FROM FATHER WOOD: FORMATION AT SAINT MARY’S IN 2024-2025

The program year at Saint Mary’s kicks off in earnest on Sunday, October 6, when Catechesis of the Good Shepherd returns to the Atrium for our youngest kids, and adult formation returns to Saint Joseph’s Hall for the adults in our community, on Sundays at 9:45 AM. In CGS, the foundational scripture is the Good Shepherd (John 10), and each class begins with singing and a presentation on Sacred Scripture, Biblical geography, or the liturgy. Then each child chooses to work with materials that make the mystery of God more concrete. 

For adults in our parish, this fall finds us in the second of a three-year arc, having just completed a “Year of Formation” when we focused on conversion (year three will focus on “Service”). But moving into the “Year of Invitation” does not mean that the work of formation will cease. Indeed, our own conversions need always to continue deepening, moving us toward greater maturity, our telos, “the end for which we were created, [namely] union with God.”[1] Father Fred Harton says, “Union with God is potentially ours in Baptism, deepened by Holy Communion and actualized by prayer; the Christian life faithfully lived is, therefore, a progressive growth in that union with God which is the purpose of our creation.”

The primary task of a church like ours is to worship the living God in the beauty of holiness, but we also exist to form God’s people as apprentices to Jesus and channels of love by renewing and nurturing the identities we received at baptism. Then, grounded in awe and adoration, and committed to the process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others,[2] we are each sent back into our individual circles of influence as evangelists and servants to share the good news of the reign of God and to renew the world. To that end, our year of invitation includes an “invitation” of our own—God’s invitation into an ever-deepening walk with him.

That is the goal of our first “Foundations Course” this October. This four-week study, called Invitation to a Journey, is about building a “trellis” for us to grow along. Father Sammy will begin with a survey of the purposes of the Church, then move on to examine Anglican Spirituality and experiment with the “Threefold Rule of Prayer” embodied in our Prayer Books. The Foundations Courses aim to increase our proficiency in various aspects of the Christian life and are geared for people curious about Anglican spirituality or interested in joining the Episcopal Church or Saint Mary’s, for longtime practitioners brushing up on the basics of their faith, and for newcomers who seek connections within the parish. In a word, Foundations Courses are for all adults who find themselves around Saint Mary’s!

The second block of classes marks the return of Father Pete Powell to the podium. This year is Father Pete’s 20th teaching at Saint Mary’s, and on Sundays in November and December he will turn his attention to the narratives of Jesus’ passion. As a bookend, Father Pete returns in Lent with a block of Sundays (March 9, 16, 23, 30, and April 6) focused on the Resurrection appearances of Jesus. These classes take seriously our commitment to Sacred Scripture and the blessing that belongs to us who follow this God who graciously reveals himself to us through the written word.

The new year starts with a quick survey of the work of the great Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor. The Feast of the Annunciation next year, March 25, 2025, will be the 100th anniversary of Mary Flannery’s birth. After an introduction to excerpts from her work, the second of our two-week study will touch on her famous quote in Mystery and Manners:

When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax and use more normal means of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock—to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures.

As part of our Year of Invitation, we will reflect on Flannery’s quote and consider how our neighbors’ cultural assumptions may differ from ours and the implications for communicating the truth of the gospel in New York City today.

As the year progresses, our focus shifts more overtly towards creating a culture of invitation at Saint Mary’s. We will examine a particularly Anglican definition of evangelism, assess the need for it, and introduce various methods for sharing the gospel. That is the subject of our second Foundations Course this year—from January 26 through March 2, we will work through the Episcopal Church’s “Embracing Evangelism” series, watching the videos and discussing them as a group.

Finally, after Father Pete’s second block of teaching, we close the program year with a study series on the Acts of the Apostles. Our lectionary readings in Eastertide will be drawn from Acts, which traces the expansion of the church from Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Join Father Matt as he caps our Year of Invitation by tracing the explosion of the gospel in the wake of the Resurrection.

