As northern Michigan cities go, Traverse City is large, with a population of about sixteen thousand and more than 150,000 persons in the metropolitan area. Situated at the southern end of Grand Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan, the city is the center of cherry production in the state, so its airport – on Fly Don’t Drive – is known as Cherry Capital Airport. Michigan produces over 90,000 tons of cherries each year, helping to make the United States second only to Turkey worldwide. Traverse City hosts the National Cherry Festival each year.

Traverse City (not pronounced “truh-VERSE,” as one might expect, but “TRA-verse,” with the emphasis on the first syllable) has been home to Grace Episcopal Church since its founding in 1867. Built in 1876, the original church was moved by horse to its current location in 1897.A separate two-story building with parish hall, classrooms, and offices was completed in 1965. In 1985, the two buildings were connected by a “commons.” The church was rebuilt into an octagonal shape in 2005, with large wooden beams supporting a central turret with clear glass, which allows sunlight to flow into the otherwise-dark space, as the walls are paneled in wood. The stained glass and many of the liturgical furnishings came from the previous – and much smaller – church.

Interior of Grace Episcopal Church, Traverse City, Michigan (photograph by the author).

A typical weekend includes three services of the Holy Eucharist, one at 5:00 o’clock on Saturday afternoon, and two on Sunday, at 8:00 and 10:00 o’clock in the morning. The three services are basically identical – updated Rite Two – except for the music. Saturday’s music is contemporary, led by a pianist and a group called “Grace Harmony.” Sundays at 10:00 o’clock, the music is more traditional, using The Hymnal 1982 and including organ and choir (or a soloist in the summer months). Sundays at 8:00 o’clock, there is no music at all. The twenty-four-page service bulletin (a separate one for each service) welcomes worshippers with these words: “Everyone is invited to share in the loving, liberating, life-giving way of Jesus Christ, who empowers us to act in the world, to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God and each other.”

The worship begins with an extensive Juneteenth “pre-service” commemoration, so all three services have a silent procession, fol-lowed by a Collect that contains three petitions and no oblation. While the form fora Collect is somewhat flexible, this reviewer has never encountered three separate petitions before. The prayer is fol-lowed by a litany that concludes, “May we continue the fight for full liberation for all people.” Then comes “A Confession and a Hope for Reconciliation” which concludes with “Absolution” whose opera-tive phrase is “Our sins are forgiven.” Even given three encounters with this text, the supply priest cannot discern whether or where to make the sign of the cross over the people. (Fortunately, such gestures are commonplace but not mandatory.) A “Concluding Collect” follows – this one also containing three petitions, and also includes two oblation phrases (“that we might.”).

At this point, the regular worship begins. On Saturday, there is an opening hymn: “Holy God, we praise thy name” (GROSSER GOTT). On Sunday at 10:00, there is an unidentified Prelude, during which a woman at the rear shouts, “You may be seated.” Then come three stanzas of an opening hymn: “Morning glory, starlit sky” (BINGHAM). All three services continue with this Opening Acclamation:

Blessed be our God: most holy, glorious, and undivided Trinity. And blessed be God’s reign, now and for ever.

Quite a few worshippers add their “Amen” to this at each of the three services. On Saturday afternoon, all then sing Canticle of the Turning, which has unhelpfully been printed on the front and back of an insert sheet, causing worshippers to turn their page as frequently as the canticle turns. The refrain is sung only after the second stanza, and the third and fourth stanzas are inexplicably omitted. On Sunday at 8:00 a.m., all recite the Gloria in excelsis; at 10:00 a.m., the hymnal setting by Robert Powell is sung. The Collect of the Day follows; this has no invocation, reminding this reviewer that not all collects include all parts.

A reading from Exodus comes next (19:2-8a). (The parish administrator did advise the supply priest that they were using Track2 of the Revised Common Lectionary, but he failed to grasp this, so he has prepared a sermon referring heavily to the Old Testament lesson in Track 1; more on this later.) Next comes a recitation of Psalm 100 in the revision by the sisters of the Order of St. Helena. As is the custom locally, the psalm is read, not sung, and the congregation completes the part of the verse after the asterisk once the reader has begun it. One wonders, first, how effective this practice will be when Psalm 136 is appointed, and, second, why they cannot attempt even simplified Anglican Chant – the psalms are songs, after all. Next comes a reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans (5:1-8). This profound passage (“suffering pro-duces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope”) might have more gravitas were it listed as St. Paul’s letter and not merely “A reading from Romans” – or is even the Letter to the Romans discredited as a work of the Blessed Apostles?

At 5:00 o’clock on Saturday, a sign-language interpreter explains the body movements for the “Halle, halle, halle, lu-u-jah” that is sung, with vigor. At the later service on Sunday, the hymn – listed as “Gradual Hymn” – is “Come, Holy Spirit” (ST. AGNES). The Gospel proclamation that follows is from St. Matthew (9:35-10:23), although the supply priest omits the optional section (10:9-23). A somewhat abbreviated homily follows, as the priest has prepared an extensive treatise on Abraham, Sarah, and their twelve great grandchildren – none of which is mentioned in today’s Old Testament reading. After extemporaneously omitting the first page of his notes, he does manage to mention that – in addition to Fathers’ Day and Juneteenth – June is also the month of gay pride. All then stand to recite the Nicene Creed, in its revised version from Enriching Our Worship.

