FROM FATHER WOOD: AN INVITATION TO A HOLY LENT

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and mediating on God’s holy Word. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 265)

Some years ago, I remember talking with a friend who was not a Christian. She was interested in maybe becoming a Christian, she said, but she was worried. Wouldn’t she have to “clean up” her life before Jesus would accept her? At the time, the only thing I could think to say to dissuade her of that misapprehension was: “Do you have to ‘get cleaned up’ to take a bath?” 

Not a very eloquent rejoinder, I know. What I meant was—Jesus doesn’t expect us to “clean up” anything before he will love us. He loves us like crazy already, and that’s what makes us want to become more lovely for him!

I was reminded of that story listening to Fr. Jay’s fine homily on Ash Wednesday. The thing is, Lent doesn’t “clean us up” for God. There’s nothing missing from us on Mardi Gras that we find we’re suddenly in possession of when we start fasting on Ash Wednesday. In fact, we’re loved just as we are. God comes to us because he loves us, not because we fast and practice abstinence and take on a whole slate of Lenten disciplines. But—although God loves us as we are, he never leaves us as we are for we are not yet what we shall be. 

And that’s where Lent comes in. 

Lent is a time when we can co-operate (literally) with God’s grace as it works its mysterious alchemy to make us more like what God created us to be. As our Lenten booklet says: Lent “is rooted in an essential aspect of what it is to be a Christian: Repentance, metanoia in Greek, turning one’s life around, putting off the old self and putting on the new self, which is made real by the Resurrection of Jesus. It is an intensification of that movement which should be the spiritual rhythm of our lives: a continuous turning away from sin and re-orientation, through grace, toward God. Lent is about conversion.”

Every year, it’s a priest’s privilege to invite us all, in the name of the Church, to the wholehearted and joyous observance of Lent, which is one way we participate in that great project of conversion God is undertaking in our hearts. Through that process, God is committed to fashioning us into something—the phrase I can’t get out of my head when I dream about Saint Mary’s is God is making us “saints for the city,” a people after his heart, a family committed to the flourishing of our neighbors, especially those most in need. God is building a people bent on breaking every yoke, on letting the oppressed go free, on sharing our bread with the hungry, clothing the naked, and taking the homeless poor into our houses —that’s the “fast God chooses” and about which we read in Isaiah 58 at the beginning of every Lent. 

Our cooperation in the process is called askesis (ἄσκησις), a Greek word that means practice, training, exercise, discipline. Lent is no time for fear, for obsessive guilt (as Father Jay rightly pointed out), but it’s time for our cooperation with the ongoing work of grace in our lives. And that cooperation can take the form of fasting, working for justice, prayer, meditating on Sacred Scripture. Our fasts don’t make God love us (we don’t need to get cleaned up to take a bath!), but our little abstinences help turn our hearts. It’s how we chip away the parts of ourselves that don’t look like Jesus yet, the parts that have to die for our truest selves to flare to life. As Father Frederic Harton wrote in his ascetical classic, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: 

Christian asceticism is certainly directed towards the killing out of the flesh in the Pauline sense, in order that [we] may become more and more spiritual as the grace of God has a progressively freer course. Grace is essentially the principle of life, not death, and if we must die in order to live, as indeed we must, it is the fall, self-willed self which must die in order that the true supernaturally natural self may live in God. 

One book I plan to return to this Lent is Catherine de Hueck Doherty’s Poustinia: Christian Spirituality of the East for Western Man. Doherty was a Russian who fled the revolution to Canada, where she founded Friendship House to serve Toronto’s poor. When its doors closed, she opened Friendship House in Harlem at the height of the Great Depression. Although the New York house closed its doors in 1960, by then it had become a national movement for interracial justice. A catholic lay-woman, Doherty wrote more than thirty books, lectured, and devoted her life to activism—God built her into a “saint for the city” in the fullest sense. Writing about Lent, she said:

Lent is a time of going very deeply into ourselves, of really straightening the ways of the Lord. What is it that we have to tear out of our soul, by the roots? What is it that stands between us and God? Between us and our brothers and sisters? Between us and life, the life of the Spirit? Whatever it is, let us relentlessly tear it out, without a moment’s hesitation. Let us be willing to surrender all that we have within ourselves. Lent is a corridor that leads us to the face of the Father, the face of God.

