From the Rector: No Time for Prelates

Earlier this month I visited Father Ryan Lesh, vicar, Christ Church, Red Hook, for a few days.  Many know Ryan is an anesthesiologist and was on the faculty of two distinguished medical schools before going to seminary from this parish.  While I was with him I remembered that he had written a paper in seminary on the medical and theological response to the introduction of anesthesia.  When anesthesia was discovered, many people were not in favor of its use for surgery or dentistry.  Pain was a biblically-sanctioned, spiritual tool for helping people remember their dependence on God.

From the Rector: Transfiguration

Since the current Prayer Book was adopted, the gospel for the final Sunday before Lent is always an account of Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain (Matthew 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-9, or Luke 9:28-36).  Prayer Book Studies 19 (1970), done in preparation for the present book, notes that this “serves as a significant link between the revelation of the Lord’s glory and in his Passion.  It is thus made both a climax of “epiphany” and a preparation for his “exodus” (page 26). 

From Father Beddingfield: Feasting and Fasting

I love food.  I love cooking it, sharing it and eating it.  One reason why our Super Bowl party was so much fun last week was because of all the various things people brought to eat.  There was chili, salsa and salad, drinks and desserts, and even what someone called “people chow,” an odd, gravel-looking confection of chocolate and sugar.  I continue to enjoy good food and the feasting it provides.  But since returning from Honduras a few weeks ago, I’m also aware of some complicated and conflicted feelings I have around food. 

From Father Beddingfield: Feasting and Fasting

I love food.  I love cooking it and sharing it and eating it.  One reason why our Super Bowl party was so much fun last week was because of all the various things people brought to eat.  There was chili, salsa and salad, drinks and desserts, and even what someone called, “people chow,” an odd, gravel-looking confection of chocolate and sugar.  I continue to enjoy good food and the feasting it provides.  But since returning from Honduras a few weeks ago, I’m also aware of some complicated and conflicted feelings I have around food. 

From the Rector: Eight Years On

On Saturday morning, December 5, 1998, the Board of Trustees met and voted to call me to be the ninth rector of Saint Mary’s.  As the meeting ended, Gerald McKelvey, acting president of the board, called the Bishop of New York, the Right Reverend Richard F. Grein, to ask formally his permission to extend the call.  The bishop gave permission.  The board went to the midday Mass.  After the Mass Gerald called.  I was sitting at my typewriter in the rectory study in Michigan City, a beautiful oak paneled room with a large fireplace.  I thought I might be called as rector, but one is never sure.  I pretty much collapsed after Gerald’s call, knowing that my life had changed.

From the Rector: Anglican Unity

Tuesday’s gospel at weekday Mass was from Mark.  Jesus’ disciples were plucking grain from the field on the Sabbath and it was noticed.  The Pharisees were observing the rules and observing the behavior of others to make sure all were following the rules in the way they believed the rules should be followed.  What are our rules as Anglicans?

From the Rector: Unity

I was a new student at Nashotah House in the fall of 1980 when I first encountered what would become our hymnal’s standard tune for the contemporary version of the Lord’s Prayer.  The tune was written by McNeil Robinson in 1973 while he was serving at Saint Mary’s as organist.  I have always liked the tune and, although I haven’t revisited the issue with any scholars lately, I seem to recall that the contemporary version of the prayer is actually a slightly more faithful rendering of the Greek than the one which we use and is now almost universal among English speakers.

From the Rector: Baptism of Christ

Last Sunday, one of the younger members of the congregation was at the altar rail at the Solemn Mass in her father’s arms.  The day before she had celebrated her third birthday.  I was the celebrant and, as is our custom at Saint Mary’s, the minister of the Bread for the Mass.  It happened that her mother received the Bread first, then the child’s father.  The father put out his hand and received.  Then the child put out her hand and received in the most unselfconscious way.  She was doing something she had seen over and over again since she was born.  I will never forget the naturalness of her putting out her hand.

From the Rector: Christ the King

Eight years ago I was introduced to Saint Mary’s for the first time just a few days before the Feast of Christ the King.  The great hymn tune ‘Helmsley’ – which is sung at the end of Solemn Mass on Christ the King to the text “Lo! he comes, with clouds descending,” was being played when I opened the doors of the church for the very first time.  At once I saw the altar and the great crucifix on the rood beam above the chancel.  In our church, the Crucified reigns in glory over all.

From the Rector: Mission at Saint Mary’s

As I write, José Vidal, architect for the renovation of an apartment for the nuns from the Community of St John Baptist, awaits word from the New York City Department of Buildings that proposed plans have been approved.  Some may wonder about the delays that we have encountered.  This is New York.  Few things are simple.  After conversations with Saint Mary’s real estate attorney, I am confident that the Mission House, built to be a convent, can again be in part a convent.

