While I made it to St James on the feast day, for no good reason, I’m two days late writing it up. As I discovered back in July, I discovered that nobody really knows which of the Saints James their parishes are named for, but at the time, thepm; pastor of Historic Saint James at Sag Bridge wrote an article for the parish’s bulletin declaring that he was considering them to be named for Saint James the Lesser.
From the website and also from the parking lot on arrival, it was clear that this was a destination parish, a church that draws people from a wide area for some special reason, in this case that they were a very traditional church, with Mass offered in Latin (although two of the three Masses are in English). Add in some indications of conservatism in other arenas—flags in the sanctuary and a tombstone labeled, “In Memory of the Unknown Child,” and I found myself worrying that the priest might offer a homily so offensive I would have to leave early. And while the priest celebrated the Mass with his back to the congregation (a violation of ecclesiastical norms), his homily was pretty good, focusing on building community, working from the reading from Acts.
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