FROM FATHER SMITH: HOLY WEEK 2022

The Jewish month of Nisan begins tonight, April 1, at sundown. Nisan is the “first of the months of the year” (Exodus 12:14), although, perhaps oddly, the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, takes place in the fall. (The Jewish calendar has its complexities, as does ours.)

The word “nisan” apparently has its roots in the languages of ancient Israel’s neighbors and means something like “the month of first fruits.” It is a springtime month, a month of new growth, new birth.

The sages and mystics of Judaism famously use wordplay and numerology as tools to investigate the hidden depths of their sacred texts. They have noticed that the Hebrew word nes, which means “miracle,” appears to be related to the word Nisan. This seems appropriate to them, and so they have sometimes called Nisan the “month of miracles.” It is the month of the Exodus, of Pesakh or Passover. It is the month of redemption, liberation, and freedom. It is the month in which the Jewish people remember the Lord’s mercy and chesed (“loving-kindness”). In Jewish tradition, the importance of this month is such that some of the sages claimed that the Jewish people’s ultimate messianic redemption must, and will, take place during Nisan, “In Nisan we were redeemed in the past, and in Nisan we are destined to be redeemed again” (Exodus Rabbah 15:2).

The history and meanings of the Jewish Pesakh and the Christian Pascha are intimately connected and intertwined. It is a long and complex history, a history filled with both beauty and with pain. In recent years, one of the tasks of Lent and Holy Week has been for Christians to repent of the sins of anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism. But another task has been to recognize the ways in which the Jewish tradition is for us a blessing and an opportunity for learning. I hope that this year, as we emerge slowly and haltingly from two years of shutdown, isolation, and exile, we will be able to celebrate Holy Week and Easter—all of Easter—as a time of redemption and of miracles.

Saint Mary’s clergy, staff, and lay leaders have been talking about Holy Week and planning for the week’s celebrations for some time now. We hope that this year we will be able to take steps that will allow us to keep Holy Week as fully as possible, in the ways intended by the Book of Common Prayer 1979. 

•  On Sunday, April, 10, The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday, Solemn Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 AM. Palms will be blessed and distributed. The Procession will take place in the church, and the Mass of the Passion will follow. Saint Luke’s account of the Passion will be chanted. As on the fifth Sunday in Lent (if we are ready from a livestreaming perspective), the sermon will be preached from the pulpit and the ministration of Communion will take place at the Communion rail. Palms will be placed in a basket at the crossing after Mass, and members of the congregation should feel free to take additional palms with them, if they like. This year, images in the church will be veiled beginning on Palm Sunday. Evening Prayer will be said in the church at 5:00 PM.

•  April 11–13, Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday in Holy Week: A Said Mass will be celebrated each day at 12:10 PM, and Evening Prayer will be said at 5:00 PM.

•  April 14, Maundy Thursday: The liturgy of the day begins at 6:00 PM. The celebrant and preacher will be New York’s bishop suffragan, the Right Reverend Allen K. Shin. Members of the congregation are invited to bring bells to the Mass. The “tuneful ringing” of those bells to accompany the ringing of the Sanctus bells will be heard as the singing of the song of praise, the Gloria, begins. The ritual foot-washing will take place in choir. Those who wish to participate will have their feet washed and will then wash another’s feet. At this Mass, additional bread is consecrated, to be used on Good Friday. At the conclusion of Mass on Maundy Thursday, all the consecrated Bread is taken to the Altar of Repose in the Mercy Chapel. Then the High Altar is stripped and washed. Adornments and some furniture are also removed from the chancel. This year the Watch Before the Blessed Sacrament returns and will continue until 12:00 AM.

•  As a parish, we are still trying to figure out what “normal” means after these two years of epidemic. Still, on April 15, Good Friday, the liturgy of the day will be familiar to all those who have worshipped with us in the past. The liturgy begins at 12:30 PM. The structure of this austere and unique liturgy remains essentially what it was in 2019. The Passion from the Gospel of John will be chanted. The Cross will be venerated in the usual way, though it will be held in place by a single minister. The celebrant and preacher will be Bishop Shin.

