GARY RYAN INTERVIEWS FATHER JAY SMITH

Gary Ryan, a good friend of Saint Mary’s, recently sat down for a conversation with Father Jay Smith. Gary grew up in Meridian, Mississippi, and studied at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS. He later studied at the Harvard Divinity School. He was ordained in the United Methodist Church and has served as a hospital chaplain and in parish ministry. He worked for a time at the famous Strand Bookstore downtown and also teaches chess in the New York City schools, both private and public. He and Father Jay had a chat one day recently via Zoom while Gary was visiting friends and family in Mississippi and Mobile, Alabama, while also finding time to enjoy New Orleans’s culinary delights. We are grateful to him for volunteering to do this.

Gary and Father Jay chat for a few minutes, Father Jay thanks him for making this conversation happen and then says, “This interview is going to be in The Angelus and I just want to say to the readers of the newsletter, I know that talk of my impending retirement has been going on for a rather long time now. My apologies. Many of you must surely be saying, ‘So, retire already!!’ I get it. I’m so appreciative of all the support I’m getting, I really am, but I want to reassure everybody that the end is in sight! I don’t believe it, but January 12 is almost here!”

Gary: I understand, so let’s just jump in. Where are you from? Where did you grow up?

Father Jay: I grew up in Western New York, in a small industrial city, located on the Niagara River between Buffalo and Niagara Falls. I was raised in a Roman Catholic home. My mother was a devout Irish Catholic. My father’s family was sort of generically Protestant. They sometimes went to the Episcopal church and sometimes went up the street to worship with the Presbyterians. I’m not sure they went to either church very much. My mother was having none of that, and my four brothers and I were all Roman Catholic, and we went to the local parochial school. I later went to Buffalo’s Jesuit high school.

Gary: So, were you a Roman Catholic priest?

Father Jay: No, no. I was ordained in the Episcopal Church when I was twenty-eight. But it’s true I had some vague, unformed idea that I wanted to be a priest when I was a kid, in grade school. I was an altar boy and all that. And then I went to Canisius High School, which I really loved. For me it was a good experience. I studied Latin, and history, and biology, and learned some Greek—too bad they didn’t offer Spanish back then! One of the great things about the school was that all of us were encouraged to do the things that interested us. So, there were jocks, but you didn’t have to be an athlete to feel comfortable. There were guys who worked in the theater, guys like me that worked on the school newspaper or were in the debate club, and guys who just went home at the end of the day. We were able to make choices, figure out who we were. I liked my teachers there and I was pretty sure that I wanted to be a Jesuit. Anyway, I graduated from the high school in 1969 but didn’t enter the Society of Jesus. It was the Sixties, that was part of it, but I also wasn’t ready to deal with my sexuality. I went off to Cornell, without knowing what I was going to do with my life. And my first year there was really hard. I was lonely, and I experienced culture shock. I’d never lived outside of a Catholic environment. I missed my family. But a few things saved me: I studied history; I discovered the theater and started acting; and I made a bunch of friends, almost all of whom were Jewish, and we’re friends to this day. All of that opened whole new worlds for me and I fell in love with the place. People accepted me for who I was and also challenged me to figure out who I was, if that makes sense. It was during that time I came out. Which also meant that I wasn’t always a very good Roman Catholic. I went to church some but not always. The theater provided a kind of spirituality for me, but acting can never be that really, let alone a faith, at least for me. Anyway, I stayed in Ithaca, got an MFA in acting, and it was the theater that brought me to New York. I did some acting here, studied acting, did a bunch of stage managing, and did a bunch of other things to make money—I proofread at a fancy Wall Street law firm on the weekends, worked as a phone operator for a theatrical answering service, was a busboy and a waiter, briefly a home healthcare aide, and landed at Lincoln Center as an editor for the program magazine there. It was during that time, in 1980, that I met José. We’ve been together ever since. We married in 2017. He’s been just the best clergy spouse all these years, a job he didn’t expect to have when we met. I couldn’t have done this without him.

