Need another reason for Anglicanorum coetibus?

If you were looking for another reason why the Pope Benedict, the Pope of Christian Unity, issued the provisions of Anglicanorum coetibus, take a look at the liturgy recently perpetrated at an Episcopalian church in Pittsburgh.

The whole this is based on the style of Dr. Seuss.

Yes, this seems to have been intended for children and I don’t think it really was intended to be for their Episcopalian eucharist.

What a way to teach children how important worship is, right?

Remember, this is an Episcopalian thing and not a lame-duck ICEL translation.

Celebrant: God be with you.
People: And with you too.
Celebrant: Let us pray.
Celebrant: Almighty God, who gave us fun all this week,
So that we could be at our best, and at our peak;
Give us grace, as we leave this place,
Let the lessons that we have learned not go to waste
All this we ask through your loving name –
Father, Son and Holy Ghost, one in the same.

First Reading Yertle the Turtle [I am pretty sure this is a reading from Yertle’s inspired book rather than by Yertle himself.]

Gospel Matthew 5:1-12

Prayers of the People

Let us bow our heads and fold our hands
To pray for all across the spans

Silence

We pray for people everywhere
For those who want or need your care
We pray for people everywhere

There is a lot more. There are a few photos.

Pope Benedict is the Pope of Christian Unity.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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35 Comments

  1. medievalist says:

    Pope Benedict is the Pope of Christian Unity Sanity.

  2. This is an insult to Dr. Seuss.

  3. I’m left wondering…

    1. Why were the words of the Sanctus and Our Father not changed into delightful rhyme? The words of “consecration” were…

    2. Who writes this theology? “For the New Covenant, this is my blood, A sign of the Lord’s continuing love. Let it replace the one from the flood.” The Noahide covenant is not the one being replaced!

    3. How accurate a translation of the Latin is this? ;)

  4. priests wife says:

    First, that atrocity of a movie Cat in the Hat (not the cartoon)- now this, I wonder for Dr Seuss’ wife who approves everything done with the Dr Seuss name in it

  5. Supertradmum says:

    Dr. Seuss (deceased) and his wife were/are big supporters of Planned Parenthood and other anti-life, pro-choice charities. http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/aug/07081002.html

    This fact makes the entire “liturgy” even more macabre.

  6. Tim Ferguson says:

    Was the reading actually from Yertle, or was it from some deutero-Yertle source? Perhaps a pericope from some unknown author of the Yertelian community, intended not to be taken literally, but rather as a veiled political fable about the powers that be prevalent at the time of Yertle, and having only tangential or allegorical relevance to the community today.

  7. Deutro-Yertle… that has me thinking.

    Could there be an influence of an ur-source, perhaps some reminiscences of a tortoise who ran the race.

  8. Triple Domer says:

    This is the latest update to the new missal, correct? I’m not sure we can “Suessify” everyone by Advent 2011.

    Hilarious (but truly sad).

  9. Tim Ferguson says:

    Would ur-Yertle – or “Urtle” – image more of the pagan idealism of the Aesopian zeitgeist?

  10. Charles E Flynn says:

    What about the presumably conflicting views offered by the hare? Are there any authentic hare sources, or are all of the views of the hare simply consumer products manufactured by tenure seekers from fragmentary writings?

  11. Sliwka says:

    My favourite part is the “boo-hoo” in regards to our sins!

    I have not had vast experience working with and instructing children in the faith, but I have seen children really grasp theological concepts without being dummed down to this extent.

  12. bookworm says:

    A church in my area (Methodist) had a “U2 Eucharist” about a year or so ago, featuring the music of Bono and company. I didn’t go (of course) but I thought that was one of the most ridiculous liturgy ideas I had ever seen, until this one.

  13. Charles E Flynn says:

    bookworm,

    You must have missed the early 1970’s in our presumably better colleges, in which someone decided to substitute a reading from “Winnie the Pooh” for a reading from the dead white males known as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

  14. raitchi2 says:

    Before we cast the first stone, let’s remember that the Missale Romanum had a ‘simplified’ mass for children. And at the very least where I am, it is a common practice for all the children to leave Sunday mass together for a “children’s liturgy of the word”.

  15. PghCath says:

    This Friday, the same church will feature Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s “Messe des Morts.” (http://www.calvarypgh.org/Requiem-program-110510.pdf). Seusscharist one week, “Dies Irae” the next. Go figure.

  16. Rob in Maine says:

    I will not receive Him on my knees!
    Not with mantilla, if you please!

    I will not , will not join this silly craze craze!
    I will not will not speak Latin phrase!

    It may be ineffable today
    You need to read W-D-T-P-R-Say!

  17. bookworm says:

    “You must have missed the early 1970s in our presumably better colleges”
    Since I didn’t go to college until the mid-1980s, you are correct. I attended a “regular” parish throughout my college years since the small private school I went to (Eureka College) did not have a Newman Center at the time.
    My brother attended Illinois State U. in the early 80s. He said he went to one Newman Center Mass at which some kind of bogus Litany of the Saints that included Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King was said, and after that, he either came home or went to a “real” church for Mass until he graduated. Twenty years later (early 2000s), however, things had greatly improved and said Newman Center had good, orthodox priests, regular Eucharistic adoration, etc.

