FROM FATHER JAY SMITH: ONE IN THREE

Saint Mary’s was imagined and then founded a few years after the end of the Civil War by those who had been moved into action by the ideas, and the accomplishments, of the Tractarians. That small cadre of priests of the Church of England, led by John Keble, John Henry Newman, and Edward Bouverie Pusey, began a revolutionary movement—it felt like a revolution to many at the time—in England’s Established Church. That movement, also known as the Oxford Movement, began in July 1833, fueled by a sermon delivered by John Keble. But we can now see that the movement’s ideas and principles were firmly rooted in the past, in the theology, writings, practices, art, architecture, customs, liturgies, and rituals of the seventeenth-century Caroline Divines, the pre-Reformation English Church, and the bishop theologians of the patristic period.

It is often said that those early leaders of the Oxford Movement cared a great deal about theology and, about ritual, not very much at all. It is true that they were greatly concerned with the Church’s teaching, doctrine, and dogma, but they didn’t aspire to be their generation’s Aquinas. What they wanted to do was to re-claim Catholic teaching, so they could make that teaching effective in the Church. As we prepare to celebrate Trinity Sunday, it’s worth noting that the movement’s most brilliant thinker, John Henry Newman, published his book, The Arians of the Fourth Century, at the movement’s very beginning. This book is not in the first place about liturgy, it is about the doctrine of God. It is about the Church’s attempts over many decades to state and define in admittedly fallible human language not just a theory about God, but something that exists, namely the Trinity, and Jesus Christ as the Second Person of the Trinity, fully God, fully human.

What this suggests is the Oxford Movement’s leaders were interested, first, in realities that had been revealed by God in God’s time and in God’s way. This meant that they believed that when you look at the Church you must be interested first to say this has happened and is still happening in the world, really happening, right now, in time, in spirit, and in truth. The supernatural reality of the Church, apostolic succession, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, baptismal regeneration, the divine realities proclaimed in the ancient Creeds, all of this was, for the Tractarians, prior to and more important than any kind of human thinking, imagination, doubting, reasoning, or inclination. The organization of the Church of England may or may not be admirably suited to the English temperament, but all that is secondary to what God is doing, really doing, in Jesus Christ through and in the Church, the people God has called and is calling right now in the world.

Now once you begin to think this way, it soon becomes clear that you cannot leave liturgy or ritual out of the picture, because liturgy and ritual are physical expressions of what we say and believe about God. Indeed, some of the Fathers believed that the liturgy is what gives rise to theological reflection. Worship comes first, theology later. Lex orandi, lex credendi.

But if all this is true—that when a person is baptized, a Eucharist is celebrated, a confession is heard, a church is built and consecrated—that something happens, really happens in the world and not just in the mind of the believer, then the community of believers will inevitably consider the who, what, where, when, and how of worship. And this is what happens in England, and in New York, in the nineteenth century. If you come to believe that Christ is actually present in the Eucharist, you begin to wonder what kind of building would, ideally speaking, be appropriate for the celebration of the Eucharist; and then before long you begin thinking that the black Geneva gown of the Calvinist preacher is insufficient for the priest who celebrates the divine liturgy on behalf of the Church, and with the Church, making Christ present, really present, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Horton Davies, who taught in Princeton’s Religion Department for many years, is good at explaining the link between theology and ritual, and between the Tractarians and their spiritual children, the Ritualists.[1] First, he believes that the Oxford leaders, Pusey, Newman, and Keble minimized their interest in ritual so as to achieve their theological goals without provoking their Low Church bishops. Second, Davies believes that where Oxford was careful and discreet, Cambridge was forthright and direct. It was there that John Mason Neale and others belonging to The Ecclesiological Society, and particularly through their monthly periodical, The Ecclesiologist, “stimulated an avid, informed, and deepening interest in church architecture as the setting for traditional Catholic worship and thus stimulated the liturgical and ceremonial revival of the Anglican Church of the later nineteenth century.” And, Davies insists, the work of the Society was not mere antiquarianism or hothouse aestheticism, it was meant to revive what he calls “Catholic Churchmanship.” He concludes, “The primary cause of the increasing desire for Catholic ceremonial was quite simply that Catholic doctrine can be most effectively taught through Catholic ceremonial.”[2]