We, you and I, stand always at the entrance to that corridor. We’re at the headwaters of the ever-flowing stream that draws us godward. Lent calls us to conversion through "self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.”

Consider that an invitation. —Father Sammy Wood

THE PARISH PRAYER LIST

We give thanks to God for giving us life; for showing us the beauty of the universe, for the warmth and tenderness of the world of nature, and for the goodness of God even in times of  darkness when goodness, beauty, and grace are hidden from our eyes.

We pray for those who are sick and for those in any need or trouble. We pray for those celebrating birthdays and anniversaries this week; for those living with drought, storm, frigid weather, flood, fire, and earthquake.

We pray especially this week for the people of Türkiye and Syria.; and we also pray for Tracy, Richard, Willard, Gigi, Carole, Linda, Don, Michele, Bob, Penny, Steven, Sharon, Pat, Lina, Charlotte, Ginny, Roger, Catherine, Tony, Pat, Gloria, Gladys, Luis, Liduvina, José, Theo, Michael, Matthew, Lauren, Joyce, Eric, Carlos, Christopher, Shalim, Greta, Quincy, Ava Grace, Bruce, Barbara, Robert, Suzanne, Abe, Hardy, Gypsy, and Rick, priest.

We also pray:

For the work of the Saint Mary’s Search Committee and the Board of Trustees;
For the Chemin Neuf Community and the Community at the Crossing;
For the people of Ukraine and for an end to the Russian invasion;
For coadjutor bishop-elect, Matthew Heyd;
For all those suffering from COVID-19 and for all those recovering from COVID-19;
For those killed and injured in the 71 mass shootings in the United States in 2023;
For all refugees and those seeking asylum;
For the work of Neighbors in Need and for its guests;
For those without food, shelter, or work; and for those seeking work;
For those troubled by depression, anxiety, or addiction;
For all those visiting Saint Mary’s and our neighborhood this week;
For the safety and welfare of our nation, city, and neighborhood;

A COLLECT FOR LENT

Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

AN INVITATION TO HELP THE PEOPLE OF TÜRKIYE AND SYRIA

Episcopal Relief and Development (Website)

International Rescue Committee (Website)

Doctors Without Borders (Website)

THE SHAPE OF LENT AT THE CHURCH OF SAINT MARY THE VIRGIN:

An electronic copy of the booklet, The Shape of the Lent, can be downloaded here. In it you’ll find suggestions for keeping a Holy Lent and an invitation for us to observe Lent together, as a community.

Week 1: February 26–March 4

Abstinence: Sweets & Treats
The Psalm of the Week: 104
Readings: The Creation & the Fall
Sunday: Genesis 1.1-2.3
Monday: Genesis 2.4-25
Tuesday: Genesis 3
Wednesday: Genesis 4
Thursday: Genesis 6.1-8; 7
Friday: Genesis 9.8-17
Saturday: Genesis 11.1-9

Friday, March 3, Evening Prayer 5:00 PM and Stations of the Cross 5:30 PM. Stations of the Cross will be offered after Evening Prayer on Fridays throughout Lent, except on March 24 (Eve of the Annunciation).

PARISH PROFILE AND SURVEY

The search committee for our next rector has been working, in collaboration with the Diocese, on a parish profile that will describe the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin to potential candidates. A central part of this document is to accurately summarize our parish as we currently see ourselves as well as our hopes for where our community is headed.

To incorporate the opinions of as many parishioners as possible, the committee has created a survey. The survey was mailed, and the electronic version is available by clicking here. The more Saint Marians who fill out the survey, the better our profile will be. Please help the search committee with this important work!

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S

Our regular daily liturgical schedule, Monday through Friday, is Morning Prayer 8:00 AM, Mass 12:10 PM, and Evening Prayer at 5:00 PM. Holy Hour is offered on Wednesday at 11:00 AM and Thursday’s Mass includes a Healing Service. On Saturdays, Mass is celebrated at 12:10 PM and Evening Prayer is prayed at 5:00 PM. On Sundays, Solemn Mass is offered at 11:00 AM and Evening Prayer at 5:00 PM.

During Lent at Saint Mary’s, it is our custom to keep most weekdays as Lenten Weekdays or ferias. Among other things, this allows us to hear the Scripture readings in course. However, if there is a saint associated with a date, he or she will be noted in our parish liturgical calendars in parenthesis.

