From the Rector: Open for Mission
The Mission House of Saint Mary’s reopened with little fanfare on Monday, November 13. At present the existing plumbing and heating systems have been put in order. A lot of minor demolition work has been done. One container of refuse has been dispatched. More will follow. The floors of the first three floors have been refinished. The walls await repainting. Fixtures need to be updated and replaced, but the Mission House of Saint Mary’s is open for business. The beautiful door plate has been polished.
There is an internal logic to our life at Saint Mary’s. Our church building demands to be used for congregational worship. It may be a very satisfying place for private prayer and devotion – a hugely important ministry in itself. But the building comes alive when the congregation comes together to celebrate the Holy Eucharist.
Our church doors were meant to be open. If we can’t keep them open, this building should be sold or given to another Christian community who can. It is simply inexcusable for this not to be daily a place of worship and prayer. In Times Square, there is no other civic or religious space to compare to it. The building is also a memorial to the personal sacrifices of people who came before us and who kept the doors open through the worst times.
Our buildings were all built for use for as a church. The cornerstone was laid on December 8, 1894. The first service in this new and second church home for our congregation was held on December 8, 1895. There are four components to our church plant: the church itself, the Parish House, the Mission House and the rectory. The Parish House originally housed the unmarried curates and their “work with men and boys” – and was first called the “Clergy House.” The Mission House was a convent from construction until 1965, when the Sisters of the Holy Nativity left. It was built for work with “women and girls.” Father Brown, our first rector, and Mrs. Brown lived in the rectory.
The Mission House is open because there is more going on at Saint Mary’s than ever before. We simply need more space to do church and programs. And we need to grow into the heritage we have been given.
This Sunday is one of the great days of the year at Saint Mary’s. It is the Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the Church year. There are few more powerful Masses of the year here, in my opinion, than the Solemn Mass on this day. Again this year, I ask that our congregation and friends bring their pledges for the 2006 Stewardship Campaign to Mass or Evensong. They will be collected with the offerings. After the Solemn Mass all of the guilds and organizations in Saint Mary’s will be represented at our “Guild Fair” in Saint Joseph’s Hall.
The Gift Shop reopens this Sunday, November 20, at 10:30 AM. I think you will be delighted by its new look and renewed approach. I am delighted by the leadership of a very small group of Saint Marians who saw a need and acted. They truly are a model for the rest of us.
You and I were baptized not just to look on the face of the Crucified but to be his Body in this world. We were baptized to grow into his life and his truth, to walk in his way. He gave us new life in Baptism. In the gospels, all are welcome to eat when they are with him. Our hospitality should not be less. Jesus invited all people to follow him, to lay down their own lives so that the Father could raise us to eternal life. You and I can be the people who put God’s work first in our lives.
I believe in the worship and mission of Saint Mary’s. I invite you to live this worship and mission by surrendering your heart, your sins, your time and your money to whatever work God lays before you. I think Saint Mary’s is worthy of your money and your time. I know that our worship and mission has been hampered for too long by people pretending that their time and money were not needed. We can be open or closed in the foreseeable future. You and I will make that decision beginning this coming Sunday. Today, the doors are open. The mission is growing. If Christ is our King, then the doors will remain open. Stephen Gerth
PRAYER LIST . . . Your prayers are asked for Ida, Eugene, Brian, Mary Jean, Peter, Emil, Arnold, Naila, Mary, Will, Michael, Ray, Betty Ann, Mikhail, Matthew, Donna, Lloyd, Deborah, Charlton, Virginia, William, Mary, Tony, Ibo, Gilbert, Robert, Gloria, Marion, Mamie, Rick, Henry, Thomas, priest and Charles, priest; for the members of our Armed Forces on active duty, especially Patrick, Bruce, Brenden, Jonathan, Joseph, Timothy, Christopher, David, Timothy, Nestor, Freddie, Derrick and Christina; and for the repose of the soul of Jack . . . GRANT THEM PEACE . . . November 20: 1986 Richard Johnson; November 23: 1976 Calvin R. Gray, 1985 Gary R. Grubb; November 24: 1950 Harlan S Perrigo, 1957 Frederick Delius, 1989 Aurora Emralda Van Heyningen; November 26: 1998 Ronald L. Cox.
