From Father Beddingfield: Why all the Ashes?

I was lucky enough to be in one of Professor Frederick Shriver’s classes at General Seminary just before he retired.  Father Shriver is not one to keep his opinions to himself and I especially recall his thoughts about ashes.  “You know what I’d do if I were the rector of a church?” he asked our class.  “You know what I’d do?  I’ll tell you what I’d do.  At the end of the Ash Wednesday liturgy, I’d be at the back door with a big washrag.  As people left the church, I’d wipe the ashes off their forehead and remind them of the words of our Lord, “Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them” (Matthew 6:1).

From Father Beddingfield: A Cross of Iron and Air

During the Honduras mission trip two weeks ago, we were able to meet the Right Reverend Lloyd Allen, bishop of Honduras, who presented us with a cross made by the young men studying and working at St. Mary’s Technical Institute.  The cross is 22 inches by 16 inches and made of iron --pieces that are carefully curved, joined and welded.  But it is also made of air – space left between the iron, like an ornate fence or grill. 

From the Rector: Presentation

February 2 is the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple.  It is based on the account in Luke’s gospel of the bringing of the infant Jesus to the temple on the fortieth day after his birth.  Along with the feast of the Annunciation on March 25, it is one of two “Christmas” celebrations outside of the Christmas Season.  Here at Saint Mary’s it is one of the great annual celebrations in the life of our parish community.

From Father Mead: Disagreements

I offer a Bible Study most Tuesday evenings.  During Advent we looked at the Birth narratives in Matthew and Luke, and beginning this Tuesday we will look at the Passion narratives in all four gospels.  It is true that we read much of the Passion narratives each year during Holy Week – this year we read Mark’s account of the Passion on Palm Sunday, and we always read John’s account of the Passion on Good Friday – however, I think we often forget or ignore the major differences in each account . . . or maybe we just don’t know they are different at all.

From The Rector: Pace

Saint Mary’s is a place where we always have visitors and newer members at every service.  It’s truly a given around here and it’s one of the really great things about our parish.  Our response is a given too.  A lot of us, lay and clergy, work very hard to make visitors feel welcome.  There are always going to be people who need to know where we are or what is coming next.  That’s such a blessing for us, a great blessing.

From The Rector: Epiphany

One can learn a lot from buildings.  There are lots of things to be learned from our own church building.  Clearly the altar is the heart of Saint Mary’s.  But it is also clear the church was built for congregational worship.  The altar is visible from every seat in the house.  The room has extraordinarily fine acoustics.  Generations have sacrificed much to make it a sacred place for the worship of God by the people of God.

From The Rector: A Real Christmas

As the 11:00 PM Solemn Mass began on Christmas Eve I was clustered with others who would be at the end of the procession in the 47th Street doorway.  The introit had started.  Three young women entered.  Smiles and words of welcome from the Presiding Bishop, Bishop Grein and yours truly encourage them to enter.  As they slip through the clergy and servers, one turns to another and says, “This is great.  It’s a real Christmas.”  And indeed it was and is a real Christmas at Saint Mary’s. 

From The Rector: Christmas Light

There are many moments of great emotion for me during Mass on Christmas Eve.  Usually it is not much of a problem because these moments don’t occur in any of the places in the liturgy where I am saying or singing something by myself.  Two are pretty close.  During the last verse of O come, all ye faithful the image of the Christ child is being placed in the crèche.  During the last verse of Once in royal David’s city we are all standing below the great rood beam with its outstandingly powerful crucifix.  It’s hard for me to keep the tears back.

From the Rector: Annunciations

The Bylaws of the Board of Trustees of this parish require that there be an annual meeting of the board within eight days of our patronal feast.  This year the board met on Monday, December 12, following the evening Mass, celebrated by the Bishop of New York.  He was here to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the consecration of this second and present church home by the Right Reverend Henry C. Potter,

From the Rector: Advent and Christmas at Saint Mary’s

One of the many grace-filled movements of the Church’s life was the development of an annual cycle of worship that focuses us on the events of Christ’s life.  We do very few “theme” days in the great tradition.  Salvation in Christ is always more than an idea.  It is rooted in the life of Christ, his living and dying as the Word made flesh.  He was born.  He lived.  He was crucified.  He rose.  He reigns in heaven.  For us Christians, these are not ideas.  His death was not an idea.  It was a bloody and evil cross.  His resurrection is the central event of history.