As the altar is prepared for communion, a soloist sings Remember I Love You by Kathryn Christian at the 5:00 p.m. service, and at the 10:00 a.m. on Sunday a different soloist sings an unidentified piece. (She has a lovely voice.) Ushers bring forth the bread and wine, then pass alms basins throughout the congregation for monetary offerings or tokens indicating online giving. Then, at the 5:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. services, all sing the OLD HUNDREDTH dox-ology, with “he” changed to “God.” The rhythm is off – not half notes and quarter notes, but all quarters. This rather curious custom was once quite common in the Episcopal Church, despite musical notation to the contrary. More curious, though, is the continuation of formal presentation of monetary offerings, since the 1979 prayer book seeks to avoid exalting the money over every-thing else. The hope was that all the offerings are presented together, with the bread and wine taking prominence – but, sadly, this best practice is rare.

The priest then begins the Eucharistic Dialogue and Eucharistic Prayer C. At 5:00 p.m., the Sanctus is from Wonder, Love, and Praise, labeled “Santo, Santo, Santo” but sung in English. At 10:00 a.m., it is the Powell setting, and at 8:00 a.m. it is simply spoken. Certain liberties are taken with the text of the prayer, including the rector’s addition of mothers to fathers and the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’s various wives. The supply priest changes “skill” to “will” to correct Howard Galley’s obvious typographic error and to pro-vide the phrase with its intended allusion to St. Augustine’s sermon on the holy Trinity.²

All pray the Lord’s Prayer in the contemporary version. At the 5:00 p.m. service, the congregation sings “The disciples knew the Lord Jesus” from Wonder, Love, and Praise, and at the other two ser-vices the Pascha nostrum (“Christ, our Passover”) is simply spoken. The priest inserts the Invitation to Communion; both this and the communion of the people itself are oddly missing from all three service bulletins. (Is communion of the people so unimportant that it simply happens after the Fraction Anthem and before the Post-Communion Prayer?) During communion, the Grace Harmony musicians sing Come to the Table (WLP) at 5:00 p.m., and at 10:00 a.m., a soloist sings “I, the Lord of see and sky” with some assistance from the congregation.

The second Post-Communion Prayer is recited, followed by a lengthy Blessing that is part dismissal and part hopeful proclamation – but it does not proclaim anything like “blessing.” At 5:00 p.m., all are invited to sing Come and Follow Me, but only the soloist knows the music. (The 5:00 o’clock service today is followed by a potluck supper, which nearly everyone gathered attends.) At 10:00 a.m., the congregation thankfully sings “Love divine, all loves excelling” (HYFRYDOL), although, the musician plays a haunting alternative harmony with a drone (single note held throughout) for the second and third stanzas, rendering harmony singing impossible. The people are dismissed with these words:

Alleluia! Alleluia! We go forth in the power of the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia!

Since – in the “Absolution” section of the opening pre-liturgy – the celebrant has prayed “change our worship and work when they become routine,” perhaps this rendering is designed to provide “a genuine encounter with God and our better selves”? One is told that the rector has an undergraduate degree in drama, which may explain various changes, amendments, and additions.

This reviewer remembers fondly many conversations with his mentor and later colleague and friend, the late Louis Weil (1935-2022). Louis decried the “additive character of the liturgy,” in which many things are added, but none are subtracted to compensate. He also called for fidelity to authorized texts, insisting that a parish priest’s time was better spent caring for his flock than inventing new forms of common prayer. He taught that various sections of the liturgy had intrinsic “performative phrases,” such as “Almighty God. .. forgive you,” “The blessing of God. . .,” and “Go forth. . .,” suggesting also that gestures may enhance understanding of these profound words. He also cautioned that if one makes many changes, the liturgy ceases to be universal and becomes difficult to understand by visitors – especially visiting Episcopalians. It also risks becoming more about the human author than the divine object of our worship. Plus, not just Louis, but basically every liturgical scholar since the 1960s, decries the presentation of money only while singing the Doxology. All of these concerns come to the fore here, although the congregation seems oblivious to any of them.

The much smaller predecessor church building may have necessitated three services, as the entire congregation could not fit all at one time. Under this constraint, having three services made sense, as did giving each its specific character. As things currently stand, everyone could easily be accommodated at one gathering; either that, or the three should really be even more diverse (perhaps a contemporary liturgy following the outline of An Order for Celebrating the Holy Eucharist, a Rite One service, and a Rite Two liturgy more compliant to the prayer book, as is more commonly the practice). However, things are sorted out, and squeezing Juneteenth and Fathers’ Day into the same liturgy – plus the preacher’s inclusion of gay-pride month – makes for a somewhat overwhelming series of metaphors and concerns.

No easy solution presents itself, and perhaps none exists. For the good people of Grace Episcopal Church in the cherry capital of the United States, however, these concerns are very possibly things indifferent. They are more concerned with community, their plenteous Jubilee Ministry (a food pantry, daytime respite for homeless people, and monthly homeless shelter), and – most importantly – the praise and worship of the Triune God.

J. Barrington Bates                                                   Harbor Springs, Michigan

¹Full disclosure: this reviewer served as supply priest this weekend.

²Originally “memory, understanding, and will.” Changing “understanding” to “reason” seems something of an Anglican tweak, providing resonance with Richard Hooker’s later work. See https://open.library.okstate.edu/introphilosophy/chapter/724/, accessed 22 June 2023.