From the Rector: New Schedule Beginning June 14

Beginning Sunday evening, June 14, there will be a new worship schedule here at Saint Mary’s.  There will be no evening Mass Monday through Friday, except on Holy Days, when an additional Mass will be offered.  Depending on the day, this will be a said Mass at 6:20 PM following Evening Prayer, a Sung Mass at 6:00 PM or a Solemn Mass at 6:00 PM.  Eves of principal parish feasts will continue to be observed with Solemn Evensong.

Additionally, there will be no Sunday evening Mass following Evening Prayer on Sunday afternoons in the summer.  Monday through Friday, Morning Prayer, Noonday Prayer, Evening Prayer and the 12:10 Mass will continue to be offered.  The Saturday schedule with the Saturday Vigil Mass will continue.  The Sunday morning schedule will not change.  Solemn Evensong & Benediction will resume on Sunday evenings on the first Sunday of October.

I’ve decided to make these changes at the beginning of the summer as the clergy and staff continue to live into the reduced number of staff positions.  I’m not sure how long we will continue to have three priests on the staff.  I think it’s time for us to prepare for the changes that are coming.

Well before the current recession began, Father Matthew Mead was beginning to look for his first position as a rector.  He has had a very productive and fruitful ministry here.  His work will mark Saint Mary’s common life for many years to come.

When Father Mead is called to a new cure, Saint Mary’s will have only two full-time priests, Father Jay Smith and me.  We continue to be blessed with the assistance of Father John Merz, Episcopal Chaplain at New York University.  But it will fall to Father Smith, organist James Kennerley, business manager Aaron Koch and me to begin to sort through the many varied jobs that Father Mead has done for us and to see that the most important of these are continued.  The question of whether we move forward with the same kind of momentum is one for the whole parish community.  The question of a “new schedule” is far more than whether we will have ten Masses regularly scheduled through the week or fifteen.

Father Mead’s position as a full-time priest was created in 2002 by the board to help the parish grow.  Matt was still in seminary but Father John Beddingfield, then curate, and I knew he was the right person for the job.  Every year since Matt’s arrival attendance and income have increased.  Many of us had the sense that with Matt joining John and me the parish finally had enough priest hours to live into our buildings and into our tradition.  Matt’s skills across a wide range of pastoral and administrative areas have helped the parish grow.

Before this for many years there had been the tradition of a part-time third priest who was known as the “assistant priest”.  He lived in the apartment now occupied by Jay Smith and José Vidal.  The curates and the rector (always single men in those days) lived in the rectory.  In addition to utilities, the only cash cost to the parish budget for a third priest was a pension premium.  I’ve told the board that I don’t want to seek a priest for this position until we have a clearer idea of the kind of priest we need today to help the parish grow and minister to others.  They have agreed to give me time to see what develops.

The local and wider parish communities have been very supportive of the Board of Trustee’s determination to keep our doors open and our parish in business.  We continue to seek new ways to increase our resources and to manage our gifts wisely.  Stephen Gerth

SUNDAY PRAYER LIST . . . Your prayers are asked especially for Sarah, DEACON, who is hospitalized, and for Grace, Michael, Len, Lizette, Murphy, Allan, Jewell, Aaron, Charisse, Dorothy, Rick, Jean Marie, Kirk, Jack, Alice, Harold, Marcia, Richard, Mary, Stephen, Laura, Donna, Madeleine, Marc, William, Gert, Mary, Daisy, Colleen, and Rick; we also pray for the members of our Armed Forces on active duty, especially Marc, Curtis, Omar, Christopher, Benjamin, Steven, Andrew, and Patrick . . . GRANT THEM PEACE . . . June 7: 1919 Sabrina Glynn Knowton; 1950 Pauline Lewis Groesbeck, Agnes Schuster Paltz; 1957 Floranelle Waugh

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S . . . On Saturday, June 6, at 6:30 PM, parishioners J. Grace Treiman and Michael H. Bruni are to be joined in Holy Matrimony.  Please keep Mike and Grace in your prayers . . . Trinity Sunday, June 7: 11:00 AM, Solemn Mass and Te Deum; Organ Recital 4:40 PM; Solemn Evensong and Benediction, 5:00 PM.  The final Sunday Evensong of the academic year is Trinity Sunday, June 7.  The Parish Choir and the Saint Mary’s Singers will sing.

FROM THE PARISH REGISTER . . . On Sunday, May 31, The Day of Pentecost, Thaddeus Henry Bleha Lee was baptized at the Solemn Mass and, at Solemn Evensong & Benediction, Charles Blystone Woodward Montgomery and Jananie Nair were confirmed; also at Evensong, Awilda González and Charisse González reaffirmed their baptismal vows.  Please welcome our newest parishioners.

AROUND THE PARISH . . . We are grateful to all those who gave of their time and energy to make Pentecost such a wonderful day.  A special word of thanks to Bishop Andrew St John, who altered his schedule at the last minute so that he could be with us and so that confirmation could take place; thanks also to our loyal and hardworking acolytes, to those who worked hard to provide hospitality at the reception, to our able and friendly ushers.  Thank you! . . . Wednesday, June 10, is Father Smith’s twentieth anniversary of ordination to the diaconate; Thursday, June 11, is Father Gerth’s twenty-sixth anniversary of ordination to the diaconate . . . On Sunday, June 14, after the Solemn Mass, a buffet lunch will be served in Saint Joseph’s Hall.  At the same time, and also in Saint Joseph’s Hall, we will be holding a Guild Fair.  Representatives of the various parish guilds will be available to answer questions about their work and ministries here at Saint Mary’s.  It will be a great opportunity to join a parish guild!  We hope that you will be able to join us . . . Altar flowers are needed for the following dates: June 14 and June 28.  Please contact the parish office if you would like to make a donation . . . Father Mead will hear confessions on Saturday, June 6.  Father Smith will hear confessions on Saturday, June 13 . . . Father Smith will be away from the parish from June 15 until July 12.  He returns to the office on July 13.  Please contact Father Mead during that time to make additions or changes to the prayer lists . . . Attendance: Pentecost 434, Visitation 94.

