From the Rector: All Saints’ and All Souls’

All Saints’ Day is November 1.  All Souls’ Day is November 2.  They are two of the greatest days of the Church year.  As I begin to write about them to you I hear the music of All Saints’ in my head and I see the black vestments of All Souls’ in the eyes of my heart.  My body feels the music, the glory and the sadness, physical sadness that I have experienced over and over again around God’s Table on these days.

All Saints’ is Wednesday, November 1, this year.  The principal celebration will be at 6:00 PM.  Our celebrant and preacher is the Right Reverend Richard F. Grein, XIV Bishop of New York.  Three adults will be baptized.  One person is planning to renew her baptismal commitment.  Everything about the evening will proclaim our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  More than a few of us consider the singing of “For all the saints, who from their labors rest” to be the single greatest hymn moment of the year.  From the fourth century, All Saints’ was a commemoration of unnamed Christian martyrs.  By the early seventh century it became a celebration and remembrance of holy ones whose names are not known to us personally.  It is now one of the seven principal feasts of the Church year.

A celebration known as All Souls’ as a remembrance of the departed whose names are known to us seems to have its origins in pagan memorial observances.  We have evidence of Christian memorial commemorations from the second century.  The celebration we know as All Souls’ Day dates from the tenth century.  For us, it is the day we remember before God those we have known personally and who now live in the nearer presence of God.  The principal celebration of the day will be at 6:00 PM.  It concludes with a procession to the vault in the Lady Chapel where prayers are said for those whose ashes are interred there.

It is not at all inappropriate that November is the month when the parish leadership begins its work on the budget for the coming year.  As we go to press, materials for the 2007 Stewardship Campaign are scheduled to be mailed this coming week.  My primary hope for the parish is that we will continue to witness and serve the Lord Jesus Christ in new ways and in old.  This can only happen if a growing community of members and friends makes it happen with their money.  Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21). 

To keep Saint Mary’s ministry and witness strong, to keep our doors open, to continue our progress to financial stability, Saint Mary’s needs your gifts.  The excess drawdown from the endowment in 2003 was $555,957.00.  In 2004 it was $447,462.00, and in 2005 it was $356,839.00.  The budgeted number for 2006 is $279,549.00.  I am very aware that the parish community responded sacrificially to the Momentum Fund this year, to which $156, 441.00 has been pledged.  The goals right now are to meet the 2006 budget targets and to get the drawdown for 2007 under $200,000.00.  Frankly, we really don’t have a choice.  The Board of Trustees and I believe the only way to financial stability is to continue to believe that we will continue to grow.  Friends, if we get the 2007 number under $200,000.00, you and I will be able to see a balanced budget on the horizon.  I think we can do it.  I think we should do it.  And I think we will hardly be able to imagine the new ways the Lord may use us when we have moved to a new place.

I hope you will join me in increasing your commitment to Saint Mary’s in 2007.  I’m not sure how I’m going to do it, but I am.  I’m not sure how the parish is going to make it, but I am sure it will.  2007 is the year for real movement to the future for Saint Mary’s.  Saint Mary’s is like a pearl of great value, which a merchant found and went and sold all that he had to buy.  Stephen Gerth

PRAYER LIST . . . Your prayers are asked especially for Bob, Arturo, Elwood, Mary Ellen, Gert, Chip, Harold, Robert, Gloria, Ray, Tony, William, Gabriela, Eve, Roy, Virginia, Mary, William, Gilbert, Rick,, Thomas, priest, Louis, priest, and Charles, priest; and for the members of our Armed Forces on active duty, especially Fahad, Joseph, Patrick, Bruce, Brenden, Jonathan, Christopher, Timothy, Nestor, Freddie, Dennis and Derrick . . . GRANT THEM PEACE . . . October 31: David Hessing; November 1: 1997 Mark Hamilton; November 2: 1957 Elsinore Janmott, 1958 C. Y. Wong, 1960 Mabel Amelia Hoover, 1970 John Arthur Schwartz, 1973 Howard Montague Smith, 1973 Doris White, 1976 Winona Clare Peterson, 1982 Robert William Kennedy, 1983 Marie Anne Andokian, 1987 Clasine A. Van De Geer.

SERVICE SCHEDULE NOTES . . . On All Saints’ Eve, Tuesday, October 31, Evening Prayer is said at 6:00 PM and Mass for All Saints’ is celebrated at 6:20 PM.  On All Saints’ Day, Wednesday, November 1, Morning Prayer is sung at 8:30 AM, the Noonday Office is prayed at 12:00 PM, Sung Mass is offered at 12:10 PM and Solemn Pontifical Mass is offered at 6:00 PM . . . On Thursday, All Souls’ Day, Thursday, November 2, Morning Prayer is sung at 8:30 AM, the Noonday Office is prayed at 12:00 PM, Sung Mass is offered at 12:10 PM and Solemn Requiem Mass is celebrated at 6:00 PM.

