Saint Mary's Stewardship 2001

In the pulpit last Sunday I suggested to the 11:00 AM congregation that the question for us is not the question the rich young man asked of Jesus, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"  The question for us is how healthy we want this part of the Body of Christ to be.  I reminded the congregation that the Body of Christ never exists primarily for itself, but to worship the Father and to serve others.  Saint Mary's certainly was not founded for itself.  And I believe that many, many people in our city will come to find Saint Mary's to be a place for Good News and new life in Christ.  I also believe that this will only happen if we are worthy of being this kind of place, a place where our hearts, our lives and our best love is given to Christ.

Music Search Committee

"Nothing is simple in New York," I have been told more times than I can count.  Certainly that has proved true for me as I have worked on music leadership for the parish.  At every step of the way there have been things to learn.  Progress is being made and I want to report to you about the process that has evolved to assist me in hiring the next music director for Saint Mary's.

On Dedication

Many of you know that I am a student of Family Systems Theory.  The basic idea is that one's family of origin has a lot to do with who we are and the way we deal with people.  Congregations are a lot like families.  The person who applied this theory to family systems theory was the late Edwin Friedman, a rabbi and a therapist who trained with Murray Bowen

Dedication

The first service in the unfinished first church of this parish was held on December 8, 1870.  This church was never consecrated during the twenty-five years it served as the home for our parish community.  The first service in the present building of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin was held on December 8, 1895.  It was consecrated four days later, December 12, 1895 by the Bishop of New York, the Right Reverend Henry C. Potter.

Being There

Monday was my day for visiting some of our homebound parishioners in New Jersey.  Unlike the last time, there was no rain!  In fact, it could not have been a more perfect day.  Marion Freise was in wonderful form, celebrating her 89th birthday.  She always tells me stories about Saint Mary’s and I always learn something new.  This time she told me about Father Taber. 

Change for Growth

Beginning Sunday, October 1, the 10:00 AM Sunday Mass will be celebrated at the high altar instead of the Lady Chapel.  It will be a simple sung Mass.  It must start at the stroke of 10:00 AM.  It must finish no later than 10:45 AM.  Fathers Shin and Breidenthal and I will be in the sanctuary for this Mass every Sunday.  The three of us will take turns as celebrant and preacher.  This will be a Rite II service.  Some of the readers of this newsletter will already know of this change from the new issue of AVE.  They will also know the reason: Parish Growth.

From Father Shin: Pilgrimage to the Land of Morning Calm

Still high from the smells and bells of the Assumption Mass and barely having said our good-byes, Amelia Rochester-Nagy and I left the church in a frenzy, got into a limo, and went straight to John F. Kennedy airport.  The limo ride was just long enough to calm us down, for we were about to take a “trip of our lives.”  We were headed to Seoul, Korea. 

Charles Gaylord Mason, 1915 - 2000

“Full of life and energy and with a great sense of humor” is how anyone who knew Gaylord Mason would have described him.  He was born October 4, 1915 and was confirmed at Saint Mark’s Church in Green Island, New York.  He transferred to Saint Mary’s on February 5, 1985 and remained a faithful member of the parish.  He lived a few blocks away from the parish and belonged to the Actors’ Fund during his younger years. 

Of Parks, Priorities and Prayer

Monday I made myself go out for lunch.  It was a beautiful day, a perfect day weatherwise.  I went to Stella’s Delicatessen on West 44th Street, just off Sixth Avenue.  It’s a good deli.  Freshly roasted turkey on a roll, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise.  Bottled water (Maine).  Headed to Bryant Park.  Crowded.  Very crowded.  Found a chair and proceeded to enjoy my sandwich, my water and watching the park be so alive on such a beautiful day.

