Not typically seen at Episcopal worship services in the Diocese of Kentucky, these “high church” ceremonial gestures have become routine at the Saturday service of St. Mark’s, Louisville.

The church, which uses Rite I and Rite II liturgies at its principal Sunday services, began offering the “high church” alternative at its Saturday evening Eucharist in response to two circumstances: a third service was needed to accommodate the growing congregation, and the vestry and rector, the Rev. Charles Hawkins, saw a need to attract members of the emerging, post-Gen X generation of worshipers, those in their 20s and 30s. 

“When I compared the demographics of the parish with the demographics of the community, I realized that they are underrepresented in the parish. At a more personal and theological level, there are many voices that we aren’t hearing in the parish, and I want to work hard to have them at the Lord’s table,” said Hawkins.

One way to do that, parish officials said, was to hold the service on Saturday instead of Sunday evenings because the church is located near a popular restaurant district that draws that group of young people and others to the area for dinner.

As parishioner Cathy Scherer observed, “We love this neighborhood. Nice people, wonderful restaurants, lots of architectural character. We begin our Saturday evenings with Holy Communion at St. Mark’s.”

Choosing the “high church” or Anglo-Catholic format for the new service also was deliberate. Hawkins said several studies had shown that the post-Gen X group, known as the “baby busters,” is attracted to high ceremonial worship as a reaction against the casual style of services preferred by their baby boomer parents.

“There is a critical mass of younger persons who are drawn to more formal styles of work,” said Hawkins. “As a liturgical church, it’s easy for us to do that, so we’re drawing upon a part of our tradition that was not drawn upon previously.”

Elements of  “high church” worship

Andy Blieden, a parishioner at St. Mark’s for seven years, is a member of that generation and was among Hawkins’ congregants who had been calling for the Saturday evening service. He attends with his 6-year-old son Jacob, who serves as an acolyte.

“I love it. It’s more intimate for us ... and it’s a good time for families who can’t make it to church on Sundays,” said Blieden. The service is more “kid friendly” for the acolytes, he added, because the rector “cuts them a little slack” and gives them more responsibilities during Communion than they might ordinarily have.

Historically, the 113-year-old church, like most Episcopal churches in the United States, has been what is called a “low church.” This form of worship resulted from the Protestant Reformation, during which altars were stripped of crosses and candles, priests divested themselves of colorful vestments and wore only the white surplice over the black cassock, and other ceremonial practices associated with Roman Catholic services were dropped, according to Hawkins. In addition, Eucharist was no longer the principal part of the service.

In the mid-1800s, the Oxford Movement in England began an “effort to recover the catholicity of the church,” and many vestiges of the “high-church movement” are now mainstream in the churches, crosses and candles on altars and priests wearing Eucharistic vestments (the white alb, colorful stole and chasuble).

Today, many ceremonial elements of a “high church” worship have been integrated into St. Mark’s mainstream services, said Hawkins. “What makes [St. Mark’s] service different has to do with the few items of high church ceremonial that are not widespread." The service includes a gospel procession during which the book is censed before it is read, and the torch lamps are part of the procession. Also, before the Eucharist prayer, the priest censes the altar, an act Hawkins said “symbolizes our prayers going up to God.”

One reason for the Anglo-Catholic ceremony, he explained, was to engage all of a worshiper’s senses “through color, the incense, the visual as well as the sense of smell.” The priest’s genuflecting and kissing the altar as well as washing his hands before he celebrates Eucharist are other “acts of devotion and respect” from the Anglo-Catholic tradition.

Not long into the service, however, those familiar with traditional liturgy may notice that this is “high church” with an important difference: It uses a trial version of Eucharistic liturgy authorized by the 1997 General Convention. St. Mark’s obtained permission from the bishop to use the liturgy, which Hawkins said reflects the church’s movement toward more inclusive language and incorporates changes set out in ecumenical dialogues to standardize some of our common texts with Lutherans and Roman Catholics.

About 35 worshipers, most St. Mark’s members, regularly attend the service. “In some ways," Hawkins said, "the service encompasses the best parts of the Anglican tradition. You have something like the Reformed principle of worshiping in the vernacular of the people with the multisensory worship experience of the Anglo-Catholic tradition.

So in many ways we’re drawing upon not just one narrow part of Anglican tradition but various parts of tradition to create something that’s useful to those to whom we try to minister. It’s really wonderful to be a part of such a broad church with such a rich tradition."