From the Rector: America’s High Church

Earlier this year I had more than a few interesting e-mail exchanges when we launched the appeal for the Momentum Fund.  Some members of the wider parish community found it hard to believe that a new water heater for the church complex was going to cost $25,000.00.  The e-mails reminded me of conversations about costs I had with friends when I moved to Manhattan almost eight years ago.  Many things just cost more in the middle of the city than they do elsewhere.

From the Rector: For the Future

During the reception after the Solemn Mass on All Saints’ a newcomer asked me with wonder and amazement in her eyes, “How do you manage to do this?”  I said, “We have faith in the future.”  She was talking about money and so was I.

From the Rector: All Saints’ and All Souls’

All Saints’ Day is November 1.  All Souls’ Day is November 2.  They are two of the greatest days of the Church year.  As I begin to write about them to you I hear the music of All Saints’ in my head and I see the black vestments of All Souls’ in the eyes of my heart.  My body feels the music, the glory and the sadness, physical sadness that I have experienced over and over again around God’s Table on these days.

From Father Beddingfield: The Good News of Things Falling Apart

One day last week there were plumbers and electricians and workers of various kinds going in and out of the building.  They were in the attic; they were in the basement.  One company of electricians was beginning to re-wire some of the lighting in the church, high up in the rafters.  Another company was installing a new intercom and doorbell system in the Parish House.  The plumbers were beginning to replace a faulty valve in the steam system.  This Saturday and Sunday they will replace a pipe connecting the church to the main city water connection.  Because the city only grants permits for such work over weekends, there will be no running water at church on Sunday, October 22.

From the Rector: Changing God’s Mind

Last week, at a friend’s suggestion, I picked up a novel by Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel according to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal.  It’s a wonderful read, a little serious, a little irreverent, and very funny.  If I were a better storyteller I would make a ton of weekday sermons from it.  Moore uses a lot of material very creatively.  He has a twist on how Jesus came to the idea he was to die.  Jesus, in the novel, is off in another place where child sacrifice is practiced on a large scale.  He can’t believe his Father permits it to continue.  He thinks his own death will so horrify God that God will put an end to child sacrifice everywhere.

From the Rector: Trinity Traditional

There are more than a few folks in the wider Church who have gotten it into their heads that there’s something inadequate, wrong or outdated with the Christian name for the Three Persons of the Trinity, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”  Our Church continues to authorize service materials that have a not-so-subtle purpose of replacing ordinary Trinitarian language in worship under the rubric of “enriching” and “expanding” our language about God.  When traveling, one never knows for sure in whose name one may be blessed.

From the Rector: Value of Respect

As we begin a new choir season on October 1, with the special richness of our Solemn Mass on Sunday mornings and the majestic simplicity of Solemn Evensong on Sunday nights, I’ve been thinking about the values that shape our common life.  Today I want to write about three in particular: respect for the assembly, respect for the rite and respect for ministries.  In a few weeks I plan to write about three more: respect for formation, respect for mission, and respect for spiritual life.  All are values that I think help to define and shape our parish community.

From the Rector: Episcopal Christians

Hardly a day goes by when I am not called upon by someone to describe Saint Mary’s.  People who ask me the question are often not Episcopalian.  When I’m in a group and the question is asked, someone who knows the parish will often respond before I can.  Many people, it seems, like to talk about Saint Mary’s.  The building, the music, the location, the services and, of course, the incense will be mentioned in some combination.  Episcopalians, lay and clergy, who use the language of “high church” or “low church” or “Anglo-catholic” will often interject phrases like that.

From the Rector:  Henry VIII Was Wrong

A few years ago, there was a New York Times profile of the Reverend George William Rutler, pastor of the Roman Catholic Church of Our Savior, New York City.  He had been an Episcopal priest.  He was one of the first priests who became a Roman priest after the Church began to ordain women.  In the article Father Rutler said he had become a Roman Catholic because he realized “Henry VIII was wrong.”

From Father Beddingfield: Five Years Later

Last week I ran into a person I had not seen in almost eight years.  Though he still looks very much like I had remembered, I was surprised at the changes that had taken place in his life.  He left a relationship of almost ten years.  He now lives in a different part of town, and he works in advertising.  When I asked about his painting (eight years ago, he was showing his work in several downtown galleries and selling paintings regularly), his facial expression changed.  It grew more serious than I had ever remembered seeing.  “After 9/11 everything changed,” he said.