Wednesday, March 1, Weekday of Lent (David, Bishop of Menevia, Wales, c. 544)

Thursday, March 2, Weekday of Lent (Chad, Bishop of Litchfield, 672)

Friday, March 3, Weekday of Lent (John and Charles Wesley, Priests, 1791 and 1788)

Sunday, March 5, The Second Sunday in Lent

Evensong and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament will be offered at 5 PM on the Second Sunday in Lent.

THE GREAT LITANY

At the Solemn Mass on Sunday, the First Sunday in Lent, we will keep one of the oldest traditions from our English church heritage—we pray the Great Litany in Procession. A “litany” is simply a prayer of intercession (from the Greek litē for “prayer” or “supplication”) whereby we make our requests known to God. A corporate act of intercession, with various petitions said or sung by a deacon with fixed responses from the assembly, dates back to the church in fifth-century Rome. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556) famously “Englished” the Church’s liturgy, rendering it into the common tongue, but the Litany was the first English-language rite prepared by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. It was first published in 1544. Until then, Latin had been the only language used in England for the services of the Church, and although processions were common in the sixteenth century, especially to pray for God’s favor during times of war, intemperate weather, and sickness, Henry VIII noticed people were not actively engaging in these services as he thought they should and attributed it to the fact that they “understode no parte of suche prayers.” He decreed that prayers be set forth in the English tongue, and the Great Litany stands as the only officially sanctioned liturgy published during Henry’s reign.

This prayer addresses nearly every general area for intercession—prayers for the church, the world, government, the poor, and individuals in all manner of circumstances. The petitions follow a series of requests for God to deliver us from evil, sin, heresy, schism, violence, natural calamity, danger, and death. There are also a series of “obsecrations,” or prayers for delivery that recall events in the life of our Lord. King Henry ordered the Litany’s use in processions across England during his war with France and Scotland.

Today we use this rite in procession—marching in form around the worship space—as the original documents prescribed. Because it is impractical for us to march around our entire neighborhood making these petitions on behalf of ourselves and our neighbors, we process around the nave instead.

The 1552 Book of Common Prayer called for the Litany at Morning Prayer, as did the 1928 American Prayer Book. The 1979 BCP calls this prayer “the Great Litany” to distinguish it from other litanies. Owing to its stateliness—the liturgist F. E. Brightman called it “one of the magnificences of Christendom”—and its penitential tone, this all-encompassing prayer is especially appropriate for Lent, and today we join Anglican churches across the world in praying these words, in part, to honor an important part of our heritage.

Sources: “The Great Litany,” in An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church: A User-Friendly Reference for Episcopalians, Armontrout & Solcum eds. (New York: Church Publishing, 2000): 227-28; J. Eric Hunt, Cranmer’s First Litany, 1544, and Merbecke’s Book of Common Prayer Noted, 1550 (New York: Macmillan, 1939): 21ff; “The Great Litany, Lent I”; “Out of the question: The Litany in procession”; “Exhortation & Litany”; “The Great Litany”.

“English as a liturgical language could have no finer beginning—this Litany ranking among the most superb works, not only in ecclesiastical, but also in all of literature.” (Hunt, 16-17) — SW

AROUND THE PARISH

Thank you to all those who worked so hard on Wednesday—lots of preparation and set-up, three Masses, and some ashing in between. It’s a long day here at Saint Mary’s, but a good one. We’re grateful to all those who gave of their time and energy to make it possible for us to serve our members, friends, and neighbors.

The Saint Mary’s Centering Prayer Group plans to return to in-person gatherings this week. Please speak to Blair Burroughs or Ingrid Sletten for more information about the practice of Centering Prayer or click here. Perhaps the season of Lent would be a good time to explore this particular form of prayer. The group will be meeting in Saint Benedict’s Room after Stations of the Cross on Fridays.

On Saturday, March 4, at 2:00 PM, a Requiem Mass for Emil Bretzger will be celebrated in the church. A reception will take place following Mass in Saint Joseph’s Hall.

Sunday March 12 at 12:45 PM, Father Jay Smith leads a discussion of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book for 2023, Failure: What Jesus Said About Sin, Mistakes and Messing Stuff Up by Bishop Emma Ineson.

On Sunday, March 19, Dr. David Hurd, organist and music director, will be away from the parish. He will be in Rochester, New York, playing a recital at Rochester’s Third Presbyterian Church. The following day, Monday, March 20, he will be speaking at the Eastman School of Music.

