Formation for Mission

One of the things that has surprised me about Saint Mary's is how small our congregation really is.  When I looked at the statistics before becoming rector I had a nagging suspicion about how small we really were, how few members of the congregation would regularly be able to be here on Sunday.  I continue to be amazed at how few people have committed themselves financially to supporting Saint Mary's.

Servant

In January I had a meeting with Father Shin and with Chuck Carson and Winston Deane, who had been assigned to serve as MCs at the liturgy on Candlemas.  These things just don't happen and I've expressed before how thankful I am for the great love and work given by so many to worship in this parish church.  There were lots of details to discuss and I'm glad we discussed them.  The liturgy turned out to be wonderful in so many ways.  I haven't yet really had a chance to write about a change I made in the pattern of censing and that's what I want to tell you about today.

Job One

Last year I recall hearing more than a few genuinely helpful comments about the parish's tradition of having a bishop present to be celebrant for the Great Vigil of Easter.  We didn't have one because I was too new to get it organized in time.  This year we are honored that the Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold, presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church, will be with us to celebrate and preach.  But I don't want you to think that it seems normative to me that a parish church, even Saint Mary's, should have a bishop present for the Easter Vigil - although it is splendid when it can happen.

Pastel

I don't know when I learned to use the word 'pastel' as a negative comment, but I have used it that way for years (along with the word 'beige').  I am making this public confession because I think I now understand the pastel colors in a way I never did before.

ANNUAL MEETING

I am looking forward to the annual meeting of the parish community this Sunday, January 30. A year ago I was in New York on the last Sunday in January but I had not begun work as your rector. At the request of the trustees I did not attend Mass here and I did not attend the annual meeting; I was not unhappy about having the opportunity to worship at Saint Thomas Church and at Saint Bartholomew's Church that day. On January 31 I will have completed a year as your rector.

Winter

It finally arrived, without snow so far but winter is here.  Cheeks are cold; feet are cold.  There seem however to be fewer tourists in Times Square, but I haven't noticed any great reduction in traffic noise at night on West 47th Street when the theaters let out.  At Saint Mary's, the church is a comfortable 64 degrees, so people wear their coats during Mass.  Flowers last longer, but the incense doesn't hang in the air.

Some Reflections

The profile of the Paramount Building in Times Square has recently lost the sky as its background for me and for everyone else who was used to looking at it from the northern end of the square.  New York is very much in a building boom right now and even someone who has lived here only one year sees much that was becoming familiar evolving and changing.

Decisions

When I was a young priest I was set up by the fourth graders at Saint Luke's School to settle the question about whether Santa Claus was real or not.  They didn't ask their own teacher; they asked me.  I was a thirty-one year-old at the time with little experience of nine and ten year-olds.  They brought the subject up in such a sly way that I was never conscious that I was being put on the spot.  Of course it never occurred to me that children in the fourth grade would "believe" in Santa Claus; first grade was the universal line of demarcation when I was a child.

The Word Made Flesh

One of the things that most distinguishes the history of worship within our parish community is that it has been a part of a movement within the wider Christian church that has been working to recover the liturgical act.  Christians worship in many ways, but in their most ancient tradition Christians gathered for liturgy, to do the work of the people.

Christmas in the Present

I am looking forward to the first Christmas since 1979 that I have been with a members of my own family on Christmas Eve.  I entered seminary in the fall of 1980.  From that time forward I have always been with my parish community on Christmas Eve - frankly, in the Anglo-catholic world of the Diocese of Chicago it was never suggested to me that there was any other option for a person studying to be a priest.

Christmas at Saint Mary's

For a month or more now I have been asking people at our weekly church staff meeting, "What happens here at Christmas time that I need to know about?"  Week by week more is remembered and your new rector is slowly being brought up to speed.  Bulletins and service registers are checked.  Memories are checked with others.  I think I am up to speed about what is going to take place and I am very thankful for the help I am getting from my colleagues on the parish staff.

God Can Use You

Sometimes it may be useful to state the obvious.  I hope that to many what I am going to try to say in this short article will be obvious and useful.  The regular parish community of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin is a small one by any standard.  There are almost unlimited opportunities for every member or friend of this community to be useful for Christ's ministry in this place.  I think you and I should have a strong sense of the possibility that God can and wants to use us for the service of the gospel in this place.  I think this is probably true for almost everyone this newsletter will reach.

Eight and Nine

It's been a very long time since two rectors of this parish have been together for a major liturgy here.  Perhaps some of our long-time parishioners or members of the wider Saint Mary's community can recall the last occasion.  It never happened during Father Wells's (Number Eight) tenure.  Because of the long tenures of rectors of this parish and because two of our rectors, Father Brown and Father Taber, died while serving, it just doesn't happen very often.  I am very glad it is happening this week.

A New Advent

The first full Advent I experienced as a practicing and committed Episcopalian was the fall of my first year in graduate school in Chicago.  The days are short in December in Chicago, short and cold.  There was snow.  It was a time of intense academic effort in my life; but it was also the time when I seemed to have recovered a closeness to God that I had known as a child.  The time itself, like the fresh snow, seemed very pure to me.

From Father Shin:  Can we talk?

Unity through corporate worship is the ideal of the Book of Common Prayer and is also the purpose and the hopeful result of liturgy.  This unity is achieved not by a democratic process of majority rule, but by transcendence into the holiness of our common life in the presence of God.  Probably to the surprise of many the liturgy here at SMV from daily offices to solemn masses is quite faithful to the BCP.  The challenge is how to transcend ourselves and live into the mystery of God's presence, the beauty of holiness.  It doesn't happen automatically or magically.  It happens through intentional prayer, common prayer.

Pillars

At the Noonday Office for the past few months we have been taking the meditation from the Roman Catholic Office of Readings.  These are a series of daily readings from the Church Fathers and other writers.  Before that we had been using an Episcopal version of these writings; but the parish had been through them several times and trying another version seemed like a good thing.  The next version we tried was one from the Church of England.  That too had its limitations.

Vision and Commitment

I don't know very much yet about the life and work of the founding rector of this parish, the Reverend Thomas McKee Brown; but I know I want to know more.  I do know quite a bit about the history of the parish where I served before coming here.  That congregation built a new church in 1889, not unlike the photographs I've seen of the first Saint Mary's, which was located where Shuberts Alley is today.  Of course, there were more statues and lights in Saint Mary's.  There was an altar cross and candles in Michigan City - such adornment was generally considered quite advanced, liturgically speaking.  There just wasn't anything like Saint Mary's, except perhaps in one or two other pioneering Anglo-catholic parishe

Forward

Four years ago I was hospitalized for what turned out to be a bacterial brain abscess.  I feel extraordinarily thankful for the healing and the care so many gave to me when I was so very ill that I could do nothing for myself.  An MRI showed the abscess the first day I was in the hospital.  It took some days and several tests to determine I didn't have meningitis or something else wrong with me.

A Hidden Light

Some Scripture to Begin:

Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.  Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.  Matthew 5:14-16

Sixth Sense

I don't see a lot of movies but I have seen another one, "The Sixth Sense."  I liked the movie and was taken in by its surprise.  The performance of the boy in the leading role was astonishing.  If you see the movie I am sure you will marvel at the casting and the ability of the director to get an extraordinary performance out of him.  There were many compelling moments in the movie.  One of the most compelling was when Bruce Willis, who plays a psychologist, asks the boy, "What do you want?"  The boy responds, "I don't want to be afraid anymore."