Volume 9, Number 10, February 04, 2007
From the Rector: Epiphany Season at Saint Mary’s
January and February are not quiet months in the parish office. The beginning of a new civil year affects the administration of our common life in many ways. Those who work in the finance office are very, very busy – yours truly tries to keep any new demands on them to a minimum. The budget process for the new year got underway in December, but we really don’t know where we stand until the books close on December 31. For the last few years, the parish’s budget for the new year has been adopted by the Board of Trustees at its January meeting, which is always scheduled for the last Monday of the month. I am happy to report that we are still in business, and pledges for 2006 came in on budget. Full details will be published to the parish community at the annual meeting of the congregation on Sunday, March 18, following the 11:00 AM Solemn Mass.
At our patronal feast on December 8, 2006, Father Beddingfield and I were speaking to a group of people visiting from another parish in the city. One person asked, “How often do you do solemn services like this?” I’m not sure they believed John when he told them that the regular 11:00 AM Sunday Mass was essentially the same service. We do have a few special services during the Epiphany Season. We celebrate the Epiphany on January 6 and the Feast of the Presentation on February 2. The Blessing of Throats is given during Mass on February 3. Preparation for Lent and Holy Week are already well underway.
The renovation of the fifth floor of the Mission House to be a convent for sisters from the Community of St. John Baptist is also underway. We expect Sr. Deborah Francis and Sr. Laura Katherine to be able to move here in the first part of March. They will be a regular presence at Daily Offices and Mass. This is another area of our common life where new ministries are emerging among us.
January now brings the annual mission trip to Honduras. I know that for most of the twentieth century Saint Mary’s supported a mission priest in the Philippines. Our growing support for the work of the Episcopal Church in Honduras is very much in the best traditions of the parish. It is a place where our prayers and gifts do more than we might imagine.
Christian education has a very full schedule in three areas, Bible study, liturgy & literature, and Christian mission & responsibility. Of particular note is the visit of the Reverend Dr. Louis Weil, Hodges-Haynes Professor of Liturgics, The Church Divinity School of the Pacific, to the parish on the first Sunday in Lent. Father Weil will be speaking after the Solemn Mass that day on the rites of Holy Week. He will also be our guest preacher at Evensong that night.
In these activities and many others, the center of our common life remains the ongoing, daily worship of almighty God. Saint Mary’s opens her doors to all people seven days each week. The regular cycle of Christian prayer continues. I suspect that many, many members of our wider parish community, not to mention those who walk by and discover Saint Mary’s for the first time, are strengthened when they recall that each morning, noon and night the services of the Church are being prayed here. I suspect the memory of liturgy – the beauty (and the smell) of holiness – is recalled often.
I invite you in this very short time before Lent to join us for the ordinary services of the year and for the feasts that are observed. “Epiphany” comes from a Greek word that means “showing” – as in the showing of the baby Jesus to the wise men from the east. It is not just a time for us to discover Christ anew. As Saint Paul says, “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2b). Stephen Gerth
LITURGICAL NOTES FOR THE WEEK . . . The Blessing of Throats will be given at the 12:10 Mass on Saint Blase’s Day, Saturday, February 3 . . . The regular schedule of services is observed this week . . . Confessions will be heard on Saturday, February 3, by Father Gerth and on Saturday, February 10 by Father Mead.
PRAYER LIST . . . Your prayers are asked especially for Daniel, Liz, Suzanne, Kevin, Brian, Ana, José, Gert, Harold, Robert, Gloria, Ray, Tony, Joy, William, Gabriela, Eve, Virginia, Mary, William, Gilbert, Rick, Thomas, priest, and Charles, priest;for the members of our Armed Forces on active duty, especially Fahad, Barron, Joseph, Patrick, Bruce, Brenden, Jonathan, Christopher, Timothy and Dennis and for the repose of the soul of May . . . GRANT THEM PEACE . . . February 5: 1964 Joseph Alexander Ellis Steele, 1993 Gerald Dennis Bergstrom; February 7: 1954 John H. Von Runneau.
IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE . . . Anthony Jones’s grandmother, May Delle Jones, died on January 26. Please pray for her, for Anthony and for all who mourn.
