FROM THE RECTOR: PREPAREDNESS

On Thursday, January 23, Board of Trustees Member Brendon Hunter and I attended an "Active Shooter Preparedness & Stop the Bleeding Training for Congregations" sponsored by New York Disaster Interfaith Services. Brendon and I haven't had time to debrief, as it were, but we will. Saint Mary's is a half-block from Times Square. Most any hour of the day there is a significant police presence in our neighborhood, not to mention the eyes and ears of the Times Square Alliance Public Safety Officers, who patrol our area 24-hours a day, seven days a week. There have been other opportunities for me to attend workshops like this. Given the continuing reality of active shooter incidents, I thought I should go. I very glad Brendon was there, too. The vast majority of these shooters are single males acting alone, some terrorists, others not.

I've already asked our sextons to keep the lights in the church on at a brighter setting whenever the church is open. The board of trustees has planned a special Saturday meeting on Saturday, February 29, to finalize the budget for 2020. I'm going to ask the board to take up this issue too.

The first part of the program was given by two NYPD officers who specialize in this kind of training. They were really good. I had a chance to speak to them about our situation briefly as they were leaving. Once we begin, they told me that we should be in touch with our local precinct to review our plans-and that the officers
assigned to this area locally will welcome the opportunity to help us. Peter Gudaitis, executive director and CEO of NYDIS, then spoke. The last part of the program was given by a team from StoptheBleed.org.

On August 1, 1966, after killing his mother and his sister, Charles Whitman climbed the tower building at the University of Texas in Austin and shot and killed fourteen people, one of whom was with child. The mother and unborn child died. He wounded 31 others until he was shot dead. I turned 12 earlier that year. People my age may remember the weekly Life magazine and its coverage of that shooting. It would be eighteen years before another massacre would overtake it as the most deadly. The October 1, 2017, shooting in Las Vegas is the deadliest to date, I think.

In 2005, when I visited Austin and saw the campus, I remembered the shooting and found myself imagining the horror that unfolded in that wonderful place. The workshop reminded me also of Sunday morning, June 12, 2016, that we awoke to the news of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida. Forty-nine were killed and fifty-three were wounded on the Lord's Day. I'll mention one more evil, the shooting of nine people at a Wednesday evening Bible study at the Emmanuel African-American Methodist Episcopal Church, Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17, 2015, by a newcomer who had attended as a participant.

I made myself pay attention during the "Stop the Bleeding Training" —though I really am unsettled by blood. We practiced using a Combat Application Tourniquet ® on plastic rolls. We learned that there was something called a "Trauma First Aid Kit." We already have portable AEDs (Automated External Defibrillators) available in the sextons' lodge. I think it's important that we have a plan appropriate for our situation and that ushers, lay leaders, staff, and clergy should be on board with it. Stay tuned. Pray for the safety of the
city. —Stephen Gerth

YOUR PRAYERS ARE ASKED FOR Oscar, Sharon, Gretchen, Marilouise, Mary Hope, Stephanie, John, Renée, Pat, Luis, José, Margaret, Murray, Mel, Richard, Carlos, Ken, May, Willard, Alexandra, Karen, Takeem, Michael, Rita, Ivy, Pearl, and Ethelyn; for Horace, Gene, Gaylord, Louis, and Edgar, priests; for the members of our Armed Forces on active duty, especially Edward; and all the benefactors and friends of this parish. . . GRANT THEM PEACE: January 26: 1895 Thomas Trimble, Huber Alexander Ewer; 1903 Emma Baufield; 1908 George Poppie; 1917 Samuel Lenox Tredwell; 1929 Abbie F. Knight.

