From the Rector: Easter Gratitude

Easter Day Evensong is one of my favorite services.  It’s the last liturgy of the Easter Triduum and Holy Week.  I know my body and mind is ready for a rest, and surely this is part of the appeal.  But I really love the lessons we hear every year from John and Luke.  These are the appearances of Jesus on the evening of the first day of resurrection.

From the Rector: The Easter Triduum

Lent ends as the sun sets on the Thursday before Easter Day.  With this sunset, the Easter Triduum begins.  Triduum (Latin for “Three Days”) is the common name for the celebration of the Passover of the Lord across the Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Day.  The services are celebrated with a particular richness, integrity, and simplicity here at Saint Mary’s.  Especially if you are new to the Church, I invite you to make every effort to be here.  For many, these celebrations renew faith as few others can.

From the Rector: Holy Week

In Luke’s gospel we read, “When the hour came, he sat at table, and the apostles with him.  And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you I shall not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God” (Luke 22:14-16).  John’s gospel has a different perspective, but a careful reading of Mark, Matthew and Luke suggests that no one in that upper room, including the Lord himself, knew how those last days would unfold and what they would come to mean. 

From Father Smith:  “Things that were cast down are being raised up…”

Last Sunday I worshipped in a church in suburban Buffalo.  The final hymn at the 11:00 AM “choral Eucharist” was “Lift High the Cross,” a favorite of mine.  I stood up, opened my hymnal and got ready to sing.  To my surprise, as the procession cleared the center aisle and the celebrant went into the large narthex of the very modern church building, the vast majority of the members of the congregation left their pews and headed on home.  I stood my ground with ten or fifteen others, along with the members of the choir; and we did our best to do justice to that very fine hymn.

From Father Mead: Celebrate the Annunciation at Saint Mary’s
From Father Mead: Celebrate the Annunciation at Saint Mary’s

I write on Saint Joseph’s Day, March 19.  When the sextons saw a white chalice veil set for last night’s evening’s mass for the Eve of Saint Joseph, they called my cell phone to confirm the color: not to confirm that they should change the tabernacle veil to white, but instead to confirm that someone had made a mistake.  Since lesser feasts are not observed at Saint Mary’s during Lent, it’s been purple vestments since Ash Wednesday. 

From Father Smith: When Words Become Word

Those of you who have been around this parish long enough will have heard the Rector refer to Saint Mary’s as a “full-gospel church.”  It’s a phrase that Father Gerth, raised a Baptist in the great commonwealth of Virginia, always uses with a smile on his face – and in his voice.  He knows full well the cultural and denominational connotations of the phrase “full-gospel”; and he also knows that those Christians who emblazon their church signboards with it are seldom, if ever, high-church Anglo-Catholics.

From Father Mead: The Language of Lent

My son Liam, who is not quite two and a half years old yet, is learning to speak English at a rate that I find quite surprising.  For the past few days he has thoroughly enjoyed climbing up on the couch cushions so that he can look out the window in our living room.  Once settled on his perch, he exclaims: “Look at my up here!”. 

From Mr. Kennerley: Come, let us sing unto the Lord!

One may well be surprised that a member of the lay staff at Saint Mary’s is writing this week’s Angelus article: indeed, looking back over the archives of past articles, I think this may be the first time that a Music Director has written one!  I am grateful to my colleagues, the curates, for giving me the opportunity, and I hope that it might offer them some relief during Father Gerth’s sabbatical.  I want to write about singing, and how we might use this distinctly personal gift as part of our Lenten journey towards the glory of Eastertide.

From Father Smith: A Prayer for Lent

In the Eastern Orthodox churches, the Prayer of Saint Ephrem the Syrian has traditionally been said at each weekday service during Lent.  The prayer goes like this: “O Lord and Master of my life!  Take from me the spirit of laziness, faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.  Give instead to your servant the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love.  Yes, O Lord and King!  Let me see my own errors and let me not judge my brothers and sisters.  For you are blessed unto ages of ages.  Amen.”

From Father Mead: Something about the Scriptures

One of the features of daily life at Saint Mary’s is the occasional overlap of lectionaries that are used.  For instance, right now the Gospel according to Mark is being read at Sunday Mass, at Evening Prayer, and at daily Mass.  Because each of these three services follows a different lectionary the Gospel is being read at differing paces, and we are at three different places in the narrative.  This Sunday we continue to read from the first chapter of Mark, and we will crawl through the narrative all year. 

From Father Powell:  Enjoying the Gift

I never intended to become a regular at St. Mary the Virgin.  I knew the church existed and had read about it from time to time but I figured it was a precious anachronism that would never appeal to me.  I was wrong.  From the first Sunday I dropped in, I have been hooked on St. Mary the Virgin and worshiping here, even as infrequently as I do, has deepened my faith.

