FROM THE RECTOR: GOING FORWARD

Many readers will know that the resident priests and friars have been maintaining the daily Eucharist and daily Evening Prayer since our doors closed. With the knowledge and help of Br. Damien Joseph, since Tuesday, March 17, we’ve been recording and live streaming the daily Mass on Facebook using an iPhone. Beginning this Sunday, March 29, the Sunday Mass will also be at 10:00 AM. On Sundays and feast days, we are also recording our Eucharists as videos so that they can be viewed later on our own website—again, with great thanks to Br. Damien. We are preparing for Holy Week and Easter Day. But before I share our thinking, I want to tell you of the concern and work of Saint Mary’s board of trustees.

The board met via Zoom on Thursday, March 26, 2020, for prayer and to follow up on our meeting on Saturday, March 21, 2020, also via Zoom. Our world was already changing when the date for this Saturday meeting was set at the end of January. None of us then imagined that, on the Third Sunday in Lent, March 16, Saint Mary’s would be closed for publish worship and, as far as we know, will remain closed for public worship through Sunday, May 17, 2020.

The meeting on March 21 was scheduled to take a fresh look at the budget and make reductions in expenses and to think about increasing our income. Uncertainty about the course of the pandemic and its consequences for people and commerce shaped the board’s discussion. I think I may speak for all when I say there was real sadness and heartache because our church doors must be closed. Between worshipers, visitors, those taking shelter, and the many support and other groups that meet at Saint Mary’s, on an average day more than four hundred people will be in our buildings, for one reason or another, most days of the week.

The board decided that we would continue to pay our church staff and our singers. (Singers are hired for the choral season from the first Sunday in October through Corpus Christi Sunday.) That said, I think we were all aware that a lot of things are out of our control. My own sense is that the trustees stand ready to make difficult decisions if needed. On Thursday, the board committed itself to a regular video conference on Thursday. As a group we want to keep current with what’s going on.

Holy Week and Easter Day are also very much on my mind. I’ve begun conversations with my colleagues about what we can do to observe these days. When I was a student at Nashotah House Seminary, on Sunday mornings us students and most of the faculty were serving or worshiping at local parishes. We were all required to back in chapel for Sunday Solemn Evensong—back in the day, some of us returned to the chapel after the retiring procession for Benediction, an optional service. On Palm Sunday, the Liturgy of the Palms was celebrated before Evensong. The fourth-century pilgrim known to us as Egeria wrote to her “sisters” about her pilgrimage to the Holy Land between the years AD 381 and 384. Her diary is an important witness to the worship in Jerusalem in the century when it became legal to be a Christian in the Roman world.

According to Egeria and the Armenian lectionary from the first decades of fifth-century Jerusalem, on the Sunday before Easter Day, Matthew’s account of Jesus’ entry was read at the morning Eucharist. After a break to eat, congregations would gather in the course of the afternoon at two different churches. Her diary continues, “Then they went off down the Mount of Olives. They escorted the bishop into the city, carrying palms, and arrived for the [Lighting of Candles and Evening Prayer]—‘even though it is late’—at the [Church of the Resurrection]” (J. Wilkinson, Egeria’s Travels [1999], 74). I’ve asked Br. Thomas to gather some branches and flowers least likely to be mistaken for palms to be blessed and to be placed at our 47th Street Doorway shrine.

The Presiding Bishop himself can’t be with us Maundy Thursday, but he is recording a sermon for the service which we will celebrate that night. I’m still thinking about Good Friday, not to mention Easter Eve and Easter Day. We will worship. —Stephen Gerth

 YOUR PRAYERS ARE ASKED FOR Shalim, Diana, Daniel, Nam, Maria, Maritza, John, Pat, Ellie, Jennifer, Sharon, Marilouise, Peter, MaryHope, Ken, May, Willard, Alexandra, Karen, Takeem, Michael, Emil, Barbara, Ethelyn, Dennis, Margaret, Burton, and Abraham; Luc, Keith, Jude, and David, religious; for Don, Jim, Gene, Gaylord, Louis, priests; Charles, bishop; for the members of the Saint Mary’s Twelve-Step Groups; for the members of our Armed Forces on active duty; for all the members, benefactors and friends of this parish; for all medical workers and first responders, for all those who seek to create a vaccine, for all those working for the common good; and for the repose of the souls of Kious Kelly and all those who have died from COVID-19 . . . GRANT THEM PEACE: March 29: 1959 Lucille Dunscombe; 1966 Anna Jane Hemphill; 1997 Bruce M. Linville.

