FROM THE RECTOR: THE ORDINATION OF A PRIEST

When Mary Jett was ordained deacon here in February, I thought Father Smith or I would be traveling to Montana for an ordination in the fall. Things change. In the spring, Mary completed the work for her master of divinity degree in two years—the only person I have ever known to do this. The bishop of Montana gave her permission to continue studying in New York for a third year. In May 2013 she will receive two degrees, master of divinity and master of sacred theology. Mary’s bishop, the Right Reverend C. Franklin Brookhart, Jr., has encouraged her studies, but has also insisted that she be in active pastoral ministry.

FROM THE RECTOR: WHAT WE BELIEVE AND DO

The Episcopal Church’s webpage has just won an award for its new design. With respect, I don’t think the new design is entirely successful. I’m not sure what to make of the page’s black background and fuzzy photographs—not to mention why I would want to respond to the invitation, prominent in the middle of the page, to “Customize your stained glass.”

FROM THE RECTOR: EVIL AND GOOD

This summer I’ve been reading Lawrence Powell’s The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans (2012). It’s about New Orleans from the time of its founding, officially in 1718, until the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815. It’s more than a good read. The city’s history is fascinating and far more complex than I had known. Its history was shaped by European colonization as it met Native America and by the force of geography. I had no idea that it was so hard for explorers to find the mouth of the Mississippi.

FROM FATHER SMITH: OF TOMATOES, TIME, AND NEW BEGINNINGS

There is a short essay in this week’s New York magazine that caught my attention and brought a smile to my face. Its subject is the New Jersey beefsteak tomato. David Roth, the author of the essay, writes

 FROM THE RECTOR: RELIGION IN OUR TIME

A while back, Father Pete Powell recommended a book in one of his sermons. The book was Robert Putnam and David Campbell’s study of American religious practices, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us (2010). I ordered the book and I have been reading through it ever since Father Powell mentioned it. In 2012 a paperback edition with a new epilogue was published. Gypsy da Silva had an extra copy of the new edition and she gave it to me. Both volumes are on my reading table. I’ve already skipped ahead to the new epilogue in the 2012 edition to see what’s changed as I continue reading through the text and statistics of the first book.

FROM THE RECTOR: MORE SUMMER AT SAINT MARY’S

Grieg Taber was rector of Saint Mary’s from 1939 to 1964. It was a great era for New York and for Saint Mary’s. Father Taber was a widely known preacher and confessor in the Episcopal Church. One can follow his work in the parish newsletter, AVE, that was published monthly during his tenure except for the summer issue. That issue covered July, August and September. In those days each of the priests—there were always three—took one month off. (It sounds like a lot, unless you know what their schedule for the rest of the year was like.) There were slightly fewer services in the summer months in those days, but no one would describe that schedule as “light.” It did reflect the reality of how people live in New York. I didn’t appreciate until I moved here in 1999 that summer really does begin in New York in late June and end in late September.

FROM THE RECTOR: HISTORICITY

The General Convention in 2006 revised the “Guidelines and Procedures for Continuing Alteration of the Calendar in the Episcopal Church.” The first of ten “Principles of Revision” is “Historicity”:

FROM THE RECTOR: SAINT MARY THE VIRGIN

Wednesday, August 15, is the Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin. At Saint Mary’s it has long been observed as the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but it was not until 1972 that it was observed with Solemn Mass. This is the announcement as it appeared in the Sunday bulletin for August 13, 1972:

FROM THE RECTOR: ALWAYS SOMETHING

Many readers of this newsletter will not know that I wasn’t able to be at church on Sunday, July 29. Sometime late Saturday afternoon, I became aware I wasn’t feeling well; by early evening I knew I was not going to be better anytime soon. Father Jay Smith and Deacon Rebecca Weiner Tompkins were both away. I called Father Jim Pace. He and Deacon Mary Jett had a very busy Sunday. They took care of all of the services and I want to thank them for handling it all by themselves.

FROM THE RECTOR: LOOKING AT JULY

I think of July and October as easy months, liturgically speaking. Apart from three “Major Feasts,” two of which get an additional celebration of the Eucharist after Evening Prayer, there are no weekdays observed by an evening sung or solemn Mass. As I have written recently, I’m trying to look at our principles for sorting through the hundreds of optional commemorations now available to us. As part of that work, I thought it might be helpful to write about the calendar at Saint Mary’s for July.

FROM THE RECTOR: LITURGICAL NOTES AND THOUGHTS

The General Convention has approved the use of the original 1979 Prayer Book lectionary by parishes and institutions who have their bishop’s permission to use it. Bishop Sisk has given his permission, effective immediately, for the use of the 1979 lectionary in our diocese. We will return to the original lectionary beginning this Sunday, July 22.

FROM THE RECTOR: ACCIDENTAL CHURCH

“Accidental church” is a phrase that came to my mind this week as I followed the reports of the General Convention, the governing body of our Episcopal Church. I’ve just about finished reading Lawrence Powell’s The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans (2012). Powell’s book is a reminder that cities and institutions, like human beings, can be said to have something like a genetic makeup that predisposes, but does not predetermine, their development over time.

FROM THE RECTOR: MARRIAGE IN THE CHURCH

As I write, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church is meeting in Indianapolis. It will surely make headlines, one way or another, because the convention is going to vote on whether to authorize a service for “Blessing Same Gender Relationships.” (The entire report from the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music is available in the convention’s Blue Book.) If press reports are to be believed, the service will be authorized for use, but I don’t think its adoption will solve anything. Its passage will create disaffection among those who oppose same-sex relationships; it will be disheartening to those who believe in marriage equality.

FROM THE RECTOR: CITIES OF FORTUNE

Gertrude Stein famously wrote of her native Oakland, California, “There is no there there” (Everybody’s Autobiography [1937] 289). But I’ve been to Oakland, and there’s very much a there there. I spent two months living in downtown Oakland while I was on sabbatical in 2009. The city is full of beautiful and remarkable buildings and neighborhoods, full of potential. It’s on the San Francisco Bay. It’s well-connected by the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. Sadly, it’s one of too many American cities that lost its way in the middle of the twentieth century. It’s surprising to me that it hasn’t found its way back.

FROM THE RECTOR: WHAT WE ARE DOING TODAY

Thomas Cranmer famously complained in the “Preface” of the first Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, “that many times, there was more business to find out what should be read, than to read it when it was found out.” I’m a great fan of the regularity and structural simplicity he gave to our tradition, not only for its spiritual benefits, but for the practical realities in the daily worship of the Church.

FROM THE RECTOR: SUMMER AT SAINT MARY’S

We believe in open doors and daily worship at Saint Mary’s. Not much changes during the summer months. The church itself is open on the same schedule as during the rest of the year and the regular daily services are offered. Every day people who come into the church at service times may join in our worship or simply witness the church at prayer.

FROM FATHER SMITH: THE BREAD OF LIFE, THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

On Wednesday evenings after Bible study, I walk through the narthex of the church, headed home to our apartment on the fourth floor of the parish house. I almost always look through the open doors at the head of the center aisle.

FROM THE RECTOR: TRINITY AND CORPUS CHRISTI

The High Middle Ages gave the Western Church two new feasts, Trinity Sunday and Corpus Christi. The development of these feasts was part of larger theological and cultural shifts that took place during this period. From the fourth century onward, how Christians understand the Three Persons of the Trinity and how Christians understand the Eucharist reshape how Christians believed and prayed. We pray to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Corpus Christi was the fruit of a period when the consecrated Bread had become the object of intense devotion, instead of being experienced, for the most part, as spiritual food.

FROM THE RECTOR: MORE THAN A DAY

Until the 1928 Prayer Book, Pentecost was known in The Book of Common Prayer simply by its earlier name, “Whitsunday”—“white Sunday”—referring to white baptismal robes. Whitsunday, in the late spring, was a day when baptisms were celebrated. In 1928, all of the Prayer Book’s collects, epistles and gospels were labeled by seasons: Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany Season, Pre-Lent, Lent, Eastertide, Ascensiontide, Whitsuntide and Trinity Season. In the wake of the liturgical renewal in the last half of the twentieth century, Pre-Lent, Ascensiontide, and Whitsuntide would go; Trinity would get a new name.

FROM THE RECTOR: GEORGE BLACKMORE HANDY, 1918-2012

George Handy died on May 9, 2012 at the age of ninety-three. He was born on June 5, 1918. He had been a member of the parish since his confirmation on May 6, 1927. He always carried with him a picture taken in front of the church that day. George was in knickers. In the picture you can see the stairwells that used to be in front of the parish house for bringing coal into the building—which have long since removed. George will be mourned not only by the local and wider parish community, but by countless visitors who remember his welcome and his smile. George had served as an usher here for more than a generation. He had also served as a member of the board of trustees.