From the rector:

From the Rector: Prevent Us, O Lord

There have been four American Prayer Books, 1789, 1892, 1928 and 1979.  The 1928 Prayer Book famously removed a woman’s promise to obey from the marriage service.  But language that was obscure and even archaic largely survived in the 1928 Prayer Book.  Vouchsafe is the only word dictionary editors would call “obscure” that comes to mind which still finds a place in our current book.

From the Rector: Preparing to Elect a Bishop

At the diocesan convention in November 2010, Bishop Sisk called for the election of a bishop coadjutor – a “bishop coadjutor” becomes the bishop of a diocese upon the retirement of his or her predecessor.  In our diocese, at a convention to elect any bishop, the delegates vote by order.  That is, the votes of the lay delegates and the votes of the clerical delegates are counted separately.  For there to be an election, a person must receive a majority of votes in both orders on the same ballot.

From the Rector: Consent and Marriage

Kenneth Stevenson was a parish priest and then bishop in the Church of England.  He was also one of the leading liturgical scholars of his generation.  Among his many important writings were Eucharist and Offering (New York: Pueblo Publishing Company, 1986) and To Join Together: The Rites of Marriage. Studies in the Reformed Rites of the Catholic Church, Volume V (New York: Pueblo Publishing Company, 1987) –

From Father Smith: What Is New and What Is Old

“Jesus said, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old’” (Mt 13:51)

From Sister Laura Katharine: Silence – A Problem or a Gift?

In many languages including Latin, Greek and Hebrew, there are two different words for silence. The first word points to the absence of sound or noise.  “To experience quietness” captures the meaning of this first word.  The second word points to something more active, to a more deliberate intention.  It suggests actually keeping silent by deliberately refraining from speech.  In some sense it simply means not talking!  There are many impediments to both kinds of silence today.

From the Rector: September 11, 2011

September 11, 2011, will be observed at Saint Mary’s according to the calendar of the Church.  It is “The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost.”  The victims of the attack on our country on this day in 2001 will be remembered in our prayers.  We will pray for our nation and ourselves.  The final hymn at the Solemn Mass will be A mighty fortress is our God.  We will look forward.

FROM FATHER SMITH: “THE DAWN FROM ON HIGH”

Many years ago I drove with two friends from Berkeley, California, to New York City.  On the first day of the trip we drove through Nevada and had just entered the State of Utah, when we decided to stop for the night.  We camped out in the Bonneville Salt Flats State Park.  It was late and the sun had already set. 

FROM THE RECTOR: SOFIA CAVALLETTI, 1917-2011

Sofia Cavalletti died on Tuesday, August 23, 2011.  She had celebrated the ninety-fourth anniversary of her birth on Sunday, August 21.  Along with her collaborator, the late Gianna Gobbi, she founded the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.  Her life and work will continue to shape the lives of Christian children and adults for many generations to come.

FROM THE RECTOR: SEDUCTIVE AND (ALMOST) VULGAR

In the sacristy before last Sunday’s Solemn Mass, I encouraged the clergy and the acolytes not to be afraid of spilling water when the font was filled for the celebration of Holy Baptism.  Some words from the late French Dominican theologian Marie-Dominique Chenu (1895-1990), that I had learned from his student Louis Weil, came to mind.  I’m sure I didn’t quote Father Weil or Father Chenu as carefully as I should have.  Here is what Father Weil has written:

FROM THE RECTOR: ASSUMPTION AT SAINT MARY’S

Solemn Mass on weeknights began at Saint Mary’s with the institution of the Reverend Donald Lathrop Garfield as rector on Monday, February 1, 1965, the Eve of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.  I’m sure it provoked a great deal of comment here and elsewhere.  Before this, no Masses had been celebrated in the evening since the beginning of the tenure of the Reverend Granville Mercer Williams, SSJE, in 1930.  But things were changing in the 1960s, as they always do.

