FROM FATHER SAMMY: A VISION FOR SAINT MARY’S
ARTICLE 01: AN INTRODUCTION AT ADVENT

My son is Patrick.

On his saint’s day back in 2022, soon after we moved to New York, I watched a documentary called St. Patrick: Pilgrimage to Peace. And I heard a line that’s come back to me again and again and again in the months since: 

The imperial world is gone, but nonetheless there’s somebody here in Gaul saying: “Patrick, there’s a big island out there. It needs to be Christianized—that’s your life’s mission.”

That line kept humming in my head. Times have changed, I thought. Christendom’s gone. But . . . Saint Mary’s is here on our own big island. God planted us here in 1868 and God’s not done with us—there’s work still to be done. 

So from that day, in my prayer and in conversations, I started asking a question: “What exactly is that work we are here to do?” Specifically, I prayed for clarity of vision to see where God is already at work in Manhattan and how our parish can get involved in that work. Out of that process came a vision for our life together these next three years while I have the honor of serving as your priest-in-charge. 

I shared my working vision with the Board of Trustees, and at its November meeting, the Board formally adopted the following as our parish vision statement: 

Saint Mary’s is a vibrant Anglo-Catholic witness in the heart of NYC.
With our identity in Christ and a preference for the poor, we are an inclusive,
diverse community called to love God and each other for the life of the world.

Now, why do I believe that’s so important? For one thing, Proverbs says “Without vision the people perish.” (29:18) But with a clear vision fueling our prayer, just think what God might be able to do through us, this God “who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine.” (Ephesians 3:20) I can ask and imagine quite a lot, so that promise from Ephesians keeps me praying and looking for big opportunities to love God and each other for the life of the world.

In a video posted to social media last week, I invited the parish into this Advent season with a reading from Paula Gooder’s The Meaning is in the Waiting: The Spirit of Advent (Brewster, Mass.: Paraclete, 2008). I return to that book today. Gooder writes:

One of the things that Advent does is invite us to inhabit the biblical worldview of time and of the end . . . Waiting for the future invites us to inhabit a world shaped and informed by a vision of the end.

Our vision for Saint Mary’s is our attempt to see “the end”—to see through to when God’s reign will be absolute and unchallenged—and then to begin to inhabit the world shaped and informed by that vision, aligning ourselves with the extension of God’s reign in the heart of our beloved city on this big island.

In future editions of The Angelus, I’ll unpack this vision line-by-line and clause-by-clause, sometimes even word-by-word. In the meantime, and for this Advent, I hope you’ll share with me your thoughts about this new vision. If you haven’t already, I hope you’ll invest in it by pledging to support the work and ministry of our parish in 2024. And I hope you’ll have your own conversations and pray your own big prayers, even as we pray together the following Advent collect:

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. 

Amen.

PRAYING FOR THE WORLD AND THE PEOPLE OF GOD

We pray for peace in Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon.

We pray for the people and clergy of two London parishes, both friends of Saint Mary’s, Saint Bartholomew the Great and All Saints, Margaret Street.

We pray for the people and clergy of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Thirty-first Street, in gratitude for their kindness and generosity.

We pray for the sick, for those in any need or trouble, and for all those who have asked us for our prayers. We pray for those celebrating birthdays and anniversaries this week; for those who are traveling; for the unemployed and for those seeking work; for the incarcerated and for those recently released from prison; for all victims of violence, assault, and crime; for all refugees and migrants, especially those sheltering in our neighborhood; for those struggling with depression, anxiety, or addiction; for those whom we serve in our outreach programs, for our neighbors in the Times Square neighborhood, for the theater community, and for those living with drought, storm, punishing heat, flood, fire, or earthquake.

