FROM THE RECTOR: TWO SPECIAL SERVICES

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary falls on Sunday, August 15, this year. I plan for us to have a Solemn Mass for Assumption Sunday. I will be the celebrant and preacher. A quartet from the parish choir will sing. Assumption last fell on a Sunday in 2010, when we gathered to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Father Edgar Wells’s ordination to the priesthood on August 9, 1960. This year, I plan to have time for fellowship after the Mass on Assumption Sunday. We can do this in Saint Joseph’s Hall—and in the church if we need more space to feel comfortable.

In 1999, my first year as rector, we had three outdoor processions: Palm Sunday, Corpus Christi Sunday, and Assumption Sunday. In 2004, Assumption again fell on a Sunday—another year with three processions through Times Square! It rained that day, but not when it came time for the procession. We were spared. The rain stopped, and we were able to go to Times Square carrying the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham. You can read all about it here.

In the twenty-two years that I have been rector, only four times has August 15 fallen on a Sunday (it will happen again in 2027). The third time this took place was 2010, when we celebrated Father Wells’s fiftieth anniversary of ordination to the priesthood on August 9, 1960. Father Wells had just been released from the hospital after a fall he’d suffered just days before Assumption Sunday. Because our former rector was still recuperating from the fall, we decided not to process to Times Square. 2021 will be  the last time the feast occurs on a Sunday while I am rector. I suspect it will be a memorable day for me. We will not have a procession through the square this year, but we will have Solemn Mass on this great day, a feast day which means a great deal to our parish community.

The Burial of the Dead for Edgar Fisher Wells, Jr., priest and eighth rector of this parish, will be celebrated on Saturday, August 21, at 10:00 AM. As is customary in our diocese, the bishop of New York, the Right Reverend Andrew M.L. Dietsche, will be the celebrant. The Right Reverend Allen K. Shin, bishop suffragan, will officiate at the commendation. I will be the preacher. After the service, we will have transportation for the altar party and family to the cathedral. Bishop Dietsche will officiate at the committal of Father Wells’s ashes at the columbarium. I have been in touch with cathedral staff members. At this point, it seems likely that it will be possible for others to join us for the interment at the cathedral. I will try to have details about attending the interment in the newsletter for August 1, 2021.

Just this week, Father Jay Smith and I have been in touch with colleagues here in Manhattan about congregational singing. At Saint Thomas Church the congregation is now singing hymns (safely distanced). They no longer ask fully vaccinated persons to wear masks, but they do ask those who are not fully vaccinated to do so. They, like us, are using the honor system. Everyone is asked to show concern for the other members of the community. If you are sick, do not come to church and seek medical advice. If you are not fully vaccinated, wear a face covering while in the church.

The congregation of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral is also singing with safe distancing. We will be ready to resume singing here at Saint Mary’s on Sunday, August 1, 2021 with safe distancing. —Stephen Gerth

YOUR PRAYERS ARE ASKED FOR Mary Ellen, Larry, José, Teresa, Virginia, Charles, Maria, Mario, Roman, Alexei, Christopher, Liduvina, Jonathan, Emerson, Rita, Marilouise, Quincy, Florette, John, Shalim, Peter, George, Abraham, Burton, Dennis, Ethelyn, Emil, Gypsy; Jack, religious; James, Randall, and Louis, priests; all who suffer from COVID-19; all who work for the common good; and all the friends and members of this parish. . . GRANT THEM PEACE . . . July 11: 1876 Mary Lillian Winans; 1911 Florence Devine; 1917 Mary Lorenz; 1946 Virginia L. Berrian; 1949 Marian Wood Dale Rae; 1981 Pelham St. George Bissell.

