If not, it is just a block around the corner to the other church where we are guaranteed a most beautiful event, although in a less festive and less visually pleasing building by comparison.


The only other reason I am hesitant to attend is because after decades of attending these services, which are to me, Christmas, and the HIGHLIGHT of the Christmas experience, I have found Catholic Masses to be hit or miss, and would hate to spend a Christmas Eve in some place where no one is really into what they are doing. Not to mention the number of separatist priests I have encountered over the years.

Has anyone here had similar experiences?

 

[gordonhooker]

I think it is a bit like any Church it depends on what the congregation prefer and what the Priest prefers. I have attended a Roman Catholic midnight Mass where I live (Mary MacKillop) and Father Frank is very High Mass and Marian in his Liturgical style so the service was beautiful and not that much different then our own High Mass at St. Georges Anglican Church.

 

[Naomi4Christ]

Why would you want to go to a RCC building where you are merely an onlooker (and put up with dodgy theology and music)? Stay safe.

 

[gordonhooker]

Why would you want to go to a RCC building where you are merely an onlooker (and put up with dodgy theology and music)? Stay safe.

In our community we have a lot of interaction between the different denominations and faith systems and we come together from time to time or attend each others events to get to know one another. After all we are all the body of Christ.

You have a Happy and Holy Christmas Naomi.

 

[Albion]

It's hard to answer, Ricardo, since we don't know either church but just the two denominations. I find the Episcopal service to be more elegant, but Midnight Mass at Catholic churches usually is a big event. However, the Catholic service usually starts a bit later, if that matters to you, and you would not be permitted to take Communion there.

 

[everbecoming2007]

Since full participation in the liturgy involves receiving the eucharist I'd go where I was welcome to receive holy communion in good conscience. Isn't that what is most important?

 

[RickardoHolmes]

In our community we have a lot of interaction between the different denominations and faith systems and we come together from time to time or attend each others events to get to know one another. After all we are all the body of Christ.

You have a Happy and Holy Christmas Naomi.

Merry Christmas to you too
The Catholic cathedral is right behind the Episcopal church, and they do share a lot of events. I have been inside for a concert, and it is a grand, beautiful place.

My son suggested that we just go to the one that we know we are going to like.
I have no problem going in and looking over the Service program, and in a pinch would go wherever I could
But the one I really like is there too


A long time ago, I did wander into a Catholic church for Midnight Mass. It was in walking distance (in the snow) From where I was living at the time. This was in a town where I was working temporarily and was not heading out i\until New Years so I walked over to a quaint catholic church and went inside

The priest was ok, but as we got going, turned out to be one of those separatist types (like the local one that does Latin Mass) who abhors non-catholics in general We stopped attending the Latin Mass here altogether because the priest is such a hateful little man.

In addition, the building was very plain, giving little to inspire my inner aestheticist. I have been more certain to pick out an Epsicopal mass, but even those have not always been fulfilling.
I would not want to waver from the High Church tradition that I have found nearby here.

 

[everbecoming2007]

Merry Christmas to you too
The Catholic cathedral is right behind the Episcopal church, and they do share a lot of events. I have been inside for a concert, and it is a grand, beautiful place.

My son suggested that we just go to the one that we know we are going to like.
I have no problem going in and looking over the Service program, and in a pinch would go wherever I could
But the one I really like is there too


A long time ago, I did wander into a Catholic church for Midnight Mass. It was in walking distance (in the snow) From where I was living at the time. This was in a town where I was working temporarily and was not heading out i\until New Years so I walked over to a quaint catholic church and went inside

The priest was ok, but as we got going, turned out to be one of those separatist types (like the local one that does Latin Mass) who abhors non-catholics in general We stopped attending the Latin Mass here altogether because the priest is such a hateful little man.

In addition, the building was very plain, giving little to inspire my inner aestheticist. I have been more certain to pick out an Epsicopal mass, but even those have not always been fulfilling.
I would not want to waver from the High Church tradition that I have found nearby here.

I am sorry to hear your negative experience with the priest. While it shouldn't and doesn't have to be this way, some traditionalist Catholics are understandably embittered by the repression of their preferred rite and various liturgical abuses.

I'd imagine some Anglicans feel similarly, although in my experience I have generally found Anglicans of all stripes to be a civil lot. Not that there aren't exceptions and not that our politics don't have their ugly side, too.

 

[tampasteve]

So....which did you choose to go to?

 

[RickardoHolmes]

We went to the Usual Episcopal Church. My youngest son even went, and he will not go for anything.....EXCEPT A string quartet.
They had a String Quartet and that was enough to get him to join us.

The Catholic church was filling up fast when we went by. The Episcopal service had maybe 100 people.....we got there very early so we could sit by the musicians

 

[mark46]

Amen!

In our community when I was up North, Catholic, Episcopal and Methodist communities had lots of interaction.

TEC and Methodist (and now Lutherans) are even closer than before.

In our community we have a lot of interaction between the different denominations and faith systems and we come together from time to time or attend each others events to get to know one another. After all we are all the body of Christ.

You have a Happy and Holy Christmas Naomi.