We pray for those for whom prayers have been asked for Jonah, Cara, Barbara, Carl, Aston, Tom, Robert, Hemmi, Camrin, Shane, Nolyn, Natalie, Dorothy, Marie, Chelsea, Jennifer, Barry, Frank, Simon, Richard, Charles, Robin, Tatiana, Emily, Mary, Eleanor, Eugene, Steven, Quincy, Claudia, June, Joyce, Bruce, Robert, Sandy, Lexi, Sharon, Bruce, Robert, Carlos, Christopher, José, Brian, Susan, Carmen, Antony, Manuel, Abe, Bob, Gypsy, Hardy, Margaret, and John Derek; Keith and Jim, religious; Robby, Allan, and Stephen, priests; and Michael, bishop.

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE

We received news this week that Mary Lou Knox, the mother of Tom Knox, Charles Morgan’s husband, has died after a long illness. Please keep Mary Lou, Tom, Charles, their family and friends, and all who mourn in your prayers.

We also heard this week that John Gass Bratton, a good friend of Allen Reddick, died peacefully on November 28, 2023, at Storypoint Assisted Living in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was ninety-four years old. You may read his obituary here.

We pray for the repose of the souls of Mary Lou Knox, John Gass Bratton, Sandra Day O’Connor, and of those whose year’s mind is on Sunday, December 10—William Henry Field (1878); Mary Elizabeth Thompson (1882); John Smith (1897); Mary Elizabeth Geiss (1915); Mary Alice Jeffrey (1919); John Church Brasier (1922); Matthew William Carswell (1925); Annie Ostrom Dows (2003); Helena M. Handy (2001). May they rest in peace and rise in glory. 

COMING UP: MARK YOUR CALENDAR 

Sunday, December 17, Third Sunday of Advent
Lessons & Carols and Holy Eucharist 11:00 AM

Sunday, December 24, The Fourth Sunday of Advent
Mass 9:00 AM, Solemn Mass 11:00 AM

Sunday, December 24, Christmas Eve
Music 9:30 PM, Procession & Solemn Mass 10:00 PM

Monday, December 25, Christmas Day
Solemn Mass 11:00 AM

Sunday, December 31, The First Sunday after Christmas
Mass 9:00 AM, Solemn Mass 11:00 AM

There will be no Coffee Hour on December 31 because of preparations for New Year’s Eve in Times Square.
Please read the information below in the News and Notices section about access to Saint Mary’s on December 31.

STEWARDSHIP UPDATE

As of Thursday, November 30, we’ve received pledge cards from 61 households for a pledge total of $331,385 in pledges.
This is 73.6% of our $450,000 goal, which is encouraging news.

However, only 50% of those who pledged last year have made a pledge so far this year, which means that we still have a ways to go.

Please take a moment and fill out your pledge card and mail it to the parish office today
or put it in the collection basket on Sunday—you can also make your pledge online.

We invite you to help us make our goal—and even more.

We are grateful to all those who continue to support the ministry of Saint Mary’s.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S

Our regular daily liturgical schedule: Monday through Friday, Morning Prayer 8:00 AM, Mass 12:10 PM, and Evening Prayer at 5:30 PM. On Wednesdays, Holy Hour is also offered at 11:00 AM and an additional Mass is said at 6:00 PM. Thursday’s Mass includes anointing and prayers for healing. On Saturdays, Confessions are heard at 11:00 AM, Mass is celebrated at 12:10 PM, and Evening Prayer is prayed at 5:00 PM. On the third Saturday of each month, a Requiem Mass is normally celebrated at 12:10 PM in the Mercy Chapel. On Sundays, a Low Mass (Rite One) is celebrated in the Lady Chapel at 9:00 AM. Solemn Mass is offered at 11:00 AM and Evening Prayer at 5:00 PM. Evensong and Benediction (E&B) is normally offered on the first Sunday of every month and will next be offered on January 7.

Saturday Confessions at 11:00 AM . . . The priest-on-duty can be found in one of the confessionals at the back of the church, near the 46th Street entrance, at 11:00 AM on Saturdays to hear confessions. Once nobody is left waiting, if it is after 11:15 AM, the priest will return to his office. If you arrive later, the sexton will be able to call him if it is not too close to the midday Mass. During Christmas Week—Saturday, December 30—confessions are heard only by appointment.