  18. Gail F says:

    This ALMOST makes the Hip Hop Mass sound good:

    The 23rd Psalm

    The Lord is all that, I need
    For nothing
    He allows me to chill.
    He keeps me from being heated
    And allows me to breathe easy.
    He guides my life so that
    I can represent and give
    Shouts out in his Name.
    And even though I walk through
    The Hood of death,
    I don’t back down
    For you have my back.
    The fact that you have me covered
    Allows me to chill.
    He provides me with back-up
    In front of my player-haters
    And I know that I am a baler
    And life will be phat
    I fall back in the Lord’s crib
    For the rest of my life

  19. Dr. Eric says:

    This is Anglicanism’s fruit.
    They can’t even give a hoot
    About Transubstantiation
    Or Eucharistic Adoration.
    The rest of the Prots have followed suit.

  20. Legisperitus says:

    Apart from the abomination in the idea of Seuss liturgy, it’s not even GOOD Seuss. The real Seuss was quite meticulous in his poetic meter, precise in his syllable count, while this sprawls all over the place. A complete epic fail on a most massive scale.

  21. TJerome says:

    I imagine most of the “children” in attendance were old lefties in their late 50s and in their 60s

  22. irishgirl says:

    With regards to ‘strange’ readings at Mass-I heard one from Mark Twain at a family wedding in the 1970s. It was his version of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. I was a bridesmaid at the wedding, and I thought it was pretty weird.

  23. irishgirl says:

    Oh, BTW, Fr. Z , I watched on EWTN’s YouTube channel Father Mitch Pacwa’s ‘Threshold of Hope’ program. He had a segment on ‘Anglicanorum Coetibus’. Were you able to see it? I thought it was pretty interesting.

  24. Glen M says:

    Need another reason for Summorum Pontificum?

  25. cnaphan says:

    Tim, what is important is not whether Yertle fell or not, but the subsequent Yertle-Experience of the community.

  26. Dave N. says:

    “Deutro-Yertle… that has me thinking.
    Could there be an influence of an ur-source, perhaps some reminiscences of a tortoise who ran the race.”

    Hate to get technical, but we should probably refer to this as “Pseudo-Yertle” rather than “Deutero-Yertle.” Suggest an immediate search for a theoretical source that we will call “Qertle”.

  27. chironomo says:

    I too am of the opinion that this is an insult to the esteemed and great Theodore Geisel… to “pay homage” to him with hokey square rhyme schemes and particularly predictable word choice? Aside from the liturgical madness… this is “Seuss Abuse”!

  28. chironomo says:

    A church in my area (Methodist) had a “U2 Eucharist” about a year or so ago….

    I recall that it was called the “U-Twocharist”…

  29. Tom says:

    This church previously, and perhaps currently (haven’t been by that way of late) has rainbow banners along the exterior extolling “diversity” and such.

    The Episcopalian diocese of Pittsburgh, generally more on the high church side, seems to tolerate most anything from its more liberal parishes. In this case, perhaps because this church’s location in a trendy and affluent area of the city.

  30. Martial Artist says:

    Supertradmum,

    Dr. Seuss (deceased) and his wife were/are big supporters of Planned Parenthood and other anti-life, pro-choice charities.

    This fact makes the entire “liturgy” even more macabre.

    It may make it more macabre, but the Episcopal Church has been formally on record through triennially readopted resolutions of its General Convention for well more than a decade as opposing any measures or statutes that would in any way restrict a woman’s right to an abortion for any reason whatsoever. They also officially joined the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice some several years ago, and they did not do it through their vaunted triennial General Convention, but rather via their Executive Council, the mission of which is, during the 154 weeks between GenCon, to deal with any matters that are too urgent to be delayed until the next GenCon.

    So, macabre, perhaps; predictable, certainly!

    Pax et bonum,
    Keith Töpfer

  31. Martial Artist says:

    @Tom,

    The “church” ecclesial community which held this abomination is a church an ecclesial community in that alleged, but irregularly constituted, Diocese of Pittsburgh that is officially affiliated with the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA), which now refers to itself simply as “The Episcopal Church” or TEC. It is TEC which one generally refers to as Episcopalian. The majority of parishes that used to be a part of TEC voted several years ago to disaffiliate from TEC and were taken under the wing of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone of the Americas. What you are seeing in the travesty is the non-orthodox Episcopalians who chose not to disaffiliate from TEC, which latter has ordained numerous openly partnered homosexual priests and, since 2003, elevated two openly partnered homosexual clerics to their episcopacy (V. Gene Robinson in New Hampshire and Mary Glasspool in Los Angeles).

    It would probably be helpful to think of them in terms of being the unfaithful remnant.

    Pax et bonum,
    Keith Töpfer

  32. thereseb says:

    “Remember, this is an Episcopalian thing and not a lame-duck ICEL translation.”

    I’m trying. Really , really hard but…

    I do not like bad liturgy
    I do not like it, Fr Z
    I do not like it in a shed
    I do not like it with big bread
    I do not like it done with dance
    I do no like it left to chance
    I do not like the priest to face us
    or altar girls with trainer laces
    I do not like it Fr Z
    The EF is the one for me

  33. Thomas S says:

    The more traditionally-inclined Episcopalians use a different set of liturgical books for their Seusscharists. For example, this book is used during the Christmas Season:

    http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/2751/latingrinch.jpg

    (Sorry, I don’t know how to get the actual picture in my post.)

  34. laurazim says:

    …………and they wonder why those who seek REVERENCE are flocking to the Catholic Church…….DUH!!!

  35. Melody says:

    *Facepalm*

    How bad is it when you cannot make parody anymore, because reality is so ridiculous that it far outstrips any concept you can come with?

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