Reformed Episcopal Church

The churches of the Reformed Episcopal Church stress their connection with the ancient church, fostering psalm-singing and hymns that clearly reflect great historical doctrinal truths. In addition, there is a dependence on music associated with the earliest years of the Anglican churches of the Reformation. More modern musical styles and even dance, however, are finding their way into the practice of Reformed Episcopal worship.

Music in the Reformed Episcopal Church reflects the evangelical (Reformation) and the undivided (ancient) church within the Anglican tradition. Each aspect involves several doctrinal and practical commitments.

In the ancient church, music was to be biblical. For this reason, the words and pre-Christian Jewish tunes of the book of Psalms became the primary, although not the exclusive, songs of the New Testament and early church. These texts were chanted in a manner much like Jewish psalm-singing. Music in the early church was also Christological and credal. It pointed to Christ, as evidenced in some of the early scriptural hymns. The great creeds of the faith were put to music so that essential theological truth could be preserved. Some of the earliest hymns have become part of an ongoing doctrinal expression, such as the famous Te Deum Laudamus (We Praise You, O Lord). The power of doctrine in song is confirmed in a negative illustration by the musical talents of the famous heretic Arius, who pulled the church in the wrong theological direction by his popular heterodox hymn, “There Was a Time When Christ Was Not.”

This historic tradition has been maintained in the Reformed Episcopal Church through classical Anglican hymnody. A model church for this is the one-hundred-year-old St. Paul’s Reformed Episcopal Church of Oreland, Pennsylvania. With a skilled choirmaster, choir, and organist, the music at St. Paul’s reflects the best of historic Anglicanism. The 1940 Hymnal of the Episcopal Church, perhaps the finest collection of historic hymnody in the liturgical tradition, is the basic songbook of the parish. Portions of the Psalms, called canticles, are chanted as the congregation joins this most ancient form of singing. Special music is often sung by the better-known liturgical composers. In addition, this choir has performed such classical pieces as Haydn’s Creation, and even other dignified contemporary music to appeal to the community. All of this gives a sense of reaching to the high standard of the best of the liturgical Anglican tradition. St. Paul’s is also noted for housing Arthur B. Carle’s famous copy of Raphael’s The Transfiguration, commissioned in 1907 by St. Paul’s and now hanging in the chancel behind the sacrament table. The original in the Vatican was left incomplete at Raphael’s death even though it was the culmination of his life’s work. Art students still come to study Carle’s completion of Raphael’s work, which sets a tone for the classical tradition of music at this Reformed Episcopal Parish of Oreland.

The other important musical tradition in Anglicanism is evangelical, which emphasizes the great theology of the Reformation. Several theological themes that were prominent in the Reformation later became the subject for much hymnody. They all generally focus on the doctrine of salvation. The reformational view of justification underscored the truth of salvation and release from sin and death immediately upon the exercise of personal faith. This theme elicited church music that was and is joyous and quick in pace. Archbishop Cranmer commissioned liturgical tunes that could be sung in such a way as to indicate this immediate conversion and assurance of salvation. The music was no longer only to reflect the dour medieval uncertainty of one’s standing with God. The music of the Reformation proclaimed that one could know he or she was truly converted. One no longer had to nag God endlessly, for to do so nearly makes doubt a virtue and admits of a lack of faith; hence, there is no real salvation.

The Reformed Episcopal Church is part of this evangelical heritage in its music and is open to traditional as well as contemporary forms of gospel expression. Model churches, such as Bishop Cummins Memorial Church of Baltimore, Maryland, blend the traditional with contemporary by using appropriate praise music and different instruments, especially the guitar. This parish has also availed itself of artistic expression in the form of ballet at special marriage services and so forth. In addition, the black parishes of the REC manifest other elements of great evangelical and gospel singing. Most of these congregations sing the classic spirituals with great enthusiasm, bodily swaying, and hand-clapping. They represent in their congregational singing an important art form within the Christian Protestant tradition.

Thus, the Reformed Episcopal Church is developing two great traditions of music. In many ways, it is rediscovering its liturgical musical heritage, while at the same time it is learning new contemporary music. These directions are more and more work to make liturgical form speak to today’s culture. The present is not to be sought at the expense of the past. Nor is the past to be held so tenaciously that the present and even the future are lost. The Reformed Episcopal Church, therefore, builds on the great ecclesiastical music of the past along two guiding tracks of ancient and evangelical traditions that continue to propel this denomination through the present into the future.