FROM MARIE ROSSEELS: FINDING GOD IN FRIEND & STRANGER

When I first walked through the doors of Saint Mary’s on a hot and humid August day in 2006, I was still new to the neighborhood. Even though I had lived in Manhattan for a very long time, my then employer had recently moved its offices to Sixth Avenue, just around the corner from the church. Other than the occasional visit to a Broadway theater, I’d never had much use for Times Square. From a colleague’s office, I spotted the roof of a church and set out to find it. It was a discovery that would forever change my life. I had not belonged to a parish since my childhood and did not attend church regularly for years, but in many ways it felt like a homecoming: Saint Mary’s was the place where I belonged. Lunchtime visits turned quickly into regular Sunday attendance and, before long, I became a pledging member.

Of the many volunteer activities that I got involved in at Saint Mary’s, ushering draws me closest to the body of saints that watch over our parish. These are the souls of the faithful that have gone before us, and I feel their protection and guidance. As head usher, I draw special inspiration from the example of Mr. George Handy, a lifelong member who served as an usher, and as head usher, well into his nineties and with whom I still feel a deep connection even though he is now in the nearer presence of God and for me a blessed memory. I learned from him that we uphold a strong tradition of hospitality and welcome. Even during the dark days of COVID, Saint Mary’s opened its doors for in-person worship as soon as the ban was lifted, while making the necessary adjustments to ensure safe gathering. It was during those uncertain days that I discerned my calling to lead the Usher Guild and I gave up being an altar server so that I could dedicate myself fully to that effort and rebuild membership. It gives me a great deal of pleasure that we can boost again a strong corps of ushers, including a talented eight-year-old, whose enthusiasm would have made Mr. Handy very happy!

Ushering also connects me in a deeply personal way with the current members and the many visitors, both foreign and domestic, that make up the Saint Mary’s community. I grew up Roman Catholic in Belgium and had never quite experienced the joy that comes from feeling truly part of one body in Christ, in a church where all are welcome. This too is my Beloved Community; people of diverse backgrounds and identities come together here in love, mutual respect, seeking to realize justice within the broader world.

People sometimes tell me that they could never be an usher because they find it too distracting and that it prevents them from worshiping. Strangely, it has the opposite effect on me: I am already an easily distracted person by nature, but ushering gives me a focus that prevents my thoughts from wandering. That is how I feel close to God; it is my form of “centering” prayer.

Marie Rosseels serves the Saint Mary’s and Times Square communities in a variety of ways, including several terms on the Board of Trustees, where she has been both the Vice President and the Secretary of the Board more than once. She is an active member of the Flower and Altar Guilds, a member of the Stewardship Committee, and co-chair of Neighbors in Need. She was an acolyte for many years and can still, on rare occasions, be convinced to swing a thurible. She worked for many years in the Human Resources Department of an international bank and was instrumental in producing the parish’s Employee Manual. She is one of those who launders altar linens and is a whiz with needle and thread. She has replaced many buttons on clergy cassocks and has been known to repair lace trim on the interim rector’s alb. She is the Head Usher of the Saint Raphael’s Guild of Ushers. She is available to discuss all of these ministries with those who are interested in giving of their time and talent at Saint Mary’s.

THE PARISH PRAYER LIST

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 refugees and migrants; for those struggling with depression, anxiety, or addiction; for those whom we serve in our outreach programs, and for those living amid violence, or with drought, storm, punishing heat, flood, fire, or earthquake.

We pray for peace throughout the world, and especially for the people of Ukraine, Russia, Niger, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Yemen, and Myanmar.

We pray for reconciliation among the churches and people of the Anglican Communion.

We pray for John, Humberto, Joan, Steven, Carl, Janet, Claudia, Alexei, Evan, Barry, Anthony, Joyce, June, Cooki, Lydia, Sharon, Leroy, Bruce, Robert, Carlos, Christopher, Cooki, Liduvina, Richard, Chuck, Frank, Brendan, José, Carmen, Jean, Susan, Paris, Charlotte, Chelsey, Keith, Jennifer, Harka, Julie, Carole, Suzanne, Greta, Quincy, Ingrid, Gigi, Cooki, Ava Grace, Phyllis, Jim, Abe, Bob, Gypsy, Hardy, and Margaret; for Jamie and Thomas, religious; Lind, deacon; and Allan and Stephen, priests.

We pray for the repose of the souls of Barbara Fyfe, George Klein, André Watts, Juan Perez, priest, and those whose year’s mind falls on August 6: Robert Belle Simonson (1916); Madeline Elizabeth Staib (1921); Katherine Leighton Paul (1952); Charles Augustus Edgar (1963).

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE . . . Barbara Fyfe, a cousin of parishioner Don Wright, died this week after a long illness. Please keep Barbara, Don, their family and friends, and all who mourn in your prayers.