Saturday, December 9, 2023, 8:00 PM, The Tallis Scholars 50th Anniversary, While Shepherds Watched. Celebrating their 50th year this season, the renowned Tallis Scholars make their annual New York City appearance with a unique holiday program that offers a fresh perspective on the Christmas story, examining it through the eyes of the shepherds who came to worship at the manger. Anchored by the Flemish composer Clemens non Papa’s popular Mass Pastores quidnam vidistis? (“Shepherds, what did you see?”), the evening features a selection of works by other notable composers of Renaissance polyphony including Tomàs Luis de Victoria, Pedro de Christo, and Peter Phillips. Tickets may be purchased here.

Sunday, December 10, The Second Sunday of Advent (Lectionary Year B, Daily Office Year 2), Mass 9:00 AM, Adult Formation Class 9:45 AM, Solemn Mass 11:00 AM, Evening Prayer 5:00 PM. The Solemn Mass is livestreamed.

Tuesday, December 12, Anniversary of the Dedication of the Church, 1895 (the one hundred twenty-eighth anniversary of the consecration of the second and present parish church), Morning Prayer 8:00 AM, Mass 12:10 PM, Evening Prayer 5:30 PM.

Tuesday, December 12, Our Lady of Guadalupe. We unite ourselves in prayer with our brothers and sisters in Mexico and throughout North America who turn to Our Lady in prayer on this day. We pray for all the people of the New World, especially those who live in poverty, turmoil, or violence. We continue to pray for all immigrants and refugees.

Wednesday, December 13, Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, c. 304, Morning Prayer 8:00 AM, Holy Hour 11:00 AM, Mass 12:10 PM. The Bible Study class will not meet today. Evening Prayer 5:30 PM, Mass 6:00 PM, Catechumenate Class 6:30 PM.

Thursday, December 14, John of the Cross, Mystic and Monastic Reformer, 1591

Saturday, December 16, Monthly Requiem in the Mercy Chapel, Confessions 11:00 AM, Requiem Mass 12:10 PM, The Eve of the Third Sunday of Advent, Evening Prayer 5:00 PM. The O Antiphons—said before and after Magnificat at Evening Prayer—begin this day with O Sapientia.

Sunday, December 17, The Third Sunday of Advent (“Rose” or “Gaudete” Sunday), Mass 9:00 AM. The Adult Formation class does not meet today. Lessons & Carols and Holy Eucharist 11:00 AM, Evening Prayer 5:00 PM. The O Antiphons continue at Evening Prayer with O Adonaï.

LIFE AT SAINT MARY’S: NEWS & NOTICES

2024 Saint Mary's Calendars are now available! Saint Mary’s Flower and Altar Guilds have produced the 2024 Saint Mary’s Calendar, and all proceeds will help fund critical guild supplies and restore antique furnishings. The suggested donation for each calendar is $20 in-person and $25 online (which includes shipping). Calendars are available in-person after Solemn Masses in Saint Joseph’s Hall during the month of December 2023. Click here to order your calendar online. Please contact Brendon Hunter with any questions about the 2024 Parish Calendar.

We invite you to help us decorate the church for Christmas . . . Volunteers are needed for Christmas flowers. Preparations will begin on Saturday, December 16 with work continuing daily through December 24. There is a particular need for people of any skill level (no flower arranging happening) to help unpack deliveries on Saturday, December 16 from morning through afternoon and Tuesday, December 19 in the morning. Additional preparations will take place after Coffee Hour on Sunday, December 17. Anyone interested in arranging the crèche and creating flower arrangements is most welcome during the week of December 17-23! Please contact Grace Mudd if you are able to help or have any questions.

To make a flower donation, please contact Chris Howatt or donate online. Once on the donation page of our website, click the “Donate” button to open the form. Inside the form, there is a “Fund” dropdown, where you may direct your donation to the Flower Fund. If you’d like to find out about dates in January that are available for making a donation of flowers on a Sunday or feast day or have other questions about the Flower Guild, please call the Parish Office.