I recently led a retreat for the sisters of the Community of Saint John Baptist at their convent in Mendham, New Jersey. The Community was founded in England in 1852, something made possible by the Catholic Revival in England initiated by the Tractarians. The sisters, like other religious communities of women, engaged in a number of ministries. But several of them—the Sisters of Bethany, the Community of Saint Mary, and the Saint John Baptist Sisters among them—revived the medieval work in fabric, embroidery and vestment making that had made England well known during the Middle Ages. This Opus Anglicanum, “English Work,” done by the sisters and lay women taught and employed by the sisters, led to the creation of vestments and church fittings such as altar frontals that are remarkably beautiful. This achieved a number of goals: good Anglo-Catholics that they were, these women had a concern for the poor, and so they taught and employed often vulnerable women through the design, construction, and sale of vestments; it allowed the religious communities to earn an income and become self-sustaining; and it made it possible for them to participate in the spiritual goals of the movement, to teach Catholic doctrine while expressing a core Catholic belief: God is Beauty and the proper human response to God’s Beauty is to create Beauty.

In the accompanying photo, Sister Suzanne Elizabeth, CSJB, and Sister Monica Clare, CSJB, show me a cope made for the Community of Saint John Baptist by another Anglican community of women. “The green velvet Trinity cope owned by the Community of St. John Baptist was made by the Sisters of St. Mary the Virgin in Wantage, UK. It is part of a larger set that includes a chasuble, stole and maniple, burse and veil, alms bag, apparels and superfrontal. The set was completed in 1933. The Latin inscription embroidered in gold on the hood reads ‘Unitas in Trinitate.’”[3] One in Three, Unity in Trinity, perhaps something like Oneness in Threeness. The gold embroidery is stunning in its detail and beauty. The cope seems designed to be worn not just on Trinity Sunday but on many a green Sunday, teaching Catholic doctrine through a vestment beautiful enough to reflect the beauty of the doctrine, saying that God is beautiful, “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all,”[4] and saying it not with words but with fabric, gold thread and human skill and creativity.

Are we not blessed here at Saint Mary’s to live at the heart of such a rich and faithful tradition? May we continue to learn from our forebears. May we find the courage to share our faith in the Triune God, who is Goodness, Truth, Beauty, and Love. May we never forget that our tradition teaches that Christ dwells in the Bread and the Wine, and Christ dwells in the faces and the hearts of those whom we are called to serve. — JRS

PRAYING FOR THE CHURCH & FOR THE WORLD

A Prayer to Mary, Queen of Peace

We ask you, Queen of Peace, to help us respond with the power of truth and love to the new and unsettling challenges of the present moment. Help us also to pass through this difficult period, that disturbs the serenity of so many people, and to work without delay to build every day and everywhere a genuine culture of peace. — Pope John Paul II (2001)

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

We pray for those who have asked us for our prayers, especially Hattie, Dorian, Leroy, Jennifer, Susanna, Marianne, Tony, Kevin, Christine, Donald, Richard, Josh, James, Nettie, Chrissy, Liduvina, Randy, Robert, Carlos, Jan, Mark, Andrew, Pat, Marjorie, Carole, Luis, David, Clark, Virginia, Rolf, Sharon, Quincy, June, José, Manuel, Abe, Hardy, Giovanna, John Derek, Margaret, Rita, and Robert; , James, Jack, Barbara Jean and Eleanor-Francis, religious; Ignacio and Lind, deacons; and Robby and Stephen, priests.

