FROM THE RECTOR: ALL SAINTS’ DAY

Massey Shepherd (1913–1990) wrote about the collect for All Saints’ Day composed by Thomas Cranmer for the first Book of Common Prayer, “It is one of the most characteristic expressions of the doctrine of the Church, both visible and invisible, in all of the Prayer Book. The basic theme is Saint Paul’s conception of the Church as ‘the Body of Christ’ ” (Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary [1950]). It is a powerful and beautiful prayer. Here is the collect in contemporary English:

FROM THE RECTOR: ORIGINS

John Jacob Astor, Jr. (1791–1869) gave three lots to the new congregation that was organized in 1868 as the Society of the Free Church of St. Mary the Virgin. The lots were in what is now called Times Square. The first rector, Thomas McKee Brown (1841–1898), would later write that the land was given “on the condition that the Church should be free, and positively orthodox in management and working” (N. F. Read, The Story of Saint Mary’s [1931], 16–17).

FROM THE RECTOR: URBAN CHRISTIANITY

Last week as a guest at the annual conference of the Society of Catholic Priests (Episcopalians!), I heard presentations by the Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold, XXV Presiding Bishop, the Reverend Albert Cutié, rector, Saint Benedict’s Church, Plantation, Florida, and the Reverend Nadia Bolz-Weber, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. I was very glad I was able to attend. Bishop Griswold spoke about the work of the society. Father Cutié spoke on “Católicos Latinos.” Pastor Bolz-Weber called her meditation, “Emergent Catholicity from a Cranky Lutheran.”

FROM THE MUSIC DIRECTOR: “SING TO THE LORD A NEW SONG”

Many people are firmly convinced that, at one point in the movie Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart turns to the nightclub pianist and utters those now famous words, “Play it again, Sam.” Unfortunately, that’s not what Bogie said. In a similar way, many people believe that Saint Augustine of Hippo once wrote, “He who sings prays twice,” though that’s not what he wrote, or not exactly. This is too bad, since such a pithy quote would be an admirable way to start an account of the role of the choir here at Saint Mary’s. In fact, however, Augustine was making a more subtle theological point. In his commentary on Psalm 73 he writes as follows:

FROM THE RECTOR: EXCITEMENT

This Sunday the “regular” Sunday schedule returns. There are four changes from the summer schedule on Sundays: (1) Morning Prayer is sung not read; (2) the parish choir sings at the Solemn Mass; (3) Solemn Evensong, Sermon & Benediction is offered in place of reading Evening Prayer; and (4) Christian education resumes at 10:00 AM on Sunday mornings (and at 6:30 PM on Wednesday evenings!). Since the time of the New Testament, worship and education have been among the fundamental characteristics of Christian congregations.

FROM THE RECTOR: HOW WE LISTEN

One summer in the 1990s I had the privilege of taking a two-week class at Notre Dame given by Jewish liturgical scholar Lawrence Hoffman. A book assigned in that class was especially helpful for someone like me who knew little about prayer in Judaism. The cover of the paperback edition showed an Orthodox Jewish man facing the temple wall in Jerusalem. When I started looking among my books for it recently, I couldn’t remember the name of the author. I thought I remembered the title; but I really didn’t. Thanks to the Internet, I eventually found the reference: The Gate Behind the Wall: A Pilgrimage to Jerusalem (1984) by Samuel Heilman. I finally located my copy.

FROM THE RECTOR: FALL 2015 ARRIVES

The fall equinox this year will occur on Wednesday, September 23, at 5:06 AM Eastern Daylight Time. It will arrive for me in Lost River, West Virginia, where I will be attending a workshop, Leadership in Ministry. I have participated in this workshop twice a year since before I became rector of Saint Mary’s. Most of the participants, but not all, are members of the clergy.

FROM FATHER SMITH: THINGS TO COME

It is a rainy and muggy day here in New York as I sit down to work on this edition of the newsletter. Friends from England report that it has been chilly in London, but not here in New York, not yet. Still, there are signs of autumn in the air at Saint Mary’s, despite the late-summer heat. The Stewardship Committee is hard at work on the fall campaign. The Capital Campaign Committee has also been busy, preparing for a launch toward the end of the year.

FROM THE RECTOR: “CLARITY AND CONSENSUS”

The 2015 General Convention directed the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music “to prepare a plan for the comprehensive revision of the current Book of Common Prayer” and to present that plan to the 2018 General Convention. And if this were not enough for them to do, the convention also asked the Commission “to prepare a plan for the comprehensive revision of the Hymnal 1982.” So, I went to the web page of the Archives of the Episcopal Church to look at the records of the Reports to the General Conventions (the so-called “Blue Books”) and the Acts of General Convention.

FROM THE RECTOR: MORE FROM SAINT MARK

Until Father Pete Powell introduced me to Ulrich Luz’s commentary on Matthew, I never found the commentaries I owned very useful for preaching. Luz changed my mind about how I think about commentaries and how I read them. Now I have another one that I value highly, Joel Marcus’s two-volume commentary on Mark (Anchor Yale Bible series)

FROM THE RECTOR: OUR CAPITAL CAMPAIGN

On Easter Day 2010, when I came down from the rectory for Evensong, parishioner Hardy Geer met me in Saint Joseph’s Hall with what looked like small rocks. He told me that some small chunks of stone had fallen from the 46th Street façade of the church. Within a day or two a sidewalk shed was put up. Architects were hired. The lay leadership of the parish and I began the long journey to the capital campaign.

