From the Rector: Annual Meeting

On Sunday, March 26, following the 11:00 AM Mass the annual meeting of the congregation will be held. Written reports from parish organizations and staff will be presented. The congregation will elect its delegates to the annual convention of the Diocese of New York. I will take the opportunity to share with you some reflections on the past year, to say thank you to many and to say something about our mission today. 2005 was a great year at Saint Mary’s and 2006 is looking even better. There are some new things on the horizon that I can hardly wait to tell you about.

Saint Mary’s is very much a parish of the Episcopal Church – and always has been. But it was not organized legally the way most Episcopal parishes in our state, or out nation for that matter. We were organized under a “free church act.” This has never meant we were independent of the Diocese of New York. It meant that we cannot charge pew rents (the normal way of financing an Episcopal parish in nineteenth century New York). Thus, pews are not “owned” by a family. Visitors are always welcome to sit anywhere without charge. This was a radical stance in 1868 when the parish was organized by Bishop Potter. 

The other principal way in which our organization differs from most Episcopal parishes is that our parish’s board of directors is not called a “vestry” – as much as we Episcopalians like and use traditional English church terms. Saint Mary’s has a “Board of Trustees.”  Our Board of Trustees consists of ten active laypersons of the congregation. The rector of the parish is the president and presiding officer of the board, just as elsewhere a rector is always the presiding officer of a parish vestry. Since December 2004, the lay members of the board are elected for four-year terms and there must be a year off before they can be elected to a new term. The system, with its variations since 1868, has served the parish well.

When I first came to Saint Mary’s the parish was only entitled to elect one delegate to diocesan convention. Last year we had grown enough to elect two. I’m looking forward to the growth that will permit a third. Rectors of parishes are always “canonically resident” in the diocese in which they serve, but curates are not. However, Father Beddingfield, Father Mead and Father Smith, our assisting priest, were all ordained in this diocese and so Saint Mary’s will have four priests as well as four lay persons in its delegation to our annual convention in November.

The business meeting of the congregation lasted about thirty minutes last year. The fellowship takes a little longer! It has never been easy for any congregation to do the work the Bishop of New York and our parish’s first leaders set before it in 1868, but it has been and remains glorious.

I hope it may be possible for you to be here on Sunday. Not only is it the day for our congregational meeting; it is the Fourth Sunday in Lent. It will mean a more festive Mass – especially in comparison to the rest of Lent. There will even be flowers on the altar. I’ve missed them and I suspect you have too. It really is so great to be a part of a Christian community that is so intentional in its focus and is being blessed by God with growth in so many ways. Stephen Gerth

PRAYER LIST . . . Your prayers are asked especially for Eve, Judi, Brendan, Peter, Joan, Thomas, George, Loretta, Consuelo, Roy, Jan, Ida, Brian, Mary, Michael, MaryAnne, Ray, Betty Ann, Mikhail, Deborah, Virginia, William, Mary, Ana, Gilbert, Robert, Gloria, Rich, Marion, Jeanne, Joseph, Rick, Thomas, priest, Laurence, priest, Gary, priest and Charles, priest; for the members of our Armed Forces on active duty, especially Joseph, Patrick, Bruce, Brenden, Jonathan, Christopher, Timothy, Nestor, Freddie, Dennis and Derrick. . . GRANT THEM PEACE . . . March 26: 1966 Frances Duckworth Young; March 29: 1964 Robert Edward Cerra, 1997 Brice Linville; March 30: 1968 Mabel Helen Arends.

AROUND THE PARISH . . . George Blackshire has a new home! He’s moved to The Hallmark, 455 North End Avenue, Apartment 912, New York, New York 10282 . . . The Spirituality and Reading group continues with the work of Flannery O’Connor. The next meeting, on Sunday, April 23, will discuss O’Connor’s short stories, A Good Man is Hard to Find and Everything that Rises Must Converge . . . We are thankful for the help of George Handy, Esther Kamm, Dick Leitsch, Roseanne Talbird and Eileen Whittle with the Easter Offering letter . . . Many will remember the Reverend Horace Choate, who was an assisting deacon in 1998 and 1999. Father is now rector of Zion Church, Wappingers Falls. The Celebration of a New Ministry for him and his parish will be on Saturday, April 1, at 4:00 PM. Many will also remember his wife, the Reverend Yamily Bass-Choate. She is now vicar of Iglesia San Andres, Yonkers. We are delighted they are now both serving in our diocese . . . Stations of the Cross resume on Friday, March 31 . . . Father Mead will hear confessions on Saturday, March 25, and on Saturday, April 1. Father Gerth will hear confessions on Saturday, April 8 . . . Father Beddingfield will be on vacation March 29 through April 4 and Sandra will be out of the office Thursday and Friday . . . Attendance last Sunday 280, Stations 55.

