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FROM THE RECTOR: AUGUST 2020

Dr. David Hurd reminded me last week that, when the church was closed for public worship on Sunday, March 15, 2020, we hoped we would be open for Holy Week. That, of course, did not happen, but we did reopen, when permitted, on July 1, 2020, and we have been open daily since then. At the beginning of August, our current opening hours—Sunday:10:00 AM–12:30 PM; Monday through Saturday: 11:00 AM–2:00 PM—will continue through the end of the month. On Sundays, we will continue to have a Said Mass with an organist, cantor, and two altar servers at 11:00 AM. Monday through Saturday, the daily Mass will be at 12:10 PM. There will be no evening Eucharists for the Feast of the Transfiguration (Thursday, August 6), the Eve of the Assumption (Friday, August 14), or Saint Bartholomew the Apostle (Monday, August 24).

If the threat of COVID-19 continues to recede, and people begin to return to their offices in Midtown, I think we might be able to open up earlier and return to our custom of offering Daily Morning Prayer in the church. On the other hand, I don’t think we will be able to extend our afternoon hours until the Broadway theaters begin to reopen in January 2021.

This last week I met with a sound consultant and his assistant to discuss a much-needed upgrade for the equipment we use to live-stream our services. I asked him to submit a proposal, and I expect to have this in hand during the coming week. If one of the plans seems right for us at this time, that will be the Assumption offering request this year.

I want to thank our church clergy, staff, and musicians for their understanding and support for the decisions the board of trustees made to stabilize parish finances. Their graciousness is much appreciated.

Some happy news, Br. Desmond Alban SSF, minister provincial of the Society of Saint Francis, Province of the Americas, will complete a fourteen-day quarantine on Thursday, August 6. His responsibilities as minister provincial are many and varied, but we look forward to him sharing in the worship and life of the parish. Br. Desmond will live in the fifth-floor apartment of the parish house. It’s important in a facility like Saint Mary’s for all the spaces with roofs and gutters to be in use.

Father Jay Smith begins a week of vacation on Monday, August 3. He returns to the parish on Monday, August 10. Father Matt Jacobson was back with us to take the Mass on Saturday, June 26. Matt will be back with us this week to be the celebrant for the Masses on Monday, August 4, and Tuesday, August 5—when I will be trying to take those days mostly as days off.

For the record, evening Solemn Masses for Assumption began in 1972. Prayer Book Studies 19: The Church Year: The Calendar and the Proper of the Sundays and Other Holy Days throughout the Church Year (1970) was approved for trial use by the General Convention in 1970. The Reverend Donald Garfield (1924–1996; rector 1965–1978) was a member of the Drafting Committee for this study. The preface includes this note; “The committee held its first meeting in January, 1968, in the rectory of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, New York” (page iv). Being approved in the summer of 1970, this calendar, which included for the first time a commemoration of Mary on August 15 (Saint Mary the Virgin, Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ), came into trial use on the First Sunday of Advent, December 6, 1970. In 1971, August 15 was a Sunday. So, the principal service at 11:00 AM was Procession & Solemn Mass. In 1972, August 15 was a Tuesday. This was the year evening Solemn Masses for this feast began.

Finally, I want to thank our pledgers and donors who have continued to support the parish through these challenging times. Jay and I have been crazy busy since the beginning of March. But we feel upheld in our work by the members and friends who know this parish and value its ministry and witness. —Stephen Gerth

YOUR PRAYERS ARE ASKED FOR Mary, Eric, Willy, Donald, Hanoo, Paige, Gypsy, Matthew, Marley, Leroy, Seaudath, Larry, Scott, Samantha, Michael, Emily, Shalim, John, Marilouise, Ken, May, Willard, Alexandra, Takeem, Charles, and Dennis; for Desmond Alban, David, and Barbara Jean, religious; for John, Gene, Gaylord, Louis, priests; and Charles, bishop; for the members of the armed forces on active duty, especially Isabelle; for all health-care workers; for all those who work for the common good; for all the members and friends of this parish; and for the repose of the soul of Robert Klimowicz . . . GRANT THEM PEACE: August 2: 1880 William Schekeler; 1895 Angeline Clark Prentice; 1998 Elizabeth Flinn; 2007 Joseph Fitzpatrick.