It was in the early eighties that my desire for a Christian community, my need for sacrament, my faith in Jesus—and then a renewed sense of vocation to the priesthood—all re-surfaced very powerfully for me. That path was circuitous, but here’s the short version: my therapist (now an Episcopal priest and a monk) said to me one day, with some justified exasperation, “Jay, you know there are some alternatives to the Roman Catholic Church if that’s going to remain a stumbling block for you.” And that’s how I discovered the Episcopal Church. There was some culture shock. My Irish mother wasn’t too happy. But I found a parish that I liked. They sponsored me for ordination. I got my M.Div. at Union Seminary here in New York, discovered a love for biblical study and church history, went off to Yale to learn about Anglicanism, stayed for graduate work in New Testament and Early Christianity, was ordained deacon and priest back here in New York, was hired by Christ Church, New Haven, read and studied, didn’t finish my doctoral dissertation, and moved back to New York in 1996. José found us an apartment in Boerum Hill in Brooklyn. I started doing supply work and was invited to help here at Saint Mary’s in 1998 and worked here in various part-time ways until 2008, when I came on full-time and we moved to our apartment here in the Parish House, where we’ve lived ever since.

Gary: So, how has it been for you? I mean how has it been for you as a former Catholic doing this? Did it feel natural from the get go? Was there a bit of strangeness, or has any bit of strangeness remained? My experience is that some Catholics are “really Catholic,” if you know what I mean. Was there culture shock? Was it hard for you to become an Episcopalian?

Jay: It's a good question, because it was complicated in certain ways. The truth is that the Roman Catholic Church is kind of like a mother for me—I know that’s a loaded and tired metaphor, but I know what I mean by it. I feel blessed to have been raised in a family and in a community where talking about God, talking about Jesus, praying to the saints was just part of what you did. And then that Catholic—or catholic—sensibility is just very rich. To grow up believing in angels and saints and blessing and Jesus in the Eucharist, and this feeling that God is present in the tabernacle and present in the world and also in people was just such a gift. But hitting adolescence, realizing you’re gay, while trying to be a very good Catholic boy was really, really rough. But in the end working through all that, over time, forced me to deal with a lot of stuff. For instance, the issue of law versus gospel, law versus conscience is not just theoretical for me. It took me a good long while to believe 1 John 4:18-20 was true. Being met by the God of love, mercy, compassion, strength, joy and laughter has been a great blessing. The grace that comes from meeting God in the face of Jesus can still surprise me. I love the story of Jesus asleep in the boat, the disciples freaking out, and Jesus waking up and saying, in this very puzzled way, “Why were you afraid?” (Matthew 8:23-27). That story speaks to me in some very deep way.

And so it was in the Episcopal Church that I learned how to breathe as a Christian. I had great parish communities—Saint Clement’s here on 46th Street, a great internship year at Heavenly Rest here in the city, the folks at Christ Church in New Haven, and then Saint Mary’s. I had great teachers, Richard Norris at Union and Rowan Greer at Yale. Both American, both scholars and priests, both studied at Oxford, both consummately Anglican, very formal in a way, very learned, both smoked too much, brilliant, and also very funny, very devoted to their students. And they both accepted me as I was, without reservation, and they encouraged me to study but also to be a priest and to try to be a decent priest, a well-educated priest. That’s what I found in the Episcopal Church, a freedom to think and to question, combined with the message that it’s OK to love the tradition, to love God in the present, and to be a person of faith. And, if you want to go full on nerd as a medievalist, or a student of the Reformation, or of Saint Augustine or the Oxford Movement, go on ahead. And if you mostly see Jesus in the eyes of the poor and need to combine your faith with an activist vocation, go on ahead, too. And if you discover that that very Anglican institution—the local parish—is where you can pray and worship and serve in ways that build up the community, while finding that that same community has ways to help people outside its doors, that’s a particularly good thing. In the two parishes where I’ve served most that’s what I’ve experienced: a belief that the Christian tradition gives us the tools for us to grow in love for God and each other; and we can try out all those tools while accepting, even rejoicing, that we live in a world called “modern,” even on the hard days.

So, what all that meant for me was I kind of fell in love with the Anglican tradition. Don’t get me wrong. I read the papers. I know all the negative headlines, the forecasts of imminent collapse, the arguments, the schisms. All of that is hard, but it doesn’t erase the rest. So, to answer your question: it was hard at first and then it got easier because I fell in love with the Episcopal Church that was smaller than the Roman Catholic Church but was just as intense in its own often understated way—I like, I need, the intensity of symbol and sacrament that is in the catholic tradition.

