FROM THE RECTOR: TRYING TO LOOK AHEAD

Saint Mary’s board of trustees has been meeting for about thirty minutes via Zoom every Thursday morning since March 26. That was the day of our regularly scheduled monthly meeting. It was a good and helpful meeting, and so we realized then that it would be important, and useful, for us to meet somewhat more frequently, if somewhat less formally, during this time in order to stay in touch with each other about the parish community and what we’re doing while we are closed for public worship.

Saint Mary’s board held its second monthly meeting via Zoom, on Thursday morning, April 23. We began with prayer and by checking-in with each other. Treasurer Clark Mitchell brought financial statements from the first quarters of 2019 and 2020. We were all surprised that giving and other sources of income in the first quarter of the current year were much better than last year. That said, we are aware that the church was closed beginning on Sunday, March 15. No outside groups are meeting in the church—their generous donations are a significant contribution to the running costs of our physical plant. No one is making thank offerings at our shrines. All of that is reason for concern. We are pleased that we have continued to receive financial support from our members and friends, which a very great help. However, we will need to continue to monitor our financial position carefully in the weeks and months to come.

In the meantime, board members have been contacting by telephone or mail members and friends of the parish. They started with those who have received the Angelus by mail. They have now moved on to the wider community of members and friends. They’re calling to check on people and to let them know of our concern. Once someone realizes he or she has not picked up a robocall, warm conversations take place. It reminds me of the phone calling that was done after September 11, 2001. The situation is different, but the desire to check on how members of our community are doing is the same.

The renovation of the 46th Street façade of the church has stopped until the city grants permission to resume work on construction projects. Milan Restoration will be checking weekly, and also after any major weather event, to make sure that everything is still secure. Board members MaryJane Boland, Clark Mitchell and I, assisted by Office Manager Chris Howatt, comprise the parish’s liaison group with Milan and Jan Hird Pokorny Architects, Inc. (JHP). The parish team meets virtually most weeks with Milan and JHP. This allows us to monitor progress and deal quickly with any issues that arise. I am very grateful to MaryJane and Clark for their commitment to the project. Meanwhile, work continues on the fabrication of replacements for stones that have been removed from the façade and the conservation of one of the pair of main doors of the church.

Last Thursday, the board also spent some time reflecting on our presence on the web. Live-streaming is probably here to stay for us, even after we resume public worship. Every day I see names of folks from all over who have accessed our services in some way. It takes time to set-up for live-streaming and time to get our videos uploaded to our own website. Brother Damien has been very helpful with all of that. Father Jay Smith has taken the lead on making sure we are in compliance with copyright permissions—see his article on this below in issue of the Angelus.

It’s entirely possible today to give and to pledge to Saint Mary’s on our website, but there are better ways to do it. Board Member Grace Mudd and Clark Mitchell, board treasurer, have already been working on next steps for us. There’s a lot of fresh information available and we want very much to update our online giving presence.

At every meeting, I show the members of the board a draft of the coming month’s clergy schedule. The bishop of New York is now expected to extend the closure of public worship beyond Sunday, May 17. The clergy schedule shows two daily services for May 1 through Sunday, May 17—the schedule for the rest of the month still reflects the pre-closure schedule of services. We expect to expect to have greater clarity about all this by the end of April. Another thing: when I looked at the draft of the May schedule, I realized that it would not be possible to hold our annual meeting of the congregation on the first Sunday in May, as is our custom. It will be held, instead, in the fall.

As of now, Father Jim Pace will be celebrant and preacher for the Daily Mass on Friday, May 15, and leave New York City later that day for his new position in Georgia. I hope many will be able to be online on that Friday morning for that service. More to come about our farewell for him.

