Wednesday 25 November 2015

DEAN KENNEDY ORDAINS NEW CHOIR BOYS

DEAN KENNEDY ORDAINS NEW CHOIR BOYS


His Serene Reverence, Dean Hugh Kennedy of St Peter's Cathedral Belfast had the great joy of ordaining seven new choir boys into the cathedral's Schola Cantorum last Sunday morning. The Co-Ordainer was the Schola's choir master Nigel McClintock ***

The ceremony consisted of words taken from the Catholic consecration of bishops and the Catholic ordination rite for priests and deacons.

After their ordination, each boy, already clad in purple, was invested with a white surplice and received a blessing from His Serene Reverence.

The ceremony was composed by His Serene Reverence who has a doctorate in liturgy from Rome.

The ceremony was quite reminiscent of the Ceremony of the Boy Bishop of the Anglican Church which was celebrated on the FEAST OF FOOLS and the FEAST OF ASSES.


Tomb of the Boy bishop, Salisbury(Wiltshire, England)
Boy bishop was a name given to a custom very widespread in the Middle Ages, whereby a boy was chosen, for example among cathedral choristers, to parody the real bishop, commonly on the feast of Holy Innocents. This custom was linked with others, such as that of the Feast of Foolsand the Feast of Asses.

In England the boy bishop was elected on 6 December, the feast of Saint Nicholas, the patron of children, and his authority lasted till Holy Innocents' day (28 December).[1] The real Bishop would, symbolically, step down at the deposuit potentes de sede of the Magnificat ("he hath put down the mighty from their seat"), and the boy would take his seat at et exaltavit humiles ("and hath exalted the humble and meek").

After the election, the boy was dressed in full bishop's robes with mitre and crozier and, attended by comrades dressed as priests, made a circuit of the town blessing the people. Typically the chosen boy and his colleagues took possession of the cathedral and performed all the ceremonies and offices, except Mass. Originally, it seems, confined to the cathedrals, the custom spread to many parishes.[1]
Notwithstanding the intervention of various Church authorities (see Feast of Fools), the popularity of the custom made it resistant. In England it was abolished by Henry VIII in 1542, revived byMary I in 1552 and finally abolished by Elizabeth I. On the continent of Europe it survived longest in Germany, in the so-called Gregoriusfest (de), said to have been founded by Gregory IV.[1] The custom has given rise to some popular misconceptions, however, one of which is the traditional misidentification of a miniature episcopal tomb effigy at Salisbury as a boy bishop: this is more likely to commemorate a secondary burial (heart or viscera) of a real bishop.

Revivals

There have been some recent revivals both in the English-speaking world and on the continent. Most famous perhaps is that of Hereford, revived in 1973 for a special children's service, with full and traditional ceremonies following annually since 1982. The Boy Bishop preaches a sermon and leads prayers at various DiocesanAdvent services. A single revival took place in 1959 at St. George's Parish Church, Stockport. Such ceremonies are now also found at Westminster CathedralSalisbury Cathedral, and a number of parish churches throughout England, including All Saints' Church, NorthamptonClaines, Worcestershire, and also St Christopher's Parish Church, Bournemouth, (early 1950s), where the Boy Bishop was installed on St Christopher's Day, (July 25), and 'reigned' for one year, preaching and 'presiding' at youth events.
The custom was likewise revived in BurgosSpain, where the boy-bishop feast had been extremely popular before the cathedral choir was closed in the 1930s. After its re-establishment, the boy bishop was revived in 1987, and has since been celebrated every year. Other Spanish cities such as Palencia also hold the ceremony, and that carried on in the Monastery of Montserrat by L'Escolania is especially renowned. The festival was also revived in Chavagnes International College, a Catholic boarding school in France.
In the United States, one of the first adoptions of the custom took place in 1979 at the Cathedral of All Saints (Episcopal) in AlbanyNew York, as part of an annual medieval fair held in the great Gothic-revival style church.
In December 2009, a teenage girl from Wellingborough England was appointed Britain's first girl bishop at All Saints Church in the town.
In July 2016 the festival will be revived in Durham, which uniquely used to appoint two boy bishops who officiated in spring rather than winter. 

