Lots of Things

Several months ago I began to tell folks that change was coming to Saint Mary’s in great waves, that a tsunami was on its way.  The outward and visible sign of this would be personnel transition.  The inward and spiritual reality would be the ongoing life of a growing Christian community.  I knew of some of the changes; but I also knew that change would come which was totally unexpected.

Certainly the evil done to our city and nation on September 11 and the war to prevent further horrendous atrocities will mark our lives for ever.  I think evil is always a surprise because humankind, for all our faults, was created for good and for life.  We pray specially at every Mass for the men and women of our armed forces who are on active duty to defend our nation.  The price of life is great.  Yet, our city and our nation are recovering and moving forward.  Good always does.  Life comes out of death.

A note from Father Breidenthal is included in this newsletter.  I did not expect for our community to lose him this year – and certainly not before Father Weiler’s ordination to the priesthood.  Yet our parish has many friends who are graciously stepping forward to assist.  It seems as if during October and November our community will get to know even better Father Smith and Mother Sullivan.  Bishop Epting too has offered to help when he is in town.  Yours truly is not worried at all about providing for the ongoing worship of the parish.

Father Weiler and I are reworking the Christian Education program for the year.  Journey in Faith begins this coming Sunday.  There will be no Wednesday evening classes until November 7, but it will be no problem for us to have a full program for the rest of the year.  I personally hope we can begin one or two weekly Bible study groups in the near future.

The next issue of AVE is on its way to the printers and should be in your hands before November 1.  The schedule for the next two months is just so exciting.  We have the new Bishop of New York with us on Thursday, November 1, at 6:00 PM for the Procession & Solemn Mass on All Saints’ Day.  The next evening the Fauré Requiem will be offered during the Solemn Mass of All Souls’ Day on Friday, November 2, at 6:00 PM.  This piece can be heard in concerts around the city, but rarely is it done within the liturgy.

In addition, on All Saints’ and on All Souls’ there will be Said Masses with Hymns (and incense!) at 12:00 PM.  There are simply lots of folks who work in our neighborhood who know about us.  We are going to try to reach out to them.

Every day there is work to be done to organize the Ordination of a Priest.  It will simply be an extraordinary event for us to have our curate ordained to the priesthood by the Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Church.  A week later we will welcome Saint Mary’s dear friend Father Alan Moses and his wife Teresa Moses as our guests for the patronal feast which we will observe on Friday, December 7, at 6:00 PM.  Father is vicar of All Saints’, Margaret Street, London.  And very likely there will be a major concert at Saint Mary’s on December 13.  And I haven’t even mentioned Christmastide!

This month we have another old friend of Saint Mary’s as a special guest, Father David Wood.  Father was with us two summers ago while on sabbatical.  He has now completed his doctorate and is rector of Joondalup and Anglican Chaplain to Edith Cowan University in Wembley, Western Australia.  He will be the preacher at the Solemn Mass on Sunday, October 28.

Finally, I want to invite you to come to Saint Mary’s for worship on ordinary days.  We try very hard to have one consistent pattern for prayer at Saint Mary’s so that when anyone comes he or she just joins in a liturgical pattern that is as routine as practical.  The regularity of our prayer, like the regularity of the week and the Christian year, is for most of us a useful tool to help us enter into the nearer presence of God.  I hope there will continue to be many signs of our continuing transition as individuals and as a Christian community.  Transition is a sign of life.  Stephen Gerth

PRAYER LIST . . . Your prayers are asked for Karen and Howard who are hospitalized, and for the members of our Armed Forces on active duty, especially Patrick, Edward, Christopher, Andrew, Robert, Joseph and Mark and for Alex, Patrick, Marion, Beatrice, Harold, Olga, Carl, Eleanor, John, Peter, Michael, Kenneth, Ursula, Tessie, Jennifer, John, Jolene, Dorene, Charles, priest, and Arthur, priest.

GRANT THEM PEACE . . . October 15: 1957 Lynda Beatrice Roberts; 1971 Florence F. Scheftel; 1987 Harold Polit; October 19: 1993 Jerome Branch-Terrell.

LITURGICAL NOTES . . . The Sunday Proper: Ruth 1:1-19a, Psalm 113, 2 Timothy 2:3-15, Luke 17:11-19 . . . Confessions will be heard on Saturday, October 13 and on Saturday, October 20 by Father Gerth . . . NOTES ON MUSIC . . . The prelude before the Solemn Mass on Sunday will be Elegy by G. T. Thalben-Ball (1896-1987) and the Postlude will be Menuet Gothique from Suite Gothique, Op. 25 by Léon Boëllmann (1862-1897).  The Mass setting is Short Communion Service by Adrian Batten (1591-1637) and the Motet at communion is Jesu dulcis memoria by Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611).