Finally, yesterday I heard a radio interview with one of the medical chiefs at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn. One question asked of him was how his hospital had been able to increase its patient capacity so dramatically on such short notice. He said that no one who works for the hospital is doing the same job that he or she had before the pandemic arrived. It made me glad to hear the humble confidence about what the people at Maimonides were doing. I’m sure that’s true of many people right now doing a whole range of things. I am not unaware of the suffering of people here and elsewhere. I don’t know the names of the seventeen men and women who were sheltering in the church while seven of us read Morning Prayer in the chancel on Friday morning, March 13. I pray for them every day. I hope we may be of more help to them very soon. —Stephen Gerth

YOUR PRAYERS ARE ASKED FOR Rose, Paul, Ed, Lauren, Matthew, Max, Carmen, Jorge, Margarita, Luis, Gladys, Shalim, Nam, John, Marilouise, Ken, May, Willard, Alexandra, Takeem, Michael, Marty, and Abraham; for Richard-John and David, religious; for Ryan, John, Gene, Gaylord, Louis, and Edgar, priests; for Charles, bishop; for the members of the Twelve-Step Groups that meet at Saint Mary’s; for all those who work for the common good; for all the members, benefactors and friends of this parish; for the repose of the souls of Scott C. Ohlmeyer, and of all those who have died of COVID-19.

GRANT THEM PEACE: April 26: 1924 Juliet C. Dobbins; 1944 Mary Frances Kelly Fosenfield.

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE . . . Scott C. Ohlmeyer, the brother of former parishioner Marty Cooper, died near his home in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, on Wednesday, April 22, 2020. He was fifty years old. He is survived by his husband, Daniel Furphy; his son, Gregory Furphy; his parents, his brother Marty and two other siblings. Marty was confirmed here on the Eve of All Saints’ Day in 2008. He served for a time in our acolyte corps. Please keep Scott, Marty, their family and friends, and all who mourn in your prayers.

WE NEED YOUR HELP . . . We closed our doors on the morning of Sunday, March 15. Since that time life has changed radically here at Saint Mary’s, as it has for all the friends and members of our parish community. Those of you who are reading this newsletter are surely facing challenges of which we do not yet know and perhaps cannot imagine. We know this. The world as we knew it on March 1, or even on March 15, has changed and we are not yet sure of the implications of all those changes. Nonetheless, Saint Mary’s still has many needs. That has not changed. Bills must be paid. The building complex must be attended to. Opportunities for worship and pastoral care must be provided. Planning for the future continues. Many of us are “sheltering in place,” but this is not a holiday or a hiatus for any of us or any of you. Practical matters must be attended to. That is why we urge the local and the wider parish community to continue their support of Saint Mary’s. If you have made a pledge for 2020, please continue to make payments on your pledge, if possible. If you have not yet made a pledge for 2020, we urge you to do so. If you are able to make an additional donation to support the parish at this time, we would happily receive it. Donations may be made online via the Giving section of the parish website. You may also make arrangements for other forms of payment by contacting our parish administrator, Christopher Howatt, who would be happy to assist you. We are grateful to all those who continue to support Saint Mary’s so generously. —Stewardship Committee

MUSIC AT SAINT MARY’S . . . Dr. David Hurd, organist and music director at Saint Mary’s has been sharing with the parish community a series of articles entitled “Music Listening for the Easter Season.” The third part of the series is presented here.

NEWS OF A FREE FOOD PROGRAM . . . We recently learned that the New York City Department of Education has organized and is staffing a feeding program for both adults and children here in the city. These are the details:
–        The New York City Department of Education is committed to making free meals available daily for any New Yorker. Any New Yorker who wants one can get free meals at more than 400 Meal Hubs across the city.
–        Meals can be picked up at all Meal Hubs 7:30 AM to 1:30 PM, Monday through Friday.
–        Meals Hubs will operate for children and families from 7:30 AM to 11:30 AM, and for adults from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM.
–        No one will be turned away at any time.
–        All adults and children can pick up multiple meals at one time.
–        Vegetarian and halal options available at all sites (and the program is working to provide kosher meals as well).
–        No dining space is available, so meals must be eaten off premises.
–        Parents and guardians may pick up meals for their children.
–        No registration or ID required.
For more information and to locate a Meal Hub near you, you may visit the program website.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S . . . For the foreseeable future, the resident clergy and the friars will continue to celebrate the Eucharist every day at 10:00 AM in the Lady Chapel. On Saturdays and Sundays, we gather for Evening Prayer at 5:00 PM, and on weekdays at 6:00 PM. The daily 10:00 AM Mass and Sunday Evening Prayer & Sung Benediction at 5:00 PM are live-streamed on the parish’s Facebook page. The videos are then posted on our parish website here . . . Sunday, April 26, Third Sunday of Easter, Mass 10:00 AM in the Lady Chapel and Evening Prayer and Eucharistic Benediction 5:00 PM . . . On Wednesday, April 29, Wednesday in the Third Week of Easter, we will commemorate Saint Catherine of Siena, 1380, at the 10:00 AM Mass . . . Friday, May 1, Saint Philip and Saint James, Apostles, Mass 10:00 AM.

