FROM FATHER JACOBSON: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all include accounts of the Transfiguration, with only some slight variations in the details (Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36). In all three, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a mountain. Elijah and Moses are seen with him as he is transfigured, and the Father then declares Jesus to be his Son.

One of the Eastern Orthodox hymns for the Transfiguration says that by witnessing this revelatory event, Peter, James, and John would then be able to understand Christ’s passion.

“You were transfigured upon the mount, O Christ our God, and Your disciples, insofar as they could bear, beheld Your glory. Thus, when they see You crucified, they may understand Your voluntary passion, and proclaim to the world that You are truly the effulgence of the Father.” (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America)

Despite having witnessed this, after Jesus is arrested, Peter will still deny knowing his Lord three times. He wasn’t quite yet ready to “proclaim to the world that [Jesus is] truly the effulgence of the Father,” though eventually he would be able to do so. The hymn does, however, provide a caveat that they beheld his glory, “insofar as they could bear.” Another of the Eastern Church’s hymns makes even more explicit that there was a limit to what the disciples could comprehend and perhaps we can relate Peter’s denial to an inability to fully understand what he had witnessed.

“You were transfigured on the Mount, Christ God revealing Your glory to Your disciples, insofar as they could comprehend. Illuminate us sinners also with Your everlasting light, through the intercessions of the Theotokos (God-bearer). Giver of light, glory to You.” (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America)

The Transfiguration is both a revelation of Our Lord and yet also a reminder of how there is much about God that hasn’t been revealed and remains beyond our ability to comprehend. The traditional icon of the Transfiguration often depicts Jesus in front of a dark background, which represents the depths of the mystery being opened up for the “disciples, insofar as they could bear.”

In his book, The Dwelling of the Light, Rowan Williams, the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, compares this icon to the Hindu story of Krishna, who as an infant opens his mouth to reveal the whole universe within the darkness of his throat. Archbishop Williams goes on to write that as “the disciples look at Jesus and see him as coming out from an immeasurable depth, behind or within him, infinity opens up.” (p. 4–5)

The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ is this Saturday, August 6. The feast will be commemorated at the 12:10 PM Mass, where we will hear Luke’s account and reflect upon it, even if we can never fully comprehend the depths of the mystery being revealed to us. — MDJ

THE PARISH PRAYER LIST

Prayers are asked for the sick, for those who are travelling, for the bishops gathered at the Lambeth Conference, and for all those for whom prayers have been asked, especially Maggie, Mary, Barbara, James, Claudia, Ben, Allen, Marjorie, Shalim, Greta, Liduvina, Quincy, Florette, José, James, Frank, Abraham, Gypsy, Margaret, Emil, Pat, Carlos, Loretta, Ken, and Robert; for Scott, priest, and for the repose of the soul of Peggy Martin.

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE

Peggy Martin, a cousin of parishioner Mary Robison, died suddenly at her home in Florida on Wednesday. Please keep Peggy, Mary, 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

AROUND THE PARISH

If you need to speak to a priest because of a pastoral emergency while Father Sammy is away this weekend, please contact Father Jacobson by e-mail or leave a message at 212-869-5830. Father Jacobson will be available during that time and will also be able to contact Father Smith or one of our resident assisting priests.

Keeping up to date with pledge payments: It is not uncommon for us to experience cash-flow problems during the summer months, we urge all our members and friends to stay current with their pledge payments, and we welcome donations in support of the parish’s mission during this time. If you have questions, please contact the parish treasurer, Steven Heffner. We are grateful to all those who continue to support Saint Mary’s so generously.

No Livestream on August 7: Due to summer vacations and being a little shorthanded, we will be unable to livestream the Solemn Mass on Sunday August 7. We continue to look for additional volunteers who are interested in learning how to broadcast our liturgies. It isn’t hard to learn, and we would be happy to train you. Send Father Matt an e-mail if you are interested or stop by the broadcast booth, next to the sacristy, on a Sunday and speak with Blair Burroughs. We’ll be back online the following Sunday, August 14, and also plan to livestream Solemn Mass on Monday, August 15, at 6PM for the Feast of the Assumption.

Father Peter Powell returns to the parish and will preach at the Solemn Mass this coming Sunday and also on Sunday, August 14. Father Sammy Wood will be away from the parish on 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. Father Jay Smith is on vacation. He returns to the parish on Monday, August 15. Father Matthew Jacobson will be on duty on Saturday, August 6, celebrating the noon Mass and leading Evening Prayer at 5:00 PM. He will celebrate the Solemn Mass on Sunday, August 7 at 11:00 AM.

