Wednesday, January 27

Who is this Parson Brown, anyway?

I personally find the secular Christmas carol "Winter Wonderland" nothing short of mystifying (I can't help wondering if "In the meadow, we can build a snowman / and pretend that he is Parson Brown" is some sort of allegory involving that modern-day antipope who had himself elected, then appointed lay cardinals who "ordained" him bishop or something equally reciprocally nutty). But it does seem there are plenty of clerical snowman these days, as these photos indicate: one Dominican (I'm not sure where from), the other Anglican, from, I think, St. Stephen's House in Oxford.





(Actually, this last one is old news, as I'm told it was taken in February 2009. The color is appropriate for the mass of the day, incidentally. This photo is proof positive of why we need these people in the Ordinariates.)

Of course none of these is really a parson in the strict sense of the word when one gets down to it. Do they make Geneva bands for snowmen?
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4 comments:

  1. Titus9:30 AM, January 27, 2010

    Does a clerical snowman not cross the stole over the chest?

    And since protestant snowmen (with the possible exception of our HC Anglican friend there) would be distasteful, why not simply infer the old English Catholic meaning of parson: a priest appointed to a benefice associated with, and who has the care of and jurisdiction over, a parish. So I guess whether or not the snowman was a parson would depend on questions about the relevant advowson, an invariably murky inquiry.

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  2. Anonymous9:47 AM, January 27, 2010

    The Dominican is from Oxford. See the Godzdogz blog (of the English province students) for more.

    Anthony OPL

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  3. Matthew9:55 AM, January 27, 2010

    I thought that was Blackfriars, but I couldn't remember! Serves me right for saving photos to my harddrive indiscriminately.

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  4. Matthew9:58 AM, January 27, 2010

    Of course, considering 'Parson Brown' later turns out to be a 'circus clown' later in the song, perhaps he's actually engaging in clown liturgy...

    And let's not forget we have non-Anglican Protestant readers on this blog too, so let's not be *too* mouthy about non-Catholic parsons... ;-) But yes, good point--the term parson has Catholic roots.

    One should consult the usual SnowOrdinary: the Apostolic Visitor for Tibet, perhaps? Or is that only for Abominable Snowparsons?

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