The Angelus: Our Newsletter

Volume 25, Number 44

Volume 25, Number 44

FATHER SAMMY WOOD: THE RETURN OF RITE ONE

The Book of Common Prayer is a remarkably adaptable resource, with no fewer than six (!) eucharistic prayers which a parish may use to celebrate the Holy Communion. Here at Saint Mary’s, our most familiar choices are Prayers A and B from Rite Two, and we typically switch between them a couple of times a year. We also use Prayer D during Eastertide. These prayers are, and will continue to be, the standard prayers at our flagship Solemn High Mass at 11:00 AM on Sunday.

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Volume 25, Number 43

Volume 25, Number 43

FROM DR. DAVID HURD: A MOVABLE ORGAN COMING TO THE LADY CHAPEL

The history of pipe organs at Saint Mary’s includes several instruments in several locations. Here is a brief summary of some of that history and its context, and news about a recent development. The original main organ in the present building was a rebuild and enlargement of the 1886 George Jardine instrument from the previous building. The Jardine organ originally had been built with mechanical action, but in the redesign for the new church building, its action was electrified which allowed its two playing consoles to be at a distance from the pipes they controlled.

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Volume 25, Number 42

Volume 25, Number 42

FROM FATHER SMITH: CONVERSION, AND THEN THE DAY AFTER

Arthur Darby Nock (1902-1963), who taught for many years at Harvard University, published his book, Conversion: The Old and the New in Religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo in 1933. It remained on the syllabus of certain religious-studies programs for decades, especially those programs dedicated to the study of the social and cultural aspects of early Christianity.

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Volume 25, Number 41

Volume 25, Number 41

FROM BLAIR BURROUGHS: SOMETIMES GOD GIVES YOU A NUDGE

For almost two years, Saint Mary the Virgin has been livestreaming every Solemn Mass on Sunday and the principal feast days. I am grateful to be a part of this new ministry. Over time, week by week, I have gone from being a complete novice to having some confidence in this new way of bringing Saint Mary’s to people all over the world.

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Volume 25, Number 40

Volume 25, Number 40

FROM MARK RISINGER: A CRITICAL EDITION OF HANDEL’S SEMELE AND AN APPRECIATION FOR BIBLICAL TEXTUAL STUDIES

In the realm of historical research, scholars strive to build arguments and interpretations of evidence based on clear, accurate, and authoritative sources. Anyone who has studied the fascinating history of Biblical transmission, for instance, knows that tracing the development of an ancient book from one epoch to another and one language to another raises many questions.

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Volume 25, Number 39

Volume 25, Number 39

FROM BRENDON HUNTER:
THE SUBTLE INSPIRATION OF BEAUTY

All of us on the Saint Thérèse of Lisieux Flower Guild at Saint Mary’s are amateurs who have learned from each other and picked up skills over the years—and we have some incredible talent in this parish. It’s very process intensive that involves going to the floral district (centered around 28th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan) very early in the morning to shop at the wholesalers.

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Volume 25, Number 38

Volume 25, Number 38

FROM GRACE MUDD: ON SERVING AT THE ALTAR SINCE CHILDHOOD

It doesn’t take long knowing me to understand that I say, “I could do that!” pretty frequently. Sometimes practical limits come up, but I’ve always been interested in the deep dive with anything I do, and church was never an exception. In the parish where I was raised, kids could start serving as acolytes at age 10 and that’s exactly what I did.

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Volume 25, Number 37

Volume 25, Number 37

FROM MARIE ROSSEELS: FINDING GOD IN FRIEND & STRANGER

When I first walked through the doors of Saint Mary’s on a hot and humid August day in 2006, I was still new to the neighborhood. Even though I had lived in Manhattan for a very long time, my then employer had recently moved its offices to Sixth Avenue, just around the corner from the church. Other than the occasional visit to a Broadway theater, I’d never had much use for Times Square. From a colleague’s office, I spotted the roof of a church and set out to find it. It was a discovery that would forever change my life.

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Volume 25, Number 36

Volume 25, Number 36

Poem 133: The Summer Day
by Mary Oliver (1935–2019)

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—

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Volume 25, Number 35

Volume 25, Number 35

FROM CLARK MITCHELL: A CALL TO CARE FOR CREATION

While serving as thurifer recently at Solemn Mass, I began muttering something under my breath as I listened from the smoke room to the Old Testament reading. The lesson was the story of creation, the very first few words of the Bible and, for me, an allegory of how God created the world.

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Volume 25, Number 34

Volume 25, Number 34

FROM MARYJANE BOLAND: “LET BIRDS FLY ABOVE THE EARTH ACROSS THE FIRMAMENT OF THE HEAVENS”

Early one morning in May, my husband and I took Father Sammy “birding”—bird watching—in Central Park. He claimed that he was “not a nature guy” and that he didn’t visit parks, but I think he had heard me talk about birding enough that he was curious. So, with loaned binoculars in hand, he joined some fifteen of us during spring migration.

