The following article is the second of a 2 part series written by Rev. Dr. Bill Doggett. It is in response to some recent questions from parishioners about the vestments worn by clergy and other participants during a worship service. Decorative Vestments The long strip of decorated cloth that ministers drape around their necks is a Stole. The stole was a sign of rank…
St. James' Episcopal Church – Mt. Airy, Maryland
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The following article is the first of a 2 part series written by Rev. Dr. Bill Doggett. It is in response to some recent questions from parishioners. One of the things I do in my spare time is design and make vestments and paraments for churches that commission me. The beautiful things we use to decorate our churches and worship leaders are also strange –…
Everything is happening too soon this year. Easter is on the early side, which means that Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent are just around the corner. On February 17th we will gorge ourselves on pancakes and all the fixings (an ancient way to use up all the butter in the larder before the Lenten fast begins) and the next…
January brings celebrations of some of the most public events of the life of Jesus. Holy Name Day on January first, which we used to call the Feast of the Circumcision, remembers Jesus being presented in the Temple by his parents to fulfill the rituals that name and claim a baby boy for Judaism. The Feast of the Epiphany on January sixth marks the…
December 6 is the Feast of Saint Nicholas of Myra, whom we know better by another name. He is, of course, the inspiration for some of our Christmas traditions, but have you ever wondered who he really was, or why we remember him? Nicholas was born over 1700 years ago in the year 280 CE in Patara, a part of Turkey that in those days…
You have probably noticed that even before Halloween, Christmas displays were starting to pop up in the stores. You have likely heard friends and neighbors complaining about it too – about the commercialization of Christmas and the stretching out of the holiday season, and maybe even about the Baseball season too, and how the boys of summer are…
Lots of people who have been Episcopalians for a long time wonder what happened to Morning Prayer. This is a simple question with a complicated answer, since it touches on how we understand scripture, the history of the church and our country, the successes and failures of the Reformation and of course our personal experiences and memories. So…
Fall is approaching, and the program year begins again at Saint James, so we welcome back the Sunday School and the Choir, along with the many members of our church family who have been away for all or part of the summer. But for most Episcopalians, autumn also means the coming of something that many of us anticipate…
Inspired by a well-known set of singing instructions by John Wesley, I wrote this piece for a parish that was in the throes of what some in the church have called “The Music Wars,” battling about what kinds of music were suitable for church and what should be excluded. I offer it to you as a look into how I think about music and worship,…
“Sing unto the Lord a new song,” says the psalmist. The Episcopal Church’s Canon II.6.1 requires each minister of the church to “see that music is used as an offering for the glory of God and as a help to the people in their worship.” But even if music were not required of us by the decree of both God and church,…