The folks at Milan Restoration continue to work on the lower part of the façade that was uncovered when the scaffolding and the plywood storage sheds were removed. They have been doing a lot of detail work, cleaning the stone and the artwork, replacing the “grout” between stones, and, this week, replacing some older attempts at conservation in which newer patches did not match the original stone.

If you have been thinking about baptism, confirmation or reception into the Episcopal Church, please speak to Father Wood or Father Jacobson. They would be happy to talk to you about preparing for these sacramental rites of initiation.

On Sunday, August 21, from 1:00–5:00 PM, we will have a CPR training session in St. Joseph’s Hall that includes certification in the use of our Automated External Defibrillator (AED). Please contact Chris Howatt if you would like to join us and become certified (or re-certify). Our instructor needs a final headcount by Tuesday, August 9.

Take a self-guided tour of Saint Mary’s by scanning the QR codes found throughout the church that remain up following the Sacred Sites open house last weekend. They link to recordings by our sisters and brothers in Christ describing the architecture, sacred objects, and much more about our parish and its history. Thanks again to Mary Robison for all her hard work on this project!

Saint Mary’s Book Club: Our first book, which we will read this summer, is Marilynne Robinson’s novel, Gilead (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004). We’ll meet in September, either in-person or over Zoom, depending on what works best for the group. If you would like to join us, please send Father Jay an e-mail.

In recent weeks, several parishioners and members of the staff have received emails that claim to be coming from Father Wood. These emails, sent from an account that is different than Father Wood’s e-mail address at Saint Mary’s, ask for assistance, financial help, or credit card information. These emails are not from Father Sammy, and he will never ask for such assistance over email. Do not respond to any of these messages.

A “cooling station” will be available on Sunday morning during the Solemn Mass. The door to Saint Benedict’s Study will be unlocked and the air-conditioning will be on in the classroom. Speak to an usher, if you are finding the heat difficult in the church, and he or she can escort you to Saint Benedict’s.

THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE

Since 1867, the Lambeth Conference—a gathering of the bishops of the Anglican Communion—has taken place approximately once every ten years. Anglican bishops gather at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury to pray together, study the Bible, to hear the struggles and joys that each experience in their local contexts and to address the issues facing the world. The bishops also publish documents or resolutions that do not have the status of canon law, but are rather declarations, affirmations and common calls to the church shared by bishops that are taking part in the Conference. This year, these documents are called Lambeth Calls. The Calls may be read and downloaded here.

The fifteenth Lambeth Conference is currently taking place at the University of Canterbury in Kent in England and will run to August 8. Its theme is “God’s Church for God’s World: walking, listening and witnessing together.” With this theme in mind, the gathered bishops have been considering what it means for the Anglican Communion to be responsive to the needs of the world in the twenty-first century. The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Reverend Michael Curry, is one of some 650 Anglican bishops—including more than 100 Episcopal bishops—who are in Kent this week. Bishop Curry shared a video message after bishops discussed the Lambeth Call on Human Dignity on August 2. This Call dealt with the issue of human sexuality and proved to be very controversial. Bishop Carlye Hughes, bishop of Newark, has posted daily on the conference, and her reflections are well worth reading. They may be found here.

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Sunday’s organ voluntaries are two of the Eight Little Preludes and Fugues, a set of concise organ pieces traditionally attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). More recent scholarship suggests that they might have been composed by a Bach pupil, very likely Johann Tobias Krebs (1690–1762), or his son, Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713–1780). The uncertainty of the origin of these works notwithstanding, these well-known eight Preludes and Fugues have figured largely in the instruction of generations of organists and are very suitable as voluntaries in liturgical settings. BWV 555 in E minor, played for the prelude, is the third of the set of eight. It begins in a rather introspective mood. The fugue subject skillfully employs chromaticism. BWV 557 in the relative major key of G, played for the postlude, is a more extroverted work and is the fifth of the set of eight. It begins grandly and then takes on the free spirit of the keyboard toccatas of its time. The fugue is stately and is a study in melodic suspensions. The remaining six of the Eight Little Preludes and Fugues will be offered as voluntaries on other Sundays of August in pairings by relative major and minor keys.

The name of Healey Willan (1880–1968) is well known to Episcopalians because of his Missa de Santa Maria Magdalena, composed in 1928, which appeared in The Hymnal 1940 and was retained in The Hymnal 1982. This setting, which we will sing on Sunday morning, has been sung widely throughout the Episcopal Church, as well as in other denominations, for decades. Willan’s career and reputation, however, went far beyond composing this beloved Mass. 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 music. His liturgical music includes fourteen choral Masses, occasional motets, canticles, and hymn settings. Willan was born in England and began his career as an organist in London parish churches. He joined the faculty at Toronto University in 1914, later becoming Professor of Music there. In 1921, he was named organist at Toronto’s Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, a position he retained until his death. Said to have described himself as “English by birth; Canadian by adoption; Irish by extraction; Scotch by absorption,” 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 of 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. In 1956, Willan became the first non-English church musician to be awarded the Lambeth Doctorate, Mus.D. Cantuar.