[Here Gary and Father Jay talked at some length about how Anglo-Catholicism is related to Roman Catholicism or not. Gary asks if Father thinks that most Anglo-Catholics really want to be Roman Catholics. This takes them down some twisty paths, that include a discussion of women’s ordination and same-sex marriage. Father Jay, it turns out, approves of both those things. They finally turned to a discussion of Saint Mary’s and Father Jay’s ministry here.]

Gary: I just want to ask you a few questions about specifically Saint Mary’s, and about what you’ll be doing as you transition away from Saint Mary’s and how has ministry been like for you at Saint Mary’s? How has your ministry at Saint Mary’s been different from other ministries you’ve been a part of?

Father Jay: The best way to answer some of that is to say that that first at Christ Church and then again here, I discovered a vocation to be a parish priest. And I didn’t see that coming. I thought I was going to teach in a seminary. But that seems not to be what God had in mind for me. I’ve really loved parish ministry. I get to be a generalist. And that takes you into a really beautiful place: finding God in all things—saying Mass, preaching a homily, visiting somebody in the hospital, trying to solve problems with your colleagues at staff meeting, feeding folks at Coffee Hour, fixing the paper jam in the copier, talking with folks whose lives are particularly hard at the Drop-by, trying to communicate in Spanish with folks who can’t speak English. Something new every day, sometimes every hour. God decided to use my gifts and my significant deficits by giving me this work, asking me to do it, even though there are lots of things that I’m not good at. I’ve never been a rector. I wouldn’t have been good at that at all. Also, patience is always a struggle for me and in parish work you need to be patient, you can’t react emotionally to every little thing. I grew up with four brothers. That makes me defensive sometimes. Learning to say, “Yeah, that one’s on me,” has been hard. My brothers and I didn’t say that to each other much.

One other thing: I’ve been given a chance to teach here at Saint Mary’s and I’ve loved that. I’ve taught on Sunday mornings, and I’ve also led Bible Study midweek and that’s been great. I like teaching people who want to be here. I like the challenge of teaching both folks who know a lot along with those who are brand new. Most of all, I love that people wrestle with the text in very personal ways. It’s not just ancient history. It’s searching for meaning right now. Maybe that’s my favorite thing about parish ministry. I’m basically an introvert, I think, but being a priest has allowed me to discover some deep desire to talk to folks—about everyday things, but also about all the stuff people are dealing with and how they believe God is involved with all that, or not. I never stop being amazed—I know how blessed and privileged we priests are—that people trust us enough to talk to us about their deepest needs, desires, joys, and sorrows. You can’t solve all the problems, but you can listen and try to acknowledge the difficulties, affirm the graces, and find the hope in the struggles. It can be hard, but it’s a blessing. The people of Saint Mary’s have taught me a lot.

You asked about what’s unique about Saint Mary’s. I could talk endlessly about that, mostly about my memories, because I have a million of them. I can’t do that here, but I can say this. Saint Mary’s is unique, in part, because its history and its faith, its way of doing things—rich, intense, traditional in some ways, really progressive in other ways—is carried out in a unique neighborhood. There’s no other place like it. I’ve met and talked to people from around the world, and prayed with them, with hundreds of people over the years. Such talk can’t be leisurely. You have to get down to business really fast. It’s more ER chaplain than spiritual director. And then there are my parishioners. I love the diversity here. And I love the fact that if you feel called to be here; if you decide Saint Mary’s is going to be your place, you have to make a commitment. Hardly anybody lives within walking distance of the church. Saint Mary’s isn’t for everybody, but it’s really, really important to a lot of folks and that love for this place has always inspired me and pushed me to do better. I love doing ministry with people who love this place and want to be here. They’re funny, they’re individual, they’re smart, they’re faithful, they ask hard questions, they nag me, they encourage me—they’re always helping me—we work together, they make me laugh, they help me to see things differently. It’s good.

