FROM FATHER SMITH: A BOOK GROUP AT SAINT MARY’S

For some time now, Father Sammy and I have been talking about how we might foster learning and community, sharing and listening in different ways here at Saint Mary’s. We hope to try a couple of new things in the coming year. One of those things is a book group. The advantage of such groups is that, if all goes well, they promote a certain kind of egalitarianism. After a relatively brief presentation by a leader, all those attending the session are encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas. This format can teach us—again, if all goes well—how to articulate one’s opinions and to listen to the thoughts and opinions of others, and all this done, one hopes, in a spirit of openness, respect, and friendship. This is very much not learning just by lecture. Rather it is learning by wrestling together with a significant text. (Bible Study normally works somewhat differently, of course.) The Book Group offers the opportunity to be surprised by what one has learned from a book and to be gratified by what one learns from others.

Our first book, which we will read this summer, is Marilynne Robinson’s novel, Gilead (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004). Robinson, professor emeritus at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, is the author of five novels and several works of nonfiction, mostly essays. Her first novel, Housekeeping, was published in 1980, her second, Gilead, almost twenty-five years later. For a time, she was regarded as one of those writers who had produced a great first novel but was having trouble producing a second. All that ended with Gilead, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2005, a book that was followed by the amazingly creative and prolific period that followed. This alone—the chance to read the work of an artist at the peak of her powers—would make Gilead worth reading.

But there’s more. Gilead is that most surprising thing: a work of fiction, widely read, appreciated and reviewed by contemporary secular Americans, that is not only beautifully written but also shaped by unabashedly spiritual, indeed Christian, themes and concerns. James Wood, writing in the New York Times, wrote, “[Gilead] is, if anything, more out of time than Robinson’s book of essays [he means here something like, “It’s unfashionable”], suffused as it is with a Protestant bareness that sometimes recalls George Herbert (who is alluded to several times, along with John Donne) and sometimes the American religious spirit that produced Congregationalism and 19th-century Transcendentalism and those bareback religious riders Emerson, Thoreau and Melville.”

This description is true but should not scare readers away. The book is neither devotional nor dogmatic, though it is filled with thoughts about the Bible and a deep spirituality. The book is in the form of a diary written by John Ames, a Congregational minister who’s lived in Gilead, Iowa, his whole life and who has ministered in the church once pastored by his grandfather and then by his father. As Ames writes, it is 1956 and he is seventy-six years old. Though he had married early in life and had a young daughter, both wife and daughter died long ago, and he has since led a lonely life. He has not lost his faith, but his faith has been sorely tested. Into that life has come Lila, much younger than he, whom he has married and with whom he has had the son of his old age, a boy who is now seven. Here from the start is a foundational biblical theme: Ames as Abraham has been given the child for whom he had long hoped, an unexpected gift of amazing grace. And so he writes his diary as a gift, a legacy, and a book of wisdom to and for the young son, who will almost surely outlive him by many decades.

Robinson’s simple, beautiful but unadorned prose makes the book accessible and deeply human. Its ideas are profound, but not abstract. Though Ames intends his diary to be wisdom for his beloved son, it is also, somewhat against his own will, a reflection on the conflicts, tragedies, and joys that have shaped his life. Ames grapples with memories of his wild, prophetlike grandfather; his determinedly nonviolent father; and his godson, the much-loved but deeply flawed prodigal, Jack. Ames’s memories are deeply personal, but those memories allow Robinson to reflect on broadly American themes such as slavery, race, war, violence, activism, pacifism, grace, conversion, parish life, human nature, community, prayer, faith, perseverance, and, most profoundly, love and the possibility of forgiveness.

I hope that many of you will be willing to give Gilead a try and join us in September for a discussion of the book. I like to think that you would enjoy the book—though loving the book is by no means a requirement for joining the group. I think our discussion would be interesting, enlightening, and fun. The book is still in print and is available online at the usual places, including www.bookshop.org. (On Amazon it is currently free to those who have a Kindle Unlimited subscription.) If you would like to join the group and come to the discussion in the fall, please send me an e-mail at my Saint Mary’s e-mail address, telling me you would like to participate. Please give me your contact information, including phone number and e-mail address, and please let me know if you would prefer to join such a discussion via Zoom on a weekday evening or in-person on a Sunday afternoon, after the Solemn Mass. (Sandwiches will be provided at the in-person meeting.) And please read the book! I wish you all a peaceful and restorative summer season. — Jay Smith

THE PARISH PRAYER LIST

Prayers are asked for the sick and for all those for whom prayers have been asked, especially Reha, Susan, Barbara, Renee, James, Claudia, Joseph, Shay, Tom, Laverne, Gladys, Ben, Allen, Marjorie, Nik, Mavis, Brianna, Shalim, Greta, Liduvina, Quincy, Florette, José, James, Frank, Abraham, Gypsy, Margaret, Emil, Pat, Robert, Lain, religious; and for the repose of the soul of Surjet Kour.