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 anointing and prayers for healing. On Saturdays, 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 celebrated at 12:10 PM in the Mercy Chapel. On Sundays, Solemn Mass is offered at 11:00 AM and Evening Prayer at 5:00 PM. Evensong and Benediction will be offered next on the first Sunday in October.

Friday, August 4, 5:30–6:45 PM, The Centering Prayer Group meets in Saint Benedict’s Study.

Sunday, August 6, The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Solemn Mass 11:00 AM. A cantor will assist the congregation’s worship at the Solemn Mass. The readings are Exodus 34:29–35; Psalm 99; 2 Peter 1:13–21; Luke 9:28–36. Father Sammy Wood will preach.

Sunday, August 6, c. 12:30 PM, Celebration in Honor of Harka Gurung at Coffee Hour in Saint Joseph’s Hall.

Monday, August 7, John Mason Neale, Priest, 1866

Tuesday, August 8, Dominic, Priest and Friar, 1221

Thursday, August 10, Laurence, Deacon, and Martyr at Rome, 258. The 12:10 PM Mass in the Lady Chapel includes anointing and prayers for healing.

Friday, August 11, Clare, Abbess at Assisi, 1253

Friday, August 11, 5:30–6:45 PM, The Centering Prayer Group meets in Saint Benedict’s Study.

Saturday, August 12, Florence Nightingale, Nurse, Social Reformer, 1910

LIFE AT SAINT MARY’S: NEWS & NOTICES (AND REQUESTS FOR HELP)

Congratulations, Dr. Risinger . . . Mark Risinger serves this parish in a surprising number of ways. The list is long. But Mark does have a life away from Saint Mary’s. He teaches music at Saint Bernard’s School on the Upper East Side. He is also, as many of our readers know, an accomplished musical artist. What is perhaps less well known is that Mark is also a distinguished musicologist. In recent years, Mark has been working hard to produce a new critical edition of Semele, an opera by Georg Friedrich Händel (1685–1759); and we are happy to be able to announce that his project is now complete. Mark’s two-volume edition of Semele was recently published by Baerenreiter Verlag (“Publishing House”) as part of the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe (“Edition”) of Händel’s works, a project overseen by the Händel-Gesellschaft. We hope that Mark will be able to tell us about his work—what’s a “critical edition” we might ask—but also about the opera itself, the sensual story of the god Jupiter’s love for the human Semele and the dangers of asking for the gift of immortality if you don’t know what you’re doing. — JRS

On Tuesday, August 15, we will celebrate the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There will be a said Mass in the Lady Chapel at 12:10 PM and a Solemn Mass in the church at 6:00 PM. Our guest preacher at the Solemn Mass will be the Reverend Dr. Norman Whitmire, Jr. Father Whitmire is the rector of All Saints Episcopal Church, Woodhaven, New York. You may read more about Father Whitmire, his life, education, ministry, and path to ordination on his parish’s website. There will be a reception in Saint Joseph’s Hall at the end of Mass. All are invited.

Parishioners Carl Grindley and Steven Eldredge both underwent surgical procedures in recent days. They are doing well but are continuing to recuperate. Please keep them in your prayers.

Neighbors in Need, Saint Mary’s Primary Outreach Program: The next Drop-by Distribution of Clothing and Hygiene Items will take place on Friday, August 18, 1:30–3:00 PM. Lightly used, sensible shoes and sneakers for both men and women are a particular need just now. Cash donations are always welcome: donations online or by check should include the notation “Neighbors in Need.” We are very grateful to all those who continue to support this ministry. For more information about the work of Neighbors in Need or if you are interested in volunteering, please speak to MaryJane Boland, Marie Rosseels, or Father Jay Smith.

Donations for altar flowers. If you would like to make a donation to cover the cost of flowers to be placed on the high altar and at the shrines on an upcoming Sunday or holy day, there are many available dates coming up August 13 and 27, every Sunday in September and many Sundays in October. The suggested donation is $250. To reserve a date and make your donation for the altar flowers, please contact Chris Howatt. If you’d like to explore other dates or have questions about the flowers or the Flower Guild, please contact Brendon Hunter.

Father Sammy Wood will be away from the parish August 14–18. He and his wife Renee will be with their son Patrick as he travels south to begin his first year at university.

