From the Rector: Death and Resurrection

Easter Day begins this year on Saturday, April 7, at sunset.  As the Prayer Book says, “In darkness fire is kindled . . .” Very quickly, fire begins to light the faces of all who are near.  Then the celebrant says to the assembly, “Dear friends in Christ: On this most holy night, in which our Lord Jesus passed over from death to life, the Church invites her members, dispersed throughout the world, to gather in vigil and prayer.  For this is the Passover of the Lord, in which, by hearing his Word and celebrating his Sacraments, we share in his victory over death.”

From the Rector: Holy Week and Easter

Christians sometimes speak and act as if the Church and the Sacraments were realities existing apart from and independent of the People of God.  They are not.  With special focus and intensity the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter invite us to know Christ and to be the Body of Christ.

From the Rector: More than Ashes and Palms

A casual observer of Christian practice in New York City probably would need to be forgiven for thinking that ashes and palms are important elements of Christian religion.  More people go into churches in our city on Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday than they do on Christmas Day and Easter Day. Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday are both connected in significant ways to the most important Sundays of the year.  But Christianity is not about palms or ashes.  It’s about Jesus’ death and resurrection, which the Church celebrates every Sunday of the year.

From the Rector: Annual Meeting of the Congregation

On Sunday, March 18, the Annual Meeting of the Congregation of Saint Mary’s will be held in Saint Joseph’s Hall after the Solemn Mass.  Reports of the Board of Trustees, parish organizations and clergy and staff will be presented.  The congregation will elect two delegates and two alternates to serve as our representatives in the convention of the Diocese of New York.  In recent years the meeting has lasted just over thirty minutes.  Copies of the annual report will be available after the meeting by mail or e-mail to members of the parish who are not able to attend.

From the Rector: Saint Mary’s Mission House

On Thursday, March 15, Saint Mary’s Mission House will again become a community house for women religious.  We will formally welcome Sr. Deborah Francis, Sr. Laura Katherine and the Community of St. John Baptist to the parish at Solemn Evensong on Sunday, April 22 (mark your calendars).  The leadership of CSJB and of the parish believes we have a unique opportunity at the beginning of the twenty-first century to renew both parish life and the work of the sisters.

From the Rector: Our Legacies

Newer members of the local and wider parish community may not know that last year we formed “Saint Mary’s Legacy Society” to recognize those who have made a bequest or other gift to Saint Mary’s when they die.  Some may not know the extraordinary building in which we worship was built because of a bequest.  Miss Sara Louie Cooke died in 1892 and left Saint Mary’s the bulk of her estate, then about $800,000.  Her faith in the future of Saint Mary’s inspires us all.  The parish has survived through good economic times and bad in no small part because so many have cared so deeply about ensuring the work and witness of this great parish through gifts made when they died.

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.