Other formation offerings are sprinkled throughout the year, as well. On Wednesday nights starting October 16, after Evening Prayer and Mass, you are invited up to the Rectory for a small group experiment we’re calling “Group Seeks God.” Drawing on years of experience hosting small groups, Father Sammy and Renee will demonstrate how simple practices like hospitality and storytelling create opportunities for engagement and invitation in our everyday worlds. Hopefully this group will serve as proof of concept for more small groups we dream of launching around the city next year. We are also planning our second annual Parish Retreat for Saturday, January 11. This event, in partnership with our friends at Holy Trinity Church in Inwood, will be led by Sister Michelle Heyne of the Order of the Ascension, a Benedictine community in the Episcopal tradition. These events, coupled with Quiet Days in Advent and Lent, the practice of common Lenten disciplines as a parish family, participation in our growing group of Guilds, our new Young Saint Marians cohort, and Newcomers’ Gatherings throughout the year, create a rich tapestry of opportunities to know Jesus more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly day by day by day.

For more information about any of these events, connect with Father Sammy.

Consider this your invitation—Come join the journey! — SW

PRAYING FOR THE CHURCH & FOR THE WORLD

We pray for an end to war, division, violence, and injustice, especially in the Middle East, Venezuela, Ukraine, Russia, Myanmar, Sudan, and Darfur. We pray for justice and for an end to violence and discord in our city and nation.

We pray for those who have asked us for our prayers, especially Abraham Rochester, Tracy Young, and Jean Jersey, priest, who are gravely ill, and Claudia, Suzanne, Dorian, Margaret, Steve, Frank, Leroy, Rick, Thomas, Carmen, Sheila, Susan, Susanna, Rolf, Richard, Josh, Tony, Robert, Duncan, Justin, Jan, Pat, Marjorie, Carole, Sharon, Quincy, June, Chris, Carlos, José, Manuel, Hardy, Giovanna, Gypsy, Bob, and Liduvina; Laura Katharine, Barbara-Jean and Eleanor-Francis, religious; and Julie, John, Robby, and Stephen, priests.

We also pray for the repose of the souls of those whose year’s mind falls on September 22: J. Western & Samuel Mallan (1887); Charles Emory Taintor (1895); John Harper Mitchell (1950).

WE ARE GRATEFUL

Thank you, Ed Edwards and Paul Grzella, who continue to collect and donate clothing to Neighbors in Need.
We admire your ingenuity and are grateful for your generosity.
And thank you to all those who continue to support this ministry so generously.

Thank you to Deacon Lind Phillips, Clint Best, and our lay Eucharistic Ministers, Marie Rosseels and Jennifer Stevens,
who are visiting the homebound and bringing them the Sacrament.

Thank you to all those who volunteered for our Drop-by today.
Your commitment allows us to help our neighbors dependably and consistently.

We are grateful to the members of the Saint Thérèse of Lisieux Flower Guild, who give up so many Saturdays (and Friday mornings at the Flower Market!) so we can experience the offering of nature’s beauty on Sunday morning.

We are very grateful to all the members of the Saint Vincent’s Guild of Acolytes who also gave up their Saturday morning recently to practice and to prepare for the beginning of the program year.

COMING UP

Saturday, September 21, Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
Confessions 11:00 AM, Mass 12:10 PM

The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 22
Guest Preacher: Father Peter Anthony,
Vicar of All Saints, Margaret Street, London, UK
At both the Rite I Mass 9:00 AM & Solemn Mass 11:00 AM

Tuesday, September 24, Our Lady of Walsingham
Morning Prayer 8:00 AM, Sung Mass 12:10 PM, Evening Prayer 5:30 PM

Monday, September 30, Saint Michael and All Angels (tr.)
Morning Prayer 8:00 AM, Mass 12:10 PM, Sung Mass 6:00 PM

Thursday, October 3, Transitus of Saint Francis
7:00 PM at The Church of the Holy Trinity, 316 East 88th Street
A small reception follows. See below for more details.

