FROM THE INTERIM RECTOR: CH-CH-CHANGES

A fortnight into my tenure as your interim rector, I’m finally starting to learn my way around the rectory, the neighborhood, and— more importantly— the liturgy. Saint Mary’s reputation for exquisite worship is certainly well-deserved, and it is, and will always be, an honor to pray with you whenever we gather for worship.

You will no doubt discover, if you have not done so already, that I celebrate Mass somewhat differently than do your other priests. From what I can tell, these are small things, nuances, rather than major differences. I confess that some words, gestures, and manual acts will be hard for me to change, since they are so deeply embedded in my muscle memory. This does not mean, however, that I anticipate making wholesale changes to the liturgy. I respect and I want to honor the understanding of the liturgy that has developed here over the past two decades. Still, I know that there are some things that will be difficult for me to unlearn. On the other hand, perhaps there are other things, things that I value deeply, that you may also come to appreciate over time.

I feel greater clarity and even excitement about certain other changes. As you know, this coming Sunday we will host our first coffee hour since March 2020, and I hope you’ll join us after the 11:00 Mass to reconnect with old friends and make some new ones as well.

This week’s coffee hour will feature a town hall-style dialogue designed to introduce me and my wife, Renee, to the parish community. Of course, returning to coffee hour means loosening our COVID restrictions, but we believe what we are doing is consistent with the best practices around the city. To be sure, we recommend that all those who come to Saint Mary’s be vaccinated and boosted, if they are able. And if you are experiencing COVID symptoms or are at increased risk of illness, please continue to worship with us online.

Another change: perhaps you’ve noticed that your clergy are administering Communion without the latex glove used at the height of the pandemic. This change is based on CDC research that shows that the primary way COVID is transmitted is through exposure to respiratory droplets, not through touch. Nevertheless, the clergy will continue to use hand sanitizer prior to distributing Communion. We’re able to make these changes and others like them because of the generally positive trend in infection and hospitalization rates in New York, and I hope there will be more such changes in the not-too-distant future. My commitment to you is to regularly reevaluate existing COVID restrictions while also keeping in mind the most vulnerable members of our community.

As we emerge from this long COVID-tide, Saint Mary’s is poised to begin a new season of life and ministry in Times Square. That will bring more change, to be sure, but also more opportunities for reflection and creativity. One of the terms of my contract as your interim rector charges me to help discover “the congregation’s special identity [and] what it dreams of being and doing” in the future, always with God’s help. I’m excited about convening conversations about these questions, and I look forward to hearing directly from you in the weeks and months to come! — Sammy Wood

YOUR PRAYERS ARE ASKED FOR Archie, Cintra, Howard, Marcia, Wendell, David, Christian, John, Philip, Sylvia, Tevis, Pat, Eloise, Karen, Shalim, Ricardo, Greta, Luis, Liduvina, Marilouise, Quincy, Florette, Peter, George, Abraham, Ethelyn, Gypsy, Hardy, Margaret, and Robert; for Margo and Michael, religious; for David, Preston, and Louis, priests, and Andrew, bishop.

Your prayers are asked for all those who suffer in body, mind, or spirit, especially the people of Ukraine; the sick; the dying; the poor; all refugees and migrants; those without food, shelter, or work; those who suffer from COVID-19; and those who mourn.

Your prayers are asked for peace in Ukraine and throughout Eastern Europe; for all health workers and all those who work for the common good; for those who live and work in our neighborhood; for all those visiting Saint Mary’s this week; and for all the benefactors, friends, and members of this parish.

Your prayers are asked for Emil Bretzger, who is in hospice care at his home in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Pray also for those who care for Emil, remembering especially Henry and Mecca.

Your prayers are asked for Michael Taylor Hardgrove, who was clothed as a novice in the Society of Saint John the Evangelist in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Saturday, February 26. Please keep Michael and all the brothers of the Society in your prayers.

Your prayers are asked for the repose of the souls of Margarita Hernandez and William Norgren, priest. May they rest in peace and rise in glory.

GRANT THEM PEACE . . . March 6: 1878 Charles Wallace Stokes; 1880 Alida Westlake; 1896 Katrina Wilhelmina Sundermeyer; 1900 William Frederick Mayer; 1912 Robert Francis Dougherty.