THANKSGIVING AT SAINT MARY’S . . . Because our city’s Thanksgiving Day parade closes Times Square, Saint Mary’s has its principal celebration on Wednesday evening. On Thanksgiving Day, we follow our federal holiday schedule. The church will be open from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. The only services will be the Noonday Office at 12:00 PM and Said Mass at 12:10 PM. On Thanksgiving Eve, Wednesday, November 23, there will be a Sung Mass at 6:00 PM.
AROUND THE PARISH. . . We are hopeful that Emil Denworth will be released this week from the Hospital for Joint Disease. Please keep him in your prayers . . . Join us on Monday, November 21 at 7:00 PM in Saint Joseph’s Hall for an information night about the upcoming mission trip to Honduras. Come and see slides from last year’s trip and talk with members of the mission team. It’s not too late to enlist for the January 2006 trip . . . Attendance last Sunday 326.
NOTES ON MUSIC . . . This Sunday at the Solemn Mass, the prelude is an improvisation on ‘General Seminary’ (hymn 382, our Postcommunion Hymn). The postlude is Nun danket alle Gott, Opus 65/69 (Marche triomphale) by Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933). The setting of the Mass ordinary is Missa brevis (1942-5) by Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967). The Hungarian Kodály originally wrote this piece in a version for solo organ. He arranged the piece for choir and organ (later orchestrating it) while he was hiding from Nazi persecution in Budapest. Missa brevis is a striking work with a complicated harmonic language; some commentators have suggested the influence of Franz Liszt. Perhaps most memorable is the setting of Dona nobis pacem, a dialogue between three solo sopranos (who sing in a very high register) and choir. Today, Kodály is remembered for devising a method to teach children music as much as for his compositional output. The anthem at Communion is Iubilate Deo (1982) by McNeil Robinson (b. 1943), who was associated with this parish for twenty years, first as organist and then as music director . . . The recital at 4:40 is by Christopher Creaghan of New York. The program includes three movements of Widor’s Symphonie V, Opus 42/5. Mr. Creaghan is a distinguished organist and is dean of the New York City chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Robert McCormick
CHRISTIAN FORMATION IN ADVENT . . . At 10:00 AM on three Sundays in Advent, December 4, 11 and 18, join the Reverend James Ross Smith and explore what the role of Christ’s humanity is in God’s plan of salvation. On those same Sundays at 1:00 PM, join the Reverend Peter R. Powell and learn the basics of Saint Mark’s gospel. On Tuesday nights throughout Advent (November 29, December 6, 13 and 20), Father Mead’s Bible Study will explore the birth of the Messiah by studying the infancy narratives in the gospels. On Sunday, November 27,the Sunday School will make Advent wreaths during Sunday School (at 10:00 AM in Saint Benedict’s Study) and during Coffee Hour.
IMPRESSIONS AND OPINIONS . . . The third rector of Saint Mary’s wrote, but did not complete, an autobiography. The manuscript was published unrevised after his death. It is available online thanks to “Project Canterbury: A home on the Internet for Anglican texts, with emphasis on the Catholic identity of Anglicanism.” Its founder is Richard Mammana, a member of the Church of the Resurrection, New York City. I cannot commend the chapter about Saint Mary’s in Dr. Barry’s autobiography more highly.
S.G. http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/jghbarry/auto/index.html
The building of Saint Mary’s . . .
Saint Mary’s is not supported by real stones. The walls are mostly brick and plaster, painted to look like stone blocks. But Saint Mary’s is supported by living stones, like the ones described in 1 Peter, “likeliving stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Saint Mary’s is filled with people who would continue to worship God in the beauty of holiness even if something happened to our building and we had to meet in Bryant Park. As beautiful as our building may be, the real beauty of our parish is in its members—person after person who strives to be the Body of Christ in Times Square and beyond. Help us make Saint Mary’s as strong as possible.
Commitment Sunday is November 20, 2005.