AROUND THE PARISH . . . The Tuesday Night Bible Study is reading Genesis.  This week we will begin at chapter 18 . . . Don’t miss the new exhibition in Saint Joseph’s Hall beginning on Sunday, October 29, featuring New York artist Noel Hennelly.  Noel has produced a series of wax rubbings from the carvings on the high altar and altar steps.  A portion of the proceeds from the sale of any of the pieces will go to the Momentum Fund.  Please ask anyone from the Visual Arts Committee if you are interested in purchasing any of the works . . . Exorcism: Driving Out the Devil will premiere on October 31 at 8:00 PM on the History Channel.  Scenes were filmed in Saint Mary’s and the Mission House.  Also, Secrets of Mary Magdalene is now out on DVD, including scenes filmed in and around Saint Mary’s . . . On Saturday, October 28, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, there will be an information meeting about the Mission Trip to Honduras with lunch at Room 105 at Diocesan House on the cathedral grounds.  Another meeting will be at Saint Mary’s over dinner on Monday, November 6 at 7:00 PM.  For more information please speak with Father Beddingfield   . . . Confessions will be heard on Saturday, October 28, by Father Beddingfield and on Saturday, November 4, by Father Gerth . . . The Rector will be out of town Friday, October 27, through Monday, October 30 . . . Attendance last Sunday 301.

THIS SUNDAY SAINT MARY’S: THE INKLINGS . . . At 1:00 PM on Sundays, October 29, and November 5 & 12 2006, the Reverend Anne Richards will lead a three-session gathering on The Inklings, the famed literary discussion group formed by Oxford dons C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams, among others. We will discuss the friendships formed in the group and read excerpts from their work. We will also discuss the group’s theological orientations.  Please contact the parish office if you would like reading materials for this class in advance. 

SUNDAY SCHOOL . . . What do children do in Sunday School?  At Saint Mary’s we learn about Jesus!  Right now we are reading from the Gospel according to Saint Luke (which is read in church during Year C, beginning Advent 2007).  Sunday School meets Sundays from 10:00 AM to 10:45 AM in Saint Benedict’s Study.  If you would like more information please contact Father Mead.

NOTES ON MUSIC . . . This Sunday at the Solemn Mass, the prelude is an improvisation on ‘St. Matthew’, Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old, and the postlude an improvisation on ‘Vineyard Haven’, Come, we that love the Lord.  The setting of the Mass ordinary is Missa ‘O quam gloriosum’ by Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611).  The Spanish Victoria, one of the greatest musicians of the late Renaissance, lived and worked for many years in Rome, though he is recognized as Spain’s finest composer of that period.  This setting, a parody mass, is based upon his motet of the same name.  The motet at Communion is Ego sum panis vivus by William Byrd (1543-1623) . . . The recital at 4:40 is played by Ernest Lehrer . . . On All Saints’ Day, the recital at 5:30 is played by James Davy, assistant organist, Blackburn Cathedral, England . . . At the Mass, the setting of the ordinary is Missa Sancti Thomae, Opus 40 by Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988).  Leighton made significant contributions to twentieth century Church music and this setting, written in 1962 and dedicated to Saint Thomas Becket on the 800th anniversary of his consecration as archbishop of Canterbury, is among several of Leighton’s masses sung here in recent years.  The anthem during Communion, one of Leighton’s most popular and engaging works, is Let all the world in every corner sing, written in 1965 for St. Matthew’s Church, Northampton, England.  The postlude is Leighton’s Paean (1966) . . . On All Souls’ Day, the setting of the Requiem is Missa pro defunctis (1621) by Duarte Lôbo (c. 1565-1646), a Portuguese composer.  Lôbo and his contemporaries Manuel Cardoso and John IV represent what is sometimes called the “golden age” of Portuguese polyphony.  This Requiem, for eight part choir, is similar in many ways to the famous 1605 Requiem of Victoria, composed some sixteen years earlier.   Robert McCormick 

The Calendar of the Week

Sunday                The Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost

Monday                    Weekday

Tuesday                     Weekday

Eve of All Saints’ Day

Wednesday               All Saints’ Day     

Thursday                 All Souls’ Day

Friday                        Parish Requiem                                                           Abstinence

Saturday                   Parish Requiem

Sunday: 8:30 AM Sung Matins, 9:00 AM Mass, 10:00 AM Sung Mass, 11:00 AM Solemn Mass,

5:00 PM Solemn Evensong & Benediction.  Childcare from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

Monday – Friday: 8:30 AM Morning Prayer, 12:00 PM Noonday Office, 12:10 PM Mass,

6:00 PM Evening Prayer, 6:20 PM Mass.  The 12:10 Mass on Wednesday is sung. 

Saturday: 11:30 AM Confessions, 12:00 PM Noonday Office, 12:10 PM Mass, 4:00 PM Confessions, 5:00 PM Evening Prayer, 5:20 PM Sunday Vigil Mass