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

STEWARDSHIP CAMPAIGN 2019-2020 . . . Our stewardship campaign has been underway since late October, but pledge cards continue to arrive in the mail. As of January 15, 2020, we have received $343,929 in pledges from 98 households, 80.9% of our goal of $425,000. We still have a fair ways to go. We encourage all the friends and members of the parish to return their pledge as soon as possible. This will help the Budget Committee in its work. However, if making a commitment by that date is not possible, we will gladly receive
pledge cards at any point during the coming year. Please remember that are a number of ways to fulfill a monetary pledge. If you have questions, please call Christopher Howatt in the parish office. Our needs are urgent. Our mission is clear. We invite your support.

AROUND THE PARISH . . . January 28, 2020, is the sixtieth anniversary of Rector Emeritus Father Edgar Wells' ordination to the diaconate . . . Flowers are needed for the last three Sundays of Epiphany Season, February 9, 16, and 23. Please be in touch with Chris Howatt in the parish office if you would like to make a donation for
one of these dates . . . Father Matthew Jacobson and Father Jay Smith have returned to the parish from vacation . . . Attendance at all Offices and Masses: Last Sunday 170.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY'S . . . Sunday, January 26, 2020, The Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Sung Matins 8:30 AM; Mass 9:00 & 10:00 AM; Adult Education 10:00 AM; Solemn Mass 11:00 AM, Solemn Evensong and Benediction 5:00 PM. . . . Wednesday, January 29, Sung Mass 12:10 PM . . . The Wednesday Night Bible Study Class will meet on January 29 at 6:30 PM in Saint Benedict's Study . . . Thursday, January 30, Mass with Healing Service 12:10 PM . . . Friday, January 31, Centering Prayer Group at 6:30 PM in the Morning Room.

OUTREACH AT SAINT MARY'S . . . We picked up well over 200 winter coats from the New York Cares coat drive last week. We thought they might see us through the winter months. However, around a third of the
coats were distributed at the Drop-In Day on January 15. Cold-weather clothing-coats, jackets, scarves, hats, and gloves-remains a much-needed and much-appreciated item during these winter months. We continue to receive requests for shoes and sneakers in various sizes and styles. Shoes are an infrequent donation and
are in constant demand. All such donations will be put to good use at our next Drop-in Day on Wednesday, February 19, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM, in the Mission House basement, and in the former Gift Shop. Please contact Brother Damien if you would like to donate cash, clothing, or toiletry articles for this ministry . . . Would you like to volunteer for Drop-in, but can't get away for two hours mid-day? Consider being with us for an hour or half hour between 2:00 and 3:00 PM. The beginning of the event is especially busy, and we can always use extra hands to help, even if you can't stay until 4:00 PM . . . We continue to receive donations of canned goods and other nonperishable food items for the Saint Clement's Food Pantry. Donations may be placed in the basket next to the Ushers' Table at the Forty-sixth Street entrance to the church. —Br. Damien Joseph SSF

ABOUT THE MUSIC ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 26 . . . Holy Apostles Mass, today's setting, was composed by David Hurd, organist and music director at Saint Mary's, while he was director of music at the Church of the Holy Apostles, Chelsea, Manhattan. It was first sung at Holy Apostles Church on All Saints' Day 2003. Commissioned by parishioners Mary Anne and John Grammer, Holy Apostles Mass is a setting of the Rite II Eucharistic texts. It was originally scored for congregation, choir, organ, strings, flute, oboe, and horn, and was intended to be the setting for the Christmas Midnight Mass. From the time of its introduction at the parish, Holy Apostles Mass was sung in rotation with several other settings by the congregation and choir, sometimes with full or partial orchestration, or with organ alone. The original choral parts recently were enhanced, as had been intended from the beginning, and the revised version was premiered by the choirs of All Saints' Episcopal Church, Austin, Texas, in April 2018. Today at Saint Mary's the revised Gloria, Sanctus —Benedictus, and Agnus Dei will be sung by the choir with organ accompaniment.