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE . . . Margarita Hernandez, the grandmother of Kelly Moeller died this week. Kelly writes, “My grandmother lived a beautiful life. She was 102 years old. She had two children, nine grandchildren, twenty-two great grandchildren, and six great-great grandchildren. We were totally blessed by her. I would be so honored if you could mention her in one of your prayers.” Kelly is the executive administrator of Moeller & Son Mechanical Contractors, Inc. Her husband Peter, and Peter’s father before him, have been Saint Mary’s plumbers for decades. Please keep Kelly, Peter, and their family and friends in your prayers . . . On Tuesday, Bishop Andrew Dietsche, the bishop of New York, wrote to the diocese as follows about the death of the Reverend Dr. William Andrew Norgren, “I write to bid your presence and prayers as the Church commends to God the Rev. Dr. William Andrew Norgren, who died on the morning of February 24, 2022. Bill was an exemplary figure in the Episcopal Church’s ecumenical relations, first in his ministry as the Executive Director of the National Council of Churches’ Commission on Faith and Order and then as the Episcopal Church’s Ecumenical Officer. In his later years, Bill was an Honorary Assistant at Saint Thomas Church in Manhattan, and his funeral will take place there this Friday morning, March 4.” We received a message this week that read, “I just wanted you to know Saint Mary the Virgin was a very important part of Bill’s life and formation.” Please keep Father Norgren, his family and friends, and all who mourn in your prayers. Pray also for all those who work for Christian unity.

PRAY FOR PEACE . . . As we hear daily the terrible news of what is taking place in Ukraine, we continue to pray: 

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one God; to whom be dominion and glory, now and forever. Amen.

Almighty God, from whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed: kindle, we pray, in the hearts of all, the true love of peace and guide with your pure and peaceable wisdom those who take counsel for the nations of the earth that in tranquillity your kingdom may go forward, till the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

FRIDAYS IN LENT . . . We will walk the Stations of the Cross each Friday in Lent, except March 25, at 5:30 PM, following Evening Prayer, which begins at 5:00 PM. We ask that masks be worn during Stations, and we recommend that everyone attending Stations (and Sunday Mass) be vaccinated.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S . . . On Sunday, March 6, The First Sunday in Lent, the Adult Education class will meet from 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM in the Arch Room, on the second floor of the Mission House. Access is via 133 West Forty-sixth Street. The class will be led by Father Peter Powell . . . Tuesday, March 8, Racism Discussion Group Meeting, 7:00 PM via Zoom. For more information about this ongoing weekly meeting, please call the parish office . . . Friday, March 11, Evening Prayer 5:00 PM and Stations of the Cross 5:30 PM; Saint Mary’s Online Centering Prayer Group, 6:30 PM. Please send an e-mail to the group’s leaders for more information about this prayer group . . . Holy Eucharist and the Daily Office: The Angelus is recited Monday through Saturday at 12:00 PM and 5:00 PM. Evening Prayer is normally said in the church Monday through Saturday at 5:00 PM, except on Federal holidays and certain holy days. Solemn Mass is celebrated at 11:00 AM on Sunday morning and Evening Prayer is said at 5:00 PM in the church on Sunday afternoons.

ABOUT THE MUSIC . . . The organ prelude before the Solemn Mass on Sunday is a setting from the Orgelbüchlein (“Little Organ Book”) of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). The Orgelbüchlein is a collection of forty-six chorale preludes mostly composed between 1708 and 1717 when Bach was organist at the ducal court in Weimar. Although Bach’s original plan was for a collection of 164 settings of chorales for the church year, the realized collection spans the yearly liturgical cycle impressively. Seven of the forty-six chorales illuminate chorales sung in Lent and Holy Week. Bach’s Orgelbüchlein setting of O Mensch, bewein dein Sünden groß (“O man, bewail thy grievous sins”) is particularly distinctive and especially suited to the beginning of the Lenten season. The melody is attributed to Matthias Greitter and dates from 1525. The chorale, text by Sebald Heyden dating from 1530, has associations with both Bach’s Saint Matthew and Saint John Passions. The organ setting, BWV 622, is one of Bach’s most poetic ornamented melody chorale preludes. The final phrase, which refers to the crucifixion, is expressed with slower tempo and striking chromatic harmony. Today’s postlude is Bach’s four-voice harmonization of the same chorale, cataloged as BWV 402.