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Volume 25, Number 33

Volume 25, Number 33

FROM FATHER WOOD: A CONVERSATION WITH DANIEL SANTIAGO CASTELLANOS

Daniel Santiago Castellanos’s newly composed Miss Brevis received its premiere performance here at Saint Mary’s on the Day of Pentecost, May 28, 2023. Daniel is a composer, vocalist, and pianist based in New Jersey, and has been a member of the Choir of Saint Mary’s since the fall of 2018.

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Volume 25, Number 32

Volume 25, Number 32

FROM FATHER LESH: A VOCATIONAL CALL TO HEAL

Many years ago, while visiting friends at Yale Divinity School, I attended a weekday Eucharist at Christ Church, New Haven. I knew no one present but was well acquainted with the parish. The experience of worshiping there reminded me of what I had grown to love about Saint Mary the Virgin: a deep sense of engagement with centuries of Christians who had gathered to do what our Lord had asked them to do in remembrance of Him.

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Volume 25, Number 31

Volume 25, Number 31

FROM FATHER JACOBSON: THE ANGLICAN CENTRE IN ROME

This morning, I attended the Tuesday midday Eucharist at the Anglican Centre in Rome. Many at this Mass are parishioners of either Saint Paul’s within the Walls or All Saints’ Church, the two Anglican churches in Rome. Saint Paul’s is part of the Episcopal Church and All Saints’ is a Church of England congregation. A third category are Anglicans from around the world who happen to be passing through Rome for work or as tourists. Afterwards, the Centre hosts a lunch for everyone.

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Volume 25, Number 30

Volume 25, Number 30

FROM DR. DAVID HURD: FOR EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON

One of the things which defines Solemn Mass is the intentionality of its music. Sunday Solemn Mass at Saint Mary the Virgin has a long history of being infused with rich choral and organ music in addition to hearty congregational singing. With the approach of summer, the parish choir will be on hiatus for fifteen weeks, gathering midway to sing on the Feast on the Assumption (15 August), but not resuming a regular schedule until October.

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Volume 25, Number 29

Volume 25, Number 29

FROM FATHER WOOD: OUR SISTER PARISH IN LONDON

In March 2022, not long after I arrived in New York City to serve as interim rector at Saint Mary’s, I received an email from the Rev’d Dr. Peter Anthony, who had been named vicar of All Saints, Margaret Street, London, not long before, in December 2020. I was delighted because I’d been intrigued by All Saints for years. Designed by famed British Gothic revival architect William Butterfield, the gorgeous red brick All Saints church was completed in 1859.

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Volume 25, Number 28

Volume 25,  Number 28

DID YOU KNOW?
SAINT MARY’S HAS PLEDGERS FROM ALL OVER

When Saint Mary’s was founded in 1868, it was intended to be the parish church for the new residential neighborhood known as Longacre Square—the name of the area before it was changed to Times Square in 1904. That original church community has certainly grown dramatically since those early days, both in number and in geography.

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Volume 25, Number 27

Volume 25, Number 27

FROM JOHN DEREK YARED ANDEMIKAIL NORVELL: PINKSTER AND AFRICAN AMERICAN NEW YORK

“Pinkster” is the Dutch term for the fiftieth day after Easter, which closes the Paschal season. Bantu African captives from Congo and Angola brought their celebration with them when they were taken as captives to the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (now Manhattan) in 1626. They were the first Catholics to reach New York shores, and they were using a liturgical rite known as the Congolese rite that had begun in the fifteenth century.

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Volume 25, Number 26

Volume 25, Number 26

FROM FATHER SMITH: “THE GOVERNING AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE”

At our recent Annual Meeting, Father Wood asked the congregation to consider these questions:

  1. Why do we exist as a congregation (“mission”)?

  2. What do we contribute to our community or our world in a unique way?

  3. What purposes or principles must we protect as central to our identity (“core”)?

  4. What are we willing to let go of so the mission will continue?

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Volume 25, Number 25

Volume 25, Number 25

FROM FATHER WOOD: BEAUTY CAN SAVE THE WORLD

I was reminded the other day listening to my friend Fr. Wesley’s podcast, the first in a three-episode arc about the need for a New Renaissance. I was reminded again this week when our Morning Prayer readings included Wisdom 13:3, calling God “the author of beauty.” I was reminded when MaryJane and Daniel took me birding for the first time on Tuesday, and I saw Yellow-throated Warblers and a Scarlet Tanager “up close” through borrowed binoculars. I was reminded standing slack-jawed in the Sistine Chapel a few weeks ago, and I’m reminded every time I walk through our nave, stare up at the mural behind our high altar, and listen to our choir (and you!) sing on a Sunday. 

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