The beloved English priest and poet George Herbert (1593-1633) offered his reflection and prayer to Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and Life (John 14) in "The Call" (The Temple, 1633). While the setting of Herbert's prayer-poem for solo voice from Five Mystical Songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) —distilled into many modern hymnals, including our own —is probably best known, Herbert's poem has also inspired a great many fine choral settings. Harold Friedell (1903-1958), composer of the four-voice choral setting to be sung this morning during the administration of Communion, was born in Jamaica, Queens. He studied and later taught at The Juilliard School. He served several New York area parishes as organist and choirmaster, and was eventually appointed to the sacred music faculty at Union Theological Seminary. From 1946 until his untimely death, he was organist and choirmaster at Saint Bartholomew's, Park Avenue. Come, my Way is one of the many fine choral anthems written by this distinguished New York composer and church musician.

Fantasia on Wondrous Love, played as the organ prelude this morning, was composed by David Hurd in the spring of 2016 for an anthology of organ pieces published in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Association of Anglican Musicians. It is based on a melody from Southern Harmony (1835), which was compiled by William Walker (1809 --- 1875). The Fantasia is in three sections, each one devoted to a stanza of the hymn: "What wondrous love is this," "To God and to the Lamb," and "And when from death I'm free" (The Hymnal 1982, 439). A final coda revisits the music of the title stanza. The postlude today is the fourth of David Hurd's Four Spiritual Preludes and was composed in 2000. The set, which is dedicated to Dr. Mickey Thomas Terry of Washington, D.C., is a suite of four short organ pieces modeled on the examples of the baroque masters' chorale preludes. Each piece presents a well-known spiritual melody in an expressive texture and fresh harmonic context. In Deep River, which concludes the set, the melody of its chorus is largely supported by augmented triads and thirds in triplet figures. In the verse, the melody and alto voice are heard over repeated chords in triplet patterns. A reprise of the chorus ends the piece. —David Hurd

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION . . . On Sunday, January 26, Father Jim Pace will lead the Adult Forum in a discussion of healing ministry, hospice ministry, and end-of-life care. Father Pace is the senior associate dean for academic programs at the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, where he holds the rank of clinical professor . . . On the four Sundays in February —February 2, 9, 16, and 23 —Father Jay Smith will lead the Adult Forum in a discussion of the various meanings of Jesus' death on the cross. Using images of the Crucifixion, the class will study how Jesus' death was understood, from very early on, as having been
"for us," and how that understanding both evolved and changed over time . . . . . . The Wednesday Night Bible Study Class meets January 29 at 6:30 PM in Saint Benedict's Study. This term the class is reading Saint Paul's Letter to the Galatians. The class is led by Father Jay Smith.

COMING UP . . . Sunday, February 2, The Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple . . . Monday, February 17, Washington's Birthday (Presidents' Day) . . . Monday, February 24, Saint Matthias the Apostle . . . February 26, Ash Wednesday.

AWAY FROM THE PARISH . . . On Saturday, February 1, the parish of Calvary-Saint George's (at Calvary Church) will host a "Samuel Shoemaker Day." The day will include presentations, an open-step meeting, a twelve-step Eucharist, and a lunch. It is open to everyone who wants to learn more about AA and its deeply Christian roots. Calvary Church is located at 277 Park Avenue South in Manhattan. The Reverend Dr. Samuel Moor Shoemaker (1893-1963) was Calvary's rector from 1925 to 1952. He is remembered as a co-founder and spiritual leader of Alcoholics Anonymous. Father Shoemaker is commemorated in some parishes of the Episcopal Church on January 31.

AT THE GALLERIES . . . At the Metropolitan Museum Fifth Avenue, Eighty-second Street and Fifth Avenue, Gallery 303, The Hypapante, or The Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple (15th c.) by a Byzantine Painter. From the museum website, "The Hypapante is one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox church. According to the Gospel of Luke (2:22 --- 38), when Joseph and the Virgin Mary presented Christ in the temple . . . forty days after his birth, his divinity was immediately recognized by Simeon and the prophetess Anna, [all four of whom are represented in this icon.]"

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