You asked about the future: José and I will be living in our apartment here at Saint Mary’s for a few months, paying some rent, preparing to move, working on the retirement paperwork, finding a place to live. We think we’re going to move to Columbus, Ohio, to be close to my brother and his family. I love my family and they love me and José. Columbus is a college town, and it has an art scene. There are a bunch of Episcopal churches. We think the Latino community is growing there. It’s gay friendly. It’s very different from New York. I expect there will be some culture shock. But it’s time. We’re both ready to move out of Times Square. Being older and living in this neighborhood can be hard. I’m ready for the next new thing. I hope to do some supply work. I want to work on my Spanish. I want to do some teaching, maybe English as a Second Language. I want to volunteer at a soup kitchen and not be responsible for running the soup kitchen. I want to pray without also thinking about how it fits into my ministry as a priest. I need to see what God is saying to me, to Jay, and not so much to Father Jay. All the spiritual teachers seem to say that in the second half of life one needs to go deeper, not wider; that one needs to have the courage to look at all of one’s life, to discover one’s True Self, not just the Self we construct to succeed, to make a living, to get by in the world. I hope retirement will give me the opportunity to do some of that. It won’t be perfect, life never is. But God keeps on meeting us and loving us in the most unexpected ways, even though we’re imperfect and always will be.

Gary: So, Father Jay, I’m going to end it here. Thank you so much. I’ve enjoyed our talk. I need to go catch a conveyance back to New Orleans. I hope to see you soon in New York. And, I hope, on January 12.

Father Jay: Thank you, Gary. Travel safely. And don’t forget: you’re going to teach me how to read Faulkner!

Father Jay Smith will celebrate and preach at both the 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM Masses on Sunday, January 12. We will celebrate his ministry in the parish hall following the 11:00 AM Mass. Please join us!

PRAYING FOR THE CHURCH & FOR THE WORLD

We pray for an end to war, division, violence, and injustice, especially in Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Venezuela, Syria, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Haiti, Ukraine, Russia, Myanmar, Sudan, and Darfur.

We pray for the people of the Diocese of Los Angeles, and all the people of southern California, in this time of devastation, displacement, and destruction.

We pray for the people of Saint Mark’s Church, Altadena, California, who have lost their church building and their school to fire. Please pray for their rector, the Reverend Carri Grindon.

We pray for an end to gun violence in our city and in our nation.

We pray for the safety and preservation of the Christian communities in the Middle East.

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

We pray for the entire community of Saint Mary the Virgin, for its members, staff members, clergy, friends, neighbors, visitors, and benefactors.

We pray for those who have asked us for our prayers, for Lexi, Aston, Jorge, David, Steve, Tony, Beverly, Claudia, Molly, Gary, Jane, Martin, Murray, Renee, Ruth Ann, Michele, Vicki, Georgia, Janet, Desarae, Rolf, Adair, Susanna, James, Leroy, Nettie, Chrissy, Molly, Robert, Russell, Duncan, Justin, Audy, Jan, Pat, Marjorie, Sharon, Quincy, June, Barbara, Carlos, José, Patrick, Max, Brian, Sarah, Dennis, Daniel, Wayne, Hardy, Gypsy, Margaret, Bob, and Liduvina; Laura Katharine, religious; Lind, deacon; and Jon, Julie, Robby, Matthew, Sammy, and Stephen, priests.

We pray also for Andrew, Tilly, and Dax, who are to be baptized.

We pray for the repose of the souls of all those who died this week in places of violence, warfare, fire, and natural disaster. We pray also for the repose of the souls of Mother Fran Toy and Jean Potanovic, as well as those whose year’s mind is on January 12, Susan McLaughlin (1882); Charles Parsons (1899); Margaret Culbertson (1912); Harry Wildner (1937); Clara Maud King (1949); Loretta M. Adger (1953); Lena Lloyd (1955); and Clarissa Pierson Jacocks (1975).

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE

The Reverend Fran Toy, the first Asian American woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest, died at her home in Oakland, California, on December 28, 2024, after a long battle with liver cancer. She was ninety years old. Her ministry encompassed local, diocesan, provincial and churchwide service. Her death was announced here in New York by Bishop Allen Shin. She is mourned by those with whom she worked in Asiamerica Ministries and by all those who knew her and served with her throughout the Episcopal Church. Please visit the Episcopal News Service to learn more about Mother Toy.

