Saturday Evening at 5pm –  The Saturday 5pm Mass is a spoken Rite II service (except for Advent and Lent when it will be Rite I) with organ and hymns. This means that there usually is not a choir or cantor at this service, nor are the prayers chanted. Incense is not offered at this service, either, unless it happens to be a major feast or holy day.

Sunday Morning at 8am –  This is a Rite I Mass without music. Chanting or incense is not offered at this service.

Sunday Morning at 10am – This is a Rite II Choral Mass (except for Advent and Lent when it will be Rite I). This means that during the program year (September – May), there is a choir at this service. The psalm and/or other elements of the service may be chanted. Incense will be offered on high holy days only (e.g., Christmas, Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity, All Saints, etc.).  

What is the difference between Rite I and Rite II?  When the prayer book was revised in 1979, it was by far the most comprehensive revision of the American Book of Common Prayer in our history. Rite I was included to preserve the traditional Tutor / Elizabethan English and some of the traditional Anglican Rites and prayers. Rite II is in the modern idiom and includes new prayers and rites that are grounded in the liturgies of the early church. Rite I and Rite II may be either with or without music. There is a common misconception that Rite I means “without music” and Rite II means “with music,” but this is not the case.