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE . . . Robert Klimowicz, a cousin of Meredith Jacobson, died suddenly at his home in Allenhurst, New Jersey, on July 23. He was sixty-three years old. He is survived by his wife and two sons. Please keep Robert, his family, Meredith, and all who mourn in your prayers.

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

STEWARDSHIP AT SAINT MARY’S . . . We expect that this year’s Stewardship Campaign will be both challenging but also, in many ways, helpful. The campaign must go on, despite the pandemic and its disruptive effects. Many of us have experienced the financial repercussions of this global medical emergency. This cannot help but make us cautious. Still, the crisis should also inspire us, now more than ever, to work hard to preserve what we value most. The Stewardship Committee met this week via Zoom and has begun planning for the 2020–2021 Campaign. Pledge packets will be mailed in October. We will work hard to inform the parish community of our hopes and plans as we move forward. In the meantime, we ask you to pray for the success of the campaign, and also to spend some time thinking, and praying, about what you can do to support the parish, and to ensure its future, through the gifts of your time, talents, and treasure this year and in the years to come.

AROUND THE PARISH . . . A new page—The Gallery Page—went live this week on the parish website. The page, which can be found by clicking on the “About” tab on the front page of the website, currently features Brother Damien Joseph’s photographs of unseen or unnoticed elements of the church’s art and architecture. The exhibition, curated by José Vidal, is called “Watchers and Holy Ones.” One can view images of the photographs on the Gallery Web Page. The photographs are available for purchase. Brother Damien and his Franciscan brothers are generously donating all proceeds to the parish. For more information, please contact Gallery curator, José Vidal . . . Parishioner Jennifer Stevens shared some good news with us this week. On Monday, August 3, she will begin take up her new position as internal medicine coordinator at the Animal Medical Center (AMC) on East Sixty-second Street. Her primary responsibility will be to act as liaison between the staff internists at AMC and the referring veterinarians whose patients seek their care and expertise. AMC is the largest non-profit animal hospital in the world. It began in 1906 as the brainchild of Ellin Prince Speyer when she founded the Women’s Auxiliary to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and it has an interesting and inspiring history, described at some length on AMC’s website. We are very pleased for Jennifer and wish her much success as she begins her work in her new position at this important medical center . . . Jennifer, when not working and interviewing for her new job, has also been keeping in touch with parishioner Margaret Malone, who is still at her home in Florida. Margaret says that she is healthy and handling isolation fairly well, though she is, at times, lonely. She tries to keep busy, but is looking forward to coming back to New York. She asked Jennifer to relay the following message, “I miss everyone at Saint Mary’s, and look forward to seeing you all again soon—hopefully no later than September” . . . We also learned this week that former parishioner, the Reverend A. Christopher Lee, recently began his ministry at Grace Church, Brooklyn Heights, as assistant to the rector for youth, young adult, and family ministries. Chris is to be ordained to the priesthood on Saturday, September 12, 2020, at the cathedral in Garden City, Long Island. Such rites have become complicated in this time of social-distancing. We will share more details about the ordination as they become available. In the meantime, congratulations, Chris! Please keep Chris, his wife, Julie, and their sons, Thaddeus and Callum in your prayers . . . There are currently two groups—around ten people in all—who are meeting weekly via Zoom to discuss racism and to try to discern ways to combat racism in both church and society. If you would like more information, or if you would like to participate, please contact Brother Thomas SSF or Brother Damien Joseph SSF.

