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FROM THE RECTOR: ABOUT OCTOBER

Many congregations, including our cathedral, celebrate Saint Francis’ Day on a Sunday, whether it falls a Sunday or not. We commemorate Saint Francis on his feast day, October 4. Since the brothers of the Society of Saint Francis have established a house here at Saint Mary’s, it seems appropriate for us to celebrate Saint Francis this Sunday and for Br. Desmond Alban, Minster Provincial, Province of the Americas, Society of Saint Francis, to be our preacher.

One great regret is that, because of COVID-19, we will not be able to sing, “Most High, omnipotent, Good Lord” (The Hymnal 1982, #406). The Hymnal 1940 Companion (1949, 1951) states, “the famous Cantico di frate zole in the Umbrian dialect, is first found in an early 14th century [manuscript] . . . attributed to St. Francis of Assisi” (page 200).

The translation was by Howard Robbins Chandler (1876–1952). He was rector of St. Paul’s Church, Englewood, New Jersey, Church of the Incarnation, New York City, and from 1917 until 1929, he was dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. He resigned to become professor of pastoral theology at the General Theological Seminary. He served on the Joint Commission on the Revision of The Hymnal 1940. The tune Assisi was composed for this text by Alfred Morton Smith (1879–1971), also a priest of the church. Educated at the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Divinity School, he served in Philadelphia, Long Beach and Los Angeles, California. He served as an army chaplain in World War I in France and in Germany. I hope on Monday, October 4, 2021, we will have a Sung Mass in the evening, and we will sing this.

Several months ago, a member of the parish community offered to donate the money to publish a parish calendar for 2021. I had to turn the offer down. We do not have staff or volunteers with the time to undertake the project this year. Let’s hope it may return in 2022. In the meantime, I have continued to work on calendar questions while we plan for the rest of the year.

One question that has lingered since our parish calendar project started is why Saint Teresa of Avila commemorated on October 15. She died on October 4, 1582. But her feast day is October 15. The year of her death seems to be an important clue. Pope Gregory XIII ordered on February 24, 1582, that the calendar promulgated by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE be changed. It was off by ten days. We’re still living with Gregory’s revision. To accomplish it, his decree stated that, in 1582, October 4 would be followed by October 15. Teresa was not canonized until 1622. My hunch is that her grave used October 15, 1582. (In my Virginia school background is learning that, when George Washington was born, his birthday was February 11, 1731—England was still using the Julian Calendar. When in 1752, the Gregorian Calendar went into effect in England, Washington’s birthday became February 22, 1731.)

So, this month, we’re going to be different. We’re going to keep Saint Teresa of Avila on October 5, a free day in our Calendar of the Church Year. (One could argue, from the perspective of Anglican theology, that there would be something special about celebrating Francis and Teresa together on the day of their death. That said, my 1978 edition of The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church states without any qualification, “[Francis] died in the chapel of the Portiuncula on 3 Oct. 1226” (page 530).

Moving Teresa to October 5, helps sort out four other commemorations. Henry Martyn, a missionary priest and Bible translator of the Church of England, died on October 16, 1812, in Armenia. He is presently commemorated in our calendar on October 19. Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky, bishop of Shanghai and Bible translator, died on October 15, 1906, in Tokyo, Japan. With October 15 free, these two missionaries with similar ministries can be commemorated on October 15.

On October 16, 1555, with Queen Mary Tudor on the English throne, two Protestant bishops, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, were burned at the stake in Oxford. Thomas Cranmer, deposed archbishop of Canterbury, was made to watch their execution from a prison tower. Cranmer was executed in the same way on March 21, 1556, and we commemorate his life on that day. Though March 21 is always weekday of Lent, Cranmer can be remembered in the Prayers of the People on the day he was burned at the stake. In a sense, Cranmer does have another commemoration. In 1970, the Church authorized the commemoration of the first use of the first Book of Common Prayer. Its use began on Pentecost, June 9, 1549. The Day of Pentecost can fall as early as May 27. So, in the Prayer Book, at the bottom of the calendar for the month of May, we read, “The First Book of Common Prayer, 1549, is appropriately observed on a weekday following the Day of Pentecost” (page 23).