Jean Mildred Potanovic, the mother of parishioner Steve Potanovic, died on Tuesday, December 31, 2024, at the Friedwald Center for Rehabilitation & Nursing in New City, New York. She was ninety-five years old. Jean was born and grew up in Yonkers, New York. As a young person, she developed a deep desire to become a nurse. She graduated from Saint John’s Hospital Cockran School of Nursing in 1951. After receiving her degree, she first worked as a registered nurse for Mount Vernon and Phelps Memorial Hospitals prior to a career of more than thirty years with Cedar Manor Nursing Home in Ossining. She was an active parishioner of Saint Mary, Mother of the Church in Fishkill, where she sang in the choir for many years. A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered there at 10:00 AM on Saturday, January 11. Please keep Jean, Steve, their family and friends, and all who mourn in your prayers. 

Holy Hour on Wednesdays before the Blessed Sacrament
Wednesday Mornings at 11:00 AM in the Lady Chapel

Healing Mass on Thursdays
At Mass on Thursdays at 12:10 PM, we offer a service of anointing and prayers for healing.

Friday Abstinence
The ordinary Fridays of the year are observed by special acts of discipline and self-denial
in commemoration of the crucifixion of Our Lord.

Confessions on Saturdays
The priest on duty will be in a confessional near the 46th Street entrance at 11:00 AM.

UPCOMING AT SAINT MARY’S

Saturday, January 11, 2025
Of Our Lady
PARISH RETREAT
Confessions 11:00 AM
Sung Mass 12:10 PM
Please call the Parish Office today, January 10, if you’d like to attend the retreat.

Sunday, January 12, 2025
The First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of Our Lord
Mass 9:00 AM
Adult Formation 9:45 AM
Holy Baptism and Solemn Mass 11:00 AM
Festive Reception following the Solemn Mass: Farewell to Father Jay Smith and José Vidal

Friday, January 17, 2025, 1:15 PM to 3:00 PM
Neighbors in Need: Monthly Drop-by
Volunteers arrive at 12:45 PM and work until 3:30 PM.
Speak to MaryJane Boland or Marie Rosseels if you’d like to make a donation or volunteer.

Friday, January 17, 5:30 PM in Saint Joseph’s Hall
A Lecture: “Siena, the Heart of Tuscany” by Roberto Bechi

Sunday, February 2, 2025
The Presentation of Our Lord: Candlemas
Mass 9:00 AM
Procession & Solemn Mass 11:00 AM
Evensong & Benediction 4:00 PM

The next Monthly Requiem will be celebrated on Saturday, February 15, at 12:10 PM.

LIFE AT SAINT MARY’S

Adult Formation . . . On January 12, parishioner Allen Reddick will begin his two-part series (January 12 and 19), “The Catholic Imagination of Flannery O’Connor.” Allen received his B.A. from Sewanee: the University of the South (Allen spends part of each year in Sewanee), his M.A. from Cambridge University, and Ph.D. from Columbia University. From there, he became Assistant, then Associate Professor of English and American Literature and Language at Harvard University from 1985 until 1993. In 1993, he went to the University of Zurich in Switzerland as Full Professor of English Literature. Allen’s research interests are broad, but include book history, the distribution of republican books in England and North America, the Enlightenment encyclopedia and dictionary, and the works of Samuel Johnson. Allen will use his analytical and interpretive skills to discuss Flannery O’Connors’s short stories. On January 19, Allen will be joined by Father Sammy Wood, whose interests in O’Connor are theological. In that class, he will want to spend a few minutes talking about a certain connection between O’Connor and evangelism, drawing from her famous quote from Mystery & 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.

Preparing for these classes: Allen writes, “The stories I will be discussing in the Flannery O'Connor classes are ‘Greenleaf’ and ‘Revelation.’ Both are contained in O’Connor’s short story collection, Everything that Rises Must Converge; texts of the stories can also be downloaded from the Internet (“Revelation”; “Greenleaf”). Please read the stories beforehand and bring the texts to class.

Adult Formation . . . January 26, February 2, 9, 16, 23, and March 2: Foundation Course, Part II: Embracing Evangelism. Led by Father Sammy Wood. This second part of this year’s foundation course will be based on the Episcopal Church’s “Embracing Evangelism” video series. We will watch the videos together and the parish clergy will lead a group discussion. Specifically, we will examine a particularly Anglican definition of evangelism, assess the need for it, and introduce various methods for sharing the gospel. The first part of the foundation course—Invitation to a Journey—was very well received. Please join Father Sammy and others to discuss and wrestle with this important and challenging topic.