Christmas Appeal . . . Our annual Christmas Appeal letter was mailed this week. It includes information about our Christmas celebrations along with an appeal for financial assistance for the repair work in the Mission and the Parish Houses. We urge you to be as generous as you are able, and we thank you.

Building Complex Problems and Issues . . . Cleaning and mitigation work following the water leak in the Mission House is almost complete. Repair work will begin shortly. We experienced a smaller, but significant, water leak, last Sunday. Father Sammy and sexton Shalim Pena responded quickly, went to the source of the leak and got water turned off. However, there was some damage in the Parish House's third-floor bathroom and in the parish kitchen. Cleaning, air testing, and mitigation have already taken place this week. Work on a small area of the northwest corner of the kitchen ceiling will be scheduled shortly. In the meantime, access to the kitchen is limited for safety reasons. We appreciate our parishioners' desire to help the staff after receptions and Coffee Hour, but please let the sextons and assigned volunteers do any necessary work in the kitchen itself. We will keep you posted as work proceeds.

Neighbors in Need . . . Our next Drop-by Day is Friday, December 15, 1:00–3:00 PM. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact MaryJane Boland or Father Jay Smith. (The January Drop-by will take place on Friday, January 19.)

Urgent Needs: We need warm-weather jackets and coats in all sizes—though we especially need sizes Large, XL, and XXL—for both men and women. We also like having some jackets and coats for children, toddler to adolescent in ages. We would also gratefully receive new or lightly-used shoes and sneakers in all sizes for men and women.

If you’d like to make a donation of a stuffed animal for a small child, we’d be happy to receive it.

We also depend on cash donations to support this work. Please speak to MaryJane about how to make a donation. You may also call the parish office and speak to Chris Howatt if you would like to set up a recurring donation. We are so grateful to all those who support this ministry with such generosity.

National Public Radio (NPR) has posted a comprehensive list of organizations that are providing aid in Israel and Gaza. You can read the list and NPR’s analysis by following this link.

Father Sammy celebrates the anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood on Friday, December 8. Father Jay celebrates his ordination anniversary the following day, December 9.

Father Stephen Gerth celebrates the 40th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood on Thursday, December 21.

Sunday, December 10, the Adult Formation class in Saint Joseph’s Hall, 9:45 AM to 10:40 AM, will be taught by Father Pete Powell, who will continue his series on Isaiah 1-12. The class will not meet on December 17. Father Powell’s series on Isaiah 1–12 will resume on the First Sunday in Lent, February 18. Stay tuned for more information about Adult Formation classes in January and early February after the Christmas Break.

Wednesday, December 13: Adult Formation—Catechumenate: Anglicanism 101—This class will meet at 6:30 PM, after the evening Mass. The noonday Bible Study Class will not meet on December 13.

Life in Times Square. . . The Times Square Alliance tells us that the gray trailers in front of the church on Forty-sixth Street are being used by the New Year’s Eve production team and they will be there until around January 6. How to Get to Mass on New Year’s Eve, Sunday, December 31. . . The area around Times Square will be closed starting very early December 31, beginning at 2:00 AM. Therefore, those coming to Mass that morning—either at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM—must enter the church on 46th Street. This means that they will need to go to the access point at the corner of 46th Street and 6th Avenue to gain entry to the church. Finding parking near the church will likely be impossible. Please note: The only cross streets in Midtown that will be fully open as corridors running west to east that morning will be at 59th and 34th Streets. This means that those coming to Saint Mary’s from the west would have to use one of those cross streets to go to Sixth Avenue. Having reached Sixth Avenue, they can travel up or down to reach the 46th Street access point. We will try to gather information about subway station closings closer to December 31. We will send out an e-mail blaster during Christmas Week that includes this information. It is suggested that you print the blaster or make sure it’s accessible on your phone to show the police at the 46th Street access point. We suggest that folks leave early in order to deal with this unique but annual disruption of our normal life.