From the Rector: Our Patronal Feast

The founders of this parish, led by our first rector, the Reverend Thomas McKee Brown, shared in a glorious vision of Christian community and worship.  It was a vision that looked beyond the divisions within the Christian community and forward beyond the life the Christian churches and our Episcopal Church of its day knew.  They glimpsed glory and beauty in worship which could win souls to Christ.  They sought the vision glorious of man and God.  And when the opportunity arose to take this parish from its small beginnings on three lots on West 45th Street to the church home we have today, they took it.

From the Rector: Generous Vision

As the sun sets on Saturday, November 26, in this year of grace 2005, the Church will enter its new year.  In contrast to the world outside, a rich simplicity will take hold of the Church.  Advent’s purple will adorn our altar.  There will be no flowers save for one Sunday when the purple softens to rose.

From the Rector: Ducks, Cats and Dogs

I went online last week to locate the well-known children’s tale usually called “The Little Red Hen.”  Of course it’s a story I’ve known all my life.  But I couldn’t remember the details.  Briefly, the hen finds a grain of wheat, plants it, tends it, harvests the crop, has the wheat ground into flour and then bakes bread.  At every step she encounters a duck, a cat and a dog.  None has time to help until the bread is out of the oven.  Then, all have time to eat.  But the little red hen isn’t sharing.

From the Rector: Growing this Parish

A lot of people have been noticing our weekly reports of increased attendance at Saint Mary’s.  It’s pretty easy to find the starting point for this growth.  It comes in the wake of a decision made by the Board of Trustees in July 2003 to have two full-time assistant priests.  It was not an easy decision for the Trustees to make.

From the Rector: Lives Unfolding

Many years ago I encountered a presentation in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd for six year-olds called “The History of the Kingdom of God.”  The presentation involves a ribbon and three words.  The grosgrain ribbon is on a spool and perhaps there’s a hundred feet of it.  The words are written on paper cards.  They are: Creation, Redemption and Parousia.  Parousia [One pronunciation: pear-rou-SEE-ah] is a Christian term for the end of time when God will be all in all.  Yes, this is a presentation for six year-olds.

From Father Beddingfield: Motivation

I’ve been thinking about motivation recently.  What motivates me to do certain things like go to work, exercise, or eat right?  What motivates me to agree to help a friend or give money to a cause or attend a particular event?

Rabbi Edwin Friedman, in a book he was writing before his death in 1996, suggests that whether one is talking about an individual, a family or a whole society, we sometimes become “stuck” when we are motivated too much by concerns for safety rather than being motivated by a sense of adventure.

From the Rector: Identity and Commitment

A curious thing happened to me on vacation this year.  A parish priest recognized me and said he was surprised to see me in church on a vacation Sunday.  I can’t help myself.  I’ve gone to church almost every Sunday of my life, the majority of years of which, still, I was not ordained.  I go to church on Sundays because I am a Christian. Even on my vacation.  It is part of the basic Christian commitment.  It’s identity.

From the Rector: Opening Doors

Many readers know that in the Mercy Chapel there are small doors in the balcony.  On Wednesday, October 5, Father Matthew Mead, our building mechanic Hector Rojas and sexton Wilfredo Zapata tore down a false wall in the Mission House which had been erected to block this doorway.  The doors are still there.  It turns out they are pocket doors and at least one of the two opens easily.  (There is more debris to be removed before it is possible to really get at both of them.)

From the Rector: He is with us

Margaret Lawhon Schott is a vestry member at Saint Luke’s Church, Baton Rouge, where I served as curate from 1985 to 1988.  The following is her report of a visit made by the Presiding Bishop, the Bishop of Louisiana and others.  I offer it as a meditation not only on the work we are called to do to help our sisters and brothers in the midst of the tragedy in the Gulf Coast region of our country but also as a mediation on the Lord’s presence here as we gather on Sunday, October 2, to celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Church.  Stephen Gerth