THE MUSIC OF DR. DAVID HURD

On Friday, February 24, at 7:30 PM, in the Belding Theater at The Bushnell, the Hartford Chorale will celebrate the music of noted African-American composers, David Hurd (b. 1950) and Margaret Bonds (1913–1972). The concert includes the Connecticut premiere of Dr. Hurd’s In Honor Of Martin and Margaret Bonds’ Credo, with text by W.E.B. Du Bois. Long overlooked by music historians and publishers because of her gender and skin color, Margaret Bonds composed music that gives those who hear it a powerful glimpse into the work and artistry of one of the most important Black composers of the twentieth century. The Chorale will be joined by soloists Jolie Rocke and Marques Jerrell Ruff, along with members of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and members of the Harlem Chamber Players.

ABOUT THE MUSIC ON THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT, FEBRUARY 26, 2023

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

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

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

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

Organist and composer Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810–1876) was born in London. He sang as a boy in the choir of the Chapel Royal, was named organist at Hereford Cathedral in 1832, soon moved to Exeter Cathedral, and subsequently served at Leeds Parish Church, Winchester Cathedral, and finally at Gloucester Cathedral from 1865 to 1876. He received both Bachelor and Doctor of Music degrees from Oxford and became Professor of Organ at the Royal Academy of Music in 1850.  Wesley is well represented in modern hymnals. Among his many hymn tunes is the well-known tune Aurelia for The Church’s one foundation.  Several of his anthems are standard Anglican repertoire. Wash me throughly, sung on Sunday during Communion, is an expressive setting of Psalm 51:1,2, and is scored for soprano solo, choir, and organ.—David Hurd

ADULT EDUCATION: LENT COMES AND BIBLE STUDY RETURNS

This coming Sunday, February 26, we resume our examination of the writings from the time the New Testament was formed. Imagine you’re a first century Christian. Paul has died. The Second Coming has not occurred. Is your faith pointless? The New Testament takes shape and the church is formed in part to answer these questions. We know the Gospels reach their present form after 60 CE. What about the Epistles? How do the followers of Paul understand their faith in light of Paul’s death? How do the followers of Paul understand their faith after the Jewish Revolution and the destruction of the Temple? How do they make sense of worshiping a Jewish Savior when essentially no Jews are Christian? In other words, how do they remain faithful? We continue to seek answers to those questions, and others, when we begin to read the Letter to the Ephesians on Sunday. I hope you’ll join us in Saint Joseph’s Hall at 9:30 AM that day. We’ll continue our discussion on all the Sundays in Lent, including Palm Sunday, April 2.—Father Peter Ross Powell

ANSWERING THE CALL TO SERVE: USHERING

The Saint Raphael’s Guild of Ushers is recruiting! If you are moved by your worship with us, we hope you will consider helping out once a month as an usher to greet and welcome our visitors and, we hope, enhance the experience of all those who come to worship at Saint Mary’s.

This means being a member of a dedicated team that not only welcomes visitors on Sundays and major feast days, but also takes on such tasks as handing out bulletins, answering questions, directing folks to Coffee Hour and the rest rooms, and taking up the collection and assisting at the Communion rail. No special skills are required, just a willingness to be helpful and friendly. And you will of course be partnered with experienced ushers who will be happy to guide you.

In addition, we are especially eager for your assistance on special worship days, such as Ash Wednesday (coming up!) and the Easter Triduum. The routines may be slightly different to accommodate the liturgy, but again, it is not too complicated!

Please contact head usher, Marie Rosseels, for more information about volunteering for this important ministry. She’d be happy to address any concerns and answer any questions. Give this some prayerful thought. This is a very satisfying ministry. You will meet people from around the country and around the world, and you will be able to assist your fellow parishioners. We invite you to join us in this very important ministry.

NEIGHBORS IN NEED

For the next several months, Neighbors in Need is blessed with help from five young people working with the Diocese of New York’s branch of Episcopal Service Corps, the New York Service & Justice Collaborative. We expect that they will help with sorting and hanging clothes as well as carrying them up from the basement to set up for our drop-by days. Even so, we would welcome your inquiry about volunteering.