FROM THE FRIARY . . . Brother Damien Joseph SSF and Brother Thomas SSF, along with some of their brothers in California, have been posting meditations and reflections on the current crisis on the website of the Society of Saint Francis in recent weeks. Brother Thomas posted a new reflection this week entitled “Practicing Resurrection.” We commend it to you.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION AT SAINT MARY’S . . . Father Powell continues his online bible study on the so-called “Minor” or “Twelve” Prophets of the Hebrew Bible. We will be posting two more of his exegeses, which are accompanied by study questions, in the next week. Father Powell has volunteered to continue his online class this spring—his focus would be either on passages from the Book of Exodus or on the Lament Psalms—should there be interest in his doing so. Please contact Father Powell or Father Smith if you would like to continue to receive these weekly study guides. Feedback is always helpful, especially in this time of reduced personal contact. We are very grateful to Father Powell for so generously continuing this work and making it possible for members of the community to read and study Scripture away from Saint Mary’s . . . Father Gerth has been teaching a virtual Church-School class, using the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, on Sunday mornings after Mass to a small, but enthusiastic, class of one . . . Father Smith has been in conversation with parishioner Grace Mudd and Father Peter Powell about topics for the Adult Forum in the autumn. Grace is proposing a class on the experiences of Western Europeans in the fourteenth century, a time of war, plague, natural disaster, and social dislocation. Father Powell is thinking about a series on the Revelation to John, a famously vivid, and sometimes difficult to interpret, biblical text, also written in a time of stress and persecution. Intense topics for an intense time.

OF LIVESTREAMS, PODCASTS, AND VIDEO ARCHIVES . . . Since the middle of March, we have been live-streaming at least one service per day from the Lady Chapel. Those who have watched the videos know that we have faced some technical difficulties along the way, but that we have done our best to solve those difficulties. We use cellular service and no longer depend on Wi-Fi, which is weak at the north end of the building complex. We have purchased better data plans for our phones. Phones now run on electricity and not their batteries. We continue to experiment with camera placement and lighting. We ask the indulgence of our viewers: the Lady Chapel was never designed to be a television studio, and lighting in the chapel is tricky and not easily altered or supplemented at this time.

We have also received questions from some of our viewers about copyright issues. We own licenses from Church Publishing (Ritesong and Ritebrain) that grant us the right to print music and text from the church’s worship sources. We own a license from ONELICENSE that grants us the right to download, print, and use music not covered by the copyright permissions of Ritesong and Ritebrain. (Such usage must be reported on a regular basis.) In addition, ONELICENSE granted all its licensees the right to live-stream and archive their worship services during the epidemic through and including Wednesday, April 15, without purchasing an add-on to their annual license. On April 16, we purchased such an add-on to our annual ONELICENSE agreement. This now allows us to live-stream and archive videos of our services and to archive printed service bulletins containing music. The archived materials must be taken down one year after the date of the service. The titles of music sung at the services that is under copyright must be reported to ONELICENSE on a regular basis, usually monthly. We have been in communication with Church Publishing and with ONELICENSE to make sure that we are fully in compliance with copyright law and their rules and requirements. It is our belief that we have covered all the bases. We continue to monitor this situation. —J.R.S.

EMERGENCY GRANTS FOR EPISCOPAL DEACONS . . . The Fund for the Diaconate of the Episcopal Church has created a special Emergency Grant Program to aid deacons affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Deacons in good standing in The Episcopal Church, who have been laid off, furloughed, or otherwise had their employment hours cut back or eliminated, are eligible to apply. Grants will cover the time-period of March 1, 2020–September 30, 2020, with applications being accepted until October 15, 2020. Grants of $525 per month will be made for a three-month time-period, with each grant being reviewed monthly. Grants may be renewable, upon provision of updated documentation. (Only the initial application will be required.) For more information, we invite you to visit the Fund’s website.

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