AROUND THE PARISH . . . The Rector will be away Monday, February 5, through Sunday, February 11 . . . Holy Baptism will be celebrated on the Last Sunday after the Epiphany, February 18, at the 11:00 AM Mass . . . Ash Wednesday is February 21 . . . The Spirituality and Reading Group will be in Saint Benedict’s on February 18 at 1:00 PM to discuss The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini . . . Looking Ahead to 2008: We are most pleased to be able to announce that the Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold, XXIII Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, will be celebrant and preacher for the Easter Triduum in 2008 . . . Attendance Last Sunday 299.
THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES met on Monday, January 29th. They heard the year-end Treasurer’s report for 2006, the Investment Committee’s Report for the fourth quarter and approved the 2007 budget. A report on the progress of the Mission House renovation was given and strategies for the upcoming year were discussed. Susan Miranda, secretary
NOTES ON MUSIC . . . This Sunday at the Solemn Mass, the prelude is an improvisation on ‘Georgetown’ and the postlude an improvisation on ‘Coronation’. The setting of the Mass ordinary is Missa ‘Simile est regnum coelorum’ by Alonso Lobo (c. 1555-1617). Lobo was an important Spanish composer of the generation following Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599), whom he served as assistant at Seville Cathedral. Many years later he was Guerrero’s successor there. This setting, published in a 1602 book of masses, is based upon a motet of the same name by Guerrero, sung at Communion. Lobo’s music often is favorably compared to that of Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611), the best-known Spanish composer of the late Renaissance . . . The organ recital at 4:40 PM is played by William Easterling. Robert McCormick
IT’S THE BIG GAME! . . . Saint Mary’s 3rd Annual Super Bowl party will be held following Solemn Evensong & Benediction on Sunday, February 4, 2007. The party is a pot-luck centered around Chili & Wings. We will watch the game “Movie night style” on the twenty foot projection TV in Saint Joseph’s Hall . . . For those Saint Marians who don’t know anything about football Father Mead will offer a “class” entitled “Football for Anglo-catholics” before the game begins.
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION . . . The Parables Bible Study concludes Wednesday, February 7, at 7:00 PM in Saint Benedict’s Study . . . On Sundays, February 11 & 18, Father Beddingfield will offer a two-part class entitled: Anglo-catholics & Mission: The Good, the Strange and the Holy . . . On Sunday, February 25, the Reverend Louis Weil, professor of liturgics at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, will offer a class on The Rites of Holy Week . . . Unless otherwise noted, Sunday classes begin approximately 15 minutes after Solemn Mass concludes.
IN THE GIFT SHOP . . . We have new Lenca clay crosses and porcelain crosses from Honduras . . . Also, just in time for Saint Valentine’s Day we have Father Beddingfield’s biscotti (cranberry-orange blend) for sale. Be sure to eat your sweets now since Lent begins February 21!
LOOKING AHEAD TO LENT . . . The First Day of Lent is Wednesday, February 21. Masses will be offered at 7:00 AM, 8:00 AM, 12:10 PM and 6:00 PM. Ashes will be imposed from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM. The Right Reverend C. Christopher Epting, ecumenical officer of the Episcopal Church, will be celebrant and preacher for the Solemn Mass at 6:00 PM . . . On Fridays in Lent, Stations of the Cross is offered at 7:00 PM . . . The ordinary weekdays of Lent are observed by special acts of discipline and self-denial in commemoration of the crucifixion of the Lord. Traditionally on Fridays in Lent flesh meats are not eaten. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are the two fast days of the Church year. (The faithful are reminded that the point of the Christian fast is to be hungry enough to be reminded physically of our hunger for the Lord – it is not to eat so little so as to make anyone sick. Christian fasting for Anglicans is a matter of devotion, not rule.) . . . The Sundays in Lent are not days of abstinence or fasting. This year the Feast of the Annunciation is observed on Monday, March 26. Solemn Mass will be offered at 6:00 PM. Annunciation too is a “Feast of our Lord” and is not to be observed with abstinence or fasting by Episcopalians. S.G.
|
The Calendar of the Week
|
|
SUNDAY
|
THE FIFTTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY
|
|
MONDAY
|
The Martyrs of Japan, 1597
|
|
TUESDAY
|
Weekday
|
|
WEDNESDAY
|
Weekday
|
|
THURSDAY
|
Weekday
|
|
FRIDAY
|
Weekday
|
|
SATURDAY
|
Scholastica, Religious, 543
|