Friday, October 4, Saint Francis of Assisi
The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin
Morning Prayer 8:00 AM, Mass 12:10 PM, Evening Prayer 5:30 PM

The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, October 6
Rite I Mass 9:00 AM, Adult Formation 9:45 AM, Solemn Mass 11:00 AM
The program year begins and the full choir returns at Solemn Mass!

&

Blessing of the Animals at 2:00 PM
Forty-sixth Street, in front of the church.

&

Evensong & Benediction, 4:00 PM
Note the new time!

NEWS & NOTICES

Anglican Heritage Pilgrimage: June 9-20, 2025 . . . Father Sammy Wood will be leading a pilgrimage to England in June 2025! For Episcopalians in the Anglican tradition, England holds a place of distinct significance. The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin’s Anglican Heritage Pilgrimage will trace Christianity’s early days in Great Britain, medieval England, and the Reformation as we experience the treasures of our Anglican tradition. Skilled guides will lead our small group through the sacred places that bore witness to Christian saints, Protestant martyrs, and significant events in Anglican church history. Click here for additional details and please speak with Father Sammy if you have any questions.

Bible Study on Sundays in September: “Who is Jesus and Why Does It Matter?” . . . 9:45 AM led by Father Jay Smith. Refreshments provided. Please join us as we look at Gospel passages that show us who Jesus is and invite us to consider how that experience might change our lives. We’ll use works of imagination—art and poetry—to help us interpret the Gospel text. All are welcome. Let’s start meeting in Saint Joseph’s Hall this week—it may be more comfortable there.

This coming Sunday, September 22, we’ll be studying another “difficult saying,” Luke 14:26–17 (cf. Matthew 10:37–38), “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

If you have time, also read John 12:25, Acts 20:24, and Revelation 12:11.

The Young Saint Marians Group will be meeting on Tuesday, September 24, at 6:00 PM in the Mission House apartment for an evening of food and conversation, closing with Compline. Please email Katherine Hoyt or Benjamin Safford to RSVP or if you have any questions about this group which focuses on those in their 20s and 30s.

Transitus of Saint Francis Service . . . The Society of Saint Francis (both first and third orders) will be holding a Transitus service on Thursday October 3 at 7:00 PM at Church of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church (316 E. 88th St.). The service commemorates the death of Francis and begins his feast day which is celebrated on October 4. Everyone is welcome to attend the service and small reception afterward. When our community lived at Saint Mary's we did hold this service in 2019 in the Lady Chapel, so some may remember it. In attendance will also be three others from my community—Desmond who many people know as well as the two new novices. The four of us will also be at Saint Mary's on that Sunday (10/7) so don't be alarmed when you see a flock of Franciscans in brown.
— Thomas Steffensen, SSF 

The Fourteen Stations of the Cross in the nave of the church were recently lit. The difference has been dramatic. These beautiful and colorful images have emerged from the shadows of the side aisles and are now available in a new way for prayer and meditation.

The Station pictured here is the Third Station: Jesus Falls the First Time.

We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

“Burdened by his heavy cross, worn down by fatigue and pain, Jesus falls. Yet he pushes himself up and continues to walk.” (CAFOD, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, England & Wales)

We believe that Jesus Christ is both human and divine, fully and completely. In this Station, we recall a moment that embodies that faith. Jesus trips and falls, experiencing an all-too-human moment of pain, distress, and exhaustion, a moment that his executioners will surely see as something shameful. But Jesus rises. The angels do not assist him. Did anyone else? And so, the Son of God moves towards Calvary, doing that strange and mysterious thing, saying yes to the will of his Father. — JRS

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped; but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and was born in human likeness. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name. Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, and kneel before the Lord our Maker, for he is the Lord our God.

