From the Rector: Service Schedule Changes

Beginning Saturday, October 1, we are going to offer a Saturday Vigil Mass at 5:20 PM.  Evening Prayer will still be at 5:00 PM.  The Saturday Vigil Mass will be a Sunday service.  It will be a said Mass.

Beginning Monday, October 3, the noonday service schedule will change too.  Monday through Saturday, the Noonday Office will still be prayed at 12:00 PM, but the Mass will begin at 12:10 PM.   And the Wednesday 12:10 service will be a simple Sung Mass. 

Sunday, October 2, is the first Sunday of the choir season.  Many newcomers will have heard about our choir and some may have heard them sing on Assumption.  This all-professional group of outstanding musicians sings almost all of the Solemn Masses from the beginning of October through whatever Sunday in May or June is Corpus Christi.  They really are great.

The first Sunday in October is observed here as a “Feast of the Anniversary of the Dedication of the Church.”  If we were liturgically honest we would not do this.  Historically, the provision for celebrating the first Sunday of October as a feast of dedication was made for parishes who didn’t know when their buildings were consecrated, not uncommon in countries that have been Christian for a millennium or more.  We know when our church building was consecrated: December 12, 1895.  Because our patronal feast has always been December 8 until 1931, December 8 the patronal commemoration and the dedication were observed together.  (The change in 1931 was made to imitate then contemporary Roman Catholic practice.  Truly longstanding members of Saint Mary’s will refer occasionally to December 8 as “Dedication.”)  In a parish which has so much liturgical discipline otherwise, it is remarkable that we continue to fudge this one.

The beginning of the choir season also marks the return of sung Offices on Sundays.  During the summer Morning Prayer is read on Sundays at 8:30 AM.  Sung Morning Prayer usually takes just about twenty-five minutes.  During the choir season it is sung.  On Sunday evenings Solemn Evensong is offered at 5:00 PM.  This Sunday evening service includes a sermon and concludes with Eucharistic Benediction.   It takes about sixty-five minutes.  Most Sundays there is a twenty minute organ recital by a guest musician at 4:40 PM.

Saint Mary’s was founded as a parish community to be a place for the renewal of congregational worship.  Our mission to proclaim Christ has not changed.  Service schedules tend to change slowly over time in a congregation like ours.  But they do change as the community evolves.  The parish clergy talk to people daily about services.  It is our sense that these schedule changes will enable us to serve more.  And, therefore, beginning Saturday, October 1, we are going to try.  Stephen Gerth

 

PRAYER LIST . . . Your prayers are asked for Richard who is hospitalized, for Ray, Patty, Betty Ann, Matthew, Kamil, Donna, Lloyd, Deborah, Charlton, Virginia, William, Mary, Tony, Ibo, Penn, Gilbert, Robert, Gloria, Marion, Mamie, Rick, Henry, Thomas, priest and Charles, priest, and for the members of our Armed Forces on active duty, especially Patrick, Bruce, Brenden, Jonathan, Marc, Joseph, Timothy, Christopher, David, Timothy, Nestor, Freddie, Derrick and Christina . . .  GRANT THEM PEACE . . . September 27: 1992 Howard R. Patch; October 1: 1996 William Wolf.

 

LITURGICAL NOTES . . . On Sunday, September 25, Father Beddingfield will be celebrant and preacher for the 9:00 AM and 5:20 PM Said Masses.  Father Gerth will be celebrant and preacher for the 10:00 AM Sung Mass and the 11:00 AM Solemn Mass . . . Father Beddingfield will hear confessions on Saturday, September 24.  Father Gerth will hear confessions on Saturday, October 1  .  . . Thursday, September 29, is the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels.  Mass will be said on the eve at 6:20 PM.  On Thursday itself, in addition to the Noonday Office and the 12:15 PM Said Mass, Morning Prayer will be sung at 8:30 AM and at 6:00 PM there will be a Sung Mass.  Father Beddingfield is celebrant and preacher for the evening Mass.

 

THE ORDINARY FRIDAYS OF THE YEAR are observed by special acts of discipline and self-denial in commemoration of the crucifixion of the Lord.

 

NOTES ON MUSIC . . . This Sunday at the Solemn Mass, the prelude is Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele by Gerald Near (b. 1942).  The postlude is Menuet gothique from Suite gothique, Opus 25 by Léon Boëllmann (1862-1897).  The cantor this Sunday is Dr. Mark Risinger, bass, a new member of our choir.  Dr. Risinger, who holds the Ph.D. in musicology from Harvard University, has performed with opera companies throughout the U.S. and the world.  The solo at Communion is Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn from Kantate, BWV 152 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) . . . CONCERTS AT SAINT MARY’S . . . The brochure announcing our 2005-2006 season has been mailed recently and is also found on the usher’s table at the rear of the church.  Tickets are available from www.stmvirgin.org/MusicatSaintMarys or 212.869.5830, ext. 25.  On Saturday, October 8 at 8:00 PM, organist Douglas Marshall performs a recital in the church.  This concert by this distinguished artist is presented in conjunction with the Virgil Fox Legacy Weekend.  Robert McCormick 

