FROM THE RECTOR: LEARNNG CONTINUES

I’ve never read Joel Marcus’s two-volume commentary on Mark from start to finish. That said, I’ve used it a lot since I ordered it in August 2012. It is full of pencil marks. But just because I underline, make a check, or give a sentence of a paragraph a few stars, that doesn’t mean I understood what I read. As I prepared for the Feast of Transfiguration, I realized that, though underlined, I did not appreciate the significance of how those who heard or read this gospel in the last decades of the first century of the Christian Era understood the Hebrew word rabbî.

FROM THE RECTOR: A SPECIAL AUGUST

Beginning Sunday, August 15, The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we will return to our traditional principal Sunday service: Solemn Mass at 11:00 AM. On Assumption Sunday, a quartet from the choir will sing the Mass ordinary and the Latin minor proper for the day. Though I wrote in The Angelus for Sunday, July 11, 2021, that congregational singing would return on August 1. I now think the right Sunday for us to start will be Assumption Sunday. I continue to be in touch with colleagues in the city and Westchester. Singing has resumed in many parishes already.

FROM THE RECTOR: ENRICHING THE LECTIONARY

Since the pandemic began, your clergy, though we continued to pray Daily Evening Prayer together in the church, have prayed Daily Morning Prayer on our own. I have been praying Morning Prayer using a small size two-volume travel version, Daily Office Book (Church Publishing, 1986). Our 1979 Prayer Book only requires a total of three lessons for Daily Morning and Evening Prayer. So, when I travel, I use Derek Olsen’s online St. Bede’s Breviary (this link will give you a choice to choose your platform) so that I can have two lessons at Evening Prayer without having to carry two books.

FROM FATHER SMITH: YOU ARE GOD, WE PRAISE YOU

During the announcements at Mass last Sunday, I mentioned that this week the gospel reading is to be the story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand (Mark 6:30–44) and that next week we will hear the story of Jesus walking on the water, a passage which includes Jesus’ words, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear” (Mark 6:45–52). I then pointed out that on three out of the five Sundays in August we will hear a significant portion of the sixth chapter of the gospel of John, which contains Jesus’ words, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). (Normally, in Year B we would hear even more of John 6 during the month of August. This year, however, the Feast of the Assumption falls on Sunday, August 15, so on that day we will be hearing the readings appointed for the feast, and not John 6:53–59.)

FROM THE RECTOR: TWO SPECIAL SERVICES

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary falls on Sunday, August 15, this year. I plan for us to have a Solemn Mass for Assumption Sunday. I will be the celebrant and preacher. A quartet from the parish choir will sing. Assumption last fell on a Sunday in 2010, when we gathered to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Father Edgar Wells’s ordination to the priesthood on August 9, 1960. This year, I plan to have time for fellowship after the Mass on Assumption Sunday. We can do this in Saint Joseph’s Hall—and in the church if we need more space to feel comfortable.

FROM THE RECTOR: THE OLD BALL GAME

The Reverend Canon George W. Brandt, Jr., shared an article with me on Thursday, July 1, from a British website I didn’t know, UnHerd Daily. The article in question is by the Reverend Canon Dr. Giles Frazier, rector of St. Mary Newington, London. It’s called “My Shamefully Silent Church.” Its subtitle is “As football terraces [soccer stadiums] sing out, compliant Bishops surrender to Government dictat.” What Canon Frazier is talking about, of course, is the stricture forbidding congregational singing.

FROM THE RECTOR: OPENINGS

First, I want to tell you about new guidance for in-person worship. Last Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo “lifted [COVID-19 restrictions] across commercial settings, including retail, food services, offices, gyms and fitness centers, amusement and family entertainment, hair salons, barbershops, personal care services, among others,” for individuals who are fully vaccinated. Our next steps for in-person worship are these:

FROM THE RECTOR: CHANGES AHEAD

On Friday night, June 18, the New York Yankees didn’t beat the Oakland Athletics, but the stadium was open for full capacity. Masks and safe-distancing were not required for the first time since the pandemic arrived. New York State is now following the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.

FROM THE RECTOR: FUNERAL FOR EDGAR FISHER WELLS, JR., PRIEST

The Reverend Canon Edgar Wells served as rector of Saint Mary’s from January 1, 1979 through December 31, 1997. He died at home on Trinity Sunday, June 7, 2020. Because of the epidemic, his funeral has, unfortunately, been long delayed. On May 21, 2021, Father Edgar Wells’s cousin, Robin Clifford, and his companion, Evan Wong, wrote me to ask if Father Wells’s funeral could be scheduled for Saturday, August 21, 2021. Putting it on the parish schedule was no problem. It will take place at 10:00 AM that day here in the church. The service should be over by 11:00 AM. What I needed to find out was whether an interment of his ashes could take place on Saturday at 11:30 AM. It took me a while to get in touch with the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine—my delay, not theirs—but I’ve now been informed that that timing will not be a problem.

FROM THE RECTOR: CORPUS CHRISTI 2021

The traditional day to celebrate Corpus Christi is the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. In 1871, almost seven months after Saint Mary’s first church opened on December 8, 1870, Corpus Christi was June 4. The annual conference of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament was held at the new church that day. Corpus Christi has been celebrated here ever since.

FROM THE RECTOR: MANY THINGS TO REPORT

First topic—New Video and Sound System: At the meeting of Saint Mary’s Board of Trustees on Monday, May 24, 2021, the first item of business was a presentation by Christopher Howatt, office manager, on proposals from Audible Difference, Inc. (ADI), to install professional-grade video equipment for live-streaming and recording services, as well as a new sound system for the church. Board members MaryJane Boland, Clark Mitchell, Mark Risinger, and I have been working with Chris to evaluate and recommend this proposal. ADI has installed systems at a number of religious institutions, including the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and the Brick Presbyterian Church.

