Episcopal Press and News

Requiem Mass at The Cloisters

Diocesan Press Service. March 9, 1972 [72031]

NEW YORK, N.Y. (DPS) -- A Gothic requiem mass dating back to the 14th Century was conducted at the Cloisters here as both a protest against the Vietnam war and an academic inquiry into the Christian view of death in medieval and modern times.

Dr. J. Robert Wright, professor of Church history at Episcopal General Theological Seminary here, led 40 faculty members and students of the school in the service. Latin and medieval French were used in the liturgy.

Garments and objects borrowed from the Cloisters, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and from churches in the area, were used for the mass in the Fuentiduea Chapel. Dr. Wright wore an embroidered blue 15th Century vestment.

Ushers in modern attire took part in the "allegorical procession," the only contemporary touch. During this portion of the service, symbols of Vietnam were presented to Dr. Wright.

They included a figurine representing the "unity and cultural glory" of the past, folded flags of North and South Vietnam representing the division of the people, and bayonets and two caged mourning doves representing those of all nationalities who have died in the war.

Dr. Wright said of the mass: "We do this for the sake of asking what should be a proper Christian attitude toward death in the future. This concern about death has been, in part, forced upon us by the circumstances of the Vietnam War and also in part by the contemporary concern about death which is so much a part of our age today."

"During the Middle Ages," he said, "the emphasis was on grief, mourning and sin. The dominant trend today in the Roman Catholic and Episcopal Churches is on resurrection and joy. "