Church of the Advent of Christ the King

Congratulations to the rector elect, Fr. Paul Allick from St. George’s Parish in Minneapolis, on his being chosen to lead the parish. Was 30 K really spent on finding the new rector? Was it spent and if so on what? If it was spent I would hope that a line item budget was presented at the annual parish meeting this year. Transparency with church funds etc.
This parish should rely more on volunteers. This is a tiny congregation and paid office help looks like a make work position.
Second all the checks going to the choirmaster, this is a parish that apparently can’t write as many checks as we would like or we wouldn’t be living half the year off the capital in the endowment.
It’s a beautiful small chapel of a church. But the tiny parish house should open up the second floor to parishioners and tell the choir to join the coffee hour downstairs. The parishioners need more room to spread out and talk and it’s dumb to allow the parish to divide into segments after the weekly main service instead of uniting in one space where people can talk to the choir and the altar staff. The choir, even if paid, is part of the congregation.
The parish is in desperate need of a kind, and good at organization, rector. You have the feeling here that things are pretty jury-​rigged and not thought out much. And also the feeling that except for the needs of a few well to do donors the congregation is at the bottom of the barrel of priorities. From freezing us with open doors and windows so the thurifer (s) can fill the space up with incense, to wetting us down with cold holy water during the aspergis, you get the feeling that the interim priests are playing dodge ball with us. They don’t care that congregants in the winter, and sometimes summer here, can get very cold and uncomfortable, and I found that pretty strange,

I’ve attended mass here twice, and I’m afraid both times I heard some rather jarring howlers in the sermon: In the first, the priest attributed the Vincentian Canon to Papias, and in the second, he claimed that John Henry Newman spent his post-​conversion life regretting that he’d swum the Tiber – a decidedly insulting claim that Newman himself took the trouble to refute while he was still alive.
This slipshod regard for the facts finds its counterpart in the church’s self-​consciously balletistic ritualism, which features some pretty bizarre and off-​putting innovations. The first time I visited, the celebrants decided to walk down the aisle, exchanging literal (though somewhat stony-​faced) kisses of peace with all the members of the congregation! Awkward.
A city like San Francisco deserves a proper Anglo-​Catholic shrine church; something like All Saints Margaret Street or St Thomas Fifth Avenue. That’s what the Church of the Advent of Christ the King ought to be, but in the end, one’s left instead with the impression of a man in a triple tiara insisting he’s the Pope.

Lovely. Came upon the Latin Chant Mass. Entered to look at the chapel and the sounds of Gregorian-​like chants were uplifting. They are friendly, loving and patient with newcomers. Just what I needed.

One of a kind… in a lot of ways…

After a tumultuous 2006, all I ask for is peace. My lost in faith and belief in the good of mankind perished this year with so many disappointments, disagreements, and struggle. I have yet to figure out how to resolve except to just walk away. I walked into the Church of the Advent of Christ the King during Christmas midnight mass. This traditional church’s ambiance immediately brought me to peace, and the liturgy on unconditional love once again humbled me to tears streaming down from the corner of my eye. May peace be with you.
The church is fairly intimate and so everyone knows everyone, except for me. The greeter and clergy immediately recognized the lone gal and welcomed her to the reception afterwards. Unlike Richard, I didn’t find the members snotty. Perhaps it’s a misinterpretation of the intimate and strictly traditional nature of this parish of The Episcopal Church in the Anglo-​Catholic tradition. And their resident choir is amazing.