To Introduce Our Assistant

I have asked the Reverend Thomas Edward Breidenthal, professor of ethics at the General Theological Seminary, to join our staff as "assistant."  I want to express to you my personal delight that he has accepted and I look forward to seeing your delight when you have met him.  It was easy for me to come to the decision that I should ask the Board of Trustees to make it possible for us to have the very best clergy staff that we can.

Looking into the Future

Recent guests at the rectory have endured me showing some of the historical materials that are in the parlor library.  Among them are some bound volumes of service programs from the first few decades of this century and lists of music sung in the church in the nineteenth century. 

The Invitation

The phrase "Christian education" is widely used and in general usage brings to mind something of the common classroom experience that is inflicted on most American children.  Indeed, most members of the Episcopal Church have sat through classes at some point in time that went into great detail about the names of objects in Christian churches, the sequence of colors for seasonal church decoration and the proper way to address members of the clergy. 

From Father Shin: Asian Youth conference
Every summer for five days they gather together to worship, meet new and old friends, and develop leadership skills for youth and young adult ministry.  Sponsored every year by the Office of the Episcopal Asiamerica Ministry at the Episcopal Church Center in New York, the Asian Youth & Young Adult Leadership Training Conference brings together 70 to 100 young people in the teens and 20’s.  They come from all corners of the country – from Los Angeles to Seattle

Parish Profile

The Board of Trustees and the Search Committee published a very attractive booklet called "Parish Profile" to send to persons like me who had shown an interest or who might show an interest in serving this parish as rector.  I understand that the booklets were for sale in the bookstore and that many people purchased them.  I believe some are still for sale at a modest cost.  I have read and reread the booklet because it continues to seem to me to be a very useful "snapshot" of Saint Mary's as the parish began to look for a new rector.

Summer at Saint Mary's

Twenty-seven people signed the guest book last Sunday at Saint Mary's.  Church attendance was only 142, and that includes counting the clergy several times and adding the attendance at Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer.  Eleven of the twenty-seven are potential members geographically.

Community Prayer

There are quite a few parishes with daily services of Morning Prayer, the Holy Eucharist and Evening Prayer.  One of the characteristics of Anglo-catholic parishes has been that the members of the clergy of the parish ordinarily worship together at these services along with at least some other members of the parish community.

Repeating History

Last week I watched a segment on Dateline NBC about scams being run these days in New York City  by "psychics."  What fascinated me was not the con but how the schemes being run these days are almost identical to ones described by the late Joseph Mitchell that were going on fifty years ago.

Our New Curate

Many of you will have heard that the Reverend Allen Shin became the curate of our parish on July 1.  Curate is a term used in the Episcopal Church generally for an assistant priest.  In modern parlance a curate is often called simply "assistant".  I was an "assistant" when I served at the Church of the Incarnation, Dallas, Texas.  I was a "curate" when I served at Saint Luke's Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Saint Mary's has preferred the term curate and I intend to continue to follow this custom.

Ave atque Vale 

I met the Reverend William C. Parker the first afternoon I came to New York to interview for the position of rector of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin.  He, the Reverend Allen Shin and I went across the street to have coffee and to talk at Café Europa.  I could tell that he and Allen were very fine people and fine priests.  This was not a surprise to me even thought I had only known Saint Mary's from afar.

Have We Met?

There were 102 people at the Solemn Mass last Sunday.  It didn't occur to me to ask how many people present were members of the parish, but when I saw the number in the service register I wondered, "Where is everyone?"

Summer Liturgy

In a wonderful way quite a lot of the work and experience I had as a curate in two congregations in the south and as rector of a parish in the Midwest have prepared me for the work that is coming to me as rector of Saint Mary's.  However as a curate I didn't have to field liturgical questions in a serious way and at Trinity Church, Michigan City, months or even a year could pass without someone expressing a particular opinion about some aspect of the liturgy.  Things are different at SMV.

Processions

On the night of my institution, in the clergy vesting room, a deacon was worried about whether the vesture I had told him to wear was correct.  I smiled and said (tongue in cheek!), "I'm the rector of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin.  I know what you are supposed to wear in church."  Of course, there's loads of stuff I don't know.  I confess I don't know a lot about some kinds of processions.

Thinking

Last summer I found myself on a July Saturday afternoon in Stillwater, Minnesota.  Stillwater is a town near Minneapolis on the St. Croix River.  Stillwater is a town of book dealers.  In Loome's Theological Books I came across "The Paschal Mystery" by Louis Bouyer for the first time.  Bouyer was an extremely influential twentieth century French liturgical scholar.  I knew his name from seminary days, but I did not know this book.  It was published in France in 1947 and in England in 1951.  The book begins with an introduction entitled, "The Christian Mystery."  The page begins with these words,

Our Mission

The "Parish Profile" that was developed begins with a page headed "Our Mission."  Three short paragraphs and a picture of the rood are all that are on the page.  The statement of mission is as follows:

The Church of St. Mary the Virgin, New York City, was founded in 1868 with the mission of setting forth Catholic doctrine and ritual within the Episcopal Church.

Leadership in Ministry

In the spring of 1988 while I was serving as curate at Saint Luke's Church, Baton Rouge, the rector and I went to a conference of the National Association of Episcopal Schools which was being held in New Orleans.  I confess I went looking forward mostly to eating several good meals in some of our country's most interesting restaurants.

Identity Contemplated

I don't want to beat a dead horse, as they say (do I have your attention?), but this Eastertide has seemed to me to be all about identity.  It is popping up everywhere: in Frs. Gerth's and Shin's two last Angelus articles, and in my sermon last Sunday.  It is a question that is permeating our consciousness on many levels.  What, as we celebrate 50 years of a treaty organization now engaged in war, is the identity of NATO?  What is the identity we are relaying to our children as we grapple with school violence in the wake of Matthew Shepherd and the slaughter at Littleton?  What is our identity as a free economic nation as we see the ripple affects of economic turmoil in Asia?  What is our identity as Anglicans in the aftermath of the troubling displays at the Lambeth Conference?  It feels as though everything and anything are up for grabs.

Identity and Incarnation

An abbot of a monastery was distressed because the monastery had not gotten any new aspirants for a long time.  The abbot was beginning to see the day the monastery would have to close.  And the brothers were caught in the anxiety over changes they needed to make to revive the monastery, changes of which they were divided.

Identity

Once in a vestry meeting I was criticized by a churchwarden for not talking in the pulpit enough about being an Episcopalian.  It seems I was talking too much about being a Christian.  That was a criticism, I confess, that I have probably worn a little too proudly ever since.  In preaching, writing and conversation it is my practice to use the word Christian whenever possible in preference to all other terms.

A Special Project

Churches are constantly renewing or rebuilding their church homes.  Saint Mary’s recently renewed its church building in a glorious way.  Many, many people contributed small and large gifts to make the renewal possible.  The design for the church and its execution seem to me to be extraordinary and inspired.  I never saw the old Saint Mary’s.  To one who only knows the present building it seems that it was intended from the beginning to be painted in this way.  Again, from my own experience, I can tell you it makes a very powerful first impression.