PRAYER LIST . . . Your prayers are asked for Jim and Adele who are hospitalized and for Bart, Nora, Kiyushi, Nicole, Kenneth, Jack, Thomas, Sarah, Grover, Annie, Patricia, Paul, Robert, Eileen, Gloria, Jerri, Margaret, Marion, Olga, Rick, Charles, priest, and Paul, bishop and Walter, bishop, and for the members of our Armed Forces on active duty, especially Timothy, Patrick, Edward, Keith, Kevin, Christopher, Andrew, Joseph, Mark, Ned, Timothy, David and John . . . GRANT THEM PEACE . . . March 4: 1989 Timothy Francis Meyers.

LITURGICAL NOTES . . . The Sunday Proper: 1 Kings 19:9-18, Psalm 27:5-11, 2 Peter 1:16-21, Mark 9:2-9 . . . Confessions will be heard on Saturday, March 1, by Father Smith, and on Saturday, March 8, by Father Weiler.

NOTES ON MUSIC . . . This Sunday, the final Sunday before Lent (also known as “Carnival Sunday”), features special music at the Solemn Mass.  In keeping with a long-standing parish custom, the choir sings Missa Luba as the ordinary of the Mass.  This Mass setting is arranged by Father Guido Haazen from traditional African music and is a result of his work with African singers and percussionists.  Father Haazen explains, “The music of the Missa Luba is mainly the product of a collective improvisation.”  Creativity is also encouraged in performances of the Mass and Sunday’s performance will feature improvisation from both singers and the percussionists accompanying the choir with authentic African instruments.  The anthem at Communion will be He never failed me yet by Robert Ray, which is a piece in traditional gospel style.  Joining the choir for the anthem is mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford.  She is currently completing graduate studies at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, and is an accomplished singer who has often appeared with the Westminster Opera Theater.  She also won the McDonald’s Gospel Fest in 1999.  The prelude before the Mass will be music for percussion, and the postlude will be Final from Symphonie VI, Op. 42 by Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937).  This Sunday also brings the final organ recital before Easter.  Preston Smith of Saint Andrew’s Church, Tampa, Florida will play works of Bach, Vierne and Thalben-Ball beginning at 4:40 PM.  During Lent, according to Church custom, the organ is used only to “sustain the singing.”  For us at Saint Mary’s this means that there will be no preludes, postludes or organ improvisations during the liturgy.  In addition, the accompaniment of hymns will be more subdued than usual.  This brings a definite austerity to our services during the season, though organ music is permitted on the Feast of the Annunciation and (to a limited extent) the Fourth Sunday in Lent.   On Ash Wednesday at the Solemn Mass, the choir will sing Miserere mei, Deus by Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652) during the Imposition of Ashes, Mass for Five Voices by William Byrd (1543-1623) as the Ordinary, and Emendemus in melius by Byrd during Communion. 

AROUND THE PARISH . . . Holy Baptism will be celebrated during the 11:00 AM Mass on Sunday, March 2.  William Bingham, the son of Jonathan and April Bingham, will be baptized . . . The principal Sunday Masses in Lent begin with the Great Litany unless there are adults preparing for Baptism at the Great Vigil of Easter.  In this case, the Litany is omitted and the Rites of Christian Initiation are celebrated . . . The Annual Meeting of the Congregation will be held on Sunday, March 9, following the 11:00 AM Mass . . . Attendance last Sunday 219.

ORDINATIONS NEXT SATURDAY . . . On Saturday, March 8 at 10:30 AM at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, the Bishop of New York will ordain five persons as transitional deacons.  Our own John Beddingfield will be among them.  Please come and support John and represent Saint Mary’s at this joyous occasion.  The Cathedral is located at 112th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.  The First Sunday in Lent, March 9, will be John’s first Sunday as deacon of the Mass at Saint Mary’s.

LENTEN RETREAT . . . It’s not too late to join those who will be making a retreat at Mount Saviour Monastery from March 20 to 23. For more information on the Monastery, see http://www.msaviour.org/.  If you would like to reserve your place or find out more about the retreat, speak to Penny Byham or e-mail her at penelopebyham@hotmail.com.

BISHOP SISK AT SAINT MARY’S . . . On the first Friday in Lent, March 7, the Right Reverend Mark S. Sisk, bishop of New York, will be with us as officiant for Stations of the Cross.  This year, we will have Stations at Saint Mary’s every Friday in Lent.  Especially if you have never attended Stations at Saint Mary’s, please consider attending on March 7 and bringing a friend . . . Our church’s fourteen stations are modeled in plaster in full relief and polychromed.  George W. Sutton, as a memorial to his wife, gave them to Saint Mary’s in 1893.  When our present church was built, the stations were removed from the former building and placed in stone and plaster Gothic frames designed by Pierre Le Brun.  In 1929 the stations were recolored and further restored with gilding and marbled colonnettes in 1997 . . . The devotion known as the Stations of the Cross, sometimes also known as the Way of the Cross, is an adaptation to local usage of a custom widely observed by pilgrims to Jerusalem: the offering of prayer at a series of places in that city traditionally associated with our Lord’s passion and death.  The number of stations, which at first varied widely, finally became fixed at fourteen.  Of these, eight are based directly on events recorded in the Gospels.  The form used at Saint Mary’s is taken from The Book of Occasional Services 1994 of the Episcopal Church.  For many, one of the most meaningful aspects of this liturgy involves the congregation’s singing verses of Stabat Mater dolorosa between stations.  Please join us this Lent.

The Calendar of the Week

Sunday    The Last Sunday after the Epiphany

Monday                     John and Charles Wesley, priests

Tuesday                     Weekday

Wednesday               Ash Wednesday                                           Strict Fast & Abstinence

Thursday                   Weekday of Lent

Friday                        Weekday of Lent                                             Lenten Abstinence

                                                             Stations of the Cross 7:00 PM

                                                             The Right Reverend Mark S. Sisk, officiating

                         Saturday                   Of Our Lady

The Parish Clergy

The Reverend Stephen Gerth, rector,

The Reverend Matthew Weiler, curate, The Reverend James Ross Smith, assistant,

The Reverend Rosemari Sullivan, assisting priest, The Reverend Robert Rhodes, assisting deacon,

The Reverend Canon Edgar F. Wells, rector emeritus.