FROM THE RECTOR: NEW GUIDANCE FOR IN-PERSON WORSHIP

On May 5, 2021, the bishop of New York, the Right Reverend Andrew M.L. Dietsche, wrote to the diocese, updating the diocesan guidelines concerning public worship at this point in the COVID-19 epidemic. He was responding, in part, to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s announcement that beginning on May 19, “New York State will adopt the CDC’s ‘Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People’ for most business and public settings.” This means, that “given that the CDC has advised that fully vaccinated individuals do not need to wear masks and over 52 percent of New Yorkers over the age of 18 are fully vaccinated, the State will authorize businesses to continue to require masks for all in their establishments, consistent with the CDC guidance. In most settings, vaccinated individuals will not be required to wear a mask. Unvaccinated individuals, under both CDC and state guidance must wear masks in all public settings. The Department of Health strongly recommends masks in indoor settings where vaccination status of individuals is unknown. Mask requirements by businesses must adhere to all applicable federal and state laws and regulations.”

FROM THE RECTOR: COMFORT AND STRENGTH

The title for this article includes two words that appear in the collect for Sunday, May 16, 2021, “The Seventh Sunday of Easter: the Sunday after Ascension Day.” But before I turn to the subject of those words, let me begin with a confession: I am very thankful that it has not been my duty to introduce a new Prayer Book to any congregation. Although the Episcopal Church widely adopted the 1979 Prayer Book, some people didn’t use the book, and some left the church. A not insignificant minority of Episcopalians also left the church after the 1976 General Convention authorized the ordination of women. Some of us have lived through turbulent times.

FROM THE RECTOR: GOD’S LOVE AND FORGIVENESS

In 1976, the Reverend Dr. Charles P. Price (1920–1999) was asked by the Standing Liturgical Commission to draft a document on behalf of the commission. When completed, Dr. Price’s work was issued with the following rather lengthy title, Prayer Book Studies 29: Introducing the Draft Proposed Book: A Study of the Significance of the Draft Proposed Book of Common Prayer for the Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship of the Episcopal Church (1976). I was a brand-new Episcopalian back then, and Prayer Book Studies 29 helped me to understand the services that were coming our way and to appreciate the scholarship and work done over many years to produce the new Prayer Book. The Draft Proposed Book of Common Prayer (1976) would gain wide acceptance across the church after it was approved by two consecutive meetings in 1976 and 1979 of the General Convention.

FROM THE RECTOR: MAY 2021

In the rectory, there is a collection of bound copies of the former parish magazine Ave and bound copies of service bulletins from 1917 through 1976. One of Saint Mary’s traditions that I encountered when I came here was the crowning on a Sunday in May of the statue of Our Lady before the conclusion of the Solemn Mass. This May devotion to Mary began here in 1936. This is the note about the service of Evening Prayer that was held on Sunday, May 17, 1936:

FROM DR. DAVID HURD: THE ORGAN AT SAINT MARY’S

The organ at Saint Mary’s is deservedly known as a world-class instrument; praised by organists and those who appreciate organ music far and wide and recognized as one of the treasures of the parish. It has supported decades of inspiring music and been recorded by an array of concert organists. It was originally installed in 1932 as Opus 891 of the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company of Boston, under the direction of the legendary American organ builder G. Donald Harrison. Revisions to the instrument have occurred in 1942 and, more recently completed in 2002, under the direction of Lawrence Trupiano, who continues to keep the instrument in excellent working order.

FROM THE RECTOR: ONE MONTH AT A TIME

For many years during the summer months, I have drafted the monthly clergy schedules for colleagues and the monthly service schedules for the parish website for the coming year. I have just reworked the May 2021 service schedule for the website using the May 2020 schedule that I drafted in the summer of 2019 as a starting point. It will come as no surprise that the schedules for May 2020 and May 2021 are much simpler than the one for May 2019.

FROM THE RECTOR: CHARLES EDWARD JENKINS III, Bishop, July 27, 1951–April 9, 2021

The Right Reverend Charles Edward Jenkins III, X Bishop of Louisiana, died at home in St. Francisville, Louisiana, on Friday night, April 9, 2021. He was 69 years old and succumbed to pancreatic cancer. He is survived by his wife Louise Jenkins, their son Edward and his wife Beth, and their daughters, and his son Benjamin. Charles was a gifted pastor and intensely loyal to the church. He knew how to laugh and to tell and retell stories. He will be greatly missed by those whose lives he touched. I hear his voice and his laugh in my mind. I hear him saying the names of his wife, his sons, and the friends we shared. I visited Louise and Charles many times in New Orleans. My husband Richard Mohammed and I were guests at their home in retirement. So many will miss him so much.

FROM THE RECTOR: EASTER 2021

I write on the afternoon of the Sunday of the Resurrection. It’s been a hectic and glorious week for colleagues, staff, and volunteers at Saint Mary’s. My thankfulness and pride for how the week unfolded makes me happy and peaceful. From Palm Sunday through Easter Day, we celebrated the rites of Holy Week with integrity. I was especially pleased with our celebration on Easter Eve. We began at 6:00 PM because of concerns about safety in the city for those coming here to worship. No one in the church at that hour would not think that the sun had not already set—it was that dark.

FROM THE RECTOR: HOLY WEEK BEGINS

Last year, when Saint Mary’s was closed for public worship between March 15, and June 30, 2020, Br. Damien Joseph’s knowledge of live-streaming opened up a new ministry for us: online worship. As I write to you on Friday afternoon, March 26, the Easter 2021 Appeal packet is in the mail. As you will see, the appeal concerns the acquisition of the equipment needed to support and expand this ministry for people who know us and those who may be seeking an online worship community like our own. You can read about it and make a donation here.