From the Rector:  Easter Priorities

For the first time I can recall I recently have had some trouble remembering to add one or more “alleluias” to things during Mass – much to the delight of my colleagues.  I think it is fair to say that I’m pretty reliable and regular as a celebrant.  I’m not an automaton but my body, as it were, has a good liturgical memory both of word and gesture.  As I write on Thursday morning of the Second Week of Easter, I think I’m on track now.  No promises, but missing some of this stuff at weekday Masses and Offices has gotten my attention.

From the Rector:  Easter Graces

The Easter Triduum unfolded with many graces – as it always seems to.  The quiet and purposeful work during the day on Maundy Thursday gave way to the power of the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper.  The profound solemnity of the washing of feet and of the procession to the altar of repose set the evening apart from the rest of the year.  My only note for next year is to set out more chairs for the washing of feet – for the past seven years four have been enough.  I think next year there will need to be eight. 

From the Rector:  Easter Triduum

In every part of the world the Church will gather over the  Three Days to celebrate the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.  As I write to you on Thursday morning in New York, quiet and not-so-quiet (organ tuning) final preparations are going forward here at the church.  Virtually all of the work has already been done.  If you are new to Saint Mary’s, you may not realize this parish community organizes its year around these Three Days.

From the Rector: Holy Week and Easter

I want to thank all who have already been working and will be working over the next week to make Holy Week at Saint Mary’s possible.  I want to thank volunteers and staff, along with members and friends near and far, whose prayers and gifts help make it all possible.  As is our custom, our doors are open daily and the ordinary and the great rites of the Church year are celebrated with an integrity and richness that reflects our commitment to Christ.  We take nothing for granted at Saint Mary’s when it comes to worship.  I hope this means we are growing into a people who take nothing for granted when it comes to love for all.  Love was in fact Christ’s greatest commandment to us who call him Lord.

From the Rector: Holy Week Primer

Holy Week is a rich layering of Christian tradition in which you and I can rejoice in so many ways.  During this time we try very hard to let the tradition of the Church speak clearly to us so that we can enter as individuals and as a community more deeply into the mystery of Christ.

From the Rector: Definitions

Broadly speaking, it is correct to say there are two basic theological approaches to Baptism in the New Testament.  One approach associates it with the death and resurrection of Jesus.  One associates it with new birth.  These approaches are complementary and neither approach by itself describes completely the mystery of Baptism.  What is going on in any our lives and in the lives of all people, baptized and unbaptized, is the work of the Holy Spirit. 

From the Rector:  An Exercise of Lent

Several years ago I was in Rome and I had one of those conversations that all of us have from time to time, a conversation that really did change the way I think about things.  I had just met a Roman Catholic pastor, from Philadelphia, I believe, but I don’t remember his name and we met only briefly.  We were each waiting for a mutual acquaintance, a liturgist, to return.  I think I was coming and the priest from Philadelphia was leaving.

From the Rector: Heavenly Father

Because of the leadership role of the presider, a celebrant’s voice often booms out at Saint Mary’s.  It’s a big building and some leadership is usually required to encourage participation and to make sure people hear.  I want to tell you about something that happened the last time I was celebrant for Solemn Mass.  Something happened that reminded me that my role in worship is to be a servant of the assembly.

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.