FROM THE RECTOR: WORTHY TO STAND

The arrival of COVID-19 meant that the seat cushions and kneeling cushions in the nave pews needed to go. They could no longer be repaired and cleaned; they are gone. (There are some cushions left in the chancel that were bought about ten years ago. We have not thrown them away.) This notice has appeared in all service bulletins since we reopened for public worship on July 1, 2020: The members of the Congregation should feel free to stand, sit, or kneel, as they wish, and as they are able, throughout the celebration of the Eucharist.

Two Sundays ago, January 31, Father Pete Powell was celebrant and preacher. Father Jay Smith and I were assisting priests. During the service, we both realized that we priests were standing during the Great Thanksgiving, but the lay servers were not. This does not reflect our baptismal theology, and, it’s not a good look. Last Sunday, when I was celebrant and preacher and still thinking about this issue, I noticed that almost all of the congregation in the nave was standing for prayer.

For many years now, we have used Eucharistic Prayer B from the beginning of Advent until the First Day of Lent. The prayer’s focus on the goodness of creation, the calling of Israel, and the incarnation of Jesus Christ make it very appropriate for this time of the year. This prayer of thanksgiving includes these words: “For in these last days you sent him to be incarnate from the Virgin Mary, to be the Savior and Redeemer of the world. In him, you have delivered us from evil, and made us worthy to stand before you. In him, you have brought us out of error into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of death into life” (The Book of Common Prayer, page 368). I’ve always liked that image. It is a vivid way of describing what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

Except on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, I have never knelt while vested in chasuble and stole. When I came to Saint Mary’s, the practice had been for the celebrant to preside at the Liturgy of the Word from the celebrant’s chair. There was a lectern there as well as one in the chancel. It meant that the celebrant didn’t need a server at weekday Mass to pray with hands lifted—the position known by the Latin word orans. Both altars at Trinity Church, Michigan City, Indiana, where I was rector for a decade, were positioned for the celebrant to face the altar, not the congregation, which is also true at Saint Mary’s. That means that, when I am celebrant, I have bowed, not knelt, during the general confession. But it seems to me, that here is no reason for me to bow at present because most of the congregation is standing. For the record, since the publication of the Missal of Pope Paul VI in 1969, no one kneels or bows for the general confession in the Roman Catholic Church.

Over the years, I have considered asking servers to stand rather than kneel. But when we have an entire team and a large part of the congregation is kneeling or sitting, the sightlines are not right. But now that the larger part of the congregation is standing, I’m going to ask that at least one server stand for the Great Thanksgiving—and if both were to stand that would be fine with me. Sightlines are not a problem. Until COVID-19 protocols are behind us and cushions return—and we will need to buy 350 of them—our service bulletins will continue to invite members of the congregation to stand, sit, or kneel as they are able.

On Ash Wednesday, following the sermon, there is an exhortation for a holy Lent. Following that, the Prayer Book says, “Silence is then kept for a time, all kneeling” (page 265). This year, the service bulletin says, “Silence is then kept for a time. After the silence, the celebrant will invite the congregation to be seated for Psalm 51.” The congregation will be invited to stand or sit as they are able for the litany of penitence and its concluding declaration that God “pardons and absolves all those who truly repent, and with sincere hearts believe his holy Gospel” (page 269).

It’s worth noting that in Rite One, following the general confession, in the absolution, the celebrant prays that God “will bring you to everlasting life” (page 332), in Rite Two, that God will “keep you in eternal life” (page 360). Both are true. For a long time, my heart and mind has wanted God to keep me in eternal life.

I own two chasubles, one white and one purple. They are both conical chasubles. When I was ordained priest, I was clothed with the white set. I once remarked to a colleague in my Baton Rouge days that I hoped to be buried in the white set. Without missing a beat, he said, “Are we a little presumptuous?” I enjoy the quick wit of others. May Lent be a holy and happy time for us this year. —Stephen Gerth

YOUR PRAYERS ARE ASKED FOR Nam, Penelope, Emily, Michael, Ken, Loretta, Jeremy, Hilary, Aston, Burton, Bob, Glee, Caryn, Christine, Marilouise, Quincy, Florette, John, Shalim, James, Daphne, Luis, José, Alexei, and Abraham, Dennis, Emil, Ethelyn, Hardy, Margaret, and Robert, for all who suffer from COVID-19; for Scott, Gaylord and Louis, priests, and Charles, bishop, for all those who work for the common good, and for all the members and friends of this parish . . . GRANT THEM PEACE . . . February 14: 1882 Albertus Longfellow Garden; 1895 Alfonso Rubira; 1953 Walter Petrie Mason.

