The American Church Dictionary and CyclopediaMiller, William James
Philosophy
The American Church Dictionary and Cyclopedia
Miller, William James
Episcopal Church -- Dictionaries; Theology -- Dictionaries
Movable Feasts and Fasts.--Those Feasts and Fasts which are not
observed on a fixed date, but are variable being dependent on the
time Easter is kept. Easter Day is always the first Sunday after
the full moon which happens upon or next after the Twenty-first day
of March; and if the full moon happen upon a Sunday, Easter Day is
the Sunday after. The {192} _Movable Feasts_ are the following:
Advent Sunday which is always the nearest Sunday to the Feast of St.
Andrew (Nov. 30) whether before or after; the three remaining
Sundays in Advent; Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima
Sundays; the Six Sundays in Lent; Rogation Sunday; Ascension Day,
Whitsun Day and Trinity Sunday; Monday and Tuesday in Easter Week;
Monday and Tuesday in Whitsun Week; also the number of Sundays
during the Epiphany and Trinity Seasons is variable, these Seasons
being longer or shorter according to the time Easter is kept. The
_Movable Fasts_ are the Forty Days of Lent, including Ash Wednesday,
Good Friday, Easter Even and the Lenten Ember Days; the Rogation
Days and the Whitsun Tide Ember Days.
Music, Church.--(See HYMNS; GREGORIAN MUSIC, PLAIN SONG, and
EVEN SONG, also INTONE.) Recognizing the fact that music always
characterized the worship of God's Church both under the Old
Dispensation and under the New, the essential thing is the character
of the music in our churches to-day and the mode of rendering it.
The organist, upon whom so much depends, should be a competent
musician, with a good knowledge of the music of the church, and
the music that he uses should be strictly sacred music. The choir
should consist of the best voices and most cultivated singers
available. They should be trained with care, not only in the music
they are to sing, but also in the Church service. The late Bishop
Thorold remarked on this subject, "We are all coming to feel that
Church Music is a great help to worship. . . .But I also feel that
if members of the choir accept {193} from God and the minister the
privilege of taking part in the services, the one thing they
owe to Almighty God, to the congregation and to themselves, is
REVERENCE. I know choirs where their singing is almost a means of
grace; it is done so beautifully, so reverently and with so much
care that it lifts up the whole service to a higher level. The one
secret of all good and acceptable rendering of the Church's music
is _reverence_."
Mystery.--A Truth or fact of Religion which has been revealed but
not explained is called a mystery, because proposed to our faith
faculty, such as the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Blessed Trinity,
the Doctrine of the Eucharist. St. Paul speaks of the whole
Revelation of Christ as the "Mystery of Godliness." Derived from the
Greek word _musterion_, which in the Greek Church is the equivalent
of our word "Sacrament."
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