•  On April 16, the day begins at 9:00 AM with the brief Holy Saturday Liturgy (Book of Common Prayer, p. 283). The Great Vigil of Easter begins at 7:00 PM. (Sundown in New York City that evening is at 7:37 PM.) Father Sammy Wood will be the celebrant and preacher. The structure of this centrally important liturgy is essentially what it was in 2019. Father Wood will chant the Exultet. There will be five Vigil readings, not seven. The “tuneful ringing of bells” will take place during the singing of the Gloria, and we invite members of the congregation to bring bells with them that evening. There will be no baptism, but the Thanksgiving over the Water will take place in the baptistery. We ask the members of the congregation to remain in their seats for the Thanksgiving once again this year. Due to the lateness of the hour, there will be no reception following the Vigil.

•  Sunday, April 17, Easter Day: A Said Mass with Hymns will be celebrated at 9:00 AM and Solemn Mass will be at 11:00 AM. A festive reception will follow Solemn Mass in Saint Joseph’s Hall. Evening Prayer will not be said in the church on Easter Day.

The liturgies of Holy Week are rich in symbolism. At Saint Mary’s, we have always tried to highlight those symbols as much as possible, which makes Holy Week here an experience for body, mind, and spirit: beautiful music; the scent of incense; the feel of a palm frond in the hand; the sound of splashing water; warm water on the feet; the hard marble of the floor on Good Friday and the sound of that day’s somber chants and profound prayers; the light and the darkness at the Vigil; the words of the Bible; the taste of the consecrated Bread—all this and more is meant to take us deeply into the story of God’s chesed, God’s loving-kindness for us and for the world. This holy week gives us the time and space in which to ask: how has God saved me in the past? What is God’s saving work for me in the present? And how can this week be for me a time of miracles?

May this sacred time be filled for all of us with the knowledge of God’s hesed, the loving-kindness of the Lord. — Jay Smith

PUBLIC WORSHIP UPDATE…
I’ve been pleased to see our COVID numbers shift in a generally positive direction of late, leading the governor to lift the statewide mask-or vaccinate mandate and the mayor to lift many COVID restrictions in the city. Our vaccination numbers are strong – some 75% of the city’s residents (88% in New York County) are fully vaccinated – and the CDC website lists our community level as "low." Based upon these and other developments, Saint Mary’s will implement the following changes to public worship starting this Sunday April 3 (or as soon as possible): 

•  Allowing worshipers to make their communions at the communion rail (kneeling or standing, as you prefer) rather than at the crossing

•  Removal of the tape encouraging social distancing in the pews (our current attendance numbers allow people to spread out, further reducing risk)

•  Replacing the holy water in the stoups

•  The gospel proclamation from the midst of the congregation rather than at the crossing

•  Preaching from the pulpit when we've confirmed everything is in order to livestream the sermon from this location

•  A return to circulating the offering plates when we have a sufficient number of ushers (if you are able to volunteer for this important ministry, contact Marie)

 I read with great interest Bishop Dietsche’s March 14 letter (click here for the letter) allowing the return to Communion in both kinds, including restoration of the Common Cup. However, I’ve also read of rising infections across Europe and in New York over the past two weeks, and so as not to make a change only to have to reverse it immediately, we will wait just a while longer before implementing that particular change at Saint Mary’s. The same holds true for relaxing our mask mandate at this time. I ask for your patience, and I do assure you that your staff continues to review our COVID protocols regularly and is committed to returning to pre-pandemic practices as soon as we can, while also safeguarding, as much as possible, the most vulnerable and at risk in our community. 

As always, the most effective way to protect ourselves and our neighbors is through vaccination, and we encourage all at Saint Mary’s to be vaccinated and boosted to the furthest extent possible. Please continue to pray with us for an end to this pandemic, as well as for all who suffer from COVID and those who care for them. And may God bless you and our parish family as we implement these and other changes in the weeks to come. — Father Sammy Wood

YOUR PRAYERS ARE ASKED FOR Emil, Penny, Mel, Marjorie, Peter, Pat, John, Karen, Shalim, Greta, Liduvina, Quincy, Florette, Peter, George, Abraham, Ethelyn, Gypsy, Hardy, Margaret, and Robert.

