FROM DR. CHARLES MORGAN:
SAWUBONA. COMMUNITY HELPING COMMUNITY.

I grew up in a small village in Jamaica where the family ethos was to help those who were less fortunate. This was reinforced in my high school whose motto was Sic Luceat Lux (“Let your light so shine”). Each new term began with the reading from Matthew’s gospel (5:16) to remind us who was the source of our light.

FROM THE PARISH TREASURER: SOME WAYS TO HELP SAINT MARY’S

Those of you who were at the annual congregational meeting or who read the written report know that Saint Mary’s is operating under a significant budget deficit this year as we emerge from a difficult couple of years and try to invest in the parish’s future. All this means that your financial support is more important than ever, and here are a few things to consider when planning how you might help this year.

FROM FATHER SAMMY WOOD, INTERIM RECTOR

On a family trip to England a few years ago, I dragged Renee and the kids on a train ride to a small out of the way place called the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, partly because I wanted to see the Ascension Chapel.

That image—our ascending Lord’s nail-pierced feet dangling from the chapel ceiling—seems to smack of an unscientific, pre-Enlightenment view of the cosmos, a naive belief that heaven is “up there” somewhere. Douglas Farrow, in his Ascension Theology, says:

“It must be admitted that the doctrine of the Ascension, if construed along Lukan lines at all, is something of an embarrassment in the age of the telescope and the space probe . . .”

FROM THE AIDS WALK TEAM

The Walk is finally here! This Sunday, Saint Mary’s AIDS Walk Team will gather after Solemn Mass and walk the Central Park route (a few hours after the other teams). You will probably notice some parishioners on Sunday at Mass dressed and ready for the Walk.

Given the challenges of the current fundraising environment, we initially set a modest goal of $40,000. This was indeed a modest number when considering that in 2019, the last year before the pandemic, we raised $62,757. Nevertheless, that’s where we set our hopes and we ended up beating and raising the goal twice this year! First at $45,000 and then at $50,000. We are currently at $52,431 and rank second overall among teams in the event.

FROM FATHER SMITH: WHY DOES MARY WEAR A CROWN?

I had lunch this week with a priest friend, who knows his theology, is a fine preacher, and has a particular devotion to the Blessed Virgin, especially as she is known as Our Lady of Guadalupe. I asked him, as one does, “Why do we call Mary queen of heaven?” He said without delay, “Because Jesus is a king.”

On the Sundays in Advent, we hear these words, “Because you sent your beloved Son to redeem us from sin and death, and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life; that when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.” (BCP 378)

FROM FATHER JACOBSON: ON THE MYSTERY OF BAPTISM

One of the well-known figures in antiquity associated with sacrament of baptism is Saint Ambrose of Milan. In part, it is because he famously baptized Saint Augustine at the Easter Vigil in the year 387, after having played an important role in his conversion, but also because some of his writings help give us a sense of fourth-century baptismal theology and liturgy.

EASTERTIDE: THE PRACTICE OF JOY

Practice resurrection.
(Wendell Berry, from “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front”)

My mother, of blessed memory, was fond of quoting Bible verses to (or, rather, at) me. I’ll admit it could be infuriating for a 13-year-old to hear “Honor thy father and mother” (Exodus 20.12) whenever I disobeyed, or “All things work together for good to them that love God” (Romans 8.28) every time I inevitably missed the cut for an all-star team. But I’m grateful Mom ingrained a vocabulary of Sacred Scripture in me such that I readily call to mind passages like this one: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” (Psalm 126.6) I need to remember that this time of year.

HOLY WEEK & EASTER 2022

Austin Farrer (1904–1968), Anglican priest, philosopher, and theologian

Christ’s parable of the shepherd escapes us not by being obscure, but by being so plain. The meaning is so familiar that we overlook it. What does he say? A man cares naturally for his own things. He does not have to make himself care. The shepherd who has bought the ground and fenced the fold and tended the lambs, whose own the sheep are to keep or to sell, cares for them. He would run some risk, rather than see them mauled; if he had only a heavy stick in his hand, he would beat off the wolf. Christ does not boast, as a man among men, that he loves mankind more than any other man, through a higher refinement of virtue. He says that he cares for us as no one else can, because we are his. We do not belong to any other man; we belong to him. His dying for us in this world is the natural effect of his unique care. It is the act of our Creator.

From The Crown of the Year, Weekly Paragraphs for the Holy Sacrament: Easter ii

FROM THE INTERIM RECTOR: HOLY WEEK CAN CHANGE A LIFE

My first Holy Week as an Episcopalian was two decades ago in a little church on the North Shore of Boston. I don’t know what I expected, but I couldn’t know how profoundly I’d be affected by that experience.

I’m living proof that Holy Week can change a life.

FROM FATHER SMITH: HOLY WEEK 2022

The Jewish month of Nisan begins tonight, April 1, at sundown. Nisan is the “first of the months of the year” (Exodus 12:14), although, perhaps oddly, the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, takes place in the fall. (The Jewish calendar has its complexities, as does ours.)

The word “nisan” apparently has its roots in the languages of ancient Israel’s neighbors and means something like “the month of first fruits.” It is a springtime month, a month of new growth, new birth.

FROM THE INTERIM RECTOR: WHY SHOULD I SERVE AT SAINT MARY’S?

It’s never an accident when someone comes into a church.

Everyone in a church family bears with them unique sets of needs and of gifts. That’s one reason God places specific people in specific families – because they have the gifts we desperately need, and we need a place to practice the gifts we have that the world needs. At Saint Mary’s, we need the gifts you bring into our family, and there are myriad ways to exercise those gifts to serve this parish and for the life of the world.

FROM DR. HURD: MUSIC IN LENT

The Book of Common Prayer describes Lent as “a season of penitence and fasting” and a time of reconciliation of the Church’s fellowship by penitence and forgiveness. “The message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior” is the theme to which the congregation is called in the Ash Wednesday liturgy. (BCP, p.264ff). Ash Wednesday and the followingol five Sundays are assigned collects which, in addition to the assigned scripture, give focus to the worship on those days. Among other things, worshipers are called to pray that God would “create and make in us new and contrite hearts,” deliver us from temptations, bring back those who have gone astray, defend us from adversities, and nourish us with true bread. These prayers are supported and contextualized by the instruction of scripture and, as always, music has the capacity of collaborating with the words and actions of corporate worship to deepen the church’s devotion.

FROM FATHER JACOBSON: STATIONS OF THE CROSS

Years ago, when I was in the mountains of northern Italy skiing with Meredith, we decided to take a break one day and instead went hiking. It happened to be a Friday in Lent, and at some point along the way, I said something to her about how we were missing Stations of the Cross at Saint Mary’s back in New York. At the time, I was a parishioner at Christ and Saint Stephen’s in the Upper West Side, but I worked in midtown and would sometimes come to Saint Mary’s for the weekday Masses and also for Stations in Lent.

FROM THE INTERIM RECTOR: CH-CH-CHANGES

A fortnight into my tenure as your interim rector, I’m finally starting to learn my way around the rectory, the neighborhood, and— more importantly— the liturgy. Saint Mary’s reputation for exquisite worship is certainly well-deserved, and it is, and will always be, an honor to pray with you whenever we gather for worship.

FROM THE INTERIM RECTOR: NEIGHBORS IN NEED

The Swiss Reformed theologian Emil Brunner is purported to have said once, “The Church exists by mission as fire exists by burning.”

Brunner’s quote serves to raise an incisive question: Where no mission work is being done, is the church really being the church?

Saint Mary’s is proud to be the church in and for Times Square, an outpost of the kingdom of God in this vibrant urban area. And as the church here, Saint Mary’s has a rich history of service in the neighborhood because deep in our Anglo-Catholic DNA is a commitment to serving the least, the lost, the lonely, and the left-behind.

FROM THE INTERIM RECTOR: “ENTERING UPON THIS WORK”

First, let me say thank you!

Thank you to the staff who’ve so graciously welcomed me to New York, and thanks to each of you and to the Board for the trust you’re placing in me to be part of the team to lead and serve alongside you during this period of transition at Saint Mary’s. I arrived on Thursday last and have slowly been getting acquainted with the rectory, church, and neighborhood—venturing a little farther out in each one every day. My family arrives over the course of this week—Renee, my wife, along with Patrick and Flannery, my two youngest children. (Elizabeth, the eldest, is at Rhodes College in Memphis, but you’ll get to meet her in the summer.) In fact, by the time you read this they should be here, and I can’t wait to introduce them to you and to this place I’ve already come to love in just a few days.

FROM FATHER SMITH: NEW VOICES

Members of the staff have been working this week to make sure that the rectory is ready for the arrival of our new interim rector, Father Sammy Wood. The cleaners have been here. We’ve figured out the alarm system. We think the space is ready for Father Sammy’s arrival this week. Our parish administrator, Chris Howatt, has arranged for a car to meet Father Sammy and his son, Patrick, at the airport. Father Sammy’s wife, Renée and their daughter, Flannery, will arrive next week. If all goes well, Chris will greet Father Sammy and Patrick in the rectory one evening this week and get them settled. Father will be at the Solemn Mass on Sunday morning, when he will be introduced to the parish. I look forward to meeting him this weekend.

FROM FATHER JACOBSON: ONLINE MINISTRY AT SAINT MARY’S

As you may have noticed, the location for joining us online for Solemn Mass changed this week. Rather than going to Vimeo’s website, our live-streaming is now on our own site. This new webpage can be reached under the Worship tab on the top of our homepage by clicking on Live-stream and Featured Videos. We are still using Vimeo, but they are now mostly behind the scenes. It is our hope that having the webcast, resources for the service, and archived videos all in one place will make it easier for those who are unable to worship with us in person.

FROM FATHER SMITH: THE CHURCH PREPARES FOR GENERAL CONVENTION

We have been looking inward rather a lot here at Saint Mary’s in recent days and understandably so. We’ve been dealing with the challenges presented by COVID-19, and we’ve now entered a time of transition following the retirement of our rector, Father Gerth. But it is never a good idea to ignore the needs and demands of the wider world altogether.

FROM FATHER SMITH: “HOLY ONES RIDING THAT OCEAN OF AIR”

As I write on Friday morning, January 21, we are more than halfway through the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which ends next Tuesday, on the Feast of the Conversion of Paul the Apostle. I confess that this year, and for some years past, I have wondered if prayers for unity are simply fruitless. Divisions between and among the churches are as deep as they have ever been. Some Christians seem to revel in the differences, broadcasting them as a badge of their doctrinal purity. I sometimes wonder if God has simply given up on us, leaving us to our bickering. Still, I’m not sure it’s ever a good idea to think that way.