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE . . . Kious Kelly, an assistant nursing manager at Mount Sinai West Hospital (formerly Roosevelt Hospital), died this week at the hospital where he worked after a brief illness. Mr. Kelly died from complications due to COVID-19 infection. He was forty-eight years old. He was an alumnus of the Rory Meyers College of Nursing at New York University, where Father Jim Pace works as an Associate Dean. Please keep Kious, his family, friends, and colleagues, Father Pace, and all who mourn in your prayers.

THE WEEKDAYS OF LENT AND OF HOLY WEEK, except for the feast of the Annunciation, are observed by special acts of discipline and self-denial. Good Friday and all other Fridays of the year, except for Fridays in the Christmas and Easter seasons, and any Feasts of our Lord which occur on a Friday, are also observed as days of special devotion in commemoration of the Lord’s crucifixion.

PREPARING FOR WORSHIP ON THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT . . . The Mass readings for the Fifth Sunday in Lent (Year A), March 29, 2020, are Ezekiel 37:1–3, 11–14; Psalm 130; and John 11:1–44. In the interests of time, since the Mass will be livestreamed, we will omit the epistle, Romans 6:16–23. Father Jay Smith will preach on the gospel, the Raising of Lazarus. The gospel is paired with the powerful reading from Ezekiel 37, which is also read at the Vigil on Easter Eve.

SOME RESOURCES IF YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO COME TO CHURCH . . .

•           Mass is celebrated Monday through Saturday at 10:00 AM, and at 9:00 AM on Sunday, in the Lady Chapel here at Saint Mary’s and is being livestreamed. The video can be accessed on various social media: 

•           Trinity Wall Street always live streams their Sunday services on their website at the following link: https://www.trinitywallstreet.org/webcasts (as of Friday, March 13, it appears that Trinity will not be holding public worship for some days, but will continue to livestream its 11:15 AM Eucharist on Sundays.

•           If you do not have access to a Book of Common Prayer, the Prayer Book is available online at the following link: https://episcopalchurch.org/files/book_of_common_prayer.pdf.

•           You can also find the readings for all Daily Offices and Masses on Saint Mary's website: https://www.stmvirgin.org/bible-lessons-for-all-services.

•           The Society of Saint John the Evangelist’s (SSJE) online Lenten program, Signs of Life, may be accessed at https://www.signsoflife.org/

•           SSJE has also recorded a service of Compline that can be accessed on their homepage: https://www.ssje.org/

•           The Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) offers a daily online meditation. One can sign up to receive the meditation at https://cac.org/richard-rohr/daily-meditations/daily-meditations-archive/. Father Richard Rohr is a Roman Catholic Franciscan. CAC is a decidedly ecumenical program.

•           Father Andrew Mead, former rector of Saint Thomas Fifth Avenue, is currently priest-in-charge at the Church of Saint Stephen in Providence, Rhode Island. He recently posted some thoughts about making a spiritual communion, if one is unable to receive the sacrament in person. His blogpost is available at http://sstephensprovidence.blogspot.com/

FROM FATHER PACE . . . The New York Times, whose online presence usually operates behind a paywall, is providing free access on the coronavirus crisis. An article published in the Times on Monday caught my attention. I think it’s worth sharing with the Saint Mary’s Community:

Warmer Weather May Slow, but Not Halt, Coronavirus. by Knvul Sheikh and Ernesto Londoño. Published March 22, 2020. Updated March 23, 2020. Copyright © 2020 by the New York Times Company. “Communities living in warmer places appear to have a comparative advantage to slow the transmission of coronavirus infections, according to an early analysis by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The researchers found that most coronavirus transmissions had occurred in regions with low temperatures, between 37.4 and 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit (or 3 and 17 degrees Celsius).

“While countries with equatorial climates and those in the Southern Hemisphere, currently in the middle of summer, have reported coronavirus cases, regions with average temperatures above 64.4 degrees Fahrenheit (or 18 degrees Celsius) account for fewer than 6 percent of global cases so far.

“Wherever the temperatures were colder, the number of the cases started increasing quickly,” said Qasim Bukhari, a computational scientist at M.I.T. who is a co-author of the study. “You see this in Europe, even though the health care there is among the world’s best.”

