Meanwhile in a different church in England...

In stark contrast to the announcement from the Roman Catholic Cardinal in Westminster Cathedral immediately preceding a Pontifical High Mass (see the previous post) there was another service being conducted in a different church in Great Britain...

There were bridesmaids and best men, an exchange of vows and rings, and a showering of rose-petal confetti. Only the bride was missing.

For this was Britain's first gay "wedding", held in one of the Church of England's oldest and most attractive churches.

St Bartholomew the Great at West Smithfield, in the City of London, dates from the 12th century but it can have seen few more historic events than this.

Greeted with a fanfare of trumpets, the Rev Peter Cowell and the Rev Dr David Lord celebrated their civil union with the kind of pomp and pageantry reserved for royal weddings. The couple walked up the aisle to Mendelssohn's march from A Midsummer Night's Dream dressed in morning suits, with their bridesmaids and best men following behind.

A robed choir sang in Latin as incense was burned on the high altar.

The service was rooted in the most traditional style, from the music to the liturgy, which was based on the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. The Rev Martin Dudley addressed the congregation: "Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God, and in the face of this congregation, to join together these men in a holy covenant of love and fidelity."

Read the rest here.

I think this could be called a tale of two churches. One is in the process of reclaiming something it seems to have just realized that it misplaced. The other is abandoning its patrimony with a speed that is to be frank, unseemly. Is there any wonder that there are more Roman Catholics in Britain today than Anglicans?