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE

Surjet Kaur, the mother of parishioner, Nam Rattan, died recently at her home in India. She was ninety-two years old. Please keep Surjet, Nam, their family and friends, and all who mourn in your prayers.

TIMES AND LOCATIONS OF DAILY AND SUNDAY LITURGIES:

Monday–Saturday: Daily Mass 12:10 PM, Lady Chapel
Monday–Sunday: Evening Prayer 5:00 PM, Choir and Church
The Solemn Mass on Sunday morning at 11:00 AM is celebrated in the Church

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BAPTIZED, CONFIRMED OR RECEIVED?

We received news that the Bishop of New York will be with us at the Solemn Mass on All Saints’ Day, Tuesday, November 1, 2022, at 6:00 PM. The bishop’s visitation is a time when Baptism, Confirmation, and Reception into the Episcopal Church are particularly appropriate. If you would like to be baptized—or confirmed or received—please speak to Father Wood, Father Smith, or Father Jacobson.

We will plan on holding a series of “confirmation classes” before the bishop’s visitation. If you have already been confirmed but would like to learn more about the fundamentals of the Christian faith, please let us know. We would love to have you join the class.

LEARNING TO LISTEN: PRELUDE & POSTLUDE AT THE SOLEMN MASS

Here at Saint Mary’s, the entrance and retiring processions at Solemn Mass are almost always preceded or followed by organ music designed in part to help the congregation to prepare for Mass or to give thanks for the Eucharistic celebration. Such music is never simply background music. We ask that the friends and members of the parish be respectful of these periods of prayer, preparation, and thanksgiving. This does not mean a rigid imposition of silence. It does mean, however, that as far as possible, conversation and other distractions should be kept to a minimum. The ushers are always ready to answer questions and solve problems, but please help them by speaking to them softly or taking conversation into the narthex or Saint Joseph’s Hall. Please do not interpret any reticence on their part during the music as unfriendliness.

A PRAYER FOR MUSICIANS AND ARTISTS

“O God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in heaven: Be ever present with your servants who seek through art and music to perfect the praises offered by your people on earth; and grant to them even now glimpses of your beauty, and make them worthy at length to behold it unveiled for evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord” (BCP, page 819).

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Sunday’s organ voluntaries represent the work of 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, finally in 1871, La Trinité 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. Having been a student of Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens (1823–1881), Guilmant’s 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 combined. 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 Niedermeyer was born in Nyon, Switzerland, and studied in Vienna, Rome, and Naples, he settled in Paris at age tweny-one and lived out his career there. He was a friend and collaborator with Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) in several opera productions. Rossini was the far 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) is one of its many distinguished former 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 music of the Mass on Sunday is Saint Paul’s Service by David Hurd, organist and music director at Saint Mary’s. Saint Paul’s Service, a setting of the Rite I Mass Ordinary, was commissioned in 2000 by Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, New York, in honor of the sesquicentennial anniversary of the parish. The setting includes Kyrie (not sung this morning), Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. It is scored for unison voices and organ but is also suitable to be sung by a single cantor, as it will be offered at Mass today. The unifying stylistic feature of this Mass is the flavor of twentieth century-French impressionism which can be recognized in its harmonic and melodic elements throughout.

At the River, the familiar shortened title for Shall We Gather at the River—also known variously as Beautiful River and Hanson Place—is a hymn written in 1864 by American poet and gospel music composer Robert Lowry (1826–1899). The pertinent scripture reference for this hymn is Revelation 22:1. The title Hanson Place recalls the original Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn, where Lowry, a Baptist minister, sometimes served. At the River has been arranged by many composers over the years including a well-known treatment in Aaron Copland’s Old American Songs (1952). Earlier than Copland’s setting, however, is Charles Ives’s arrangement which soprano Sharon Harms will sing during the Communion at the Solemn Mass on Sunday. Ives’s setting of the first stanza of Lowry’s hymn dates from 1916. Ives (1874–1954) is now regarded as a groundbreaking modernist American composer, although his work was largely ignored during his lifetime. His compositional “experiments” included a deeper wading into the lands of dissonance, polytonality, rhythmic complexity, and aleatoric (chance) elements, than were initially appreciated or accepted by the musical establishment of his time. Nonetheless, his Symphony No. 3 of 1904 won him the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1947. Charles Ives’s musical life began by observing the Danbury, Connecticut town square band which his father conducted. He worked on and off as a church organist from age fourteen. A graduate of Yale University, his primary life occupation was in the life insurance business. — David Hurd