“The temperature dependency is also clear within the United States,” Dr. Bukhari said. Southern states, like Arizona, Florida and Texas, have seen slower outbreak growth compared with states like Washington, New York and Colorado. Coronavirus cases in California have grown at a rate that falls somewhere in between.

“The seasonal pattern is similar to what epidemiologists have observed with other viruses.” Dr. Deborah Birx, the global AIDS coordinator in the United States and also a member of the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force, said during a recent briefing that the flu, in the Northern Hemisphere, generally follows a November to April trend.

“The four types of coronavirus that cause the common cold every year also wane in warmer weather. Dr. Birx also noted that the pattern was similar with the SARS epidemic in 2003. But she stressed that because the virus outbreaks in China and South Korea began later, it was difficult to determine whether the new coronavirus would take the same course.” The article may be read in its entirety on the Times website.

FROM THE FINANCE COMMITTEE . . . To fund operations, Saint Mary's routinely liquidates certain investments in accordance with its annual budget plan. However, the recent volatility in financial markets means that those liquidations are potentially very damaging to our long-term stability. We could be selling equities at a 10%+ discount, meaning that every $1.00 we liquidate is costing us $1.10 or more in long-term principal. Therefore, we ask that those of you who pledge or plan to give donations for Lent or Easter to please consider fulfilling those commitments now so that we can meet operating cash-flow requirements—utilities, salaries, etc.—from our cash accounts without dipping into investment accounts at their currently depressed value. Thank you for helping us weather these volatile times!

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S . . . The resident clergy and the friars will continue to gather for Mass every day of the week at 10:00 AM. On Saturdays and Sundays, we gather for Evening Prayer at 5:00 PM, and on weekdays at 6:00 PM . . . We are closely following Governor Cuomo and Mayor De Blasio’s directives about closures and workers who will be allowed to come to work. We will keep the Saint Mary’s community posted on all developments as soon as we are able.

AROUND THE PARISH . . . The resident clergy and friars have been trying to ring the Angelus bells on something like the usual schedule, early morning, 12:00 PM and 6:00 PM. The bells remind us of our mission and purpose, and, we hope, provide some sense of normality and encouragement to our neighbors . . . The Board of Trustees of the parish met via Zoom on Saturday, March 21, and again on Thursday, March 26 . . . Rector emeritus, Father Edgar Wells, celebrated his ninetieth birthday this week. Birthday greetings may be sent here to the parish office and will be forwarded to Father Wells . . . Since it appears that parish administrator Chris Howatt will now be required to work from home, the resident clergy will check the voicemail messages on extension 10 at 212-869-5830 on a regular basis . . . The Reverend Dr. Peter Powell has very graciously agreed to continue his Bible Study Class on the twelve so-called “minor prophets” in a digital form. We are circulating his class notes, outline, and study questions to the Saint Mary’s community via e-mail. If you are receiving this newsletter by e-mail, you will receive Father Powell’s notes. If you would like to subscribe to our e-mails, please go to the Saint Mary’s website and, on the front page, follow the prompts in order to subscribe to the Angelus. Father Powell’s assigned portion this week is Amos 7:9–17.

LIFE IN TIMES SQUARE . . . Our neighbors across the street at the Abbondanza Café remain open, though they now close at around 7:00 PM, rather than staying open 24 hours. This week they experienced an attempted break-in in the early-morning hours. They now board up their windows and door when they close for the day. The owner and the members of the staff know the full-time residents well and have been supportive of the parish. Please keep them and all who continue to work in the neighborhood in your prayers . . . The Times Square Alliance tells us that Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has established a COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund to help entertainment professionals meet coronavirus-related expenses and other challenges brought about by the evolving pandemic. Any support will provide urgent additional resources for the vital social-service programs of The Actors Fund, including emergency financial assistance, health insurance, counseling and the operation of The Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts. These services are available to everyone in the performing arts and entertainment industry. Broadway producers have also pledged to match up to $1 million in donations . . . Encore Community Services provides care and service to the elderly of the Clinton/Times Square/Midtown communities. Although seated meals and group classes have been suspended due to the risk that COVID-19 poses to older adults, Encore remains open for take-out lunch and home delivered meal service. During this unprecedented health crisis, Encore remains dedicated to its promise of helping seniors and making sure our vulnerable homebound neighbors receive the lifesaving meals they rely on. You can donate to them here, or e-mail Jennifer Asquino at jasquino@encorenyc.org to volunteer to help deliver meals, Monday through Saturday.

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