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

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S . . . Sunday, February 14, The Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Mass 11:00 AM. The church opens at 9:00 AM and closes at 12:30 PM. The preacher is the Reverend Jay Smith. The service is played by Dr. David Hurd. He will be joined by cantor, Mark Risinger, bass . . . Monday, February 15, Washington’s Birthday, Federal Holiday. Mass 12:10 PM. The parish offices are closed . . . Tuesday, February 16, Racism Discussion Groups, 4:00 PM and 7:00 PM. Please contact Brother Damien Joseph or Brother Thomas for more information . . . Wednesday, February 17, The First Day of Lent, Mass 12:10 PM. Dr. David Hurd will play the service and members of the choir will sing. Ashes will not be imposed at the service because of COVID-19 protocols . . . Friday, February 19, Neighbors in Need Drop-by Event, Church and Lady Chapel, 2:00–3:00 PM; Evening Prayer and Stations of the Cross 6:00 PM.

AROUND THE PARISH . . . We are hoping to receive donations for flowers on Sunday, March 14 (The Fourth Sunday in Lent) and Palm Sunday (March 28). Donations for flowers at Easter are also very welcome. If you would like to make a donation, please contact Chris Howatt in the parish office. If you are interested in the work of the Flower Guild, please speak to Brendon Hunter, Grace Mudd, Marie Rosseels, or Brother Thomas . . . It makes us very happy to be able to open our doors again for public worship, on weekdays as well as on Sundays. The surge of infections in our city and around the country is concerning. We have committed ourselves to redoubling our efforts to keep every member of the community safe and healthy. If you are at all unwell, do not come to church. If you are experiencing symptoms, contact your primary-care physician and get tested. If you have a fever of 103.5, which is not being handled by an analgesic, and/or you are having difficulty breathing (by difficulty we mean you must stop talking in order to focus on your breathing), go to an emergency room immediately.

LENTEN QUIET DAY . . . On Saturday, March 13, Brother Thomas Steffensen SSF will lead a virtual quiet day via Zoom. The structure of the day is still being worked out, but it is likely that the day will have three parts: a morning session, followed by a break for reflection at midday, and then a second session in the afternoon. Brother Thomas hopes to use the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) as a way of considering our relationship with God and our inherited images of the divine. Stay tuned for further details.

MUSIC AT SAINT MARY’S . . . The Fantasia in G minor by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was composed between 1708 and 1712. It begins with a chord and sweep of recitative over a tonic pedal which leads to a cadence on the dominant. A passage in strict imitation bridges the way to a burst of improvisatory writing which is followed by a reappearance of the imitative material in another key. A striking sequence of modulations over a descending pedal line follows, spilling into the final free section, rich and surprising in its chromaticism. The kaleidoscopic harmonic refractions of this piece may be an appropriate musical anticipation of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, recounted in today’s Gospel.

Olivier Messiaen’s Apparition de l’Église éternelle, played as the postlude on Sunday, may also be heard as suggestive of the Transfiguration. Messiaen was born in Avignon, son of the poetess Cécile Sauvage. He was a student of Marcel Dupré and Paul Dukas at the Paris Conservatory where, in 1942, he became professor of musical analysis, philosophy, and aesthetics. His legendary tenure as titular organist of Trinité, Paris, began in 1931. His Apparition de l’Église éternelle dates from the early 1930s. Michel Roubinet describes this work as “an immense, hypnotic crescendo calling upon the characteristic piling of tier upon tier of sound rising from the symphonic organ—indissociable from Messiaen both as organist and improviser—followed by a long decrescendo in mirror image. One perpetual and unchanging rhythm, linking an iambus to two long notes, sustains the entire structure of the work.”

The Mass setting on the Last Sunday after the Epiphany is by the California-born composer Richard Felciano (b. 1930). Felciano is founder, composer, and professor emeritus at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies at the University of California, Berkeley. His extensive and varied catalogue of compositions includes pioneering sacred works employing aleatoric elements and electronic sounds in collaboration with voices and organ. Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians says:

“Felciano’s music reflects a fascination with the physical world and the context it provides for its inhabitants. He has introduced electronic sounds into religious liturgy, used live electronic interaction to mimic ecological processes, intermingled Eastern and Western modes, and mapped the microcosm of psycho-acoustical phenomena. The power of his music, however, lies in its ability to ennoble the intellect through a paradoxically sensuous love of sound and transform technology into a celebration of the human spirit.”

