Mixing It Up With Episcopalians
Here we are at the 16th annual Religious Booksellers Trade Exhibit (RBTE) in Chicago. This is, according to the organization, “gathering the religious marketplace for Catholic, Episcopal and other liturgical traditions.”
To get here we had to get up at 3am on Tuesday (after I had gotten back the night before from a four-day family road trip in our new van) and drive to Denver to catch our plane. Unfortunately, we missed the flight cutoff by eleven minutes and had to sit around the airport on standby until ten. I got on but Mike, our sales manager, didn’t. This was a problem since the next flight to Chicago wasn’t until seven pm. We pulled away from the gate, I started praying a rosary and suddenly we were turning around and going back to the gate.
Someone had some medical problem on the plane and had to be taken off before we took off and Mike was able to get on the plane. Would it be wrong to say that our prayers were answered? This seems like Twilight Zone episodes where someone gets wishes and they all come true but not the way you wanted.
Anyway, we got to Chicago, got our car and with only one of those large pieces of paper called a “map” drove off to downtown Chicago to find St. John Cantius Church. This amazing parish was ready to be demolished when the Cardinal turned it over to a new religious order (the Society of St. John Cantius). The society is dedicated to the restoration and promotion of sacred music, liturgy and art and has developed quite a national following. They offer both Tridentine and Novus Ordo Masses and have turned the parish around.
As we walked into the church, we heard the organist practicing and the view of the interior was just magnificent. The church is still undergoing restoration but what has been finished is wonderful. The stained glass is detailed European art. The floor is a new wood inlay. The statues are larger than life. The communion rail is still intact. The ceiling is stenciled and the choir loft is actually two balconies. They also have a copy of a famous altar piece in Poland in a side chapel.
We also tried to visit St. Nicholas Ukrainian Cathedral but it was locked and the staff at the school next door was very suspicious of us, watching us from the school while we knocked at the rectory and eventually drove away. More tomorrow…
