FROM THE RECTOR: LOOKING AHEAD

The annual letter for All Souls’ Day prayer requests will be in the mail early next week—it’s already at the FedEx’s copy center at 125 West 47th Street. The letter will bring news that, after consulting with colleagues and parishioners, I’ve decided that this year there will be Said Masses on All Saints’ Day, Monday, November 1, and on All Souls’ Day, Tuesday, November 2. Also, this year, there will be no Sung Requiem on All Souls’ Day.

Saint Mary’s has a tradition of not celebrating All Saint’s Day on Sunday unless November 1 happens to fall on a Sunday. However, at the suggestion of Dr. David Hurd, we will take advantage of the Prayer Book’s permission to celebrate Solemn Mass for All Saints’ Day on the Sunday after All Saints’ Day, November 7, at 11:00 AM.

When I arrived at Saint Mary’s, a Solemn Mass was celebrated on Thanksgiving Day at 11:00 AM. It was not well attended. In 2000, we celebrated a Solemn Mass on Thanksgiving Eve with a congregational setting of the Mass ordinary and a cantor to sing the minor propers. In 2001, the Mass on Thanksgiving Eve became a simpler Sung Mass. Father Jim Pace was celebrant and preacher for the last time this service was held, November 22, 2019. We will not have a Thanksgiving Eve service this year.

However, in December there are two significant days on which it seems right to have evening celebrations of the Holy Eucharist, the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our patronal feast, Wednesday, December 8, and Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24. On Christmas Eve, we can expect to have two evening Masses, exact times to be determined. As I write on Friday, October 8, I fully expect us to be able to have evening services on these two days. Last Sunday after Evening Prayer, when I walked west on West 47th Street, the street was packed with people and cars. The three theaters between Times Square and Eighth Avenue had performances that evening. With the reopening of Broadway theaters, I think we can have Solemn Mass on Wednesday, December 8, at 6:00 PM.

I am still thinking with others about our schedule for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Last year, we had one service at 4:00 PM on Christmas Eve. This year I expect us to have a Sung Mass beginning in the late afternoon and a Procession & Solemn Mass later in the evening. The parish choir will sing at both services. There will be Solemn Mass & Procession to the Crèche on Christmas Day at 11:00 AM.

At its September board meeting, Saint Mary’s trustees agreed to my request that my last day of work be the Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 19, 2021. I asked for this to be my last Sunday as it is the anniversary of the death in 1898 of our founding rector, Thomas McKee Brown. Only Father Brown (rector June 13, 1870–December 19, 1898) and Father Grieg Taber (rector October 1, 1939–April 8, 1964) served as rector longer than I have. Both were serving as rector when they died. I will officially continue to be rector through December 31, 2021. I began work on February 1, 1999. The date of my retirement is January 1, 2022. My husband Richard Mohammed and I will be residents of Florida as of January 1, 2022. —Stephen Gerth

OUR NEW VIDEO LIVESTREAM . . . Please use the link on the webpage to access the livestream of the 11:00 AM Solemn Mass. You can also access it here.

YOUR PRAYERS ARE ASKED FOR Marcos, Joe, Dave, Mark, Hardy, John, Karen, Thomas, Shalim, Liz, Deb, JayJay, Ernest, Jessie, Jack, Emily, Gary, Greta, Larry, Pat, Eloise, Ralph, Mario, Liduvina, Gladys, Jonathan, Emerson, Marilouise, Quincy, Florette, John, Peter, George, Abraham, Burton, Dennis, Emil, Ethelyn, Gypsy, Margaret, and Robert; Randall, Louis, and Albert, priests, and Andrew, bishop; all who suffer from COVID-19; all who work for the common good; all the friends and members of this parish; and for the repose of the soul of Ruben Ramos. . . GRANT THEM PEACE . . . October 10, 2021: Origen Vandenburgh; 1896 Adeline Dorlan; 1917 Evelyn Knote Cissel; 1994 Octavia Josephine Wenz Wallace; 2010 Robert F. Dorum.