Our biggest needs now are clothing, especially shoes (sneakers or athletic shoes and other sturdy shoes), men’s and women’s pants and tops, and coats—for winter and for warmer weather. And, of course, donations help us to purchase toiletries and underwear.

Please contact us at neighbors@stmvnyc.org for more information about volunteering or about the goals, work, and methods of Neighbors in Need.

LIVING LENT, PREPARING FOR EASTER

Quiet Day led by Mother Deborah Lee at Saint Mary’s on Saturday, March 25, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Mother Deborah will lead reflections and will be available for spiritual direction. Mass will be celebrated at 12:10 PM and lunch in Saint Joseph’s Hall will follow. There will be opportunities for prayer, quiet, journaling, and reading in the church and chapels and in Saint Joseph’s Hall between conferences.

Please RSVP if you plan on attending the Quiet Day on March 25.

At Saint Mary’s on Sunday, March 12, at 12:45 PM. The Saint Mary’s Book Club invites you to join them for a discussion of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book for 2023, Failure: What Jesus Said About Sin, Mistakes and Messing Stuff Up by Emma Ineson. From the publisher’s website:

In 2019, Emma Ineson wrote about ambition and what it means for Christians to be successful. And then there was a global pandemic . . . Suddenly failure began to feel very much more familiar than success. But what is failure? What did Jesus think of it? What did he say about sin, mistakes and generally mucking things up? At the start of this wonderfully humorous and encouraging book—which will end at the cross—it’s suggested that our tendency to lump all kinds of failure together could be a bit unhelpful. A more nuanced understanding of what sort of failure we’re dealing with might just allow us to make friends with it and respond more appropriately. This idea leads us ‘Towards an (Imperfect) Theology of Failure,’ based on key Christian thinking, and Emma poses the question of whether sin is an individual or corporate thing. Looking at the church, we consider, what is God’s purpose for it? And in the light of key concerns such as safeguarding and racial justice, how might we re-examine concepts of success and recognize and measure failure? As the book draws to an end, we are reminded of our calling to live life to the full, to take risks despite our fears. We are bound sometimes to fail! Yet gazing at Jesus—who looked like the greatest failure of all—we may discern in the heartache, vulnerability and humility of failure, the glory of the cross.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

Daylight Saving Time begins at 2:00 AM on Sunday, March 12, 2023. Clocks are set ahead one hour, and so we “lose” an hour.

Friday, March 24, The Eve of the Annunciation of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Organ Recital 5:30 PM. Solemn Mass 6:00 PM. Timothy Pyper, music director at the Church of the Holy Apostles, will play the recital. Mother Anna Pearson, rector of the Church of the Holy Apostles, will preach.

April 2, Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday, Blessing of Palms, Procession in the Church, and Solemn Mass 11:00 AM, Evening Prayer in the Church at 5:00 PM.

April 6, Maundy Thursday, Solemn Mass 6:00 PM, Watch before the Blessed Sacrament until Midnight.

April 7, Good Friday, Liturgy of the Day 12:30 PM.

CONCERTS AT SAINT MARY’S

Saint Mary’s resident orchestra, the New York Repertory Orchestra, will present concerts here at Saint Mary’s on March 25 and May 20. Admission is free. A $15.00 donation is most welcome. Click here for more details about the 2022–2023 season.

The program on March 25 is: George: RUIN (World Premiere/NYRO Commission); Boulanger: Faust et Hélène; Martinů: Symphony No. 2.

AWAY FROM SAINT MARY’S

At the Church of the Good Shepherd, 240 East 31st Street, Wednesday Evenings in Lent: “Who-What-When-Where-Why? The Old Testament Lessons of the Easter Vigil,” is the theme of the Lenten program on Wednesday evenings during Lent at the Church of the Good Shepherd, led by Father Stephen Morris. Good Shepherd is a member, along with Saint Mary’s, of the Midtown Manhattan Clericus. You are invited to join the people of Good Shepherd at 6:00 PM each Wednesday in Lent (beginning March 1) for Mass, vegetarian soup, and class/discussion led by Fr. Morris. Discover why we read what we read at the Easter Vigil and the impact these readings can still have in our lives today.

Father Stephen Morris has degrees in medieval history, theology, and special education from Yale, Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, and CUNY (Hunter). He has written books about church history and theology, as well as novels; all his books are available on Amazon. He has lived in New York since 1980 and is the priest-in-charge at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Kips Bay (Manhattan).

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.