MUSIC AT SAINT MARY’S . . . On August 2, the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, and for the foreseeable future, vocal music at the Sunday Mass at Saint Mary’s will be offered by cantors who are members of the Parish Choir. Unlike past summers, during which cantors have assumed the role of the choir for the Sunday Mass, the customary additional congregational singing in the Mass is now discouraged due to concerns about transmission of the virus through droplets which singing animates, and distancing concerns. Yet church leaders, including our own bishop, have strongly advocated that worship continue to be illuminated by music in this time. This situation is an invitation for us to experience the repository of Mass settings which can be sung effectively by one voice. The obvious primary repertoire, therefore, is historic chant and post-medieval music composed in chant style. The Liber Usualis, (“Usual Book”) is a giant compendium of historic Roman chant compiled in the nineteenth century by the monks of Solesmes. The Liber offers many settings for the Roman ordinary, including eighteen numbered Masses. Last Sunday the setting was Mass XI, subtitled Missa Orbis Factor and designated for use on Sundays outside of Advent and Lent. In weeks to come we will cycle through many of the other numbered Gregorian Masses. On alternating Sundays, the Mass settings will be an assortment of more modern composed settings. The Mass setting today is by Alistair Cassels-Brown (1927–2001). Dr. Cassels-Brown had been an organ scholar at Worcester College, Oxford, in the 1940s. He was Professor of Music and Speech at the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, having served on the faculty of that seminary from 1967 until his retirement in 1992. His compositions include orchestral, choral, and chamber works as well as an opera. His enthusiasm for American shape-note hymn tunes eventually led to several being included in The Hymnal 1982. His Mass setting, sung this morning, was composed for a collection of five settings for Rite II Eucharist published by the Church Hymnal Corporation in 1976. Its accompaniments are fine and linear, and Cassels-Brown suggested the use of “instruments, like recorders…with or without the organ” suggesting an intimacy of conception. The Gloria includes repetitive chant-like characteristics and was designed to support responsorial performance. Cassels-Brown did not originally include Agnus Dei in this Mass setting, but the music he composed for Pascha nostrum subsequently has been adapted to support the Agnus Dei text.

The cantor on Sunday is tenor, Daniel Castellanos. During the Communion he will sing If with all your hearts from the oratorio Elijah by Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847). Mendelssohn blossomed early as a conductor, composer, and pianist and he enjoyed a short but brilliant career in those capacities. His contributions as a composer span the categories of orchestral, choral, stage, chamber, piano, vocal, and organ works. His music is said to have set the canons of mid-Victorian musical taste. His oratorio Elijah, Handelian in inspiration, was completed and first performed in 1846. If with all your hearts is the fourth of the oratorio’s forty-two movements. The text of this tenor aria, the voice of Obadiah, is drawn from Deuteronomy 4:29 and Job 23:3.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S . . . Sunday, August 2, The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Mass 11:00 AM. The church opens at 10:00 AM and closes at 12:30 PM. The celebrant and preacher is Father Jay Smith . . . Monday through Saturday, the church opens at 11:00 AM and closes at 2:00 PM. Mass is celebrated daily at 12:10 PM. Please see the Calendar of the Week for this week’s commemorations.

SAINT MARY’S ONLINE CENTERING PRAYER GROUP . . . The Saint Mary’s Centering Prayer Group continues to meet! The Group meets online, via Zoom, every Friday evening at 7:00 PM. If you are interested in participating, please send an e-mail to this address. The convenors of the group will then send the link to the Zoom meeting.

THE GALLERY AT SAINT MARY’S . . . During the lockdown, Brother Damien Joseph SSF has been exploring the interior of the church and chapels, looking closely at aspects of the building’s art and architecture that are often overlooked or never seen. He’s now captured some of those missing moments with his camera and has printed a number of the images for an exhibition in the Gallery in Saint Joseph’s Hall. Working with gallery curator, José Vidal, Damien has created and hung a show in the gallery that awaits the return of Saint Marians to Coffee Hour or a feast-day reception. However, since we do not yet know when that day will arrive, Damien has created an online exhibition so that members and friends of the parish can look at the array of images that are now hanging on the gallery wall. The exhibition—“Watchers and Holy Ones”—can be viewed on the website of the Society of Saint Francis. We hope to post the images on the parish website before too very long. For information about purchasing one of the photographs, please contact curator, José Vidal. Damien Joseph and his brothers in the Society of Saint Francis have kindly agreed to donate all sale proceeds to the Parish of Saint Mary the Virgin. —J.R.S.

