Jazz Bands and Episcopal Liturgy

Last week I went with some of my fellow members of the SWU Jazz Ensemble to Christ Church School in Greenville SC. This is a very large and beautiful Episcopal School with a new chapel built with episcopal liturgy in mind, certainly not Jazz bands. We played there on the day everyone has chapel, which includes communion. There were three services so every student was able to attend. It was during this third service that something very interesting happened.

As we were playing some mellow Jazz while the priest was serving communion, which is very awkward by they way, I was watching the priest serve the elements and noticing that some came forward just for a blessing, some took communion by intinction (dipping the bread in the wine) and others drank from the cup. It was then that I noticed the priest was moving with the music! Yes you heard me right, an Episcopal priest in his elegant priestly robe, serving the Eucharist while dancing to the sounds of the Southern Wesleyan Jazz Band. That's an image I'll never forget.