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 and the persecuted; the unemployed and those looking for work; 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. Your prayers are asked for peace in all the troubled places of this world, remembering especially the people of Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Myanmar, Syria, Israel, Palestine, and Yemen.

Your prayers are asked 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; for all actors, artists, and musicians; and for all the benefactors, friends, and members of this parish.

Your prayers are asked for the work of Neighbors in Need, for its guests, its benefactors, and its volunteers, and for the success of AIDS Walk 2022.

Your prayers are asked for the repose of the soul of Marilouise Agnone Ruane. May she rest in peace and rise in glory.

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE . . . Marilouise Agnone Ruane died at her home in the Green Ridge section of Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Monday, March 28, four years after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She was the wife of Thomas J. Ruane and the mother of Peter Agnone Ruane, a good friend of Saint Mary’s and a former member of the parish’s Flower Guild. Marilouise is remembered by the members of the guild and by Father Smith as a remarkable person of great kindness and deep faith. She showed great courage as she struggled and lived with her illness. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton on Monday, April 4, at 9:30 AM. Please keep Marilouise, Thomas, Peter, and all their family and friends in your prayers.

GRANT THEM PEACE . . . April 3: 1891 Flora Ann Smith; 1892 Clarence Claudius Bode; 1901 Mary Jane Crook; 1902 Arthur Jones; 1917 Edward Dwight Atherton; 1930 Josephine Hewitt Keffner Lyons; 1933 Thomas Gillen Dawson; 1938 Sarah Anna Stoothoff Muren; 1940 William Wise Raymond; 1944 Lily E. Goodall Hubert; 1952 Francis Mills Turner.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S . . . Friday, April 1, Evening Prayer 5:00 PM & Stations of the Cross 5:30 PM . . . Saturday, April 2, 8:00 PM, The New York Repertory Orchestra, David Leibowitz, music director. Admission is free. Suggested donation $15.00. Program: Ponchielli, Elegia; Mozart, Violin Concerto No. 5; Kashperova, Symphony in B minor (North American Premiere) . . . On Sunday, April 3, The Fifth 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. Solemn Mass on Sunday is celebrated at 11:00 AM. Evening Prayer is said in the church at 5:00 PM . . . Tuesday, April 5, Racism Discussion Group Meeting, 7:00 PM via Zoom. The Group will not meet during Holy Week (April 12). For more information about this ongoing weekly meeting, please call the parish office, or speak to one of the current members of the group, such as Charles Carson, Charles Morgan, Marie Rosseels, or Ingrid Sletten . . .  Sunday, April 10, The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday, Adult Education 9:30 AM, Solemn Mass 11:00 AM, Evening Prayer 5:00 PM . . . Holy Eucharist and the Daily Office: The Angelus is recited Monday through Saturday at 12:00 PM and 5:00 PM and Mass is celebrated at 12:10 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.

AROUND THE PARISH . . . Our interim rector has a blog page that he posts to around once a month. You can visit Father Sammy’s blog by clicking here… 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.

THE AIDS WALK IS BACK… After a hiatus due to the pandemic, AIDS Walk New York returns to Central Park this year for an in-person event on May 15 and Saint Mary’s again has a team for this important fundraiser. Since last week, our team has grown to seven members, but there is plenty of room for anyone who is interested. Won’t you come join us? We have raised $28,525, though our goal is $40,000. We still need your help!

Click here to join the team or to donate. Donations via check, payable to “AIDS Walk New York,” can be given to one of the team leaders: MaryJane Boland, Clark Mitchell, or Father Matt Jacobson. Feel free also to contact us with any questions about the Walk. Additional details and history of our participation can be found on the parish webpage here, including a video about this important ministry. Any support, large or small, matters and is very much appreciated! —MaryJane, Clark, and Father Matt

DONATIONS FOR EASTER FLOWERS are most welcome from members and friends of Saint Mary's. Your contribution will help create the beautiful everything from Altar of Repose to the festive flowers adorning the church for the Easter Octave. Please go online to Saint Mary's donation page, click on "Give Now", and to the right of the amount entered select "Flowers" from the Fund menu. Checks can be mailed to the parish at 145 West 46th Street, New York, NY 10036 and please note "Easter Flowers" on the memo line. Flower donation envelopes are also available at the back of the church and can be left in any shrine box or in the offering basket during services.