Surely he has borne our griefs:
And carried our sorrows.

Let us pray.

Jesus, you know how it feels to struggle and to fall. Walk with us. Show us how to walk with others to know what it feels like to be in another's shoes. You reach out to us with caring hands. Show us how to join our hands with communities around the world who are bringing hope to their neighbor. Amen. (CAFOD)

We continue to collect nonperishable food items for distribution to those in the neighborhood seeking food assistance. They may be placed in the basket near the ushers’ table at the Forty-Sixth Street entrance on Sunday mornings. We are also happy to receive cash donations that allow us to purchase food vouchers at a local bodega.

Neighbors in Need . . . If you would like to volunteer or make a cash donation, please speak to MaryJane Boland. We are also eager to receive donations of new or lightly used sneakers and shoes, in all sizes, for both men and women. A Drop-by was held on September 20, and the next one will take place on Friday, October 18, 1:00–3:00 PM. We are looking for a few more good volunteers. Please speak to MaryJane Boland or Father Jay about our work and how you might help.

Would you like to donate the altar flowers? . . . The following Sundays are available: October 13, 20, and 27. The customary donation requested is $250. Please call the Parish Office for more information (212-869-5830).

A webinar series offered to encourage and empower individuals to be agents of positive social change . . . In September and October, the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine is hosting four webinars (one, with Mr. Rafael Suarez has already taken place) in preparation for the election. They will explore key issues precisely from an Episcopal perspective, taking note especially of resolutions of General Convention. The Very Rev. Patrick Malloy, PhD, will be in conversation on four topics with featured guests. The webinars may be accessed in real time by RSVPing at each of the calendar pages linked below. They will subsequently be available on the Cathedral's YouTube channel.

• Wednesday, September 25 at 4 PM: Christian Nationalism with the Rev. Dr. Pamela Cooper-White. The Rev. Dr. Pamela Cooper-White; Dean Emerita of Union Seminary and Priest Associate of the Cathedral; Author of The Psychology of Christian Nationalism: Why People Are Drawn In and How to Talk Across the Divide.

• Wednesday, October 2 at 4 PM: Reproductive Rights with the Rev. Dr. Danielle Tumminio Hansen. The Rev. Dr. Danielle Tumminio Hansen, Associate Professor of Practical Theology and Spiritual Care at Candler School of Theology, Emory University; editor of the Summer 2024 Issue of the Anglican Theological Review, Anglican Theologies of Reproductive Choice.

• Wednesday, October 9 at 4 PM: The Environment with Dr. Andrew Thompson. Dr. Andrew Thompson, director of the Center for Religion and Environment at The University of the South (Sewanee); author of Reconsider the Lilies: Challenging Christian Environmentalism's Colonial Legacy.

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT THE SOLEMN MASS ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2024, THE EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

The name of Healey Willan (1880–1968) is well known to Episcopalians because of his Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena, composed in 1928, which appeared in The Hymnal 1940 and was retained in The Hymnal 1982. This setting, which we will sing on Sunday, has been sung widely throughout the Episcopal Church, as well as in other denominations, for decades. Willan’s career and reputation, however, went far beyond composing this beloved Mass. He composed more than eight hundred works including operas, symphonies and other music for orchestra and band, chamber music, and music for piano and organ, in addition to a great quantity of choral music. His liturgical music includes fourteen choral Masses, occasional motets, canticles, and hymn settings. Willan was born in England and began his career as an organist in London parish churches. He joined the faculty at the University of Toronto in 1914, later becoming Professor of Music there. In 1921 he was named organist at Toronto’s Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, a position he retained until his death. Said to have described himself as “English by birth; Canadian by adoption; Irish by extraction; Scotch by absorption,” Willan was a champion of historic liturgical chant and the aesthetic of Renaissance church music. He incorporated these influences and mingled them with an appreciation of the rich harmonic palette of the late nineteenth-century masters. Through his compositions and choral direction, he significantly set the standard for North American Anglo-Catholic church music in his time. In 1956, Willan became the first non-English church musician to be awarded the Lambeth Doctorate, Mus.D. Cantuar.