We pray for the repose of the souls of Willard Taylor, Mack Lewis Page, and those whose year’s mind falls on May 26: Annie Steinert (1911); Dora Maxwell (1918); Elizabeth Baker (1920); Evan Styles Potter (1936); Elizabeth Saracena (1970).

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE . . . Willard Taylor died on Friday, May 17, after a long illness. He and his wife, Virginia Davies Taylor, have been great friends and supporters of Saint Mary’s. His funeral will take place here at Saint Mary’s on Monday, June 10, at 10:00 AM. Please keep Willard, Virginia, their children and grandchildren, and all who mourn in your prayers. 

A COMMUNITY WORKING TOGETHER TO END GUN VIOLENCE

Save the Date: June 7, Litany for Victims of Gun Violence
Wear Orange will be taking place June 7-9.
Join the community of those working for change, hoping, praying, and organizing to end gun violence.

As we prepare for the month of June, National Gun Violence Awareness Month, we invite you to join your prayers with those working to bring change. We offer the Litany as a way in which we as a parish community can pray together during this week and the weeks to come. The Litany is based on the Great Litany, Book of Common Prayer.

A Litany for Victims of Gun Violence

O God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth,
Have mercy upon us.

O God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
Have mercy upon us.

O God the Holy Ghost, Sanctifier of the faithful,
Have mercy upon us.

O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, one God,
Have mercy upon us.

From all blindness of heart; from arrogance, vainglory, and hypocrisy; from envy, hatred, and malice; and from all want of charity,
Good Lord, deliver us.

From all hardness of heart, and contempt of your Word and commandment by thought, word, or deed,
Good Lord, deliver us.

From all terror, oppression, violence, and murder, and from dying suddenly and unprepared,
Good Lord, deliver us.

That it may please thee to rule and govern thy holy Church Universal in the right way, and to bless and keep all thy people, so we all may be of one heart and one mind, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, faith and charity; one flock, led by one shepherd,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

That it may please thee to bring into the way of truth all such as have grievously erred, are deceived, and whose hearts and mind are shackled by anger or evil intent,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

That it may please thee so to rule the hearts of all in authority, that they may do justice, and love mercy, and walk and speak in the ways of the truth,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

That it may please thee to make wars to cease in all the world; to give to all nations and communities unity, peace, and concord; and to bestow freedom upon all peoples,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

That it may please thee to preserve all who are in danger because of the color of their skin, ethnicity, religion, gender, or for any other reason,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

That it may please thee to preserve, and provide for, young children and orphans, the widowed, and all whose homes are broken or torn by the strife of hatred, violence, racism, sexism, nationalism, or any other prejudice,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

That it may please thee to give us true repentance; to forgive us all our sins, negligences, and ignorances; and to endue us with the grace of thy Holy Spirit to amend our lives according to thy holy Word,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

That it may please thee to forgive our enemies, persecutors, and terrorists, and to turn their hearts, and our own, to forgiveness, compassion, and love,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

That it may please thee to grant to all the faithful departed eternal life and peace, especially N.N., and those whose names are known to you alone,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

That it may please thee to bring the healing power of thy love to those who are wounded, to bless those who care for them, and to bring comfort and peace to those who mourn,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

O Christ, hear us.
O Christ, hear us.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

HAVE YOU FILLED OUT YOUR EMERGENCY CONTACT FORM?

If you have not, we urge you to complete the form, which you may download here, and return it to the Parish Office. Since the clergy are often asked to help in a time of need, it is very helpful to have certain information available so we can provide that assistance.

FROM THE PARISH TREASURER: FULFILLING YOUR PLEDGE

With Memorial Day weekend here and Corpus Christi around the corner, we know the lazy days of summer are just ahead.  One thing we hope you won’t get lazy about is fulfilling your pledge! The summer months often see a dip in pledge-related donations as people go on vacation or take advantage of different summertime rhythms. This dip in income can cause some serious cash-flow problems for Saint Mary’s as insurance bills and utility bills and payroll don’t take the summer off!

