FROM THE RECTOR: WEEK ELEVEN

Sunday, May 24, marks the beginning of the eleventh week that Saint Mary’s has been closed for public worship. We closed one day before the bishop of New York announced a suspension of services for all of the congregations of our diocese on Monday, May 16. On Ascension Day, May 21, I walked by the Roman Catholic Church of Our Saviour at the corner of Park Avenue and 38th Street. The church was open for private prayer. I took off my hat and went in. There may have been ten people in the church praying. I stayed long enough to say a prayer for my Roman Catholic grandparents and the other deceased relatives in my father’s family whom I had known pretty well growing up. I took a picture of the sign posted by the open front doors. On Friday, May 22, a colleague shared a copy of the Archdiocese of New York plan to be eligible in New York State’s Phase 2 for reopening. It’s called, Faith Forward—at this link you can find an “Executive Summary” and “Guidelines for Sacramental Celebrations.”

As I write on Saturday, May 23, the Reverend Canon John Perris, canon to the ordinary of the Diocese of New York, sent an email to the clergy of the diocese. He wrote, “Our Bishops are encouraging parish leaders—working together, ordained or not—to discuss and develop parish plans that are provide at least as much protection as the combination of the Executive Orders of Governor Cuomo and the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For your consideration, here is a link to the most recent guidance from the CDC ‘for Communities of Faith.’ God bless you and your parishioners with health of body, mind and spirit.”

I’ve been very encouraged by our board of trustees’ conversations at weekly gathering via Zoom on Thursday mornings. I’m trying not to worry about the future of this wonderful community and its witness and ministries. Last week I invited our sextons, Harka Gurung and Jorge Trujillo, to return to work during the week. It’s wonderful to have them back. I’m getting used to seeing them in masks! They are a great team, and I’m very thankful for their work and care for Saint Mary’s.

Like many of you, we are missing Father Jim Pace. He made it to Georgia. He’s in good spirits. When I think of him, it brings a smile my face. That said, I spent the Sunday afternoon before he left us on Friday, May 15, working out a schedule for Father Jay Smith and me to cover the daily celebration of the Holy Eucharist—a tradition of Saint Mary’s since its first church home opened on West 45th on December 8, 1870. In June, we’re going to try a schedule so that the priest who is on duty as celebrant and preacher for the Saturday Mass and as officiant at Evening Prayer, will be celebrant, preacher, and officiant on Sunday. If I’m on duty over the weekend, I am going to be scheduled to be off on Monday and Tuesday, if Jay, he will be scheduled to be off on Thursday and Friday. Ascension Day being a Thursday and Memorial Day a Monday mean that we really won’t know how this schedule will work out until we get a couple of weeks of June behind us.

In the meantime, I continue to be very thankful for the opportunity to pray and sing with Jay and the friars in worship. The Lady Chapel is as kind to the human voice as the church is—and Br. Damien Joseph and Br. Thomas are both excellent cantors! I thank all of you who make this parish possible. All of you are in our prayers. Please keep us in yours. —Stephen Gerth

YOUR PRAYERS ARE ASKED FOR Ruth, Michael, Ethelyn, Shalim, Nam, John, Marilouise, Ken, May, Willard, Alexandra, Takeem, and Barbara; for Desmond, Luke, and David, religious; for Ryan, Jim, Gene, Gaylord, Louis, and Edgar, priests; and Charles, bishop; for the members of the armed forces on active duty, especially Isabelle; for all health-care workers; all those who work for the common good; all the members, benefactors, and friends of this parish; and for the repose of the souls of Calvin Davis and of all those who died in the service of this country.

GRANT THEM PEACE: May 24: 1917 Alleine D. Ward; 1934 Mary Sanders Barrett; 1982 Pearl Yerkes Fellowes; 2001 Raymond Lee Duncan.

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE . . . Tom Harris, Senior Vice President at the Times Square Alliance, who is responsible for security, among others things, at the Alliance, informed us this week that one of their public safety officers, Calvin Davis, has died from the effects of COVID-19 infection. Tom is a good friend of the parish and he and his officers have been enormously helpful to Saint Mary’s over the years. Please keep Calvin, his family, and his colleagues in your prayers.

SAINT MARY’S WORSHIP VIDEOS are live-streamed daily at 10:00 AM on Saint Mary’s Facebook page. And they can be viewed there even if you don’t have a Facebook account. They are uploaded after the Mass, first to our Vimeo page and then to our parish webpage. We also have a parish YouTube account. Weekday Masses average a little less than 30 minutes and include a homily written for the day. The rector has been able to post almost all of his sermons—and has promised to show Father Smith how he can post his.

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 seventh part of the series is now on our website.