FROM THE RECTOR: PARISH CALENDAR

One of the summer jobs that has fallen to me since Father Matthew Mead left us is posting the parish calendar on our web page.  The calendar of the week that appears at the end of this weekly newsletter is taken from this online calendar.  Last summer, I found working on it slow going at first; but by the end of the project, I was doing fine. 

FROM THE RECTOR: TRANSFIGURATION

The Church of England’s Prayer Book (1662) lists the Feast of the Transfiguration in its calendar on August 6, but it didn’t provide lessons for Morning and Evening Prayer in this book until 1922.  When the Episcopal Church adopted its first Prayer Book in 1789, the Transfiguration was omitted from the Calendar.  This was entirely understandable as the Church had no experience of its celebration.  The gospel of the Transfiguration was never read at Holy Communion, only in the Daily Office.

FROM THE RECTOR: KNOWING OUR HISTORY

There’s a very good book about the Church in New York, This Planted Vine: A Narrative History of the Episcopal Diocese of New York by James Elliot Lindsey.  I jokingly wonder whether the subtitle should have been “Trying to Live Off the Trinity Church Endowment,” because the patrimony of that congregation established so many of our churches. 

FROM THE RECTOR: SAINT MARY’S LECTIONARY PROJECT

I’m no longer sure when we began what came to be called “Saint Mary’s Lectionary Project,” but it is still with us.  If memory serves, it began with the Sunday Mass lessons. There were materials available from what was then called the Church Hymnal Corporation – now Church Publishing. 

FROM THE RECTOR: BENEDICT OF NURSIA

During Lent in my first or second year at Nashotah House, I went with a small group from the seminary to make a retreat at Saint Gregory’s Abbey, Three Rivers, Michigan.  We arrived on a Friday afternoon shortly before the last service of the day, Compline, at 7:00 PM.  It was March in Michigan.  The sun had set.  It was almost dark in the very simple abbey church as the monks did not really need light to sing the service.  In their church, when a person entered, he or she knew he was in a place of prayer.

FROM THE RECTOR: BREAKING THE MIRROR

Not so long ago, while away from home, I got up in the middle of the night, and without turning on a light, went to get a glass of water.  I was sleepy.  I ran into a large full-length mirror.  Fortunately, I wasn’t moving hard and fast.  I stepped back, but as sleepy as I was, in the flash of a moment, I realized the first, and immediate, emotion I felt was fear of an unexpected stranger.  It was instantaneous. 

FROM THE MUSIC DIRECTOR: WHAT IS NEW AND WHAT IS OLD

In many and various ways here at Saint Mary’s, we are constantly bearing witness to both the ancient and the modern.  Every day, our liturgy places at its heart the body and blood of our Lord, which we celebrate in a special way this Sunday on Corpus Christi, a feast that rises first in France in the early 1200s and is then extended to the whole of the Western church in 1264 (relatively late in liturgical terms, the distant past for most modern people).

FROM FATHER SMITH: THE GOD WHO WORKS WONDERS

Let me begin by quoting a passage from The Lenten Triodion of the Orthodox Church: “O Trinity uncreated and without beginning, O undivided Unity, three and one, Father, Son and Spirit, a single God; Accept this our hymn from tongues of clay; As if from mouths of flame.

FROM THE RECTOR: BAPTISM AND COMMUNION

From coast to coast – and across Manhattan for that matter – one can find parishes where Holy Communion is offered at Mass to everyone whether a person is baptized or not.  The intention in these parishes is to include all who have come for worship in the fellowship of Christ’s Table.  As the Sunday bulletin of the Washington National Cathedral puts it, “All who seek God and a deeper life in Christ are welcome to receive Holy Communion.”  What is also being said without saying so is this: baptism is no longer necessary.

FROM THE RECTOR: EASTER WORSHIP

We bought a bigger Paschal candle this year, a fifty-five inch one instead of the forty-inch one we had purchased for many years.  Last year, the smaller size almost didn’t make it through Eastertide.  This candle burns in its stand by the high altar whenever the church is open during the fifty days of Easter.