Henry Purcell (1659–1695) is the composer of the Communion solo sung at the Solemn Mass on Sunday, Lord, what is man. 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. A Divine Hymn, Lord, what is man is a sacred aria which was first published in Book 2 of Playford’s Harmonia Sacra, 1693. Scored for tenor, viola de gamba, and keyboard, the aria begins in a measured recitativo style, eventually shifting into triple meter, and ending with an Hallelujah section in common time.

More about the Cantor at the Solemn Mass on Sunday: Daniel Santiago Castellanos is a composer, tenor, and pianist based in New Jersey. His piece for mezzo-soprano and piano, Death is nothing at all, won first prize at the 2019 NYC songSLAM competition. Ensembles that have performed his music include the Semiosis Quartet, The Orchestra Now (TŌN), Da Capo Ensemble, and The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys. He is a 2018 graduate of the Bard College Conservatory of Music and now attends the Mannes School of Music at the New School, pursuing graduate studies in composition. Daniel has been a member of the Choir of Saint Mary’s since the fall of 2018.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S

Sunday, August 7, The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 14C), Solemn Mass 11:00 AM. The readings are Genesis 15:1–6; Psalm 33:12–22; Hebrews 11:1–3, 8–16; Luke 12:32–40. Father Jacobson is the celebrant. Father Powell will preach the sermon.

Next Sunday: August 14, The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 15C), Solemn Mass 11:00 AM. The readings are Jeremiah 23:23–29; Psalm 82; Hebrews 12:1–7, 11-14; Luke 12:49–59. As on August 7, Father Jacobson will celebrate, and Father Powell will preach the sermon.

Upcoming Commemorations: Monday, August 8, Dominic, Priest and Friar, Mass 12:10 PM; Wednesday, August 10, Laurence, Deacon, and Martyr at Rome, Mass 12:10 PM; Thursday, August 11, Clare, Abbess at Assisi, Mass 12:10 PM; Friday, August 12, Florence Nightingale, Nurse, Social Reformer, Mass 12:10 PM; Saturday, August 13, Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore, Mass 12:10 PM.

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.

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.

The October Drop-by will take place on Friday, October 21

We welcome cash donations and donations of athletic shoes, jeans, socks, and underwear for both men and women.

Beginning in the autumn, we will gladly receive donations of cold-weather clothing such as coats, scarves, gloves, and thermal underwear.

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.

COMING SOON TO THE WHITNEY MUSEUM: EDWARD HOPPER’S IMPRESSIONS OF NEW YORK CITY

At the Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort Street, New York, NY 10014, Edward Hopper’s New York, October 19, 2022–March 5, 2023. From the museum’s website: “The city of New York was Edward Hopper’s home for nearly six decades (1908–67), a period that spans his entire mature career and coincides with a historic time of urban development. As skyscrapers punctuated the skyline and elevated trains and construction sites roared below, Hopper’s New York betrays only glimpses of the broader changes underfoot. His city was human-scale, decidedly non-iconic, and largely rooted in a past that had fallen out of step with the present; ‘I just never cared for the vertical,’ Hopper reflected in 1956. This exhibition will be the first of its kind to focus on Hopper’s rich and sustained relationship with New York: how the city served as the subject, setting, and inspiration for so many of the artist’s most celebrated and persistently vexing pictures.

“Edward Hopper’s New York will take a comprehensive look at Hopper’s life and work through his city pictures, from his early impressions of New York in sketches, prints, and illustrations, to his late paintings, in which the city served as a backdrop for his evocative distillations of urban experience. Drawing from the Whitney’s extensive holdings by the artist and amplified by key loans, the exhibition will bring together many of Hopper’s iconic city pictures as well as several lesser-known yet critically important examples. The presentation will be significantly informed by a variety of materials from the Museum’s recently acquired Sanborn Hopper Archive—printed ephemera, correspondence, photographs, and journals that together inspire new insights into Hopper’s life in the city. By exploring the artist’s work through the lens of New York, the exhibition offers a fresh take on this formidable figure and considers the city itself as a lead actor.”

This edition of the Angelus was written and edited by Father Matt Jacobson and Father Jay Smith. Father 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.