About Sunday’s Cantor: Praised as “superb,” “luscious-toned,” “extraordinarily precise and expressive,” and “dramatically committed and not averse to risk” by the New York Times, American soprano Sharon Harms is known for fearless performances and passionate interpretations of works new and old for the recital, concert, and operatic stage. A member of the Argento Ensemble, Ms. Harms has premiered the music of some of today’s leading composers and her repertoire spans a versatile spectrum of periods and styles. She has sung with Da Capo Chamber Players, East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, Eighth Blackbird, Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble Signal, International Contemporary Ensemble, Juilliard Center for Innovation in the Arts, Limón Dance Company, MET Opera Chamber Orchestra, New Chamber Ballet, Pacifica Quartet, Princeton Festival Opera, Simon Bolivar Orchestra, Talea Ensemble, and Third Coast Percussion, among others. She has also been a guest artist with the American Academy in Rome, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Columbia University, Cornell University, June in Buffalo, MATA Festival, University of British Columbia, University of Chicago, University of Notre Dame, Radcliffe Institute, and Resonant Bodies Festival, as well as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. Ms. Harms is soprano faculty for the Composer’s Conference at Brandeis University and was a visiting guest instructor at East Carolina University in 2017. She appears on the Albany, Bridge, and Innova labels. www.sharonharms.com

AROUND THE PARISH

We hope to receive donations for flowers on the following Sundays: July 31, and August 7 and 28. There are also dates available in the fall and winter months. Please contact Chris Howatt, our parish administrator, if you would like to make a donation.

Barbara Powell continues to recover at home in Westport, Connecticut, after a fall that led to a fractured shoulder. Her husband, Father Peter Powell, tells us that she is showing improvement, that her pain is somewhat more manageable, and that sleep is a bit easier. Please pray for her ability to rest after this difficult fracture and for continued healing. We look forward to her return to the parish.

Father Matthew Jacobson returns to the parish after some weeks of vacation on Sunday, July 24. He will be the celebrant at the Solemn Mass that day. Father Jay Smith begins his summer vacation on Sunday, July 24. He returns to the parish on Monday, August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Father Peter Powell is still much needed in Connecticut, caring for his wife Barbara and fulfilling some preaching engagements. He will preach at the Solemn Mass here at Saint Mary’s on Sunday, August 7 and Sunday, August 14. Father Sammy Wood will be away from the parish, taking some much-deserved vacation, August 6–9 and 12–14. He will preach at the Solemn Mass on Monday, August 15, the Feast of the Assumption, at 6:00 PM.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S

Sunday, July 17, The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Solemn Mass 11:00 AM. The readings are Genesis 18:1–15; Psalm 15; Colossians 1:21–29; Luke 10:38–42. Father Victor Conrado will preach the sermon. The celebrant is Father Jay Smith. The musical setting of the Mass will be Saint Paul’s Service by David Hurd (b. 1950). The cantor will be Sharon Harms. During Communion, Sharon will sing “At the River,” Charles Ives’s arrangement of a hymn written and composed by American poet and gospel music composer, Robert Lowry (1826–1899). The hymn text is based on Revelation 22:1.

Upcoming Commemorations: Friday, July 22, Saint Mary Magdalene; Monday, July 25, Saint James the Apostle.

The Holy Eucharist is celebrated Monday–Saturday at 12:10 PM in the Lady Chapel.

The chalice is now being administered at all the Eucharists here at Saint Mary’s. Please speak to one of the priests if you have questions.

Holy Hour. Wednesday mornings 11:00–11:50 AM, in the Lady Chapel. A time for silent prayer and contemplation before the Blessed Sacrament. The Holy Eucharist follows at 12:10 PM. We invite you to join us.

HEALING MASS ON THURSDAYS

The noonday Mass on Thursdays at 12:10 PM includes anointing, also known as unction, and prayers for healing immediately after the homily or, on holy days, after the Nicene Creed. “Unction is the rite of anointing the sick with oil, or the laying on of hands, by which God's grace is given for the healing of spirit, mind, and body” (Book of Common Prayer, page 861). Anointing is a much-respected rite here at Saint Mary’s, and all are invited, though none are compelled, to come to the rail for anointing during Mass should they wish.

NEIGHBORS IN NEED

The Neighbors in Need program is Saint Mary’s principal outreach ministry. It was founded by members of the parish, along with resident sisters and friars and members of the parish’s clergy staff. We “own” it and run it. We provide clothing and basic, but essential, hygiene items to our neighbors in Times Square. Your cash donations and gifts of new and lightly used clothing make this ministry possible.

The August Drop-by will take place on Friday, August 19.

The September Drop-by will take place on Friday, September 16.

We also welcome donations of jeans, socks, and underwear for both men and women.

If you would like to volunteer for Neighbors in Need, please contact Marie Rosseels.