Please remember to make plans this season to keep up on fulfilling your pledge. And remember, there are many ways to do that. Maybe you’d like to consider one of these ways to manage your pledge:

• Recurring bank withdrawal—Most accounts will allow you to set up an automatic payment, so you don’t have to remember to write a check.

• Recurring card charge—Similarly, you can set up your pledge like a subscription and have Saint Mary’s charge your credit or debit card each month.

• Gift of appreciated securities—By donating equities that have increased in value, you may be able to write off the full value and reduce your capital gains tax liability.

• Required Minimum Distribution (RMD)—If you have or were the beneficiary of a tax-deferred retirement account, you may be required to withdraw (and pay tax on) a certain amount each year. Donating the RMD as your pledge can have significant tax advantages depending on your situation.

The Finance Office at the Church can help you set up one of these methods. Give Chris Howatt a call at 212-869-5830 and we’ll help.

NEIGHBORS IN NEED

The June distribution will take place on Friday, June 21, 1:00–3:00 PM. If you would like to volunteer, please speak to Father Jay Smith or to MaryJane Boland. Learn more about our Neighbors in Need program here.

We have an urgent need: sneakers, athletic shoes, track shoes, running shoes, trainers, lightly used or new, in all sizes for men and women. Please look in your closets or speak to your friends about what they might have in the bottom of their closets. We need your help. We are grateful to all those who continue to support this ministry so faithfully with donations of cash or of lightly used clothing.

PLEASE WELCOME ANDREW RAINES

We are very pleased that Andrew Raines, a seminarian from the Duke Divinity School, will be our summer intern this year. Andrew “grew up in rural South Carolina on the farm where his family has been for generations. He was brought up on the Southern arts of storytelling and (vinegar!) barbecue. He came to faith at Bethel Baptist Church, a small country congregation that loved him well and taught him to love the Lord and his word. Andrew came to Anglicanism in high school after becoming enchanted by the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer. At Duke, he studied history and classics, and he remains there for seminary.” Andrew arrives at Saint Mary’s on Tuesday, May 28, and will be with us until the end of July. We will want to introduce him to the parish first before we figure out his schedule, but we hope that he will be able to experience life here in all its variety. Please keep Andrew in your prayers as he travels next week, as he gets used to life in Times Square, and as he begins his work and ministry here at the parish.

FROM THE PARISH ARCHIVIST: A NEW HISTORY OF SAINT MARY’S

We are thrilled to announce that we are taking pre-publication orders for the long-awaited history of our parish, researched and written by the Reverend Warren C. Platt, church historian and great friend of Saint Mary’s. This updated history of the parish includes biographies of the rectors through Father Wells, plus an exploration of the parish’s liturgy and its social concerns in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Father Platt conducted extensive research in the parish archives for this work, which will augment Newbury Frost Read’s Story of Saint Mary’s by considering the social history of the parish’s early years, while Read’s 1931 history of the parish focuses mainly on financial and administrative matters. This will be a softcover, professionally printed edition with full-color photographs, available for $29.99. Please email parish archivist Mary Robison at m.robison3@gmail.com to reserve your copy!

AIDS WALK NEW YORK UPDATE

AIDS Walk New York took place last Sunday and Saint Mary’s had another successful year of fundraising. We broke through our goal of $50,000 and are currently at $50,307. We are ranked second among all teams and first among all religious organizations. These aren’t the final standings are fundraising continues into June. If you would like to donate, please visit our team page. Thank you to all who have supported the parish team this year!

NEWS & NOTICES

Next Sunday, June 22: The Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ: Corpus Christi . . . Said Mass 9:00 AM (Rite One); Solemn Mass, Procession to Times Square, and Eucharistic Benediction 11:00 AM, the Reverend Sammy Wood, celebrant & preacher.

Yes, on Corpus Christi we will once again be processing to Times Square at the end of the Solemn Mass to express our faith in the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and our belief that God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save it.