PLAN FOR THE EASTER VIGIL . . . If you wish to be received, confirmed or baptized at the Easter Vigil on Saturday, April 15, please speak with one of the priests as soon as possible. There is still time to coordinate your participation . . . Do you have your bells? At the Easter Acclamation, bells are rung throughout the church while the lamps and candles in the church are lighted. If you don’t have bells, visit the Saint Mary’s Gift Shop between now and Easter.

NOTES ON MUSIC . . . Since March 26 is Rose or Laetare Sunday, one of our “refreshments” is hearing the organ more than the rest of the season. Organ improvisations are permitted, and a simple postlude will be heard at the Solemn Mass. The setting of the Mass ordinary is Communion Service in Dminor by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), one of the most important English composers of his generation. Perhaps his most important contribution to Church music was his role as musical editor of The English Hymnal (1906), a publication for which he realized and harmonized many traditional English folk tunes that we continue to sing today. Much of his music, considered to express a sense of “Englishness,” has a modal, folk-like simplicity. Though he was considered an agnostic, many believe that Vaughan Williams had some sort of personal faith that enabled him to write such profound Christian music. The anthem at Communion is Vaughan Williams’s O taste and see, a charmingly simple piece written for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. It was sung as the Queen received Communion. The postlude is Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele, BWV 654 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) . . . Many thanks to all who helped present the recital by McNeil Robinson. It was a great evening enjoyed by the sizeable crowd that attended. Robert McCormick

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION & FORMATION . . . Sunday School for children meets on Sundays at 10:00 AM in Saint Benedict’s Study. Saint Mary’s offers a Bible-based Sunday School, please join us! . . . The Tuesday Night Bible Study meets on Tuesday, March 28, at 7:00 PM in Saint Benedict’s Study. We are reading Exodus and other parts of the Pentateuch to get an overview of the Exodus and how it helped shape Jewish and Christian identity. (This week we will read the book of Exodus starting at chapter 15) . . . On Sundays in Lent, at 1:00 PM in the Mission House (2nd Floor), the Reverend Peter R. Powell will lead a Bible Study on the Book of Jeremiah. The class will discuss what prophecy is, what it means to have a call, and how to complain to God . . . On Mondays in Lent, at 7:00 PM at the Center for Christian Studies at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, Father Beddingfield continues his class on the Theology and Spirituality of the Cross.

FELLOWSHIP & COMMUNITY EVENTS . . . On Wednesdays in Lent, join Father Mead and Father Jonathan Erdman, curate, Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, as we enjoy The Simpsons in Lent for the 20s/30s crowd! This week we will meet at Saint Thomas Church, 1 West 53rd Street. We will watch classic clips of the Simpsons’ take on religion and then head out for some food and fellowship . . . Friday, April 28 at 7:00 PM marks the dramatic return of Movie Night! Mark your calendars now and prepare for a night of food, drinks and the big screen!

PREPARING FOR HOLY WEEK . . . The center of the Christian year are the liturgies of the Easter Triduum, the Easter “Three Days.” These are reckoned from sunset on the Thursday in Holy Week. Episcopalians call this Thursday “Maundy Thursday” – “maundy” is an English nickname for the Latin word “mandatum.” At the Last Supper on the evening before he died, Jesus gave his disciples the commands to love one another, to eat together and to wash each other’s feet. The next morning he was condemned. The next afternoon he was crucified. This is the first day. The second day, from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, he was not here. On the third day, sunset Saturday until sunset Sunday, he rose again. 

The full schedule for Holy Week has been published and is available on the parish web page. If you are new to the parish or to the Episcopal Church you may know how great the liturgies of these days are. I invite you to be here for Maundy Thursday at 6:00 PM, Good Friday 12:30 PM or 6:00 PM (the services are identical), the Easter Vigil, Saturday at 7:00 PM, and Easter Day Evensong at 5:00 PM. The choir sings at all of these services and, of course, the 11:00 AM Mass on Easter morning. But these are the great liturgies of the day. It’s hard to believe that the 11:00 AM is optional on Easter Day, but it is if you have been to the Easter Vigil the night before. Of course, many, many come to both. We are, after all, Saint Mary’s! S.G.