NEIGHBORS IN NEED . . . It’s Socktober! Warm Feet, Warm Hearts! We get to celebrate Socktober by making donations of socks to Neighbors in Need. White and black socks, and woolen socks, for both men and women in all sizes are most welcome! Socks are an item much in demand with our guests especially as the weather begins to get colder . . . At our monthly Drop-by Days, we distribute clothing and toiletry and hygiene items—and Metro Cards when they are available—to those in need in the Times Square neighborhood. Our next Drop-by Day is scheduled for Friday, October 15. Volunteers work from 1:30 PM until 3:30 PM. Our guests are invited into the church at 2:00 PM and we close our doors at 3:00 PM. We need six (6) volunteers for each Drop-by. If you would like to volunteer, please contact Marie Rosseels, MaryJane Boland, or Father Jay Smith. You may reach them by calling the Parish Office at 212-869-5830.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION . . . On the five Sundays in October, from 9:30–10:30 AM, Father Jay Smith will teach a series on the Desert Fathers and Mothers, their sayings, their lives, and their enduring influence and significance. This coming Sunday, October 10, we will again discuss the sudden rise of certain forms of Christian asceticism in fourth-century Egypt, talking briefly about the evolution of monastic life and customs in the fourth century. We will go on to read some of the sayings left by the desert elders, which will give us an entry into the desert elders’ characteristic spirituality. We hope that you will join us in Saint Joseph’s Hall at 9:30 AM. We greet the beginning of this new season in our adult-education program with excitement and anticipation.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S . . . October 10, The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 23, Year B). Adult Education 9:30–10:30 AM in Saint Joseph’s Hall. Solemn Mass 11:00 AM. The readings are Amos 5:6–7, 10-15; Psalm 90:1–8; Hebrews 3:1–6; Mark 10:17–31. The celebrant and preacher will be Father Matthew Jacobson. Evening Prayer will be said in the church at 5:00 PM . . . Monday, October 11, Columbus Day, Federal Holiday Schedule, Mass 12:10 PM. The church opens at 10:00 AM and closes at 2:00 PM . . . Tuesday–Saturday, October 12–16, Mass 12:10 PM and Evening Prayer 5:00 PM. The church is open on weekdays from 10:00 AM until 5:30 PM . . . Tuesday, October 12, Racism Discussion Group Meeting, 7:00 PM via Zoom. For more information about this ongoing weekly meeting, please call the parish office . . . Friday, October 15, 6:30 PM, Saint Mary’s Online Centering Prayer Group . . . Next Sunday, October 17, The Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 24, Year B). The readings are Isaiah 53:4–12; Psalm 91:9–16; Hebrews 4:12–16; Mark 10:32–45. The celebrant and preacher will be Father Stephen Gerth.

ALL SOULS’ DAY . . . On All Souls’ Day and on the following five weekdays, we remember by name those we love who are now in the nearer presence of God. This year, All Souls’ Day is Tuesday, November 2, and Mass will be at 12:10 PM that day. Requiem Masses will then be celebrated Wednesday–Saturday, November 3–6, and on Monday, November 8. Mass, as usual, will be celebrated each day at 12:10 PM.

Next week members and friends of the parish will receive in the mail a form and an envelope for All Souls’ prayer requests. A special offering to accompany All Souls’ intentions is traditional. Names will be read according to the following schedule at the daily 12:10 Mass, by the last name of the person making the intention:

On Wednesday, November 3         Last names A–F

On Thursday, November 4            Last names G–L

On Friday, November 5                Last names M–R

On Saturday, November 6             Last names S–V

On Monday, November 8              Last names W–Z

 Please return your list of names and your freewill offering as soon as you are able so that we can process the lists in time for the Requiem Masses beginning on November 3. May the souls of the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

AROUND THE PARISH . . . The Stewardship Committee has been hard at work on the 2021 Stewardship Campaign. Materials are being written, designed, and printed. Stewardship packets will be mailed during the third week of October. The theme of this year’s campaign is With God’s Help, Meeting Challenges & Finding Opportunities. We invite all our readers to begin to pray about how they might offer their time, talent, and treasure to the glory of God and to support this parish in the coming year.

ABOUT THE MUSIC . . . Jean Adam Guilain is the composer of Sunday’s organ voluntaries. His dates are not certain, his nationality was actually German, and his original name was Johann Adam Wilhelm Freinsberg. However, he came to Paris sometime before 1702 and probably soon became a student of Louis Marchand (1669–1732). In 1706, he published his two-volume Pièces d’orgue pour le Magnificat sur les huit tons différents de l’église (“Organ pieces for the Magnificat on the eight church tones”). Only the first of these two volumes is extant. It contains a suite of seven pieces for each of the first four church modes. The lost volume undoubtedly contained pieces of very similar character for the tones five through eight. Guilain’s suites were intended to be played at Vespers, their movements in alternation with chanted verses of the canticle. Guilain’s organ suites are idiomatically very French, despite the composer’s German origins. Typical of organ suites of his time, each movement is designated by a description of the character of the piece, indicating the organ stops intended to be used. Thus, in the course of such a suite, one hears the characteristic timbres of the instrument in stylized segments. The first three movements of Guilain’s suite on the second tone are played for the prelude on Sunday morning, and the sixth movement will be the postlude.