A FRIENDLY REMINDER . . . If you plan to be away from the parish for all or part of the summer, we would appreciate it if you tried to stay current on your pledge payments.  We often run into cash-flow problems during the summer months and that is, of course, a special concern this year.  Thank you very much for your consideration – and thank you to all who give so generously to support the work and mission of this parish.

FROM THE MUSIC DIRECTOR . . .  The prelude at Solemn Mass this morning is the Prelude in E-flat Major, BWV 552a, by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).  The setting of the Mass ordinary is Missa de la batalla escoutez by Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599).  The oddly-titled Missa de la batalla escoutez is based on the popular chanson La guerre (“Warfare”) by Clément Janequin. At the ministration of Communion, the choir sings the motet Omnes Gentes, plaudite minibus, a lively setting of text from Psalm 47, by Christopher Tye (c. 1505–c. 1572).  The Te Deum laudamus sung today is from Byrd’s Great Service, a sizable collection of liturgical music written for the reformed English rites of Matins, Holy Communion and Evensong, as found in the Book of Common Prayer.  This joyful setting, large in scale, is for two choirs of five parts each . . . Trinity Sunday, June 7, is our last Evensong for the year, and will be sung by the combined choirs of Saint Mary’s – a perfect time to try us out!  We rehearse at 3:00 PM downstairs in the choir room. Music is by Stanford, Parry, Vierne and Elgar.  David Enlow, organist and choirmaster, Church of the Resurrection, New York City, will accompany us on the organ.  If you have any questions, please e-mail me at jkennerley@stmvnyc.org.  James Kennerley

MISSION & OUTREACH . . . Post-Katrina Mission Trip to the Gulf Coast (Mississippi and Louisiana) . . . A group from Grace Church, Brooklyn Heights, is planning a mission trip to the Gulf Coast for November 8-14, 2009.  This is not their first trip so the effort seems to be well-established.  The coordinators have already booked lodging (described as “convenient and comfortable,” in New Orleans’s Garden District).  For more information, please speak to Deacon Rebecca Weiner Tompkins or contact Barbara Pace at meetingadj@optonline.net . . . Food Pantry: You are invited to bring non-perishable food items on Sundays and place them in the basket at the back of the church or on the table in Saint Joseph’s Hall.  The food is then delivered to the Saint Clement’s Food Pantry on 46th Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues.  Thank you to all those who have given so generously and so consistently to this very important outreach effort. J.R.S.

THE ORDINARY FRIDAYS of the year are observed by special acts of discipline and self-denial in commemoration of the crucifixion of the Lord.  Friday abstinence resumes on June 5.  It is not observed during Eastertide, Christmastide or when feasts of our Lord occur on Fridays.

FROM THE ARCHIVES . . . So that’s how the problem began.  “Pages from a Journalist’s Diary,” by Charles B. Driscoll, The Washington Post (November 27, 1938): “A bareheaded man, probably 40 years old, was feeding the pigeons in front of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, in West Forty-sixth Street.  For years, at a certain hour of the day, when I’ve chanced to be passing, I have seen that same man doing the same job.  So I crossed over and talked with him.  Yes, he had been feeding these pigeons here twice a day for the last fifteen years.  Sixty-three in this group.  Another flock comes later in the day.  The feed is mixed grain.  He buys it in bushel lots at a store over on the East Side that specializes in feed for horses, birds, dogs and other city animals.  About 200 pigeons make their homes on and above the Church of Saint Mary.  They have been there ever since the church was built.  Yes, my informant would give me his name, but he’d rather I wouldn’t print it anywhere.  He is doing pretty well about keeping out of print.  Well, you see, he’s ‘connected with horseracing’.  Oh, yes, I understand.  The feeder of the pigeons at Saint Mary’s lives in a small hotel next door to the church.  No, he has never been inside the church, but he hears it is a pretty grand place.  Anyway, the pigeons like the outside of it.  Statues of saints that decorate its façade furnish roosting and nesting spots for them.  Traffic in Forty-sixth Street is heavy at this hour.  But it swerves into single file, without any order or suggestion from anybody, to spare the birds that are feeding so happily on the uptown side of the street.  Nobody is seriously discommoded.  Everybody seems glad to give the pigeons a break.”

✠

The Calendar of the Week

Sunday                   Trinity Sunday

Monday                     Weekday

Tuesday                     Columba, Abbot of Iona, 597

Wednesday               Ephrem of Edessa, Deacon, 373

                                    Eve of Saint Barnabas the Apostle

Thursday                Saint Barnabas the Apostle

Friday                        Weekday                                                          Abstinence

Saturday                   Of Our Lady

                                   Eve of the Body & Blood of Jesus: Corpus Christi

Sunday: 8:30 AM Sung Matins, 9:00 AM Said Mass, 10:00 AM Said Mass, 11:00 AM Solemn Mass, 4:40 PM Organ Recital, 5:00 PM Solemn Evensong & Benediction.  Childcare is available from 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM all Sundays of the year.

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 Wednesday 12:10 PM Mass is sung. Thursday Masses include anointing of the sick.

Saturday: 12:00 PM Noonday Office, 12:10 PM Mass, 5:00 PM Evening Prayer, 5:20 PM Sunday Vigil Mass.

Confessions are heard on Saturdays 11:30-11:50 AM & 4:00-4:50 PM.