FROM FATHER JACOBSON: THEOSIS AND REFLECTING ON OUR TRANSFORMATION

Now I say to you, “You are gods, *
   and all of you children of the Most High”
(Psalm 82:6, Book of Common Prayer)

What could it possibly mean for us to become gods (that is, gods with a lowercase “g”)? This provocative verse from Psalm 82, along with several other passages from the Old and New Testaments, can be used to support a theological concept known as theosis (θέωσις). Sometimes also referred to as deification or divinization, theosis is a central teaching in Eastern Orthodox Christianity and is something that has been gaining more attention within Western traditions such as Anglicanism, especially since the twentieth century.

Norman Russell, summarizing the work of Vladimir Lossky, defines theosis as “the final end of humankind, the fullness of mystical union with God, seen in terms of a participation in the divine and uncreated energies which can begin even in this life.”[1]

It is the last part of the definition, the aspects that “can begin even in this life,” which we will primarily concentrate on over the next three weeks in the Adult Formation Class. This year, the thematic focus for Adult Formation has been conversion and transformation, and theosis is one of the more robust ways that Christianity has found to describe our transformation. During these weeks, we will explore how this teaching developed over time, and use this survey to reflect upon transformation in our own lives.

Beginning with the Bible in week one, we will review the passages that the Greek Fathers, as well as modern theologians, most often point to when writing about theosis. We will also look at some of the earliest Christian texts from the post-biblical period that begin to use theosis-like language, including some important second-century contributions from Justin Martyr and Irenaeus of Lyons.

In the second week, we will observe how these ideas continued to progress, and varied by author, in what can perhaps be described as an intermediate stage of theosis understanding. Our guides for this week, as we move from the second to the fifth centuries, come primarily from Alexandria, and will be writers such as Clement, Athanasius, and Cyril. We will also spend some time with the fourth-century Cappadocian Fathers.

Finally, in our last session, we will see how the concept of theosis really begins to crystallize. Dionysius the Areopagite (Pseudo-Dionysius) is the first to offer a formal definition in the sixth century, and the writings of Maximus the Confessor from the seventh century offer the fullest treatment of the topic among the Greek Fathers.

Though we will have been reflecting on our own transformations throughout these sessions, we will conclude by being more deliberate about discussing how this all relates to our more familiar Western ways of speaking about transformation. To assist us, we will draw upon some excerpts from Augustine. Not only is Augustine the principal Latin Father to write about theosis, but he was also the guide for our initial discussions about conversion led by Father Smith in the fall.

I hope you can join us for what I expect will be an exciting three weeks at Adult Formation! — MDJ

Father Matt Jacobson will lead a discussion of theosis on the following three Sundays, April 14, 21, and 28, from 9:45–10:40 AM in Saint Joseph’s Hall.

PRAYING FOR THE CHURCH & FOR THE WORLD

We pray for an end to war and violence, remembering especially the people of Gaza, Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon, Sudan, Ukraine, Russia, Mali, Iran, and Yemen. We pray for an end to violence and division in our neighborhood, city, and nation. We pray for justice and peace.

We pray for the people and clergy of our sister parish, All Saints Margaret Street, London, UK.

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 migrants and those seeking asylum, 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 and around Times Square, for the theater community, and for those living with drought, storm, punishing heat, flood, fire, or earthquake.

We pray for those who are sick or in any special need, especially Jeff, Aliza, Eleni, Andrew, Maria, Linda, Johanna, Pat, Marjorie, Luis, David, Clark, Willard, Celia, Rolf, Sharon, Victor, Jane, Murray, Quincy, June, José, Manuel, Liduvina, Robert, Randy, Christopher, Carlos, Abe, Bob, Gypsy, Margaret, John Derek, , and Hardy; James, Jack, Curtis and Eleanor-Francis, religious; Joanne, Rob, Robby, and Stephen, priests; and Michael, bishop.

We pray for the repose of the soul of Bruce Fulton and for the souls of Elizabeth Davis Fletcher (1879), Mary Petronilla Reynolds (1885), Helen Hammond (1885), Leo Garden (1887), Caroline Muirhead (1904), Elma Dows Thaw (1918), and Hubert Todd (1959), whose year’s mind is on Sunday, April 14.

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE . . . We learned this week that Bruce Fulton died last weekend, after a long struggle with cancer. Bruce was a longtime member of the Church of Saint Luke in the Fields; a great lover of the Eastern Orthodox tradition, its spirituality, liturgy, and theology; a good friend of Saint Mary’s; and a faithful Christian. Bruce knew Saint Mary’s well. He often worshiped with us on the great holy days. Bruce worked for many years as a college librarian and knew a great deal about many things. He was a wonderful and enthusiastic conversationalist, who seemed always to approach life in a positive and hopeful way. It was a pleasure to speak with him in Saint Joseph’s Hall at those many feast-day receptions. He will be missed by his friends, fellow parishioners, and those of us who knew him here at Saint Mary’s. His funeral will be on Saturday, April 20, at 11:00 AM at Saint Luke in the Fields. Please keep Bruce, his friends, and all who mourn in your prayers. May he rest in peace and rise in glory. 