Congratulations to our baptismal candidates, who are to be baptized at the Solemn Mass on Sunday, January 12, Andrew Gurr and Tillie and Dax Page, as well as to their friends and families. We rejoice to be able to welcome them into the Body of Christ as members of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin. Please join them at the reception following Mass on Sunday and welcome them to the parish.

A Chance to Learn More about the Met’s Siena Exhibition . . . The Metropolitan Museum's acclaimed exhibition—Siena: the Rise of Painting—runs through January 26, and you can learn more about the city and region through a talk on “Siena, the Heart of Tuscany,” to be held in Saint Joseph's Hall on Friday, January 17, at 5:30 PM. Parishioner Mary Robison’s brother-in-law Roberto Bechi, whose family has lived in Siena for hundreds of years, will discuss the history and culture of this beautiful part of the world. Please join us!

Many of you know Father Stephen Morris, who has long been a great friend of Saint Mary’s. He is now joining us as an assisting priest. He will be in the rota, saying Mass in the Lady Chapel from time to time. We are grateful to him for his help and for his ministry. Learn more about Father Morris here.

Thank you to those who came out to help “un-decorate” the church this past Wednesday. Your help was much appreciated. And thank you so very much to the members of the Saint Mary’s Flower Guild, who surpassed themselves this year with their flower arrangements and decorations here in the church. Beauty has a way of stilling the troubled spirit and bringing us closer to God. Playful creativity—the appearance of God’s creatures in the decorations and, this year, a babbling brook—is a joy to see and experience. We are very grateful for all of this.

We are grateful to all those who made things ready for the Solemn Mass on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6—a Monday night, after Christmas, with snow falling, and we had a decent congregation! Thank you, all, for your service. We are grateful to our neighbor and friend, Rebecca Ehren, for playing the organ recital so beautifully. And thank you, Father Ben DeHart, for preaching such a fine sermon that evening. We hope that you will both be back to visit Saint Mary’s soon.

Thank you so much to Renee and Patrick Wood, who organized and hosted the reception after the Solemn Mass on January 6. (If you are interested in helping with these feast-day receptions, please speak to Father Sammy or to Renee. It can be a creative ministry and is actually kind of fun.)

News from Zach Roesemann, Saint Mary’s Resident Iconographer . . . We are very excited that Zach will be a Guest Artist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in January. He will be doing three different events in conjunction with the Met’s current exhibition “Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350”:

• January 11, 1-4 p.m., in the European Sculpture Gallery at the Met Fifth Avenue—“Open Studio”, when Zach will once again discuss and demonstrate medieval painting.

• January 17, 3-3:30 p.m. at the Met Cloisters—“Met Experts Gallery Talk,” when he will discuss and answer questions about the medieval panel painting in the Met Cloisters collection, The Crucifixion and the Lamentation by the Master of the Codex of Saint George.

The public is warmly invited to all of these events! Learn more about Zach’s studio at Saint Mary’s here.

Bidding Father Jay Smith & José Vidal Farewell . . . Father Jay Smith’s last Mass at Saint Mary’s will be on January 12, 2025, the Baptism of Our Lord. Father Smith will be the celebrant and preacher at both Masses that day. A festive reception following Solemn Mass is planned to celebrate his retirement, at which time we will also present him with gifts from the parish. We invite all the members of the Saint Mary’s community to join us on January 12 to say goodbye to Father Jay and to José; to recall the joys, challenges, and graces we have experienced together during the past seventeen years; and to celebrate our common ministry during that time. We are sure there will be something to eat and to drink, and suspect that there will be some laughter. Come join us.

If you would like to make a donation to assist the people of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, you may visit their website.

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT THE SOLEMN MASS ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 12, 2025, THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY: THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD

The organ prelude on Sunday morning is an extended setting from the third part of J. S. Bach’s Clavierübung that is based upon the traditional melody for Luther’s text on the baptism of Our Lord, translated “Christ, our Lord, to the Jordan came” (cf. Hymnal 1982, # 139). The melody is played on the pedals of the organ, sounding in the alto register, while consistent scale-wise motion of the left hand suggests the flowing of the Jordan River. The right hand, at the same time, provides additional rhythmic and harmonic texture. This chorale prelude anticipates the singing of the hymn at the Offertory of the Mass.

