Thanks, Presby2.  And you too, Anne. 

The carpet was clean.  Yes, it was a tad uncomfortable, though perhaps in ways you don't expect.  The point on my body that became genuinely painful was a spot deep inside my right shoulder.  If I knew more anatomy of that area, I guess I'd understand why. 

All tolled, I'd guess that my sojourn into the carpet was far less uncomfortable that those who do this on marble or polished concrete floors, and in winter.  And, that seems to be what I've most often seen in photographs.

Otherwise, this part of the ordination has, I think, special capacity to grab the imagination of men and is peculiarly appropriate for them for the same reason.  So also with the section where various tangible emblems of office are bestowed (the stole, the chasuble, the annointing of hands, the placing of chalice and paten into the hands, the placing of Bible into the hands).  The experience of the rite, plus the observations of many men who have observed it and found themselves queried by me, all confirm that liturgical worship is just about the most man-friendly thing you can imagine.  Weird that almost no one outside these circles understands this.

Fr. B

Thanks Badgermum and Valerie.

Wednesday was indeed an Ember Day, though it was not an Ember Week (according to my calendar).  It was also the feast of Holy Cross (that's the collect for the day used in my ordination service), as well as the anniversary of my bishop's consecration to the episcopate.  Now it is the anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood.  I've found that in liturgical cultures more means more!

I'm not familiar with Lutheran culture/customs, so I'm not sure if any streams of Lutheran Christianity incorporate a prostration in their ordination rites.  I'm going to guess "yes," but don't know for sure.  This practice was in my ordination to the diaconate.  And it was present twice in my ordination to the priesthood.  It makes me wonder if Angican consecrations to the episcopate have the fellow down on the floor three times. 

In looking for citations of prostration among Lutherans I stumbled upon the following which gives an excellent example of how liturgy in general is capable of taking something merely spiritual and rendering it in pungently concrete form:

At the life profession of a monk of St. Gregory's Abbey, the monk makes his vows at the offertory of the Mass, and leaves a signed, handwritten copy of those vows on God's altar. Then he lies prostrate on the floor of the choir, in the place where his coffin will someday rest during his funeral. He is covered with the funeral pall, the cloth that will on that day drape his coffin, and the other monks and the congregation chant the litany of the saints over him. At the end of the prayers, the deacon comes to the edge of the pall and says, "Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light."

Fr. Bill

Craigelachie,

Maybe in your lifetime, the orthodox English Reformation will find a renaissance here in America.  That's certainly the hopes, prayers, and plans for our parish!

I am not a cradle Episcopalian, coming to this strain of the faith in my late 40s.  In so doing, I did not leave behind very much of my more fundamentalist, free-church, and Reformed convictions.  Mostly, I was looking for something not present in that part of the vineyard, rather than running away from something.

What I noticed (and continue to notice) is how those with a settled and enthusiastic conviction of the Bible's veracity find in Prayer Book faith an almost intoxicatingly rich spirituality and a tradition of worship with uptee-zillion more megawatts of spiritual voltage than anything the contemporary-worship kiddies claim to offer.  Oddly, this aspect of Prayer Book faith does not register (most of the time) on cradle Anglicans, while it DOES register with earth-shaking intensity on those who come into Prayer Book faith from the outside.  After observing this phenomenon for about a decade now, I'm convinced that a renaissance of the English Reformation is not only possible, but increasingly likely with this proviso:  it will be generated, led, and brought to maturity by those who come into Prayer Book faith from the outside, and not otherwise.