EASTERTIDE AT SAINT MARY’S

The Third Sunday of Easter
April 14

Said Mass (Rite One) 9:00 AM in the Lady Chapel
Adult Formation 9:45 AM in the parish hall
Solemn Mass 11:00 AM
Evening Prayer 5:00 PM

From Father Sammy: Happy Easter! & Come Join Us!
Newcomers’ Reception in the Rectory 1:00 PM
Sunday, April 14

Please allow me to invite you to join Renee and me for dessert and coffee (perhaps a mimosa, too) to honor Saint Mary’s Newcomers on Sunday, April 14, at 1:00 PM after the Solemn Mass and a bit of Coffee Hour. The event will be at the Rectory, right next door to the church on 47th Street (the street entrance is 144 West 47th). Please RSVP by Thursday April 11, if you plan to attend, so we will know how many guests to expect.

The Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 5

Solemn Mass and May Crowning 11:00 AM
Annual Meeting of the Parish in Saint Joseph’s Hall 1:00 PM
Evensong & Benediction 5:00 PM

Ascension Day
Thursday, May 9

Morning Prayer 8:00 AM
Sung Mass 12:10 PM in the Lady Chapel
Organ Recital 5:30 PM
Procession, Solemn Mass & Confirmation 6:00 PM
The Right Reverend Matthew Heyd, Celebrant & Preacher

The Day of Pentecost
Sunday, May 19

Procession, Solemn Mass & Holy Baptism 11:00 AM
The Reverend Landon Moore, Preacher

NEWS & NOTICES

The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd begins on April 14 at 9:45 AM . . . The Atrium is ready and will reopen on the Third Sunday of Easter for the younger members of our congregation! Learn more about this formation program for children in an article by Renee Wood from a past issue of The Angelus. Catechesis of the Good Shephard Level 1 formation is designed for ages 3-6. Older children are welcome to join and assist with the younger children. Parents can drop off their children at the Atrium (Parish House, Second Floor) at 9:45 AM and pickup is at 10:45 AM. If you have any questions about the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd or would like to enroll your child, please send Renee an email. Please keep this important program in your prayers!

Would you like to donate altar flowers and support the work of the Flower Guild? We are hoping to receive donations for May 9 and 26, and all the Sundays in June, including June 2, Corpus Christi. The suggested donation is $250. Please contact Chris Howatt in the parish office for more information and to reserve a date.

The Sunday Morning Adult Formation Class will resume on Sunday, April 14 at 9:45 AM, when Father Matt Jacobson begins his three-part series (April 14, 21, and 28) on the theological concept of theosis (also sometimes referred to as deification or divinization). In this week’s issue of The Angelus, Father Matt outlines his plans for these sessions in which he will explore what it could possibly mean for humans to become gods with a lowercase “g.” These classes are part of this year’s focus on Conversion, Transformation, and the Christian Life. The last set of classes in the 2023–2024 academic year will take place on Sunday mornings in May—Sunday, May 5, 12, 19, and 26—when Father Jay Smith will lead the class in a series entitled Living in Hope: Following Jesus in the Second Half of Life. We’ll consider the work and thought of writers such as Richard Rohr, OFM, and Joan Chittister, OSB, as well as others who have talked about regret, forgiveness, managing retirement, the “missed life,” the spirituality of aging, and living, thriving, and growing after fifty. This is a class for one and all, and we will benefit from the presence of both the young and those who have entered into the “second half of life.”

We would like to recommend The Living Church Podcast to all our readers. The Living Church works to keep its readers informed about what’s happening in the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Communion, and beyond. Published monthly, every issue includes news and commentary on the issues of the day, plus reflections on ministry and theology. Saint Mary’s is a supporter of the Living Church Foundation. In the podcast’s most recent episode (April 8), we hear from Suhaila Tarazi, director of Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza.

The Saint Mary’s Centering Prayer Group meets in the Atrium on Fridays at 6:00 PM, following Evening Prayer. Click here or speak to Blair Burroughs for more information about this beautiful and distinctive form of prayer.

You may assist the work of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem through the Friends of the Diocese website. The website provides information about the work of the Diocese in the Middle East and updates concerning the Israel-Hamas War and the war’s impact on the region. We continue to pray “for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6) and all the peoples of the Middle East.