During Communion, Sunday’s cantor, Muir Ingliss, will sing Ave Maria by Franz Schubert (1797–1828). The combination of Schubert’s music and this so often prayed Latin devotion have become an extricable and beloved association over generations. The origin of Schubert’s music, however, did not have it paired with the Latin devotional text with which it is now universally associated. Schubert’s Opus 52, composed in 1825, is a cycle of seven songs based upon Walter Scott’s 1810 poem, The Lady of the Lake, in a German translation. In Scott’s narrative poem, Ellen Douglas prays for help from the Blessed Virgin. The words “Ave Maria” bookend her prayer as a sort of antiphon. This feature undoubtedly has led to editions of Schubert’s Opus 52, number 6, in which the entire traditional Latin devotional text is substituted for the words which Schubert originally had set. Time and usage have solidified this latter form, and it remains one of Schubert’s best known and most often performed compositions. 

Muir Ingliss, a native New Yorker and graduate of Bard College, has been a member of the choir of Saint Mary’s since January of 2022. During the 2023–2024 season he has appeared as the soloist for NYC choral group C4’s concert centering around the life and works of poet Arthur Rimbaud, as well as in the title role of Don Giovanni with Amore Opera, the Lord Chancellor in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe with Bronx Opera, and Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro with Opera Magnifico. His other recent operatic engagements include Marcello in La Bohème, Bob in The Old Maid and the Thief, Belcore in L’elisir d'amore, Alidoro in Cenerentola, Marco in Gianni Schicchi, Kendall Nesbitt in Lady in the Dark, and Musiklehrer/Truffaldino in Ariadne auf Naxos. Mr. Ingliss is also a frequent soloist in sacred music, having performed Handel’s Messiah, Brahms’sEin Deutsches Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Faure’s Requiem, and Mozart’s Requiem.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO VOLUNTEER?

Have you been coming to Saint Mary’s for a while, but have been unsure about how to get more involved? We’d love to talk to you about that. During 2024–2025 we hope to recruit more volunteers for the following ministries: Neighbors in Need, Acolytes, Readers, Ushers, Hospitality Teams, and Livestream Broadcasters. In order to do what we do for this congregation and for our neighborhood, we need your help. We urge you to pray about this, asking God to help you discern how you are being called to serve here at the parish. We promise you that greater commitment produces great rewards. For more information, speak to Father Sammy or Father Matt.

AWAY FROM SAINT MARY’S

At the New-York Historical Society
77th Street and Central Park West

Robert Caro’s The Power Broker at 50
September 6, 2024–February 2, 2025

From the museum website, “This special installation celebrates the 50th anniversary of the publication of Robert A. Caro’s The Power Broker, the monumental work that has been called ‘surely the greatest book ever written about a city.’ This groundbreaking book made known for the first time how Robert Moses, over more than four decades and without ever being elected to public office, amassed power so immense that with it, he shaped New York. The installation explores the story behind the book: how Caro uncovered the falseness behind the image that Moses had so carefully cultivated, and that the press and public believed, to reveal the extent of Moses’ power and the heartbreaking human cost behind his public works. Robert Caro’s The Power Broker at 50 includes selections from the Robert A. Caro Archive, opening concurrently with the installation. Visitors will see—from research material to manuscript drafts—Jones Beach, the Cross-Bronx Expressway, and Moses himself through Caro’s lens and lifelong mission to illuminate the times and the great forces that shape them. This exhibition was curated by Meredith Mann, curator of manuscripts and archival collections.”

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]  Frederick P. Harton, The Elements of the Spiritual Life: A Study in Ascetical Theology (New York: MacMillan, 1932): 300.
[2] M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation (Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity, 1993): 15.