 

AROUND THE PARISH . . . Doreen Swann is home from the hospital.  Please keep her in your prayers . . . Much needed contributions for the victims of Hurricane Katrina can be given through the Saint Mary’s Hurricane Transition Fund or Episcopal Relief and Development at www.er-d.org    . . . The Gift Shop Renovation Sale continues this Sunday in Saint Joseph’s Hall during Coffee Hour  . . . Flowers are needed for Sunday, September 25 and for Sunday, October 30.  The cost of providing flowers is $200.00.  To reserve a date please contact the parish office . . . The Yuletide tour at Winterthur Museum in Delaware includes four historic interiors decorated by parishioner Thomas Jayne.  See www.winterthur.org . . . In preparation for Sunday School, Saint Benedict’s Study is being renovated and new furnishings for children are being purchased . . . Attendance Last Sunday 205.

 

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION . . . Poetic Devotion: Surveying the Christian Lyric in English from the 17th century to the present: this class with Professor Rebecca Weiner meets on Thursday evening, September 29.  The class will focus on reading and reflecting upon the work of numerous poets such as Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, Blake, Rossetti, Tennyson, Browning, Eliot, Sitwell, Auden and many others . . . On September 27, the Tuesday Night Bible Study will read Saint Paul’s Letter to the Galatians; the class will be led by our Seminarian James Zmyslo . . . All weekday classes currently meet in the Parish House Third Floor Conference Room from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM.

 

SUNDAY SCHOOL & NURSERY CARE . . . Beginning on October 2, we will offer nursery care every Sunday and on greater feast days.  Nursery care will be available from 10:00 AM until 1:00 PM on Sundays and for the duration of the Solemn Mass on major feasts in the Nursery (down the hallway from Saint Joseph’s Hall).  In addition to regular nursery care, Sunday School will be held most Sundays of the year from October 2 through Pentecost.  Sunday School will begin at 10:00 AM and will end at 10:45.  For more information please visit www.stmvirgin.org or contact Father Mead at mmead@stmvirgin.org.

 

PARISH HOME GATHERINGS . . . From October 3 through November 13 a number of parishioners are opening their homes to the wider parish.  Seven gatherings in Manhattan, one in Brooklyn and two in New Jersey will give parishioners and friends of Saint Mary’s an opportunity to celebrate the bonds we have in common through our church, to get to know one another and to hear a little about what is ahead for Saint Mary’s in 2006.  Beginning last week and continuing over the next few weeks, invitations are being sent to the active membership, to our clergy friends, our weekday friends and our neighbors who worship with us regularly.  Since this is the first time we have tried this, we hope you’ll make every effort to attend the gathering to which you are invited.  Should that be impossible and you would still like to attend a parish gathering, please contact Father Beddingfield and he will make every effort to adjust the invitation lists.  Please also contact him in the event that your invitation does not reach you.

 

MOVIE NIGHT . . . Join Father Beddingfield and others in Saint Joseph’s Hall on Friday, September 23, after the 6:20 PM Said Mass for movie night.  This Friday we will watch the 1986 film The Mission, which looks at missionary and imperialist struggles in 18th century South America.  If you can, bring a few extra dollars to help with dinner.

 

HONDURAS MISSION INFORMATION NIGHT: Monday, September 26 . . . Join others who went to Honduras last year for an evening of learning and looking forward.  We will begin to plan for our 2006 mission.  Join us at 7:00 PM at the Church of St. Luke in the Fields for snacks, stories and information on a trip than can change your life.

 

WHAT IS AN ANGLO-CATHOLIC? . . . I received a letter recently asking for a simple definition of this term.  I didn’t have a ready answer.  Anglo-catholicism arose out of the sacramental and theological renewal of the Anglican Church known as the Oxford Movement, which has always been dated from a sermon preached by John Keble on July 14, 1833 at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford.  The sermon was on the Church’s divine institution.  This movement captured the imagination of the Church and changed it profoundly.  Saint Mary’s was founded in the wake of this movement.  Very early on Anglo-catholic came to mean rich worship, personal conversion, holiness of life and sacrificial service to others, especially the poor.  S.G.

 

The Calendar of the Week

Sunday            The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Monday                      Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, 1626

Tuesday                      Weekday

Wednesday                Weekday

                                     Eve of Saint Michael and All Angels 6:00 PM

Thursday                Saint Michael and All Angels

Friday                         Jerome, Priest and Monk of Bethlehem, 420                    Abstinence

Saturday                    Of Our Lady

 

 

Sunday: 8:30 AM Morning Prayer, 9:00 AM Mass, 10:00 AM Sung Mass, 11:00 AM Solemn Mass,

5:00 PM Evening Prayer, 5:20 PM Mass

Monday – Friday: 8:30 AM Morning Prayer, 12:00 PM Noonday Office, 12:15 PM Mass,

6:00 PM Evening Prayer, 6:20 PM Mass

Saturday: 11:30 AM Confessions, 12:00 PM Noonday Office, 12:10 PM Mass, 4:00 PM Confessions,

5:00 PM Evening Prayer, 5:20 PM Sunday Vigil Mass