Glorious

This newsletter is written primarily for members of the local parish community.  I think that others who read it can get a good sense of the life of the parish from it.  What will be hard for me to do in this article is to begin to convey adequately the grace of the solemn liturgy on the Feast of the Assumption.  Many special occasions have been celebrated in this church, yet I suspect Tuesday’s celebration was as glorious as any there have ever been

Forty

I was six years old when the Reverend Canon Edgar F. Wells became a priest of the Church.  I can remember being six just a little.  I had finished kindergarten and was getting ready for first grade at Thoroughgood Elementary School in what is now called Virginia Beach, Virginia.  I no longer remember the name of my first grade teacher or my kindergarten teacher.  It was a long time ago. 

Common Sense

As much as I would dearly love for the congregation to process through Times Square during the Solemn Mass on August 15th, and even though I have announced we would do that, as I’ve stood on the corner of 46th Street and Seventh Avenue at 6:00 PM I have come to the conclusion that we should not attempt to process on this day at this time.  I really love the witness of this congregation showing its presence in this neighborhood.  Our public processions on Sundays have worked very well and have been a wonderful witness, a witness from which our

Compassion

Several years ago when I was serving in Michigan City, Indiana, some of the adults of the parish and I took the youth group of the parish to Washington, D.C.  We went to the Holocaust Museum the very first day.  If we had turned around and gone home at that point I would have considered the trip completely worth the effort.  It was a good weekend and we and the kids really did enjoy it.

From Father Shin: Rain Man Part II

Last month I wrote about my journey through New Jersey and the strange coincidence that every time I travel, it rains.  It rained again last week.  I traveled to Tampa, Florida last Thursday on what was actually a second attempt.  The first involved a cancelled flight to Tampa, a day in the Washington-Dulles airport and extremely bad weather in Florida.  So I tried my trip again.  After a delay (of course, at Washington-Dulles again), I made it to Florida.

Our Gifts for Ministry

Last Sunday when Richard Lawson and I entered the church to go to the Lady Chapel for the 9:00 AM Mass there was no one in the chapel.  We noticed about a dozen visitors sitting alone in the back of the nave of the main church.  Richard volunteered to go to see if they were here for the Mass.  I went to the chair in the chapel to wait. 

Formation

In the 1970s the parish in the Diocese of Chicago that sent me to seminary used the modern Roman Rite, something that was uncommon among Anglo-catholics in the United States at the time but not uncommon among many Anglo-catholics in England.  When I went to visit Nashotah House a student from my diocese, Randall Haycock, still a priest in Chicago, volunteered to show me around.  When we went through

Our Mission

For several months the Board of Trustees and others from the parish community have been in prayer and conversation about the future of Saint Mary's, in particular, future uses of our Mission House.  For the last nine years the space has been occupied by the Center for Families and Children, Inc., one of New York's oldest not-for-profit service agencies.  Their agreement will expire on May 31, 2001.

The "Tiffany" Chalice

Sean Cassidy and Pat Higgins bring many gifts to their service of the altar.  Recently they restored the carrying case for a chalice set that was made in Paris by the firm Poussielgue-Rusand and was purchased for the Father Founder from Tiffany & Co. on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the organization of the parish.  It was used at the first service in the church in 1895 and is still used on great occasions of the church year.  The Rector asked Sean and Pat to write about their work.

From Father Shin: Spirit of Life

June is the month of deaconate ordinations.  As my mailbox gets filled with ordination invitations, I am reminded of my own ordination to the transitional deaconate.  I was ordained in the Diocese of Chicago four years ago on the feast of Evelyn Underhill, June 15.  So it seems fitting to ponder upon Charism, the gift of the Holy Spirit, around this time of the year, since we have also just celebrated the Day of Pentecost.

Spiritus Domini

The most memorable Pentecost I have celebrated was in Venice in 1997 while I was on sabbatical and traveling in Italy.  I attended the Solemn Mass at Saint Mark's Basilica.  The Patriarch of Venice was the celebrant.  The Mass was in Latin.  The lessons and sermon were in Italian.  I understood nothing and everything.  I know enough Latin to follow much of the Mass.  But it didn't matter.  I was right at home in so many ways.  A bell rang.  The choir started to sing the historic entrance song: