FROM THE RECTOR: CANDLEMAS 2016
 
On Monday, February 1, God willing, I will begin my eighteenth year of service as rector of Saint Mary’s. (Yes, the eighteenth. I became rector on February 1, 1999.) Because it is the Eve of the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple, commonly called, “Candlemas,” Solemn Evensong will be offered at 6:00 PM. This service speaks to me about the character of the parish as much as the services that will be celebrated on Tuesday, February 2.

SPECIAL WEATHER NOTICE

As we go to press on Friday, January 22, 2016, I want you to know that I plan to send out an announcement at noon tomorrow about the schedule for Sunday. It’s not unusual for weather forecasts to be wrong, but there is a blizzard warning for Saturday and Sunday for New York City and most of the mid-Atlantic region. The MTA expects public transportation to be “services up and running during harsh winter weather conditions.” That said, sidewalks may not be clear; it may not be safe to venture out of one’s home until Monday. Common sense is one of God’s gifts for all of us. Again, I plan to send an announcement at noon tomorrow about Sunday. —Stephen Gerth

FROM THE RECTOR: THE WEEK IN CANTERBURY

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has its roots in the Episcopal Diocese of New York. Since 1968 the World Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church have celebrated it jointly between the Feast of the Confession of Saint Peter the Apostle on January 18 and the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul on January 25. I was once in Rome for this celebration, where Protestants were received with genuine courtesy and grace. That said, then and now, I believe Pope Paul VI (bishop of Rome, 1963–1978) had it right when he said, “The Papacy, we know well, is without a doubt the most serious obstacle on the road to ecumenism” (my translation from the French original: April 28, 1967). But the papacy is certainly not the only obstacle to Christian unity. There are many such obstacles between and among all Christian denominations; and, of course, unity has been impaired within individual denominations as well.

FROM THE RECTOR: LITERALLY OPEN

The doors were literally wide open at Saint Mary’s on Christmas Eve. It was so warm in the city that the doors were open during the day on December 24 and through the evening for the 5:00 PM and the 11:00 PM Christmas Eve Masses. Large congregations were in the pews at both services. People (hundreds) kept coming in during the evening to see what was going on. Lucky ones observed the church (meaning the people) in worship and caught some really great music. It was a happy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Times Square.

FROM THE RECTOR: CHRISTMAS AND EPIPHANY

December 25 is still the first day of the Christmas Season in the Episcopal Church, January 5, the twelfth day. We Episcopalians have hung on to the traditional twelve-day season and have continued to celebrate the older festival of the Epiphany on January 6. In the Christian West, the Epiphany celebrates the coming of the wise men, the story told in Matthew 2:1–12. In the Christian East, the Epiphany evolved as a celebration of the baptism of Christ. Both East and West include early winter celebrations of Jesus’ nativity, his baptism, and his first miracles.

FROM THE RECTOR: CHRISTMAS 2015

As I write on Wednesday afternoon, December 23, the city is darkening with the early sunset at the beginning of winter and also with the dark clouds of rainstorm. Yet, the city is bustling. The sidewalks and streets are crowded. The church itself remains largely quiet. But flowers and greens have been delivered. Much work is being done; more will be done tonight after the church closes. Upstairs, the church staff is so ridiculously busy that everyone has a smile on his or her face. It’s great to hear Christmas hymns and music being practiced for the services on Thursday and Friday. Christmas is almost here. The power of this Good News is waiting for you and me. I can hardly wait.

FROM THE RECTOR: ADVENT TO CHRISTMAS

For reasons that are mostly lost to history Advent is the most complicated season of the church year. By comparison, all of the others are pretty straightforward. I first learned the phrase “liturgical bleeding” in connection with Advent from Father Louis Weil while his student at Nashotah House. Now something else has happened. In my lifetime, Christmas has “bled,” if you will, in the other direction in church and in society. That said, Advent is still Advent officially in the Episcopal Church, and at Saint Mary’s, Christmas is still Christmas. I don’t want to miss any of it.

FROM THE RECTOR: TWO CAMPAIGNS

“Open Doors: The Capital Campaign for the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin” is underway. Bishop Frank Griswold, Bishop Allen Shin, and a large congregation were with us for the Solemn Mass on our patronal feast, the campaign’s official beginning. It was great to be able to announce at the reception following the service that we have received advanced pledges of $2,625,053. The campaign goal: $4,475,000.

FROM THE RECTOR: THE DOORS WILL BE OPEN

The doors will be open on Tuesday, December 8, 2015, for our neighborhood, our city, and the world that passes through what is now Times Square as they have been since December 8, 1870. It will be the one hundred forty-fifth celebration of our patronal feast, the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It will also be the day on which we begin “Open Doors: The Campaign for the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin.”

FROM THE RECTOR: ADVENT 1870–2015

In 1870 the First Sunday of Advent fell on November 27. Eleven days remained until the doors of a new parish for a new neighborhood, then called Longacre Square, would open for its first service. Things have not been the same in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America since the doors of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin opened.

FROM THE RECTOR: BELONGING TO CHRIST

Personal. Last week as the plane on which I was traveling was taking off, without thinking, the quiet prayer I said to myself was, “I belong to Christ.” Then followed several moments with no words at all in my mind. This was something new. For decades now—yes, decades (ouch)—my prayer on taking off and landing has been one complete “Hail, Mary.” I don’t even think about it; it’s a habit. Those few words, again, “I belong to Christ,” and the silent moments made me think about where it was coming from.

FROM MARK RISINGER: PLEDGING, PAST & PRESENT

“I shall, I fear, be dark and cold with all my fire and light; / Yet when thou dost accept their gold, Lord, treasure up my mite.” These words of the poet John Mason appear in a hymn that the boys at my school love to sing. As a teacher, I enjoy the challenge of explaining the sentiment they express with their reference to the parable of “The Widow’s Mite”

FROM THE RECTOR: OPEN DOORS—THE CAMPAIGN FOR SAINT MARY’S

Every capital campaign needs a name. We have one: Open Doors. As our leadership team approached the campaign, a consistent theme in many conversations with members and friends of Saint Mary’s is the importance of our doors being open seven days a week. Right now, the main doors of the church are overshadowed by a sidewalk shed. The 47th Street doors need a ramp to make our church accessible to more people

FROM THE RECTOR: ALL SAINTS’ DAY

Massey Shepherd (1913–1990) wrote about the collect for All Saints’ Day composed by Thomas Cranmer for the first Book of Common Prayer, “It is one of the most characteristic expressions of the doctrine of the Church, both visible and invisible, in all of the Prayer Book. The basic theme is Saint Paul’s conception of the Church as ‘the Body of Christ’ ” (Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary [1950]). It is a powerful and beautiful prayer. Here is the collect in contemporary English:

FROM THE RECTOR: ORIGINS

John Jacob Astor, Jr. (1791–1869) gave three lots to the new congregation that was organized in 1868 as the Society of the Free Church of St. Mary the Virgin. The lots were in what is now called Times Square. The first rector, Thomas McKee Brown (1841–1898), would later write that the land was given “on the condition that the Church should be free, and positively orthodox in management and working” (N. F. Read, The Story of Saint Mary’s [1931], 16–17).

FROM THE RECTOR: URBAN CHRISTIANITY

Last week as a guest at the annual conference of the Society of Catholic Priests (Episcopalians!), I heard presentations by the Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold, XXV Presiding Bishop, the Reverend Albert Cutié, rector, Saint Benedict’s Church, Plantation, Florida, and the Reverend Nadia Bolz-Weber, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. I was very glad I was able to attend. Bishop Griswold spoke about the work of the society. Father Cutié spoke on “Católicos Latinos.” Pastor Bolz-Weber called her meditation, “Emergent Catholicity from a Cranky Lutheran.”

FROM THE MUSIC DIRECTOR: “SING TO THE LORD A NEW SONG”

Many people are firmly convinced that, at one point in the movie Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart turns to the nightclub pianist and utters those now famous words, “Play it again, Sam.” Unfortunately, that’s not what Bogie said. In a similar way, many people believe that Saint Augustine of Hippo once wrote, “He who sings prays twice,” though that’s not what he wrote, or not exactly. This is too bad, since such a pithy quote would be an admirable way to start an account of the role of the choir here at Saint Mary’s. In fact, however, Augustine was making a more subtle theological point. In his commentary on Psalm 73 he writes as follows:

FROM THE RECTOR: EXCITEMENT

This Sunday the “regular” Sunday schedule returns. There are four changes from the summer schedule on Sundays: (1) Morning Prayer is sung not read; (2) the parish choir sings at the Solemn Mass; (3) Solemn Evensong, Sermon & Benediction is offered in place of reading Evening Prayer; and (4) Christian education resumes at 10:00 AM on Sunday mornings (and at 6:30 PM on Wednesday evenings!). Since the time of the New Testament, worship and education have been among the fundamental characteristics of Christian congregations.

FROM THE RECTOR: HOW WE LISTEN

One summer in the 1990s I had the privilege of taking a two-week class at Notre Dame given by Jewish liturgical scholar Lawrence Hoffman. A book assigned in that class was especially helpful for someone like me who knew little about prayer in Judaism. The cover of the paperback edition showed an Orthodox Jewish man facing the temple wall in Jerusalem. When I started looking among my books for it recently, I couldn’t remember the name of the author. I thought I remembered the title; but I really didn’t. Thanks to the Internet, I eventually found the reference: The Gate Behind the Wall: A Pilgrimage to Jerusalem (1984) by Samuel Heilman. I finally located my copy.

FROM THE RECTOR: FALL 2015 ARRIVES

The fall equinox this year will occur on Wednesday, September 23, at 5:06 AM Eastern Daylight Time. It will arrive for me in Lost River, West Virginia, where I will be attending a workshop, Leadership in Ministry. I have participated in this workshop twice a year since before I became rector of Saint Mary’s. Most of the participants, but not all, are members of the clergy.