WE NEED YOUR HELP . . . If you have made a pledge for 2021, please continue to make payments on your pledge, if possible. If you have not yet made a pledge for 2021, we urge you to do so. If you can 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 . . . Would you like to donate altar flowers? We are looking those willing to donate altar flowers for all the Sundays in July and August, except for August 15. The suggested donation is $250. Donors often give flowers in memory, thanksgiving, or celebration of people or life events they would like to pay tribute to. Please contact Chris Howatt in the parish office, if you would like to donate or speak to Brendon Hunter for more information . . . Please speak to the rector if you’d like to volunteer to take photographs on Sunday morning, during Mass or the adult-education classes. The photographs are used to illustrate the weekly newsletter . . . Father Peter Powell is an assisting priest here at Saint Mary’s. We haven’t seen him in a while because he’s been assisting elsewhere. In May and June, he was at Saint John’s Church in Stamford, Connecticut. During the month of July, and through August 1, he is at Christ Church, Pelham, New York, where Father Matthew Mead is the rector. Father Mead is on vacation, and so Father Powell is helping out there as he has done during the month of July for several years now. He then returns to Saint John’s, where he will be through Labor Day, after which we hope to see him, and his wife, Barbara Powell, back at Saint Mary’s more regularly . . . Father Stephen Gerth will be away from the parish on vacation beginning on Sunday, July 11. He returns to the office on Monday, July 18 . . . Father Jay Smith will be taking some vacation at the end of the month. He will be away from the parish from Monday, July 19, until Sunday, August 1. He returns to the office on Monday, August 2.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S . . . Sunday, July 11, The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. Mass 11:00 AM, Father Matthew Jacobson, celebrant and preacher; Evening Prayer 5:00 PM. The church opens at 10:00 AM and closes at 5:30 PM . . . Monday–Saturday, July 12–July 17, Mass 12:10 PM and Evening Prayer 5:00 PM. The church is open from 11:00 AM until 5:30 PM . . . Tuesday, July 13, Racism Discussion Group Meeting, 7:00 PM via Zoom. For more information about this ongoing weekly meeting, please call the parish office . . . Friday, July 16, Neighbors in Need: Drop-by Day, 2:00–3:00 PM. Volunteers work 1:30–3:30 PM . . . Next Sunday, July 18, The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost: Mass 11:00 AM, Father Jay Smith, celebrant and preacher; Evening Prayer 5:00 PM.

NEIGHBORS IN NEED . . . At our monthly Drop-by Days, we distribute clothing and toiletry and hygiene items to those in need in the Times Square neighborhood. Our next Drop-by Day is scheduled for Friday, July 16. 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.

At the moment, we would welcome donations of single-trip MTA Transit cards. These are useful for our guests who need to travel to soup kitchens, appointments at health clinics, or meetings with social workers. We are so grateful to all those who continue to support this ministry so generously.

ABOUT THE MUSIC . . . The organ voluntaries on Sunday represent two generations of nineteenth-century French organ composers. The prelude is the second of three movements from the second organ sonata of Alexandre Guilmant (1837–1911). Guilmant became organist of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, in 1863, Notre Dame in 1868, and La Trinité in 1871, where he remained for thirty years. He was a founder of the Schola Cantorum and succeeded Widor as professor of organ at the Paris Conservatory in 1896. Guilmant was a student of Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens (1823–1881), and his own students included such legendary musicians as Joseph Bonnet, Nadia Boulanger, and Marcel Dupré. He was a prolific composer, writing more organ music between 1861 and 1911 than Franck, Saint-Saëns, Widor, and Vierne taken together. While his compositions were the vogue of his time, they were less frequently played after his death. In recent years, however, the renewed interest in Romantic organ repertoire has stimulated a fresh look at the works of Guilmant. Eight multi-movement sonatas, composed between 1874 and 1906, figure prominently among Guilmant’s organ compositions. The second movement of his second sonata is gentle, lyric, and succinct.

The postlude is by the slightly earlier Abraham Louis Niedermeyer (1802–1861). While Neidermeyer was born in Nyon, Switzerland, and studied in Vienna, Rome, and Naples, he settled in Paris at age twenty-one and spent most of his career there. He was a friend of Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) and collaborated with him on several opera productions. Rossini was by far the more successful opera composer, but Niedermeyer made significant contributions to church music as a composer and educator. In 1853 he reorganized and re-opened the École Choron, named for the French opera director and musicologist, Alexandre-Etienne Choron, who had died in 1834. This school was eventually renamed École Niedermeyer and was known as a school for the study and practice of church music. Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) was one of its many distinguished students. Niedermeyer’s Prelude in A minor utilizes a recurring pattern played on the pedals which, in turn, punctuates each change of the harmony played by the hands.