Our goal is to continue to distribute clothing and hygiene items to those in need in the Times Square neighborhood. We are grateful to all those who continue to support this ministry.

FROM PARISH ARCHIVIST, MARY ROBISON:
SEEKING BACK ISSUES OF AVE PARISH MAGAZINE
AND SACRED SITES WEEKEND

The Church of St. Mary the Virgin, New York, was founded in 1868 in what was then called Longacre Square but is now known as Times Square. An important center of Ritualist and Anglo-Catholic activity, it earned the fond nickname “Smoky Mary’s” because of the prominence of incense in its worship.

Beginning in 1932, St. Mary’s published a monthly bulletin called Ave—from Ave Maria, gratia plena, the angel Gabriel’s salutation to St. Mary the Virgin in Luke’s gospel—with an outline of services and other activities, notices from the clergy, essays or sermons about current events, poetry, devotional material, and other parochialia.

In 2017, Richard Mammana, Wayne Kempton (archivist and historiographer of the Diocese of New York), and Mary Robison (parish archivist) began a project to locate one copy of all known issues of Ave between 1932 and 2003. Mr. Kempton and Ms. Robison have painstakingly scanned more than 45 years of back issues, and the file directory structure has been compiled by Mr. Mammana for posting online at http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/smv_nyc/ave/. The Reverend Stephen Gerth, ninth rector of St. Mary’s, 1999-2021, supported the project enthusiastically from its outset, but there are still gaps in the parish’s holdings of issues.

St. Mary’s seeks copies of any of the following issues of Ave, which may be sent in care of the archivist to the following address: Church of St. Mary the Virgin; 145 West 46th St.; New York, NY, 10036-8502. The issues will not be damaged in the process of digitization, and they can be returned to original owners if desired. Questions may be directed to Mr. Kempton (wkempton@dioceseny.org), Mr. Mammana (richard.mammana@gmail.com) or Ms. Robison (m.robison3@gmail.com).

1983                seeking April/May
1984                seeking November/December
1986                seeking September/October
1987               seeking May/June, November/December
1990                seeking September/October
1992                seeking all but November/December
1997                seeking May/June, November/December
1998                seeking January-June, November/December
1999                seeking November/December
2001                seeking January/February, September/October
2002                seeking March/April
2003                seeking July/August, November/December

Additionally, Saint Mary’s is excited to be part of the Sacred Sites open-house weekend to be held Saturday–Sunday, July 23–24, 2022. Offered by the New York Landmarks Conservancy each year, participants tour historic houses of worship throughout the City. Find out more and see a map of this year’s locations on their website.

This year we’re going to try something different. Rather than asking people to serve as docents in the church, ready to give tours, we’ll place QR codes in various parts of the church: when these codes are scanned with a smartphone, the visitor will hear an audio recording that explains what they’re looking at, and why it’s important to us. (A binder also will be available with this material printed for those who don’t use this technology.)

To all our readers: If you are interested, I can provide the text, and you can easily record these short pieces with your smartphone. If you’re not the audio-recording type, perhaps you might like to hang out for a couple of hours over that weekend to welcome visitors?

Please send me an email message if you’d like to:

 — record a few paragraphs about St. Mary's history, interiors, or sacred art;

— hang out for a couple of hours the weekend of July 23–24 to welcome visitors

It’s exciting to be able to show Saint Mary’s to our fellow New Yorkers. I’m very grateful to everyone here at the parish whose helped with this project. — Mary Robison

SUMMER IN THE CITY: THE HIGH LINE

From the High Line’s website, “The High Line is one, continuous, 1.45-mile-long greenway featuring 500+ species of plants and trees. The park is maintained, operated, and programmed by Friends of the High Line in partnership with the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation. On top of public space and gardens, the High Line is home to a diverse suite of public programs, community and teen engagement, and world-class artwork and performances, free and open to all.

The High Line is a vertical public park built on a historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side. Saved from demolition by neighborhood residents and the City of New York, the High Line opened in 2009 as a hybrid public space where visitors experience nature, art, and design. The south end of the High Line is at Gansevoort and Washington Streets, near the Whitney Museum of American Art. The north end is at Thirty-fourth Street and Twelfth Avenue, though a section at Thirtieth Street is temporarily closed. In 2017, the High Line’s Horticulture Department partnered with the American Museum of Natural History to do a bee survey and found thirty (30) species of bees present in the park! The staff members of the High Line are constantly updating our best practices to follow new science, and it is [our] fervent hope that we will have even more species diversity in the next five years.” Plan to visit this unique and beautiful park whose founders and staff are imbued with a deep knowledge of and love for the natural world. For more information visit the High Line’s website.

This edition of the Angelus was written and edited by Father Jay Smith. Father Matt Jacobson also helps to edit and is responsible for formatting and 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.