The setting of the Mass on Sunday is the four-voice Missa secunda of Hans Leo Hassler, who was born in Nuremberg and baptized on October 26, 1564. His musical career bridged the late Renaissance to the early Baroque periods. His initial musical instruction was from his father, Isaak Hassler (c. 1530–1591). Hans Leo left home in 1584 to study in Venice with Andrea Gabrieli (c. 1532–1585). While there, he became a friend of Gabrieli’s nephew, Giovanni (c. 1554–1612), who was also a student of the elder Gabrieli. Thus, Hassler was one of the first of a succession of German composers to experience in Italy the musical innovations that were shaping what would later be identified as baroque style. Hassler was recognized in his day not only as a composer, but also as an organist and a consultant on organ design. Hassler was a Protestant, but his early compositions were for the Roman church. His Missa secunda, first published in Nuremberg in 1599, is a model of efficient and concise text setting. The text is mostly set syllabically, and much of the musical texture is homophonic and rhythmically energetic. Hassler often has the higher two voices and lower two voices singing phrases in playful alternation. These aspects all help to set forth the text with particular clarity.

Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni (1657–1743) represents a Roman musical culture of more than a century later than Hassler. Pitoni was born in Rieti but was brought to Rome as an infant, where he studied music and sang in church choirs. He served at various times as maestro di cappella—or in a similar capacity—at Monterotondo, Rieti Cathedral, and many churches in and around Rome. While at Assisi Cathedral, Pitoni devoted himself to studying the works of Palestrina whose influence is apparent in his own compositions. However, Pitoni’s large musical output also reflected the stylistic fashions of his own day and included elements of concertato and polychoral writing. The text of Pitoni’s motet, sung during the administration of Communion during Sunday’s Solemn Mass, is Christus factus est, Philippians 2:8–9, which finds its traditional liturgical usage as the Gradual for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday. The power of this scriptural passage, however, is not confined to those occasions, and it has been set chorally by many prominent composers over the centuries. Pitoni’s setting begins in strict four-voice canon. The word mortem (“death”) is extended and painted with characteristic chromaticism. This is balanced later by the bright coloration of the word exaltavit (“he exalted [him]”).

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 6:30 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.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR . . . Monday, October 18, Saint Luke the Evangelist . . . Saturday, October 23, Saint James of Jerusalem . . . Thursday, October 28, Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles . . . Monday, November 1, All Saints’ Day . . . Tuesday, November 2, All Souls’ Day . . . Thursday, November 25, Thanksgiving Day . . . November 28, The First Sunday of Advent (Year C/Year Two).

AT THE THEATER . . . The Peccadillo Theater Company at the Theatre at Saint Clement’s, 423 West Forty-sixth Street, New York, NY, October 20, 2021–January 9, 2022. Morning’s At Seven, Paul Osborn’s treasured comedy classic, returns to New York for the first time in twenty years featuring an all-star cast, including Lindsay Crouse, Alma Cuervo, Judith Ivey, Dan Lauria, Tony Roberts, Patty McCormack, John Rubinstein, Keri Safran, Jonathan Spivey. Set in the early 1920s in a small midwestern town, Morning’s At Seven tells the story of the four Gibbs sisters, all of whom live within within a “stone’s throw” of each other. Now in their late sixties, the sisters and their husbands find themselves at a dramatic “fork in the road,” forced to confront longstanding rivalries and betrayals as well as the fears and disappointments of advanced middle age. At once hilarious and deeply touching, Morning’s At Seven lays bare the inner workings of the American family in all its messy, embarrassing, ridiculous glory. The play is directed by Dan Wackerman, who, with his husband, Kevin Kennedy, often worships with us on Sunday morning. They have been great supporters of Saint Mary’s. We invite you to support them in turn—and have a great time doing it! Tickets may be purchased online. The play has been produced by Julian Schlossberg, Roy Furman, Eric Falkenstein, Sandy Robertson, Suzanne Grant, and Alexander Marshall, in association with The Peccadillo Theater Company and Woodie King, Jr.'s New Federal Theatre.

AT THE MUSEUMS . . . At the Neue Galerie, 1048 Fifth Avenue at Eighty-sixth Street, Austrian Masterworks from the Museum’s Collection. Through November 7, 2021. The museum is now reopened for in-person visits. Pay-What-You-Wish admission through November 7. Highlights from the museum’s extensive collection of Austrian art from the period 1890 to 1940 are on view, including major works by Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Alfred Kubin, and Egon Schiele. The display features an extraordinary selection of Klimt’s paintings, including the early portrait of Gertha Loew (1902) and the “golden style” portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (1907). These are complemented by a work with an unidentified sitter: The Black Feathered Hat (1910), which shows Klimt’s careful study of the art of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The late unfinished works, Ria Munk III (1917) and The Dancer (1916–17), offer unparalleled insight into Klimt’s working method. In both, he initially sketched an outline of the composition in charcoal and then painstakingly filled in the details with oil. In addition, two of Klimt’s highly coveted landscapes are on view—Park at Kammer Castle (1909) and the Forester’s House in Weissenbach II (Garden) (1914), which were painted during his summer holidays on the Attersee, a popular lake in the Salzkammergut region of upper Austria.

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 mail and e-mail, with the assistance of Christopher Howatt and parish volunteer Clint Best.