Finally, as I write on the morning of Saturday, October 3, all of us are very aware that the President of the United States is hospitalized and that the First Lady is in quarantine at the White House. In earlier Prayer Books, in the order for Daily Morning Prayer, there were two prayers to choose from to pray for “The President of the United States, and all in Civil Authority.” In the same section there was a “Prayer for the Clergy and People” and “A Prayer for all Conditions of Men” (BCP [1928], 17–19). When the Sunday service was Morning Prayer and Sermon, these prayers were almost always used. So, beginning October 3, we will be praying for Donald, our president, Melania, his wife, and all who suffer from COVID-19. Perhaps because I was nine-years old when President Kennedy was assassinated, I find myself emotional whenever the president of our country is in danger. I can remember my mom and dad being worried and upset when Kennedy died. —Stephen Gerth

YOUR PRAYERS ARE ASKED FOR Howard, Shalim, Ingrid, Gloria, Jennifer, Mary, Margaret, Larry, David, James, Samantha, John, Randy, Mary, Carmen, Tony, Marilouise, Ken, May, Willard, Alexandra, Takeem, Ethelyn, Burton, Emil, Barbara, Dennis, Robert, and Abraham; for Donald, our president, Melania, his wife, and all who suffer from COVID-19, for Thomas, Nicholas, Barbara Jean, and Rafael, religious; for Anthony, Gaylord and Louis, priests; and Charles, bishop; for all those who work for the common good; for all the members and friends of this parish; and for the repose of the souls of those who have died of COVID-19 . . . GRANT THEM PEACE . . . October 4: 1916 Isabella Atkinson; 1920 Virginia Wittens Blauchard; 1926 Henry Ammi Dows, priest.

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE . . . Norma Ruth Pringle Jones, the mother of the Reverend Anthony Jones, a former member of this parish, died on Saturday, August 8, 2020, in Lubbock, Texas, after a brief and sudden illness. She was seventy years old. She is survived by her husband of fifty-two years, Edward D. Jones, Jr., by Father Jones and her son, Philip Norman Jones. Please keep Norma, Anthony, their family and friends, and all who mourn in your prayers.

COVID-19 INFORMATION & RESOURCES . . . We invite you to visit the COVID-19 page of the New York City Department of Health’s website . . . More information with a particular focus on the Times Square neighborhood can be found on the Times Square Alliance’s website.

AROUND THE PARISH . . . Brother Thomas Steffensen has been ill this week and his mobility is restricted. He’s under a doctor’s care and is coming along nicely. He’s able to be with us via Zoom, but won’t be able to be at church for a few more days. Please keep him in your prayers as he recuperates at home in the friary . . . David Khouri who lives in the Times Square neighborhood and who worships with us most Sundays recently had orthopedic surgery. He has been making a remarkable recovery and was able to be with us last Sunday. He came forward for Communion without using either a walker or a cane. He continues to recuperate at home and is doing physical therapy. Please keep him in your prayers . . . Saint Mary’s Discussion Groups on Racism are continuing. One group meets at 4:00 PM on Tuesday afternoons and the other meets at 7:00 PM on Tuesday evening. Both groups meet via Zoom. At the moment, both groups are reading and discussing Isabelle Wilkerson’s book, Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents (Random House, 2020). For more information, please contact Brother Damien Joseph, Brother Thomas, or Father Smith . . . Father Jay Smith will be away from the parish beginning on Monday, October 5. He returns to the parish on Monday, October 12.

THE ORDINARY FRIDAYS OF THE YEAR are observed by special acts of discipline and self-denial in commemoration of the Lord’s crucifixion.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S . . . Saturday, October 3, The Eve of the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, Transitus Service at 7:00 PM in the church. This service is livestreamed . . . Sunday, October 4, Saint Francis of Assisi, Mass 11:00 AM. The church opens at 10:00 AM and closes at 12:30 PM. The preacher is Brother Desmond Alban SSF . . . Monday through Saturday, the church opens at 11:00 AM and closes at 2:00 PM. Mass is celebrated daily at 12:10 PM. Please see the Calendar of the Week below, and on the website, for this week’s commemorations.

FROM THE FRIARY . . . The feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi is October 4. Each year, on the Eve of this feast, Franciscans worldwide mark Francis’s death in 1226 with a service called the Transitus (literally “passing” or “crossing over”). The Brothers of the Society of Saint Francis invite you to join them for their annual observance of the Transitus on Saturday, October 3, at 7:00 PM.

For those who are able to join in person, the service will be held in the main church here at Saint Mary’s, where space will allow us to maintain social distancing. All the safety practices in place for in-person worship at Saint Mary’s will continue to be observed. (See “Some Guidelines For Attending Services At Saint Mary’s” below.) The service will also be streamed live via the Brothers’ Facebook page and will remain available there afterwards.

The brothers are now live-streaming their Evening Prayer service each Thursday evening. They will go live at 5:50 PM Eastern time, and the office will begin at 6:00 PM. One can get notifications about when the service will go live by liking their Facebook pages @ssfamericas and @timessquarefriars. To access these services or any of the brothers’ other live feeds, one should use this link.