Easter Appeal and Donations on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday . . . We are pleased to announce that we have received the following amounts in response to our recent appeals: Easter Appeal: $15,627; Maundy Thursday $1934; Good Friday $555. Funds donated to the Easter Appeal will be used to assist those in need in our parish and in the Times Square neighborhood. The Maundy Thursday collection will be shared by AIDS Walk New York 2024 and Neighbors in Need. The funds from the Good Friday collection will be sent to the Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem: The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East: “The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem is engaged in a ministry of Faith in Action in an interfaith region, spreading a message of mutual respect and cooperation through its many institutions, working to bring peace and reconciliation to this conflict-torn region, even as it seeks to maintain its faithful witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

AIDS Walk New York 2024 . . . This year AIDS Walk New York takes place on Sunday, May 19. The Saint Mary’s AIDS Walk Team will be walking together that weekend in order to raise funds for their fellow New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS. To join the Team or support us with a donation, please visit our page. We are grateful to all those who continue to support this ministry.

The New York City Landmarks Conservancy Sacred Sites Open House 2024  will take place once again this year  on Saturday and Sunday, May 18-19th! Saint Mary’s has once again registered for the Open House and will welcome visitors to use our recorded self-guided tours.

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT THE SOLEMN MASS ON THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER, APRIL 14, 2024

The generic classification Praeludium was used broadly and widely by composers of the baroque period to identify keyboard pieces of various lengths and characteristics. Some were so short as to be little more than intonations while others were quite lengthy and included a variety of formal compositional procedures including free fantasia, pedal points, fugues, and variations over bass themes, in distinct, successive sections. These pieces were usually identified by the key in which they were written. The legendary Danish-born composer Dieterich Buxtehude composed four Praeludien in the key of G minor, all of the more extended sort. Two of these Praeludien in G minor are Sunday’s organ voluntaries. 

BuxWV 163, played as the prelude, differs from Buxtehude’s other three Praeludien in G minor by the absence of an obligatory pedal part. This multi-sectional piece is stylistically suitable to performance on the harpsichord where it may be played by hands alone. On the organ, the use of pedals ad libitum is particularly helpful in some passages. BuxWV 149 begins with a set of variations over a repeating bass theme where one would more typically find a free fantasia section. This opening chaconne and the final fugue and coda of this Praeludium are the postlude this coming Sunday.

The setting of the antiphon Vidi aquam, sung during the sprinkling of the people at Mass in the Easter season, is a contemporary chant setting by David Hurd, organist and music director at Saint Mary’s. It was composed for the 1982 Chicago Archdiocesan Music Festival. This setting, which was first performed at Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago, is designed for a variety of performance possibilities including singing in canon, use of handbells, and use of an impressionistic flowing organ accompaniment.

The setting of the Mass on the Third Sunday of Easter is the Mass for five voices of William Byrd (c. 1540–1623). Byrd composed settings of the Latin Mass for three, four and five voices. The Mass for five voices probably dates from about 1594 and was the last of the three to be composed. Its voicing is the most expansive, having two tenor parts, but its movements are the most concise of the three Byrd Masses. The whole business of Latin Masses in post-Reformation England needed to be a somewhat clandestine matter to protect those involved from the possibility of arrest. This being the case, Byrd’s part books were undated and without title page or preface, nor was the printer (Thomas East) identified. Fortunately, Byrd’s settings survived the period in which their performance—if not their very existence—was illegal, and now they rightly are regarded as great treasures of Western music. Composed with the Continental Tridentine liturgy in mind, Byrd’s Masses were also influenced by pre-Reformation works of English masters John Taverner (c. 1490–1545), Christopher Tye (c. 1505–c. 1573), John Sheppard (c. 1515–1558) and Thomas Tallis (c. 1505–1585). The several movements of Byrd’s Mass for five voices are linked by recurring freely composed themes.

Complementing William Byrd’s Mass for five voices on Sunday is his setting for four voices of the antiphon Cibavit eos. This antiphon and its customary companion verse are derived from Psalm 81, verses 16 and 1 respectively. Byrd’s setting, published in his 1605 Gradualia I, is structured to be the Introit for the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ; the antiphon is followed in turn by the verse in a reduced voicing, Gloria Patri, and finally a repetition of the antiphon. This motet-antiphon, with its traditional Eucharistic association, is sung during the Communion at the Solemn Mass on Sunday. — David Hurd

David Hurd will be away from the parish on Sunday, April 21, when the Central Florida Chapter of the American Guild of Organists (CFAGO) will present “A Community Sing-In: The Music of David Hurd,” at 4:00 PM, at Saint Michael’s Episcopal Church, in Orlando, Florida. Parishioner Clark Anderson will play the service and direct the choir here at Saint Mary’s while David is away.

  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.

[1] Norman Russell, The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 4, emphasis added.