On Corpus Christi, Evening Prayer is said in the church at 5:00 PM. Evensong will not be offered on June 2. Evensong & Benediction will be offered next on Sunday, October 6, at 5:00 PM, and then, normally, on the first Sunday of every month.

Coming Up: A Celebration of Juneteenth . . . This year the Juneteenth celebration will take place on Wednesday, June 19. Please join us on Sunday, June 16, in Saint Joseph’s Hall, after Mass and a bit of Coffee Hour, as we recognize parishioner Angeline Butler for her life’s work as a performer and Civil Rights activist. She will share her motivations and experiences since her college activism in 1960. Angeline helped organize the 1963 March on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and has taken part in many demonstrations and presentations promoting racial justice since that time. Angeline studied at The Juilliard School, and after that time performed widely as an actress and singer and has taught at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice for many years. You can read more about Angeline’s life and work on the John Jay website.

We give thanks for Angeline’s faithfulness and hard work, her self-sacrifice, and for her talent and her humor. Come meet and hear this extraordinary woman on June 16 as we mark Juneteenth, this important event in the life of our nation. — The Anti-Racism Discussion Group

Pride Month at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine . . . Iconic Pride returns for June 2024, with a new theme! The theme of this year’s events is Pathways of Pride inspired by the textile installation Divine Pathways by Anne Patterson on display in the cathedral nave through June 2024. Upcoming events at the Cathedral during the month of June include a discussion with Dr. Charlie Bell and Dean Patrick Malloy of Dr. Bell’s book Queer Redemption; a Pride Eve kick off celebration featuring a special performance and the turning on of the iconic Pride Lights inside the Cathedral; a book talk with Chloe Davis on her new young readers’ edition of The Queens’ English, hosted in partnership with The Cathedral School of Saint John the Divine; Pride Family Picnic, including a Drag Story Hour at The Cathedral School and a performance by The Queer Big Apple Corps Marching Band; and a Pride Evensong featuring a community choir open to all. Visit the cathedral website for updates and more information.

More on Pride Month . . . The New York City Pride March will take place on Sunday, June 30. Pre-March Reception: 1:00 PM at the Church of the Transfiguration, 1 East 29th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues . . . Pride March – Information TBA as to where and when the diocesan group will be lining up and when the march will begin . . . There will be a Pride Evensong at the Church of Saint Luke in the Fields on Sunday, June 23, at 4:00 PM, 487 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014.

Father Matt Jacobson returns to the parish on Trinity Sunday. He has been attending the Annual Meeting of the North American Patristics Society in Chicago this week.

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT THE SOLEMN MASS ON TRINITY SUNDAY, MAY 26, 2024

Sunday’s organ voluntaries are both inspired by the ancient Latin hymn Te Deum laudamus in recognition of Trinity Sunday. The authorship of this great hymn traditionally had been assigned to Saints Ambrose and Augustine, the legend being that they improvised it at the latter’s baptism. A somewhat more plausible author of this text might have been Nicetas, fifth-century bishop of Remisiana, although his authorship too has been questioned by scholars. While the authorship of this hymn is uncertain, its antiquity is generally agreed to extend back to the fourth century. From the first edition in 1549 of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, Te Deum has been appointed as a canticle for Morning Prayer and occasions of festive celebration. The roots of the traditional chant melody for Te Deum reach back at least to the sixth century. This chant has also been the foundation of numerous other musical compositions, both choral and instrumental, which can be powerfully expressive even when the words are not sung.

Danish-born Dieterich Buxtehude (1637–1707) was probably the most influential composer in Germany of the generation immediately before Johann Sebastian Bach. His organ Te Deum laudamus, BuxWV 218, is a work of five-movements or versets, four of which are based upon verses of the Latin hymn. The third movement is in itself an extended Choralfantasia on the verse “Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory.” In this movement, fragments of the verse’s chant melody are presented in an extensive series of variations and permutations typical of chorale-based organ pieces at that time. It is suspected that Buxtehude’s Te Deum might have originally included additional organ versets, but only five are extant.