THE FLOWER MARKET HAS REOPENED . . . We now welcome donations for flowers for the high altar. The suggested donation for those arrangements is $250.00. Please be in touch with Chris Howatt by email if you would like to make a donation.

AT THE MUSEUMS . . . At the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West at Richard Gilder Way (77th Street), New York, NY 10024. Phone (212) 873-3400. August 14–November 29, 2020, in the museum’s rear courtyard (located at West 76th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue), Hope Wanted: New York City Under Quarantine. This exhibition, curated by poet and journalist Kevin Powell and photographer Kay Hickman, features more than fifty photographs taken by Hickman along with fourteen audio interviews with the photographs’ subjects conducted by Powell during the team’s intensive two-day odyssey across the city on April 8–9, 2020; the audio will be accessible to visitors through their cell phones. Hickman’s empathetic photographs of people and their neighborhoods in all five boroughs and Powell’s searching interviews with New Yorkers affected by the crisis capture both tragedy and remarkable resilience at a moment in time during the pandemic. The exhibition text and audio will be offered in both English and Spanish. Hope Wanted will take place outdoors in New-York Historical’s rear courtyard, providing an open-air environment for visitors to view the exhibition and contemplate the impact of COVID-19 on New York City. Admission is free; access will be limited and face coverings will be required for entry, with social distancing enforced through timed-entry tickets and on-site safety measures. The exhibition also includes a quiet seating area, surrounded by plantings and conducive to reflection, where visitors can record their own experiences of the pandemic in an open-sided story booth. These oral histories will be archived by New-York Historical. Museum Schedule: Monday – Wednesday, closed; Thursday (age 65+ and immunocompromised only), 11:00 AM–5:00 PM; Friday, 11:00 AM–8:00 PM; Saturday & Sunday, 11:00 AM–5:00 PM.

SOME GUIDELINES FOR ATTENDING SERVICES AT SAINT MARY’S:

We are now open for public worship. In order to ensure the health and safety of all, we have instituted the following procedures and guidelines:

-           The 47th Street Doors, though open for ventilation, won’t be used for entry into the church. Entry is only via 46th Street. Exit only through the most western 46th Street door (near the former gift shop).

-           The Mercy Chapel and Saint Joseph’s Chapel are closed.

-           The Lady Chapel is open, but all chairs, kneelers, candles, hymnals, and Prayer Books have been removed.

-           Facemasks must be worn in the church.

-           Hands-free sanitizer dispensers are available by the doors and at the head of the center aisle, where Communion will take place.

-           The city, state, and diocese of New York encourages all those attending services to sign a registry and to provide one means of contact. This will be used only if it emerges that an infected person has been in attendance at a particular service and contact tracing is required.

-           Everyone must maintain safe distancing (at least 6 feet apart).

-           Pews have been marked with blue tape to indicate where seating is allowed.

-           Only 40 people will be allowed in the nave at any time (this includes 6 couples or pairs—people who live together—who may sit together.

-           All cushions have been removed from the pews.

-           All prayer books and hymnals have been removed from the church.

-           Mass bulletins will be provided, but will be removed from the church after each service.

-           All electric fans have been removed from the nave of the church.

-           There will be no hand-held fans available at the door.

-           Communion (wafers only) will be administered at the foot of the chancel steps.

-           Gluten-free hosts are available. Please inform an usher or a member of the clergy.

-           All communicants must proceed down the main aisle, maintain social distance as indicated by the decals on the floor, and return to their seats via the side aisles.

-           There will be no collection taken by ushers. A donations basket will be placed at the head of the center aisle, near the Communion area.

-           (Donations are encouraged and gratefully received.)

-           There will be no Offertory procession.

-           There will be no communal singing.

-           Bathrooms will be available only to those who are attending the service.

-           There will be no coffee hour.

-           These guidelines are to ensure the health and safety of all.

Please follow the directions of the ushers and the members of the clergy. If you have questions or wish to make a suggestion, please contact the rector.

This edition of the Angelus was written and edited by Father Stephen Gerth and Father Jay Smith. Father Gerth is responsible for posting the newsletter on the parish website and for distributing it via e-mail.

The Calendar of the Week