AROUND THE PARISH . . . Father Weiler is in contact with those who will be working at Ground Zero on Saint Luke’s Day . . . Jennifer Reddall, who served as seminarian here during her middler year, has decided that she should choose a different parish for her field work during her senior year.  She will be missed!  She goes with our thanks for her service and our prayers for her future ministry as a priest of the Church . . . The Board of Trustees will meet in Saint Benedict’s Study on Monday, October 15, at 6:00 PM . . . Attendance last Sunday 206.

JOURNEY IN FAITH . . . .Do you need a community you can call your spiritual home? Have you been neglecting the spiritual side of your life?  Do you have questions about life?  About faith and religion?  About Jesus and the Christian faith?  Are you considering (or reconsidering) joining the Church? “Journey in Faith” at Saint Mary the Virgin, may be just the thing for which you have been searching.  You may not always have felt safe and comfortable raising questions like those above. You may not have found a place where you were encouraged to seek and explore faith and spirituality.  “Journey in Faith” provides that safe place where you can raise real questions and seek real answers with one of the parish clergy and others who are already on a journey in Christian faith.  “Journey in Faith” is specially designed for seekers who are committed to inquiring, exploring and delving deeper into the life-changing experience which is Jesus Christ, in the context of a liturgical Christian community.  Those who are new to the Episcopal Church and those considering transferring their membership to Saint Mary’s are also encouraged to attend.  “Journey in Faith” is a rite of passage in four stages leading deeper into Christian faith and spirituality.  Classes are held on Sunday afternoons from 1:00-2:30 PM following coffee hour. 

A NOTE FROM THE SHINS . . . Dear friends at Saint Mary's: How can I thank you for the love and support you have shown me and Clara during our time there and especially in such a generous gift you sent us off with?  We are quite moved by your generosity.  It is an honor for me to be able to say that I was curate once at such a loving community as Saint Mary's and to have your confidence in what I am about to embark on.  You can be assured that I will represent Saint Mary's as former curate with care and respect here in England.  Please know that I continue to pray for Saint Mary's.  May God bless each and everyone of you and bless Father Gerth in his ministry.  Faithfully yours, Allen Shin

A NOTE FROM FATHER BREIDENTHAL . . . Dear friends: As you know, I have accepted a new position which will take me out of New York City, beginning January 1.  I have been called to be Dean of Religious Life and Dean of the Chapel at Princeton University.  This position brings together many of my professional interests:  I will provide oversight for the chaplaincies and student religious organizations, there are about twenty of them, which means I will have lots of interfaith and ecumenical work; I will be the chief pastor of the Princeton Chapel congregation, which means I will have pastoral and preaching responsibilities; I will be part of the Campus Life program at Princeton University, headed by Vice-President Janet Dickerson, which means that I will have administrative duties;  and I plan to teach at the University, probably one course a semester.  I am very pleased to be taking on these duties. Unfortunately the events of September 11 mean that I need to take up some of these duties sooner rather than later.  I'll be going down to Princeton often, starting this week -- and so I must give up my time with you more quickly than I might have wished. I will no longer be serving regularly at Saint Mary's, but Father Gerth has graciously invited me to preach and celebrate at the 11:00 o'clock Mass on December 16, Gaudete Sunday. I look forward to seeing you then.  My two years with you have been wonderful, and I hope you'll come down to Princeton Chapel when time permits, and let me know how you're doing.  Many, many thanks to you all for all your kindness to me, and, more than thanks, continued blessings.  In Christ, Tom Breidenthal

The Calendar of the Week

Sunday            The Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Monday                     Teresa of Avila, monastic

Tuesday                     Weekday

Wednesday               Ignatius, bishop & martyr

           Eve of Saint Luke’s Day (6:00 PM)

Thursday                  Saint Luke the Evangelist

Friday                       Henry Martyn, priest                                                   Abstinence

Saturday                  Of Our Lady

The Parish Clergy

The Reverend Stephen Gerth, rector, The Reverend Matthew G. Weiler, curate,

The Reverend Canon Maurice Garrison, The Reverend Amilcar Figueroa, The Reverend Rosemari Sullivan, The Reverend James Ross Smith, assisting priests,

The Reverend Canon Edgar F. Wells, rector emeritus.