FROM THE RECTOR: PLANNING FOR CHALLENGE

Part of my daily reading since last April has been a paragraph or so from a book about Bowen Family Systems Theory. The first book was Your Mindful Compass (2013) by Andrea Maloney Schara. Right now, I’m just about finished reading Perspectives on Congregational Leadership: Applying Systems Thinking for Effective Leadership (2009) by the Reverend Israel Galindo. An American Baptist minister, Galindo is now an associate dean at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia,

FROM THE RECTOR: ASSUMPTION & TRANSITIONS

Our principal celebration for the Feast of the Assumption will be on its eve, Friday, August 14. There will be an organ recital at 5:30 PM by David Macfarlane. I will be celebrant and preacher for the Solemn Mass at 6:00 PM. We’ve been blessed with better weather lately, and I hope I won’t feel moved to begin my sermon on this evening, as I did one year, with the words, “Gentlemen may remove their jackets.” It’s a lovely Mass—and always a special one. This year it is also parishioner Mark Peterson’s last service as interim organist and music director. He’s done a great job for us, and there will be a special reception in his honor after the service.

FROM THE RECTOR: WHICH LECTIONARY? WHICH PRAYER BOOK?

Since we use the original 1979 Prayer Book lectionary, over the last two Sundays we heard Mark’s accounts, first, of the feeding of the five thousand, and then, of Jesus walking on the sea. In the new Prayer Book lectionary, adopted in 2006, which the great majority of parishes use, last Sunday they heard John’s account of the feeding of the five thousand and Jesus walking on the sea. For the next four weeks, all of us will be hearing almost all of the rest of the sixth chapter of John. This Sunday, August 2, we will all be hearing the same passages from Exodus and from John—though we will have different psalms and different passages from Ephesians. Sunday’s gospel begins with the crowds seeking Jesus. It ends with this verse:

FROM THE RECTOR: ANXIOUS CHRISTIANITY

On Wednesday, July 22, we celebrated the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene. It’s one of two days in the church year when the Prayer Book requires us to proclaim, if there be a Eucharist, John’s account of the Risen Jesus speaking to Mary Magdalene—the other day is Tuesday in Easter Week. Note: neither of these days is a Sunday.

FROM THE RECTOR: BOUNDEN DUTY AND SERVICE

Last weekend I went looking for a half-remembered phrase. I found it—almost as I remembered it—in the second of two “Offices of Instruction” in the 1928 Prayer Book. The Offices were new to the 1928 book. Massey Shepherd (1913–1990) wrote, “The 1928 revision revamped the Catechism into the present form of a general service of worship, designed not only for those preparing for Confirmation, but also for all ‘the people’ ” (The Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary [1950], 283).

FROM THE RECTOR: MORE TO LEARN

In the first essay in a collection honoring Notre Dame liturgical scholar Maxwell Johnson called, “The Relationship between Historical Research and Modern Liturgical Practice,” his now-emeritus Notre Dame colleague Paul Bradshaw writes that, in light of more recent scholarship, some of the words and rituals that were introduced in the 1970s in the name of recovering ancient practice miss the mark. One example is what the Prayer Book calls, without further explanation, “The Peace.” Roman Catholics call it, “The Rite of Peace.”

FROM THE RECTOR: REFORMED WORSHIP

I’ve subscribed for many years to Worship, which describes itself as an “international ecumenical journal for the study of liturgy and liturgical renewal.” The May 2015 issue led with an article by Nicholas Wolterstorff, professor emeritus of philosophical theology at Yale: “Reformed Worship: What Has It Been and Should It Continue So?” It’s an article I think I will come back to again.

FROM THE RECTOR: ONE FOUNDATION

While in seminary I went every year to my sponsoring parish for Christmas Eve. My rector thought I and my family should get used to me not being home for Christmas from the get go. (He was fine with my flying home on Christmas Day after church in the morning.) One year as I came into Saint Helena’s Church, Burr Ridge, Illinois, a few days before Christmas, the rector was there on a step ladder adjusting a veil on a statue of Mary. He turned to me and said, “They know you mean business when you dress your statues.” It was a great line.

FROM THE RECTOR: SHORTCHANGING MARK

In 2006 the General Convention of the Episcopal Church adopted a new lectionary for the Prayer Book. After a permitted three-year transition period, we began using this new lectionary on the First Sunday of Advent 2010. But, in the summer of 2012 the General Convention gave permission for bishops to permit the use of the original lectionary of the 1979 Prayer Book. Bishop Mark Sisk acted quickly. With his permission we returned to the original on July 22, 2012. Because of this timing, we missed August of Year B with the new lectionary, and with it, an important example of how both the original 1979 lectionary and the 2006 Revised Common Lectionary shortchange the Gospel According to Mark. The original 1979 lectionary took four Sundays in August from Mark and gave them to John; the new lectionary starts its taking for John at the end of July and gets five Sundays. But I get ahead of myself.