The setting of the Mass on Sunday was composed in 2018 by Robert Pound (b. 1970), Professor of Music at Dickinson College and Director of the Dickinson Orchestra in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Professor Pound received degrees from the University of North Texas and New York’s Juilliard School. His career has included several residencies with orchestras, universities, and music centers across the country for which he has conducted and composed. He has received commissions from such distinguished ensembles as the Corigliano Quartet, the Timaeus Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, the Florestan Recital Project, and the Murasaki Duo. His works have also been featured by the Verge Ensemble, the New Juilliard Ensemble, and at Fondation Bemberg (Toulouse, France). His recently composed Lenton Ordynary is a setting of the Rite II Kyrie (English), Credo, Sanctus & Benedictus, and Agnus Dei for unaccompanied four-voice choir. Dr. Pound has written the following of his setting:

“Lenton Ordynary is the first of a series of masses to be composed for the complete liturgical calendar of the major feasts and occasions. A pure diatonic, modal palette strictly circumscribes the mass’s Renaissance choral style to convey a staid, undecorated effect for the great penitential season of Lent. Word sounds and musical pitches are intricately entwined through relations established in an original plainchant setting of the psalm for Ash Wednesday (Psalm 51), which prefaces this mass. This work was created to the glory of God and in honor of and gratitude to Joseph Golden, organist and choirmaster of Trinity Episcopal Church, Columbus, GA.”

Lenton Ordynary, minus its Creed, received its liturgical premiere at Saint Mary’s in March 2020.

Henry Purcell (1659–1695) is the composer of Sunday’s Communion motet, Remember not, Lord, our offenses. Purcell, more than any other composer of his time, defined English Baroque musical style in a variety of vocal and instrumental genres that included works for theater, court, and church. He was born in London, and his family home was virtually in the shadow of Westminster Abbey, where he became organist in 1679. Standing on the foundation of such composers as Thomas Tallis (c. 1505–1585), William Byrd (c. 1543–1623), and Orlando Gibbons (c. 1583–1625), copies of whose anthems he made at an early age, Purcell forged a musical language of rich harmony and vivid textual expression. Sunday’s motet is Purcell’s five-voice setting of the collect following the Trinitarian invocation which begins the Great Litany. This choral prayer, composed in the early 1680s, presents its Prayer Book text mostly syllabically, colored expressively by Purcell’s characteristic use of chromatic harmony. — David Hurd

THE NEW YORK RECORDER GUILD AT SAINT MARY’S . . . On Saturday afternoon, February 26, the New York Recorder Guild had its first in-person meeting in nearly two years, and its first meeting ever at Saint Mary’s. A group of nearly twenty recorder players from the New York area met in Saint Joseph’s Hall and played several Renaissance and Baroque pieces under the direction of Deborah Booth, the current Musical Director of the Guild.

The New York Recorder Guild (NYRG) includes recorderists, ranging from amateur players to professional musicians, who bring with them collections of instruments ranging from the foot-long soprano to the four-foot-long bass variants. (There also exist some smaller and larger recorder types which occasionally make appearances.) The NYRG is a member of the American Recorder Society, founded in 1939. The Guild was originally incorporated in 1975 to bring players and teachers together, offering classes at various levels of advancement. Over the years, many luminaries of the New York early-music community directed, taught, and in other ways contributed to the life and vitality of the Guild. In the early 2000s the NYRG declined into inactivity. However, after a hiatus of several years, it sprang back to life in 2017 under the leadership of Deborah Booth, Natalie Liebert, and Wendy Powers. Monthly meetings resumed under the direction of a variety of teachers and clinicians until the COVID-19 pandemic prevented its gathering and silenced its recorders. The Guild continued with virtual meetings, skillfully executed by various leaders over Zoom, but at best they were a pale substitute for the experience of in-person music-making. The Board of the Guild is very happy that, as we emerge from the grip of the pandemic, it is again possible to meet in person, and we are especially delighted that it is possible to do so in Saint Joseph’s Hall at the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin. With last Saturday’s meeting, the NYRG looks forward to rebuilding its musical life and fellowship in future meetings at Saint Mary’s.

If you are interested in knowing more about the NYRG, please visit its website: www.nyrg.org. The website is currently under redevelopment and will soon be updated. — David Hurd

AROUND THE PARISH . . . On Saturday, February 26, at 2:30 PM, Oliver Mitchell Nedkov Davenport received the sacrament of Holy Baptism in the baptistery. Oliver was born in the autumn of 2015. He is the son of Peter Davenport and Vladimir Nedkov, who are friends of Saint Mary’s. Present also were Mary Elizabeth Martella, Kaitlin Kominsky, and Philip Judson, Oliver’s godparents, and several other friends of the Nedkov-Davenport family. Father Jay Smith officiated. At the beginning of the service, Father Smith spoke for a few minutes about the rich symbolism of this sacrament—water, oil of chrism, light, fire, the Paschal candle, and the gathered members of the Body of Christ. As he was speaking about the “meaning of water,” Oliver, who was standing tiptoe on the platform and reaching into the font, spoke up and said, “Water means hope.” Please keep Oliver and his fathers in your prayers . . . We welcome donations for flowers on the altar and around the church for the following dates: Sunday, May 15, the Fifth Sunday of Easter; Sunday, May 22, the Sixth Sunday of Easter; Sunday, June 5, the Feast of Pentecost; Sunday, June 12, Trinity Sunday; and other dates until the end of 2022. Please contact the parish office for more information.