At the request of the Standing Commission on Church Music in 1975, Felciano’s five-movement Mass setting was adapted by the composer for Episcopal Rite II liturgy from a setting he had previously composed for obsolete vernacular Roman Catholic Mass texts. Felciano’s unapologetically modern setting was published the following year by the Church Hymnal Corporation as one of five Mass settings for Rite II in Church Hymnal Series One. Four of its movements are found in The Hymnal 1982. Writing in The Hymnal 1982 Companion (1994), the late Alec Wyton said of Felciano’s Mass: “The fact that it is included in The Hymnal underscores the Christian belief that God is the creator of everything and gives us all our talent. It was also the Service Music Committee’s belief that a variety of styles should be represented in The Hymnal.”

The cantor on Sunday is bass, Mark Risinger. During the administration of Communion, he will sing a setting of Love (III) from George Herbert’s 1633 collection The Temple: Sacred Poems by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958). Vaughan Williams’s Love bade me welcome is the third of his Five Mystical Songs for baritone, chorus, and orchestra, all composed for texts by George Herbert (1593–1633) between 1906 and 1911. In setting the Herbert poem, Vaughan Williams distinctively quotes a plainsong melody for O sacrum convivium, a clear Eucharistic reference, against Herbert’s words, “You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat. So I did sit and eat.”

More about today’s cantor: Mark Risinger, a Texas native, has been a member of the Saint Mary’s choir since 2005 and is also vice president of the Board of Trustees. He teaches music and English literature at Saint Bernard’s School and serves on the Education Committee of the Metropolitan Opera Guild. As a soloist, he has performed opera and oratorio throughout the United States, Europe, and Mexico, including appearances with New York City Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony, the Nashville Symphony, the New York Choral Society, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Opera Orchestra of New York, Boston Baroque, and the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia. In addition to degrees in English literature, he holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Harvard University, where he completed a dissertation on the compositional process of G.F. Handel and where he was Lecturer on Music for five years. In addition to teaching and singing, he is a frequent guest lecturer for the Metropolitan Opera Guild and an editor of the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe.

STEWARDSHIP CAMPAIGN 2021 . . . As of January 26, 2021, we have received $344,139.00 in pledges from 104 households, 86% of our goal. We are eager to hear from those who made a pledge for 2020, but who have not yet made a pledge for 2021. We know that time are tough, and, if making a commitment at this time is not possible, we will gladly receive pledge cards at any point during the coming year. Our needs are urgent, especially in these days of the pandemic. Our mission is clear. We invite your support.

NEIGHBORS IN NEED . . . Our next Drop-by Day will take place on Friday, February 19, 2:00–3:00 PM in the church and Lady Chapel. We need eight (8) volunteers for the event. (Volunteers work from 1:30 to 3:30 PM. However, doors do not open to guests until 2:00 PM.) If you would like to volunteer or make a donation of cash, clothing, or toiletry articles, please contact Brother Desmond Alban, SSF . . . Saint Mary’s has long provided assistance to our neighbors at the Saint Clement’s Food Pantry, sending cash donations, but also receiving non-perishable food items which were then delivered to the Pantry. The pandemic has made collecting and delivering difficult for a number of reasons. However, since food insecurity has increased in the city—also because of the pandemic—we would like to re-double our efforts in assisting the Saint Clement’s program. Cash donations are gratefully received. Please put Saint Clement’s Food Pantry in the memo line or field when you make your donation, and we thank you.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION . . . There is no adult-education class on Sunday, February 14 . . . On Sunday, February 21, Father Peter Powell will resume his series on the Revelation to John, the Christian Bible’s final book. Father Powell will teach on all the Sundays of Lent and on Palm Sunday. His classes in the fall on Revelation were extremely interesting. Our current political situation reminds us that certain ways of apocalyptic thinking persist in our society. Reading Revelation together and confronting that text’s beauties and its challenges has many benefits. We invite you to join us.

The class will meet in Saint Joseph’s Hall, with face coverings and social distancing required. For all these classes, seating in Saint Joseph’s Hall will be arranged to maximize social-distancing. Unfortunately, we will not be able to provide refreshments. All those attending the class must wear a face covering.

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.