I think we can now look forward to the Revival of the Boy Bishop tradition at St Peter's.
BISHOP NOEL TREANOR will step down as bishop for a short period and a Schola Cantorum boy will sit on the throne in St Peter's for a set period of time.


It is also rumoured that as part of the continued Anglicanization of St Peter's Cathedral the street on which the cathedral stands - Albert Street - will be renamed Prince Albert Street.



***Nigel was born in Belfast and educated at Methodist College Belfast and the Royal College of Music, London, where he was a prize-winning student, studying organ with Nicholas Danby and piano with Patricia Carroll. He held Organ Scholarships at Mill Hill School and St Albans Cathedral. Following graduation, Nigel was appointed Director of Music at St George's Parish Church Belfast, where he directed five successful recordings of the men and boys choir. In 1999, Nigel pursued further study at the Royal College of Music in the form of an MMus degree in Choral Conducting with Paul Spicer. He was appointed Director of Music at Croydon Parish Church in South London, a post he held for eight years, and taught at Whitgift School.

In January 2008, Nigel took up the new position of Director of Music at St Peter's Cathedral, Belfast, where he works with the Senior Voices Choir and established the Schola Cantorum. He is an experienced recitalist, having played recently at Fairfield Halls, Croydon, Westminster Abbey and Magdalen College Oxford. Future recitals include Trinity College Cambridge and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Nigel is also Director of the boys course of the Charles Wood Summer School in Armagh, and has just been awarded an Honorary Fellowship (FFCM) of the Faculty of Church Music.

17 comments:

  1. In fairness to His Serene Reverence Dean Kennedy would it not be fair to him to make him a Mitred Dean - like a mitred abbot / abbess?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He has collection of mitres in his closet - among other things....

      Delete
    2. Where have these mitres come from?

      Delete
    3. He collects them everywhere he goes on holiday. He has mitres from Torremolinos, Fuengirola, Ibiza, Kavos,Sitges,Las Vegas, San Fran, Palm Springs, Cannes, Benidorm, Bundoran, Waterfoot - you name it - he has one. He wears a different one in the bed every night.

      Delete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm sorry there's so much innuendo directed towards Hugh, who is basically a good man. His upbringing brings about a certain character, but c'est la vie. We are all products of our parents...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yes. Blame the poor parents that the son turned out to be a horse's ass! Innuendo??? He's entirely responsible for all of it himself and he is a serious embarrassment to the priesthood.

      Delete
  4. Lots of innuendo. Disagree that Hugh is a horse's ass. Not really sure what (seemingly terrible) thing/situation he is responsible for, or why he should be labelled as an embarrassment among the predbyterate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What planet do you live on Josephmalachy?

      Delete
    2. One where people have the right to respect and justice

      Delete
    3. One where a priest is entitled to his good name

      Delete
    4. Big Hugh is a laughing stock due to his own stupidity, immaturity and inability to control himself.

      Delete
  5. Begorra Pat I sit enlightened & sadly amused.These Boy Bishops were sacramentally ordained so (ex opere operato) the line of Peter went up a siding to quote Thomas the tank enjine.

    ReplyDelete
  6. If you would like to get your facts correct Pat, this service, that was used in St Peter's, corresponds directly to the service used in Westminster Cathedral and was therefore not composed by Fr Hugh Kennedy. In response to other commenters, I would like to know how Fr Hugh is an embarrassment to the priesthood. Have any of you listened to him preach, his sermons are always relevant to what is happening in the world and are interesting which can't be said for most of the priests in this Diocese who seem to struggle to look at their congregations never mind talking to them!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I see the Dean's "boys" are running to his defence. There won't be too many in that army. Kennedy is a buffoon.

      The "innuendo" has been going on for years and years - since he was ordained.

      Hugh is also an inveterate snob who would rather be swanning around the Vatican than ministering to the plebs in St Peter's - or any other parish for that matter.

      He has created in the Cathedral a rarefied "wonderland" together with his consort Nigellina von Klumptenhoof. The cathedral has become a concert hall and the "Dean" and his troupe are the players on its stage.

      If Kennedy was in any other walk of life he would have been given his P45 long ago.

      Senior observer.

      Delete
  7. Sermons need to be relevant to the world but are not a rehash of news at 10.Is there any element of call to worship

    ReplyDelete