VOLUNTEERS FOR PARISH WORKDAY… The parish guilds need volunteers for many different things to make the solemnities and festivities of Holy Week and Easter come to life. There will be a parish workday starting at 11:00 AM on Saturday, April 9 with many items ranging from stripping palms to cleaning the high altar to polishing brass. Lunch will be provided early in the afternoon. Please contact Brendon Hunter if you’re able to assist.

VOLUNTEERS FOR EASTER FLOWERS AND CANDLES… There are many opportunities to help make the beauty of Easter come to life at Saint Mary’s. The Flower Guild has particular needs to assist with getting branches and flowers prepped and in water on the mornings of April 11 and 12 and will be working on different things all that week. The Candle Guild welcomes extra hands to help clean and polish our lamps and candlesticks and try your hand at preparing some of our candles for Easter. If you’re interested in creating arrangements or helping on one of the many non-creative (but still important) tasks, please contact Brendon Hunter who can provide a more detailed schedule of everything happening in Holy Week.

SAINT MARY’S ONLINE CENTERING PRAYER GROUP . . . The Saint Mary’s Centering Prayer Group will not meet on Friday, April 15 (Good Friday). However, the Group does meet online on most Friday evenings at 6:30 PM, including the next two Fridays, April 1 and 8. 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.

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.

 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.

NEIGHBORS IN NEED . . . The next Drop-by Day will take place on Friday, April 22. 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 May Drop-by will take place on Friday, May 20.

With the onset of warmer weather, we are now eager to receive donations of lighter clothes such as shirts, blouses, T-shirts, slacks, shorts; jeans, socks and athletic shoes remain popular items year-round. However, if you are cleaning out your winter closets, we will gladly accept your unwanted coats, clothes and shoes to keep in reserve for next winter.

FRIDAYS IN LENT . . . We will walk the Stations of the Cross on Friday, April 1, and Friday, April 8, 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. We will not walk Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, April 15.

ABOUT THE MUSIC . . . The organ prelude on Sunday morning is a setting of O Lamm Gottes unschuldig (“O Lamb of God, pure, spotless”), BWV 656, one of the eighteen Leipzig Chorales of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). The “Great Eighteen” were collected and published in the final decade of Bach’s life and are considered to represent the summit of chorale-based Baroque organ composition. Bach’s setting of O Lamm Gottes from the “Great Eighteen” is based upon the melody for the Lutheran troped Agnus Dei, both text and melody being attributed to Nikolaus Decius (c. 1480–1541). This three-stanza chorale echoes the Latin Agnus Dei, which is sung three times in the liturgy, the third time praying for peace rather than for mercy as in the first two. Bach, therefore, has set the entire melody three times in his extended organ chorale. The first stanza is played entirely on the keyboard and has the chorale melody in the highest of the three voices. Stanza two, which follows without break, maintains the same texture but shifts the chorale melody to the middle of the three voices. In the third stanza, the pedals of the organ are employed to play the chorale melody and undergird the four-voice texture. Right before the final phrase of this last stanza is a very chromatic interlude which characterizes the agony of the Passion. Bach’s four-voice harmonization of O Lamm Gottes, cataloged as BWV 401, is played as the postlude on Sunday.