CLOTHING MINISTRY . . . On Wednesday, September 30, parishioners Nam Rattan, Marie, Rosseels, Sharon Stewart, and José Vidal hosted the weekly Drop-by on Forty-seventh Street. Maire and José prepared clothes and filled bags with hygiene items beforehand. The volunteers were able to welcome and assist around twenty-seven folks from the neighborhood, providing hygiene items and articles of clothing, especially socks, underwear, T-shirts, and pants . . . Beginning on Friday, October 9, the weekly Drop-by Event will take place on Fridays, 2:00–3:00 PM . . . We invite you to  make a cash donation to support this ministry via the Saint Mary’s website by following this link. As you fill out the online form, please make sure to indicate that your gift is for the Clothing Ministry. We are very grateful to all those who continue to support this ministry with their gifts, their support, and their prayers.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR . . . Sunday, November 1, 2:00 AM, Daylight Saving Time ends. Clocks are set back one hour . . . Sunday, November 1, All Saints’ Day, Said Mass with Organ and Cantor, 11:00 AM. This service will be livestreamed . . . Monday, November 2, All Souls’ Day, 12:10 PM, Said Mass with Organ, Cantor, and Blessing of the Vault, 12:10 PM. This Mass will be livestreamed . . . Sunday, November 22, Last Sunday after Pentecost: Christ the King & Commitment Sunday, Mass 11:00 AM . . . Thursday, November 26, Thanksgiving Day, Mass 12:10 PM . . . Sunday, November 29, First Sunday of Advent, Mass 11:00 AM.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION . . . We invite you to join us for the beginning of a new season of adult-education classes at Saint Mary’s during the month of October. On October 4, 11, 18, and 25, at 9:30 AM in Saint Joseph’s Hall, Grace Mudd will present a series of classes entitled “Living in a Time of Plague.” Grace writes, “Since COVID-19 triggered massive changes to our ordinary way of life in March, historical plagues have piqued the interest of many people who may only have heard of the Black Death in passing before. The Black Death of 1347–1351 killed about a third of the population of Europe, triggering profound changes in European society. During the month of October, I will lead a class exploring how this (and other historical plagues) influenced religious and secular society and culture and how these changes point toward later developments that may be more familiar. Some parallels like quack cures and scapegoating will feel very familiar, but others like shifts in popular culture and social structures may not.”

Next up: On November 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29, and December 6 and 13, Father Peter Powell will lead a class on the final book in the Christian Bible, the Revelation to John.

For all these classes, seating in Saint Joseph’s Hall will be arranged to maximize social-distancing. Unfortunately, we will not be able to provide refreshments. All those attending the class must wear a face covering.

MUSIC AT SAINT MARY’S . . . The organ prelude on Sunday is one of the two settings of the chorale Aus tiefer Not, schrei ich zu dir (“Out of the deep I cry to thee”), the German paraphrase of Psalm 130, found in the Clavierübung (Part III) of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). The Third Part of Bach’s Clavierübung, issued in 1739, contains several chorales with particularly strong liturgical associations, each of which is given a large and small (for hands only, without pedal) setting for organ. Bach’s large setting of Aus tiefer Not is a monumental cry of the soul from the depths, expressed though twisting chromaticism and dense six-voice counterpoint. The phrases of the chorale are developed one at a time in motet style. The chorale melody, or cantus firmus, sings in long notes written in the upper of the two pedal voices. The chorale upon which this organ piece is based can be found at 151 in The Hymnal 1982.

The musical setting of the Mass today is Mass V as found in the Liber Usualis (“Usual Book”), a comprehensive anthology of medieval Roman plainsong compiled in the nineteenth century by the monks of Solesmes, France. Like the several other numbered Masses of the Gregorian Missal, Mass V (In Festis Duplicibus 2) is a collection of chants for the Ordinary of the Mass which likely were originally independent pieces brought together and associated with one another by later custom. This particular combination was traditionally sung on certain feast days in the Roman calendar. The Gloria of Mass V is in Mode 8. The Sanctus and Agnus Dei are both in Mode 4. All three chants date from the twelfth century.