WE NEED YOUR HELP . . . 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

AROUND THE PARISH . . . Sextons Harka Gurung and Jorge Trujillo were back at Saint Mary’s this week and worked very hard to deal with a backlog of tasks and projects. They swept, washed, and buffed floors throughout the complex, set up for Mass, rang the Angelus bells, changed batteries in smoke alarms, washed the sidewalks front and back, cleaned floor fans, took care of trash and recycling, repaired towel dispensers and broken doors, polished Communion rails, and undertook a host of other tasks that needed doing. They wore face masks while working and were careful to maintain social distance from the residents and each other. Harka and Jorge also carried some thirty bags of donated clothing to the basement of the Mission House on Wednesday. The clothes were the generous gift of our late parishioner, Bill Poston. Clint Best, parish volunteer and longtime parishioner, organized the transport of the clothing. We are grateful to Bill—may he rest in peace— to Clint, Harka, and Jorge for this support of our outreach programs.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S . . . Sunday, May 17, Seventh Sunday of Easter, Sung Mass 10:00 AM in the Lady Chapel and Evening Prayer and Eucharistic Benediction 5:00 PM. You can download the service booklets for the Sunday Mass here and for Sunday Evening Prayer & Benediction here. The readings for Mass on Sunday are here and for Sunday Evening Prayer & Benediction are here. Father Smith presides and preaches at the 10:00 AM Mass this Sunday. The gospel passage this Sunday is John 17:1–11, the first half of Jesus’ prayer to the Father, a text that concludes Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse” in John. Next Sunday, May 31, will be the Day of Pentecost . . . Monday, May 25, Bede, The Venerable, Priest and Monk of Jarrow, d. 735, and Memorial Day . . . Tuesday, May 26, Augustine, First Archbishop of Canterbury, d. May 26, 605.

FROM THE FRIARY . . . Brother Desmond Alban SSF is the Minister Provincial of the Society of Saint Francis, Province of the Americas. We learned this week that Desmond’s mother, Ruth Goodman, who lives in the United Kingdom, is seriously ill. Because of the pandemic, Desmond is not able to return home to see his mother. Please keep Ruth, Desmond, and their family in our prayers . . . Brother Damien Joseph SSF and Brother Thomas SSF, along with some of their brothers in California, have been posting meditations and reflections on the website of the Society of Saint Francis (SSF) in recent weeks. Brother Thomas posted a new reflection this week entitled “About Grace.” The meditation began its life as a sermon that was written and recorded for the Diocese of Northern Michigan. Thomas is happy to share it with the Saint Mary’s community. He says, “I welcome any feedback or questions you may have. If you have any trouble with the link to the reflection, please let me know . . . Five years ago the Society of Saint Francis inherited a small set of buildings, including a hermitage and a chapel located in a rural part of Northern California, near Kelseyville, about two and a half hours north of San Francisco and the Society’s San Damiano Friary. The Society is now working to renovate these buildings so that they can open a small retreat center to be called the Franciscan Hermitage of Our Lady of the Angels. Once this work has been completed, Brother Jude SSF, who now lives at San Damiano, intends to move to Our Lady of the Angels, where he will provide various forms of spiritual counsel and pastoral care. If you would like to support this project, you may make a donation on the SSF website. If you are curious about Our Lady of the Angels, or if you would like to arrange for a visit there in 2021, please contact Brother Jude.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION AT SAINT MARY’S . . . Father Peter Powell has kindly agreed to continue his online bible study, begun in March, focusing first on the Book of Exodus. He writes, “My Exodus papers will begin a study of the Book of Exodus. You will remember that Martin Luther King used the Exodus event to understand the Civil Rights movement. I believe that Exodus continues to have much to teach us about how God works in the world today and how God continues to care for the powerless. Among many other things Exodus shows how deeply God wants a relationship with us. We have been taught that God is omniscient, but Exodus reveals that God’s actions are influenced by Moses’s intercession with him. Frequently in Exodus Moses reminds God that God’s reputation is linked to the people he has brought out of Egypt. If God wants the world to know that YHWH is Lord of all creation then God is bound to his people and cannot destroy them despite their stiff-necked behavior and their outright apostasy (e.g., the Golden Calf). Moses provides us with a model on how to relate to God and the assurance that God desires to relate to us. We will explore the stories of Exodus to better understand the importance of worship, faith, and prayer.” The second part of Father Powell’s series on Exodus will be distributed to the parish via e-mail this weekend.

LIFE IN TIMES SQUARE . . . Because of the reduction in vehicular traffic on Forty-sixth Street, some complicated roadwork took place out there this week. Workers dug two deep trenches, curbside, on both sides of the street and then descended into the caverns below, apparently to lay new cable. This was, it turns out, a Spectrum upgrade. Work began each evening around 11:00 PM and went on till early morning: we are apparently still “the city that never sleeps” . . . Minar Indian Restaurant, across the street from the church at 138 West Forty-sixth Street, has closed its doors, like many restaurants in the Times Square neighborhood. The restaurant has also removed its sign, so it is unclear if this closing is temporary or something more permanent. If the latter, they will be missed: inexpensive, basic, but tasty Indian food served up cafeteria-style by two or three brusque, no-nonsense women, who moved between English and Hindi with consummate ease. Just now, we don’t know where these women are or how they and their families are doing. Change is difficult and there is a lot of change to deal with these days. Let us pray for the restaurant owners and workers of our neighborhood, and let us pray for each other and ourselves in this time of transformation and change we never expected.

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