The name Healey Willan (1880–1968) is well known to many Episcopalians because of a his Missa de Santa Maria Magdalena, composed in 1928, which appeared in The Hymnal 1940 as the “Second Communion Service.” That setting was named in honor of the Toronto parish where Willan served as organist and choirmaster from 1921 until his death. Though the setting was never used regularly at that parish, it was used with some frequency in Episcopal parishes in the years leading up to the 1979 edition of The Book of Common Prayer. The Willan setting was retained in The Hymnal 1982 and remains well-known, although it has been used less frequently as parishes have gravitated to worshiping in more modern English. However, Willan’s career and reputation went far beyond composing the congregational Mass setting for which Episcopalians remember him. He composed more than eight hundred works including operas, symphonies and other music for orchestra and band, chamber music and music for piano and organ, in addition to a great quantity of choral church music. His liturgical music included fourteen choral Masses, motets for many occasions, canticles, and hymn settings. Willan was a champion of historic liturgical chant and the aesthetic of Renaissance church music. He incorporated these influences and mingled them with an appreciation of the rich harmonic palette used by the late nineteenth-century masters. Through his compositions and choral direction, he significantly set the standard for North American Anglo-Catholic church music in his time. Willan’s esteem was such that he was commissioned to compose an anthem for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and was present for the ceremony.

Bob Chilcott (b. 1955) has had a long and deep involvement in choral music. He was a chorister and choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge. He was also a member of The King’s Singers for twelve years. Much of his work is for young singers, and he has conducted choral festivals worldwide. John 3:16 is arguably one of the most frequently quoted verses in the New Testament. Musical settings of this text, in various languages, can be found among the past several centuries of choral literature. Of all the settings of this text from the Gospel of Saint John, that of Sir John Stainer (1840–1901) from his 1887 Passion Cantata The Crucifixion is almost as familiar to many English-speaking Christians as the scripture verse itself. Chilcott’s 1999 setting of this beloved scripture verse, sung on Sunday as the Communion motet, was commissioned in memory of Dan and Pat Jacobson for the Lovers Lane United Methodist Sanctuary Choir, Dallas, Texas. Curiously, it imitates Stainer by repeating the word “believeth” in the course of the text. This sort of word repetition, presumably to accommodate a predetermined musical idea, was a typical liberty taken by Victorian composers but critiqued by a later generation. However, perhaps in part because of this familiar resonance with Stainer, and also because of its simple and expressive beauty, Chilcott’s setting of God so loved the world has taken a place of prominence among musical settings of this familiar scripture verse.

ADULT EDUCATION . . . This coming Sunday, April 3, Father Peter Powell will continue his series on the Holiness Code, Leviticus 17–27. (Father Powell will conclude this series next week, on April 10, Palm Sunday.) 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, or vestibule, of the main entrance to the church . . . Coming Up after the Easter Break . . . On Sundays, May 1 and May 8, Father Warren Platt will give presentations on the early history of Saint Mary’s. Father Platt writes, “My two lectures will focus on the development of the ritualist movement in the Episcopal Church, with particular attention to the Diocese of New York and those parishes within it which were exponents of high churchmanship. There will be a discussion of Bishop John Henry Hobart and Hobartian high churchmanship in the Diocese of New York.

“This was the prelude to the reception of the Oxford Movement in the Episcopal Church, and there will be an analysis of the doctrinal and liturgical emphases of same. In the mid-1860s the somewhat restrained and moderate high churchmanship of the early followers of the Oxford Movement was superseded by the ritualist movement which introduced an elaborate ceremonial and usage to underscore belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. There will be an extended discussion of Saint Alban’s Church, the first avowedly ritualistic parish in the Episcopal Church.  It was founded in the year 1865 and was located on Lexington Avenue. This will then lead to an examination of the founding of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in 1868 under the leadership of the Reverend Thomas McKee Brown.”

This seems like a timely and appropriate topic for this interim period, during which the parish will consider Saint Mary’s past, present, and future. All are invited and encouraged to attend.

LOOKING AHEAD . . . Easter Week, Monday–Saturday, April 18–23 . . . April 24, The Second Sunday of Easter . . . Thursday, May 26, Ascension Day . . . Tuesday, May 31, The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary . . . Sunday, June 5, Whitsunday: The Day of Pentecost . . . Sunday, May 12, Trinity Sunday . . . Sunday, June 19, The Body and Blood of Christ: Corpus Christi. 

This edition of the Angelus was written and edited by Father Jay Smith and Father Sammy Wood. Father Matt Jacobson also helps with editing and is responsible 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.