Sunday’s cantor is soprano, Sharon Harms. During the Communion she will sing Most High, omnipotent, good Lord by Calvin Hampton (1938–1984). Hampton was born in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, and held music degrees from Oberlin College and Syracuse University. For much of his active professional life, he was organist and choirmaster at Calvary Episcopal Church in Gramercy Park, Manhattan, where, for several years he played weekly organ recitals at midnight on Fridays. His daring programs were attended by a regular audience. They often included modern works and his own colorful transcriptions of orchestral pieces. In addition to performing and recording as an organist, Hampton composed extensively for conventional and unusual musical forces including electronic sound sources. Among his compositions are many settings of hymn texts. He championed an “art song” style of hymn setting in which continuous intentional accompaniment connects several stanzas of metrical text in a single musical event. Twenty of these settings were published together in 1980. The collection included Hampton’s setting of Most High, omnipotent, good Lord, a translation by Howard Chandler Robbins (1876–1952) of Cantico di fratre sole, laude della creatur (“Canticle of Brother Sun and of all Creatures”), an Italian poem attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi (1182–1226). Hampton’s warm and graciously fluid music is one of the three distinctive settings of Saint Francis’ hymn of praise to God in creation found in The Hymnal 1982. Stanzas 1, 5, 6, and 8 of Hampton’s setting will be sung during Communion today. —David Hurd

SAINT MARY’S ONLINE CENTERING PRAYER GROUP . . . The Saint Mary’s Centering Prayer Group continues to meet! The Group meets online, via Zoom, every Friday evening at 7:00 PM. If you are interested in participating, please send an e-mail to this address. The convenors of the group will then send the link to the Zoom meeting.

AT THE MUSEUMS . . . At the Morgan Library and Museum, 255 Madison Avenue, at Thirty-eighth Street, September 29, 2020, through September 12, 2021, Sublime on the Small Scale. Many New Yorkers long for more time spent in nature. A new exhibition at the Morgan will not exactly fulfill that longing, but it may help New Yorkers to understand their desire to experience nature, even in its most thrilling, sometimes dangerous, manifestations. Perhaps it will even inspire them to do something about it. From the museum website, “In 1757, the British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke published A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, an aesthetic treatise that profoundly influenced artists across Europe well into the nineteenth century. Burke understood the Sublime as deriving from ‘whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible...or operates in a manner analogous to terror.’ He emphasized the powerful, even pleasurable, emotional response that could arise from the contemplation of such possibilities, particularly when considered from a place of safety. Many artists turned to the natural world as their principal source of the Sublime, emphasizing its magnitude and power. While the Sublime is mostly associated with large-scale oil paintings intended to engulf and overwhelm viewers, artists frequently worked on a smaller scale to develop and experiment with their representations. They endeavored to render nature and its effects faithfully by sketching en plein air, particularly on their travels through dramatic landscapes. The oil sketches displayed [in the exhibition] engage with a range of Sublime effects, from the impressive vastness of a mountain range and the thrill of rushing water to the terror of a raging storm.”

SOME GUIDELINES FOR ATTENDING SERVICES AT SAINT MARY’S

We are now open for public worship. In order to ensure the health and safety of all, we have instituted the following procedures and guidelines:

-The 47th Street Doors, though open for ventilation, won’t be used for entry into the church. Entry is only via 46th Street. Exit only through the most western 46th Street door (near the former gift shop).

-The Chapel of Our Lady of Mercy and Saint Joseph’s Chapel are closed. The Lady Chapel is open, but all chairs, kneelers, candles, hymnals, and Prayer Books have been removed.

-Facemasks must be worn in the church at all times, except when consuming Communion. Masks should cover both mouth and nose.

-Hands-free sanitizer dispensers are available by the doors and at the head of the center aisle, where Communion will take place.

-The city, state, and diocese of New York encourages all those attending services to sign a registry and to provide one means of contact. This will be used only if it emerges that an infected person has been in attendance at a particular service and contact tracing is required.

-Everyone must maintain safe distancing (at least 6 feet apart).

-Pews have been marked with blue tape to indicate where seating is allowed.

-Only 44 people will be allowed in the nave at any time (this includes 6 couples or pairs—people who live together—who may sit together).

-All cushions have been removed from the pews. All prayer books and hymnals have been removed from the church. Service bulletins will be provided, but will be removed from the church after each service.

-Electric fans have been removed from the nave of the church. There will be no hand-held fans available at the door.

-A basket has been placed at the head of the main aisle, where pledge envelopes and other donations may be safely placed. There will be no collection taken by ushers.

-Communion (wafers only) will be administered at the foot of the chancel steps. Gluten-free hosts are available. Please inform an usher or a member of the clergy.

-All communicants must proceed down the main aisle, maintain social distance as indicated by the decals on the floor, and return to their seats via the side aisles.

-Restrooms will be available only to those who are attending the service.

If you have questions or wish to make a suggestion, please contact the rector.

This edition of the Angelus was written and edited by Father Stephen Gerth and Father Jay Smith. Father Gerth is responsible for posting the newsletter on the parish website and for distributing it via e-mail.

The Calendar of the Week