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.

LOOKING AHEAD . . . Sunday, March 13, Daylight Saving Time begins . . . Thursday, March 17, Saint Patrick, Mass 12:10 PM . . . Saturday, March 19, Saint Joseph, Mass 12:10 PM . . . Friday, March 25, The Annunciation of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mass 12:10 PM, Organ Recital 5:30 PM, Solemn Mass 6:00 PM . . . Sunday, April 10, The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday . . . Thursday, April 14, Maundy Thursday . . . Friday, April 15, Good Friday . . . Saturday, April 16, Easter Eve . . . Sunday, April 17, Easter Day.

ADULT EDUCATION . . . This coming Sunday, March 6, Father Peter Powell will resume his series—begun last November—on the Holiness Code, Leviticus 17–27. The class will meet in the Arch Room on the second floor of the Mission House. Access is via 133 West Forty-sixth Street or the sextons’ lodge at the east end of the narthex (vestibule) of the main entrance to the church. Father Powell writes, “I have long been attracted to the Holiness Code as the source of much of what has become Christian ethics. The foundation of the call to be ethical is that we are called to be holy because the Lord Our God, who brought his people up from the land of Egypt, is holy. To be holy is to be a people apart. During these classes will look at these chapters and related chapters in the Torah that ground us in what we undertake when we say we are children of God. Our faith has expectations. These are not the easiest chapters to read, so we will do so carefully as we learn about ourselves and our faith. In these chapters, you will find some of the texts used to argue against same-sex marriage as well as the texts used to mandate the forgiveness of debts. How do we read these texts today in a way that takes each seriously while understanding them in their historical context? We live in a church that encourages marriage for all who desire it. Are we in conflict with the Bible, or might there be, as I think there is, another way of treating these difficult verses? We live in a world where some call for the forgiveness of all student debt (and some for the canceling of all debt for the poor). What does the call for Jubilee have to say about how we are Christians today? These are only two of the many ethical issues raised in these chapters. I look forward to studying with you during the season of Lent.”

NEIGHBORS IN NEED . . . The next Drop-by Day is scheduled for Friday, March 18. Volunteers work from 1:30 PM until 3:30 PM. Our guests are invited into the church a bit before 2:00 PM, and we close our doors at 3:00 PM. We need at least 6 volunteers for each Drop-by. If you would like to volunteer, please send an email to neighbors@stmvnyc.org or call the Parish Office at 212-869-5830. The April Drop-by will take place on Friday, April 22, the fourth Friday of the month, instead of the third, because April 15 is Good Friday. The May Drop-by will take place on Friday, May 20.

We are especially eager to received donations of coats, thermal underwear, socks, and sweatshirts during these winter months. We are always very happy to receive new or lightly used athletic shoes as well. Thank you to all who have supported this important ministry.

HOW THE FLOWERS OF THE FIELD COME TO ST. MARY’S . . . All the flower arrangements at Saint Mary’s are created by parish volunteers, who purchase the flowers and other supplies at local stores and wholesalers in Manhattan’s floral district, which has for years been centered around Twenty-eighth Street and Sixth Avenue. They plan ahead, working creatively and strategically to make every dollar count during their shopping trips. The New York Times recently published an article about some of the supply-chain issues affecting the flower industry. And the problems detailed in the article have been confirmed by our suppliers. (Readers of the article should know that the members of the Flower Guild do not resort to any of the “creative solutions” cited at the end of the article.)

The suggested donation for a Sunday or holy day is $250.00, and we recognize that that is a lot of money. However, our altar is not small, and our church building is large. Costs are high in Manhattan and are getting higher. We believe that careful shopping at our wholesalers allows us to do much more than if we bought at retail florists. We hope that our members and friends will be able to continue to support this ministry. And remember: it is always possible for a group of donors to concentrate their resources and make a donation for a single Sunday or holy day. We are grateful to all those who have encouraged us in our work and who have supported us in all our endeavors over the years. — Brendon Hunter

This edition of the Angelus was written and edited by Father Sammy Wood and Father Jay Smith. Father Matt Jacobson is responsible for helping to edit the newsletter and for posting it on the parish website and distributing it via mail and e-mail, with the assistance of Christopher Howatt, parish administrator, and parish volunteer, Clint Best.