From Father Smith:  The Holiness of Beauty

One of our parishioners is a “gemologist” and a recent graduate of the Gemological Institute of America.  She recently found work at one of New York’s famous jewelry stores.  (You will recall that Saint Mary’s is only a couple of minutes’ walk from the city’s Diamond District.)  Our parishioner was in class last Sunday morning when we were discussing Revelation 4–5; her observations, when we arrived at Revelation 4:2-3, were very helpful.  The verses go like this, “At once I was in the Spirit, and lo, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne!  And he who sat there appeared like jasper and carnelian, and round the throne was a rainbow that looked like an emerald.”  

From Father Mead:  What a difference every pledge makes!

My wife, Nicole, was laid off in early November from her job at Redbook magazine.  With another baby on the way (due in May!) and our two-year-old son, Liam, rapidly outgrowing all of his clothes, the loss of her salary has been difficult to deal with, but we are doing our best to budget and prioritize.  The difficulty of finding a new job in this economic climate is increased due to the fact that she is five months pregnant – it’s difficult to hire someone who is going to take a significant amount of time off in just a few months time.  For the time being she is collecting unemployment and seeking freelance work. 

From Father Smith: Mission and Outreach at Saint Mary’s

The newly constituted Mission & Outreach Committee has now met twice, once in December and again last Sunday, and so this may be an opportune time to tell the friends and members of the parish what the Committee has been doing and what its plans are for the future.  First of all, it should be said that the Committee is merely the latest incarnation of an effort that has taken on different forms over the years.  At the moment, we are building on the efforts of my predecessor, Father John Beddingfield and a number of parishioners in recent years. 

From Father Mead: Through the rhythms of times and seasons

This past Tuesday evening the parish community celebrated the Epiphany with a Solemn Mass.   The feast marks a wonderful conclusion to Christmastide while also offering a glorious reminder of the riches of the upcoming liturgical year – the solemn singing of The Proclamation of the Date of Easter at the conclusion of the Solemn Mass.   Because our assisting deacon, Jedediah Fox, was swamped with Canonicals (exit exams required of all Seminary Seniors that for some odd reason are always scheduled at Epiphany), I had the pleasure of singing the Proclamation this year. 

From Father Smith: Christmas without Nostalgia

Last week, on Christmas Eve morning, Father Gerth, Father Mead, Deacon Jed Fox, and I met in the Rectory shortly after Morning Prayer to review plans for the day.  Just before 10:00 AM, somebody realized that one of the local radio stations was about to begin its live broadcast of the Service of Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge.  The Rector went and got his portable radio and quickly tuned it to WNYC.  Moments later the service began with the elegant bidding prayer and, of course, the well-known first hymn, “Once in royal David’s city.” The single soprano voice with which that hymn begins seemed to have a particularly calming effect on all of us on that busy morning. 

From the Rector: Christmas Letter

This will be the last article I write to the parish community before I begin my sabbatical leave on January 1.  I’m writing on Tuesday afternoon, December 23.  Decorating in the church is well underway – a small army of volunteers is hard at work.  Even with greatly reduced expenditure, our flower guild has made extraordinary use of their resources – assisted by a few special donations.  The church already looks great and they aren’t finished yet.  Brass has been polished today and Father Mead will “candle up” the altar tomorrow.  The choir will be rehearsing tonight.  The wonderful festival which is Christmas will be here very soon.

From the Rector: Mostly Christmas

This coming Sunday is the last Sunday of Advent.  The focus of the day is our final Sunday preparation for the great festival of Christmas.  Sunday is the ancient, weekly celebration of the resurrection.  By the end of the first century, a Sunday in the spring comes to be celebrated as the Sunday of the Resurrection, which we English speakers call “Easter.”  By the beginning of the fourth century, a celebration of Jesus’ birth has emerged near the shortest day of the year.  We English speakers call this feast “Christmas Day” – the day of the Christ Mass.  In the darkness of the year, the true Light comes into the world.

From the Rector: Mostly Advent

A few well-known feast days happen at the beginning of the Advent Season.  These are Saint Nicholas’s Day on December 6, Saint Ambrose’s Day on December 7, the Conception of the Virgin Mary on December 8 and Saint Lucy’s Day on December 13.  December 21 is the Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle.  Yet, in this parish church, Advent is still Advent for the four weeks before Christmas Day.

From the Rector: The Story of St. Mary’s

In 1931, Newbury Frost Read, a member of the parish and a trustee, wrote a history of this parish, “The Story of St. Mary’s: The Society of the Free Church of St. Mary the Virgin, New York City, 1868-1931.”  What was to become the Great Depression was well underway.  Frost records that at the beginning of 1930 the trustees were surprised Saint Mary’s had ended 1929 with a positive balance, even though it was only $8.34.  Money was far from the only challenge the parish faced.