Collect: Almighty and everlasting God, who art aalways more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve: Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
On 30 August 2020, I was blessed to have been able to attend Holy Communion at St. Peter’s Cathedral, Charlottetown, PEI. This was the first time since the Second Sunday in Lent (8 March 2020) (which was I decided was the start of COVIDtide) that I had attended a church service as most Anglican churches in Nova Scotia remain closed until September. This was my second time worshipping at St. Peter’s as I had worshipped there previously in 2018.
I was very glad to have been able to worship and receive communion (even though it was in one kind only due to COVID-19 precautions), especially in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. Attendance was low and the choir was just four people, but understandable with the ongoing concerns about COVID-19 especially with elderly parishioners. I was very glad that incense was used, but the mask made it hard to smell it.
It was the second sung Eucharist at St Peter’s since the public was permitted to attend church again (previous Eucharists were just said). (Because of the low cases of COVID-19 in PEI, St Peter’s resumed public worship services on 7 June.) Masks had to be worn for singing, though masks are not required for the remainder of the service when two metre spacing could be observed.
For those not familiar with St. Peter’s Cathedral, it is actually a co-cathedral, as the Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island has two cathedrals (as it covers two civil provinces), the other bring All Saints Cathedral in Halifax, NS. St. Peter’s has always been of the Anglo-Catholic tradition; which is odd, as cathedrals usually tend to be broad church, but because All Saints is broad church, I think this is why St. Peter’s has been able to remain so high.
The liturgy used at St. Peter’s (it is a BCP (1962 Canada) and English Hymnal parish)
High Anglican Haligonian 