It was a great pleasure to be able to welcome the Clergy of the Midtown Clericus to Saint Mary’s on Thursday, December 7, for a Quiet Day that took place in the Rectory and in the Church. Father Mark Brown was the leader of the Retreat. Please keep these hardworking priests and deacons in your prayers during Advent and at Christmas. We are grateful to have such good and helpful colleagues.

We are grateful to Larry Trupiano and his staff who continue to care for our organ with such love and attention. They were here on Thursday to tune the organ—and they kindly worked around our Quiet Day schedule. Thank you, Larry and Dave.

Father Jay Smith will be away from the parish from the afternoon of December 11 until the evening of December 14. He returns to work on Friday, December 15.

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT THE SOLEMN MASS ON THE SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Georg Böhm (1661–1733) is remembered primarily as organist of the Johanniskirche in Lüneburg from 1698 until his death. A student of Johann Adam Reincken (1623–1722), Böhm is almost certain to have crossed paths with the young Sebastian Bach during the latter’s stay in Lüneburg. Böhm’s Partita: Freu dich sehr, O meine Seele is a set of twelve variations built upon the melody for Psalm 42 from the 1551 Genevan Psalter, a tune which has been attributed both to Louis Bourgeois and to Claude Goudimel in various sources. By the time Böhm wrote his partita, this melody had been harmonized in many ways, adopted by the Germans, put into equal note values, and paired with various different texts. Many know this melody today as it is found in The Hymnal 1982 at #67 with Catherine Winkworth’s translation of Johann Olearius’s paraphrase of Isaiah 40:1–5, a portion of scripture often read in the Advent season. The organ Prelude on Sunday morning will be Variations 1, 2, and 12 from Böhm’s Partita on this hymn melody, commonly referred to as Psalm 42. Variation 11 will be played as the Postlude at the end of Mass on Sunday. 

The setting of the Mass this coming Sunday is the Missa in contrapuncto a 4 vocibus by Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (c. 1656–1746). Fischer was recognized in his day as one of the finest German composers of keyboard music. He was strongly influenced by the French composer Jean Baptiste Lully, with whom he may have studied, and he conveyed French influences to the Italian-influenced German music of his time. Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel were the two most notable musicians who knew and were influenced by Fischer’s work. Unfortunately, the record of Fischer’s life and career seems best documented in writings devoted to others and which only mention him in passing. Of Fischer’s works which were published in his lifetime are collections of sacred music from 1701 and 1711. His Mass for four voices begins with a fugal Kyrie which references the opening phrase of the chorale Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (“Come now, Savior of the Gentiles”) and is therefore particularly appropriate for Advent. While evidencing aspects of the stile antico (antique style), this Mass also clearly embraces German baroque style.

The motet Canite Tuba by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525–1594) will be sung during the ministration of Communion on Sunday. This classic Advent motet “sounds the trumpet” thrillingly in five-voice chorus with two soprano parts. The motet begins with the three interior voices, to which soon are added the outer two. Palestrina alternates moments of full choir with trio passages featuring the upper three or lower three voices, almost giving the effect of a double choir. The text is the first antiphon at Lauds and Vespers for Advent IV and is derived from Joel 2:1 and Isaiah 40:4.

CONCERTS AT SAINT MARY’S

Saturday, December 16, 7:30 PM, The Young New Yorkers Chorus Mixed Ensemble presents “Sleepers, Awake!” The Mixed Ensemble continues its journey through rest and conscious being, with pieces by James Lavino, Reena Esmail, Patrick Vu, Chen Yi, Valentin Silvestrov, Harold Darke, and more. Plus, their beloved tradition of carol sing-alongs continues! Tickets may be purchased online.

We need your help to keep holding our services.
Click below, where you can make one-time or recurring donations to support Saint Mary’s.
We are very grateful to all those who make such donations and continue to support Saint Mary’s so generously.

Saint Mary’s is a vibrant Anglo-Catholic witness in the heart of NYC. With our identity in Christ and a preference for the poor, we are an inclusive, diverse community called to love God and each other for the life of the world.

This edition of The Angelus was written and edited by Father Jay Smith, except as noted. Father Matt Jacobson also edits the newsletter 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.