The other story of Sunday Mattins

On a Sunday off in early July I visited a friend's parish church. The main service that Sunday was Mattins with hymns and a sermon.  Mattins was according to the Church of Ireland Book of Common Prayer 2004, Order 2: a contemporary rite, albeit identifiably Cranmerian in structure.  A smaller parish, the congregation of approximately 50, led by a small but good parish choir, chanted the psalm. The hymns were appropriate and sung with gusto.  The canticles were reverently said.  The sermon (on the Gospel reading appointed in the three year lectionary, the Parable of the Good Samaritan) was solid, thoughtful, and engaging. Mattins is the main Sunday service in the parish every other Sunday, alternating with Parish Communion.

Reflecting on the experience later that Sunday, it did make me question how laudable Practice has, in the past, encouraged and contributed to a 'we lost Sunday Mattins' narrative.  Here, after all, was a parish, a short drive from my home, which had regular Sunday Mattins, celebrated in a manner which emphasises the strengths of Cranmerian Morning Prayer as a main Sunday liturgy.

I had already been prompted to think along these lines when an associate on Twitter had, in late June, referred to enjoying Sunday Morning Prayer in Christ Church, Georgetown.  As the Christ Church website states of Sunday Morning Prayer celebrated on the second and fourth Sundays:

Using Rite One of the Book of Common Prayer, this most traditional of Sunday liturgies includes a sermon. Musical leadership and choral offerings are provided by the Choir of Christ Church.

Days before I visited my friend's parish, I noticed the Prayer Book Society welcoming a new corporate member, Holy Trinity, Prince Consort Rd, London.  The parish website notes, "On the 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month, the service is Choral Matins".

On the same Sunday that I attended Sunday Mattins in a nearby parish, another Twitter associate was attending it in "the simplicity of Old Wye", a historic Episcopalian church in Maryland.  I commented at the time, "There definitely is a story to be told about places in which the tradition of Sunday Mattins is maintained".

The day following, the Prayer Book Society highlighted a tweet by the Precentor of York Minster: "Choral Matins is our fastest growing service post-pandemic".  Choral Matins is sung in the Quire each Sunday in York Minister at 10am.

July, then, was a month when I began to think more seriously about the other story of Sunday Mattins. A story which, contrary to the assumption that the Parish Communion movement's triumph was complete, suggests that, in a variety of places and contexts, Sunday Mattins has been continued or rediscovered.  This story has significance precisely because we are so often told that Sunday Mattins is a thing of the past, a liturgy which no longer has relevance to Anglicans.  The more we can point to examples of a lively, vibrant tradition (whether old or new) of Sunday Mattins, the more the misleading narrative can be challenged, and the more others can be encouraged to explore this office as a main Sunday liturgy.  

"I believe also that there is still much to be learnt from the Matins and Sermon whereby congregations were nurtured in the Scriptures." So said Michael Ramsey in his famous essay 'The Parish Communion'.  In more places than we might imagine, Ramsey's counsel has been heeded.  Sunday Mattins is not a lost tradition. In cathedrals and much smaller churches, in busy urban parishes and quiet country churches, there are examples of it continuing in the British Isles, the United States and - I assume (and will seek to confirm) - Canada.  To encourage a wider consideration and rediscovery of Sunday Mattins is not a quixotic project.  It is, rather, to point to an ongoing practice and lived tradition within contemporary Anglicanism, and to urge that its riches and wisdom should be more widely experienced.  Such is the importance of telling the other story of Sunday Mattins.