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT THE SOLEMN MASS ON THE TRANSFIGURATIONOF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST,
SUNDAY, AUGUST 6, 2023, 11:00 AM

The organ voluntaries on Sunday are settings by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) of two different chorale paraphrases of the Nicene Creed. The prelude is Bach’s Wir glauben all an einen Gott, Vater, (“We all believe in one God, Father”), BWV 740, which is based on the melody for Tobias Clausnitzer’s German metrical creed of 1668. Bach’s setting is in five voices, two of which are played on the pedals. Bach presents the chorale melody, one phrase at a time, with the upper pedal voice always melodically anticipating its eventual appearance in the soprano register. This prelude has a gentle and lyric tone and reflects a confident reverence. By contrast, in other settings Bach expresses the creed in strong and angular music. Such is the case with Wir glauben all an einen Gott, Schöpfer (“We all believe in one God, Creator”), BWV 680, offered today as the postlude. This setting from Bach’s “German Organ Mass” is based upon the modal melody of Martin Luther’s creedal chorale. The theme of its three-voice fugue played by the hands derives from the first six pitches of the chorale melody’s opening phrase. This counterpoint for the hands is punctuated at regular intervals by recurrences of a striding pedal figure which is suggestive of climbing stairs, two at a time, and then hastening down to the bottom again. For this reason, this setting has been nicknamed the “Giant” fugue. At the very end of it, the remaining melody notes of the chorale’s first phrase are cleverly embedded in the midst of the counterpoint.

The settings for the Mass on Sunday, the Feast of the Transfiguration, are from Christ Church Service by David Hurd, organist and music director at Saint Mary’s. Christ Church Service, a setting of the traditional Rite I Ordinary, was commissioned in 1998 by Christ Episcopal Church, New Haven, Connecticut. It is scored for unison voices and organ and therefore is also suitable to be sung by a single cantor, as it will be offered at Mass today. The melodic shapes of the Kyrie (not sung this morning) and Gloria are inspired by modal chant style, although set with accompaniment in a more modern harmonic context. The vocal line of the triple-meter Sanctus is punctuated by a bold succession of major and minor chords, interrupted only by the rhythmic shifts of hemiola at two cadences. The melody of the Agnus Dei is derived from the Kyrie but accompanied more simply than at the Kyrie.

During the Communion on Sunday, bass-baritone Jonathan Roberts, will sing O Light of Light, Love given birth by Cary Ratcliff (b. 1955). Laurence Housman (1865–1939) produced a translation of the anonymous Latin Transfiguration hymn, O nata lux de lumine, for The English Hymnal (1906). Housman’s seven-stanza translation was distilled down to three Long Meter stanzas for inclusion in The Hymnal 1982 where it was paired with Ratcliff’s musical setting. Ratcliff’s music was originally intended for Charles Wesley’s hymn “Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go,” the text of which was in The Hymnal 1940 but not retained in The Hymnal 1982. The tune, named Elmhurst, won the 1982 National American Guild of Organists’ Hymn Tune Competition. It is in the art-song mold and flows continuously between the stanzas of the text. The final stanza is harmonized differently and has its own distinctive final cadence. Its lyric melody and rich harmony combine effectively with the abridged Housman hymn, translated from a tenth-century source.

More about the cantor: Bass-baritone Jonathan Mark Roberts has performed over two dozen principal roles and solo masterworks from the sixteenth century to world premieres. Selected appearances include Opera du Périgord, France; the Kapitelsaal, Salzburg; the Mois Molière Festival, Versailles; the Boston Early Music Festival Fringe; Emmanuel Music; and the Celebrity Series at Boston Opera House. Jonathan was previously soloist and artist-in-residence at the First Unitarian Society in Newton and has performed with renowned New York ensembles including the Choral Society of Grace Church, C4, and the Canticum Novum singers. He is a two-time New Jersey Governors Award recipient and a finalist in the Grand Concours de Chant, Austin, Texas. Jonathan is a graduate of Harvard College, where he was a Choir Secretary and Choral Fellow with the Harvard University Choir. He joined Saint Mary’s choir in October 2022. 

COMING UP AT SAINT MARY’S

Tuesday, August 15, The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Monday, September 4, Labor Day, Federal Holiday Schedule

Friday, September 8, The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Thursday, September 14, Holy Cross Day

Thursday, September 21, Saint Matthew the Apostle

Friday, September 29, Saint Michael & All Angels

Sunday, October 1, Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost,
Beginning of Program Year & Return of the Choir of Saint Mary’s

AT THE NEW MUSEUM, 235 Bowery, New York, NY 10002; 212.219.1222
Pepón Osorio: My Beating Heart/ Mi Corazón Latiente. Until September 17, 2023

From the museum website: “Informed by his background in theater and performance as well as his experiences as a child services case worker and professor, Osorio’s richly textured sculptures and installations are deeply invested in political, social, and cultural issues affecting Latino/a and working-class communities in the United States. Installed in the New Museum’s Second Floor galleries, the exhibition focues on the elaborate, large-scale, multimedia environments that Osorio has been creating since the early 1990s, often developed through long-term conversations and collaborations with individuals in the neighborhoods where they were first shown. This exhibition will provide an opportunity to experience Pepón Osorio’s new and most iconic projects together for the first time and demonstrate the distinctive ways in which he creates encompassing environments that illustrate personal stories and reveal crucial societal concerns. Taken from an eponymous work, the title of the exhibition addresses themes that resonate throughout Osorio’s practice, including the simultaneous resilience and fragility of human life, the values and desires that propel humanity, and the fundamental urgency to better care for one another.”

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.