The musical setting of the Mass on Sunday is Mass IV as found in the Liber Usualis (“Usual Book”), a comprehensive anthology of medieval Roman plainsong compiled in the nineteenth century by the monks of Solesmes, France. Like the several other numbered Masses of the Gregorian Missal, Mass IV (In Festis Duplicibus. 1) is a collection of chants for the Ordinary of the Mass which likely were originally independent pieces brought together and associated with one another by later custom. This particular combination was traditionally sung on certain feast days in the Roman calendar. The Gloria of Mass IV dates from the tenth century and is in Mode 4. The Sanctus is in Mode 8 and is dated eleventh century. The Agnus Dei is probably from the thirteenth century and is in Mode 6.

Sunday’s cantor is countertenor, Jonathan May. During the Communion he will sing Esurientes implevit bonis (“He hath filled the hungry with good things”) from Magnificat, BWV 243, by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). Bach’s Magnificat is a major multi-movement work dating originally from early in his Leipzig period. The singing of elaborate settings of Magnificat in Latin on Christmas and major feasts of Saint Mary was common practice in Lutheran Leipzig at that time, so it is not surprising that Bach’s Magnificat in E-flat Major for five-voice chorus, soloists, and orchestra was likely first performed at the Saint Thomas Church, Leipzig, in 1723 shortly after his appointment there. Several versions of this piece with various interpolated movements probably were performed in succeeding years, but the version which became the best known after 1733 was a twelve-movement work in D Major drawing its Latin text entirely from Luke 1:46–55. The aria Esurientes implevit bonis is the ninth movement of the work and features the alto voice in dialogue with two flutes.

More about Sunday’s cantor: Jonathan May, countertenor, performs regularly with ensembles such as Early Music New York, Trident Ensemble, Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. He was most recently featured as a soloist in SWELL, a music-theater work by Melisa Tien that weaves together ten original avant-garde/new music compositions written by ten composers drawing from their personal histories as immigrants and children of immigrants. Through SWELL, he worked with Carolyn Chen, Tamar Muskal, Polina Nazaykinskaya, and other composers to premiere several new music pieces written specifically for his voice.

He has appeared with New York City’s TENET Vocal Artists in unconducted performances of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, featuring only twelve singers and the instrumental ensemble The Sebastians. He also appeared as Testo in the Academy of Sacred Drama’s modern premiere of Vincenzo de Grandis’s Il Nascimento di Mose. Other season highlights include appearances as alto soloist in C.P.E. Bach’s Magnificat with American Classical Orchestra and in Handel’s Dixit Dominus with Canticum Scholare; singing the role of Spirit in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the Mark Morris Dance Group; singing Philip Glass’s Madrigal Opera at National Sawdust; and performing Tallis’s Spem in alium with The Tallis Scholars. He holds a degree in music from Dartmouth College.

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 . . . Thursday, July 22, Saint Mary Magdalene . . . Friday, August 6, The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . Sunday, August 15, The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary . . . Tuesday, August 24, Saint Bartholomew the Apostle . . . Monday, September 6, Labor Day . . . Wednesday, September 8, The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary . . . Saturday, September 11, Requiem Mass for Victims of Attacks on 9/11/2001 . . . Tuesday, September 14, Holy Cross Day . . . Tuesday, September 21, Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist . . . Wednesday, September 29, Saint Michael and All Angels.

AT THE MUSEUMS . . . In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, New York City, though not on view, The Assumption of the Virgin by Ambrogio di Stefano da Fossano (c. 1470s–1523/1524), sometimes known as Bergognone or Ambrogio Bergognone. This lovely and not overly sentimental portrayal of the Assumption may be viewed online here. Our Lady is assumed into heaven, greeted by her Son and the entire heavenly host. Some of the angels play musical instruments. Others crown Mary—whose dress is a deep royal red—Queen of Heaven. At the bottom of the frame is a beautifully composed grouping of the twelve apostles, who are skillfully rendered as individuals, each with their own character and physiognomy. Saint Marians will note that the Virgin’s mantle is decorated with gold stars. Also, of interest to members of this parish is the museum curator’s comment, “The metal stars on the Virgin’s dress are probably later additions,” which is reminiscent of the stars on the ceiling over our church’s nave. From the museum’s website, “A successful and popular painter of altarpieces, Bergognone worked for major churches throughout Lombardy, including the Incoronata in Lodi and the Certosa of Pavia. This picture, which dates from the early sixteenth century, formed the center panel of a large polyptych. Its delicacy is typical of his work.” 

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.