The postlude on Sunday, from Max Reger’s Opus 59, was composed in late June 1901. Reger’s Opus 59 contains an “organ Mass” including Kyrie eleison, Gloria in excelsis, Benedictus, and Te Deum in addition to three pieces which do not have specific liturgical designations. Reger’s Te Deum begins boldly with a unison statement of the first phrase of the traditional chant melody. Rich harmony then begins to surround this melodic fragment as it recurs three times in the development of the opening fantasia. A brief transitional section is followed by a build-up of entries of the Gregorian theme, beginning in the bass register, which drive with increasing intensity to the strong conclusion of the piece.

The setting of the Mass on Trinity Sunday is Mass Euge bone by Christopher Tye (c. 1505–c. 1573). Tye was probably born in Cambridge, England, where he received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1536. He served as a lay clerk at King’s College, Cambridge, before being named master of the choristers at Ely Cathedral around 1543. In 1545, he was awarded the Doctor of Music degree by the University of Cambridge. Tye had a strong connection to Dr. Richard Cox (1500–1581), tutor of Prince Edward, later King Edward VI (r. 1547–1553). Cox would be appointed bishop of Ely in 1559, during the reign of Elizabeth I (r. 1558–1603). Tye’s connection with Cox led to his appointment as young King Edward’s music teacher and, doubtless, to the composer’s eventual ordination as a priest in 1561. Tye resigned from Ely and became rector of Doddington, Cambridgeshire, where he served the remainder of his life. The origins of Tye’s Mass Euge bone are uncertain, but it is believed that this setting may date from the composer’s early years at Ely, perhaps in connection with his doctoral degree. The music of the Mass is related to Tye’s earlier prayer motet Quaesumus omnipotens Deus which also is composed for six voices and includes both imitative counterpoint and rich choral textures.

Tomás Luís de Victoria (1548–1611) is considered the most important Spanish composer of Renaissance polyphony. Born in Avila, the seventh of eleven children, he began his musical education as a choirboy at Avila Cathedral, and began his classical education at San Gil, a Jesuit school for boys founded in 1554. By 1565, Victoria had entered the Jesuit Collegio Germanico in Rome, where he was later engaged to teach music and eventually named maestro di cappella. Victoria knew and may have been instructed by Palestrina (1525–1594) who was maestro di cappella of the nearby Seminario Romano at that time. During his years in Rome, Victoria held several positions as singer, organist, and choral master, and published many of his compositions. He was ordained priest in 1575. The Communion motet on Sunday is Victoria’s setting for six voices of the Introit antiphon for Trinity Sunday, Benedicta sit sancta Trinitas. It was first published as #28 of his Motecta I in 1572 and later re-issued as #7 in his Motecta festorum of 1585.

Following the administration of Communion on Sunday, the canticle Te Deum laudamus will be sung while incense is offered. The choir will sing this canticle to the customary plainsong in alternation with verses played on the organ. This manner of presenting liturgical texts, called in alternatim, has often been applied to portions of the Mass and Office in past time. Alternatim performance practice was well established throughout Europe from the seventeenth century, documented in part by many organ versets which were composed for this purpose by leading organ composers. It is also not uncommon, both in the past and in our time, for organists to improvise verses in alternation with those sung to chant, as will be done this week, on Trinity Sunday. — David Hurd

    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] Davies, Horton, Worship and Theology in England IV: From Newman to Martineau, 1850–1900: Chapter V: The Catholic Trend of Anglican Worship: The “Ritualistic” Controversy and the Religious Communities (William B. Eerdmans, 1962), pp. 114–138.
[2] Ibid., p. 120.
[3] Communication from Marianna Klaiman, expert in textiles, vestments, and conservation. Marianna is a longtime associate of the Community of Saint John Baptist and has consulted Saint Mary’s on its vestment collection.
[4] 1 John 1:5