The Mass setting on Sunday, January 12, is the Mass in G minor by the noted English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958). This Mass was composed in 1921 and is dedicated to another noted English composer, Gustav Holst (1874–1934), and the Whitsuntide Singers at Thaxted in North Essex. Its first performance was in concert by the City of Birmingham Choir on December 6, 1922. While first performed in concert, The Mass in G minor was intended to be sung liturgically and was subsequently premiered as such at Westminster Cathedral under the direction of Sir Richard Terry. (The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood, informally known as Westminster Cathedral, is the largest Roman Catholic church in England and Wales. Its construction was completed in 1903.) Vaughan Williams’s Mass is clearly in his own distinctive twentieth-century musical vocabulary, but it derives its sonic and affective character from the great heritage of English choral composition of earlier centuries. His Mass is often considered the most significant English work of its kind since the sixteenth century, and it has been an inspiration to many composers who have followed Vaughan Williams. The original conception is a work for double chorus and four soloists. This morning four of its movements will be performed by a choir of eight singers and the differentiation between choruses and soloists will merge more into a unified choral texture.

The Communion motet on Sunday is a recently composed setting of George Herbert’s The Altar by David Hurd, organist and music director at Saint Mary’s. George Herbert (1593–1633) was an English poet and Celebrant of the Church of England. Recognized as one of the foremost British devotional writers, he is considered one of the metaphysical poets along with John Donne, Richard Crashaw, and several others of that time. A few of Herbert’s poems have made the jump to hymnals. The Hymnal 1982 contains four of Herbert’s poems. However, the vast majority of Herbert’s poetry is considered too complex to be sung meaningfully by congregations as hymns. The Altar is the first poem in the section labeled The Church of Herbert’s The Temple–Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations, published in 1633. The poem is laid out on the page of the original edition with its text arranged to suggest the shape of a table with pedestal and column supporting a top surface. The musical setting sung this morning was commissioned by the Cathedral of Saint John, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and premiered there on November 17, 2024. To illuminate Herbert’s poem, the composer’s intention was for the organ to provide a simulated heartbeat behind the choir’s recitation of Herbert’s words. A significant musical cross-reference is that the melodic figure to which “These stones to praise thee may not cease” is sung is the same melodic figure used in the composer’s setting of Richard Wilbur’s A stable lamp is lighted (Hymn 104) for the phrase “and every stone shall cry.” — David Hurd

THE COMMUNITY AT THE CROSSING AT THE CATHEDRAL OF SAINT JOHN THE DIVINE
Applications are open for the 2025-2026 cohort!

“The Community at the Crossing is an ecumenical program for spiritual formation in the heart of New York City. Our vision is to equip each member to serve Christ in their chosen path by providing the space and formation necessary to establish rhythms of life and to discern God’s call. Members spend a year in prayer and discernment, service and mission, biblical and theological formation, and intentional community, choosing as their sisters and brothers people who are radically different from themselves.”

Membership is open to any Christian between 21-33 years old, from all church backgrounds, and anywhere in the US.

Their events are open to anybody of any age! Join Community members to pray and learn, or engage with them out and about. Stay tuned for some new ways people of all ages can become more deeply involved in the community.

If you know someone who might be appropriate for the program, encourage them to learn more about the Community and discern if they might be called by God to join. Please speak with Father Matt, who serves on the advisory board, if you have any questions.

FOR GREEN-CARD HOLDERS . . . The Citizenship Project from The New York Historical, Central Park West at Seventy-seventh Street offers free civics test preparation classes for green-card holders. The six-week program covers all 100 questions from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) civics test, giving students the opportunity to learn the content while practicing their English. This unique course uses paintings, objects, and documents from the collections of The New York Historical. All classes are taught by trained Citizenship Educators. 98% of Citizenship Project students pass their naturalization interviews! The Project offers four different class options: Online Citizenship Course, In-Person Citizenship Course, Extended Virtual Course, and the Spanish Course. Explore these options by visiting New York Historical’s website. And pass this information onto a friend or neighbor!

CONCERTS AT SAINT MARY’S

The New York Repertory Orchestra, Saint Mary’s Resident Orchestra
February 15, 2025, 8:00 PM

David Diamond: The Enormous Room
Vitezslava Kaprálová: Rustic Suite
Paul Hindemith: Der Schwanendreher (Masumi Per Rostad, viola)

Admission is free but a donation of $15.00 (or more) is gratefully accepted.

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.