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.

We know from The Arrow, a parish newsletter published from October 1891 through March 1899, that the celebration of Easter Eve with the Blessing of the Paschal Candle and Solemn Mass at Saint Mary’s dates back to April 18, 1897. Father Thomas McKee Brown was rector. The earliest issue with Easter information is from April 1894, when First Vespers of Easter was offered on Easter Eve.

The Sunday of the Resurrection is the heart of the Christian Year. It’s the first Sunday that becomes a commemoration in its own right (Bradshaw and Johnson, The Origins of Feasts, Fasts and Seasons in Early Christianity [2011], xiii–iv). I suspect there were other Anglo-Catholic congregations, but not many, who were reaching back to the richness of Western Christianity and bringing it forward for their day. Happy Easter! —Stephen Gerth

YOUR PRAYERS ARE ASKED FOR Jonathan, Ana, David, Thomas, Emerson, Joe, Christopher, Denise, James, Matthew, Burton, Joe, Michelle, Leslie, Margaret, Rita, Ken, Loretta, Caryn, Christine, Marilouise, Quincy, Florette, John, Shalim, and Dennis; for all who suffer from COVID-19; for Matthew and Louis, priests; and Charles, bishop, for all those who work for the common good, and for all the members and friends of this parish. Grant that we may serve Christ in them and love one another as he loves us . . . GRANT THEM PEACE . . . April 4: 1885 Maud Reynolds; 1886 Irene Bevan; 1903 Charles Augustus Davidson; 1924 Edward Livingston Coster; 1958 Claude Arundel; 1966 Paul Bernard Baitle; 1987 Clara D. Lewis; 1992 Thelma Bradford Ingersoll.

STEWARDSHIP CAMPAIGN 2021 . . . Our stewardship campaign has come to an end. We were not able to achieve our $400,000.00 goal, but we recognize that we are living in a difficult time, and we are all doing the best we can. We live in hope and trust in God. Still, we continue to ask you for your help. We would welcome your financial pledge if you have not yet pledged for 2021. and we are grateful to all those who continue to support Saint Mary’s so generously.

NEIGHBORS IN NEED . . . At our monthly Drop-by Days, we distribute clothing and toiletry and hygiene items to those in need in the Times Square neighborhood. Our next Drop-by Day is tentatively scheduled for Friday, April 16. Volunteers work from 1:30 PM until 3:30 PM. Our guests are invited into the church at 2:00 PM and we close our doors at 3:00 PM. We need eight (8) volunteers for each Drop-by. If you would like to volunteer, please contact Marie Rosseels, MaryJane Boland, or Father Jay Smith.

AIDS WALK NEW YORK 2021 . . . The New York City AIDS Walk 2021 will take place on Sunday, May 16. For the second time because of the pandemic, the Walk will be held as a virtual event. The Saint Mary’s AIDS Walk team invites you to join this effort and to provide financial support. To do both—to join and to contribute—you can click here. Despite the previous success of Saint Mary’s AIDS Walk team as fundraisers for the walk, we won’t be able to form a parish team this year. We hope to be back as a team in 2022, and even though we won’t have a full-fledged team this year, we encourage you to contribute to this vitally important cause.

As COVID-19 spread, GMHC adapted most of its services to virtual and created new programs where it saw its clients struggling. The COVID Destroyers Program began this past summer with GMHC staff and volunteers distributing masks and educational materials. Today, GMHC reaches more than 16,000 people in New York City and their services include mental-health support. With its clients among those New Yorkers most grappling with increased anxiety, grief, loss, depression, fear, and social isolation, GMHC uses phone and video-conferencing to continue to provide mental-health and substance-use counseling to hundreds of clients each week.

Saint Mary’s AIDS Walk team has been the most successful church group walking for many years. In 2019, the last year of in-person walking, our team ranked #4 out of all teams walking and raised $62,757 with the support of parishioners and friends and family from all over the country. We hope for an equal degree of success in 2022. Thank you to all those who have supported this outreach effort over the years.

EASTER FLOWERS . . . Donations for the festive flowers in and around the church, in any amount, are most welcome. Please use an Easter Flowers envelope at the usher's table or contact Chris Howatt in the parish office about making your donation. Volunteers are also welcome for a variety of needs – creative and non-creative—such as getting branches and flowers into water upon delivery, creating decorations for Easter, the watering of arrangements, and eventual dismantling of everything. Volunteers and extra help are most welcome during Easter Week up to, and including, Sunday, April 11. Please contact Brendon Hunter if you would like to assist. All volunteers must wear a mask and abide by the Church’s COVID safety policies.

ALTAR FLOWERS FOR MANY DATES IN 2021 ARE AVAILABLE . . . This includes Sundays, April 18 and April 25, May Crowning (the first Sunday in May), and feasts such as Pentecost, Trinity, and our observance of Corpus Christi on June 6. The suggested donation is $250. Donors often give flowers in memory, thanksgiving, or celebration of people or life events they would like to pay tribute to. Please contact Chris Howatt, if you would like to donate.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S . . . Sunday, April 4, Easter Day, the Adult Education will not meet on Easter Day or on Sunday, April 11 11:00 AM. The main doors of the church open at 10:00 AM and close at 1:00 PM. The preacher at Mass on Sunday morning will be the Reverend Stephen Gerth. The service is played by Dr. David Hurd. Dr. Hurd will be joined by four members of the Choir of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin . . . Tuesday, April 6, Racism Discussion Groups, 4:00 PM and 7:00 PM via Zoom . . . Sunday, April 11, The Second Sunday of Easter, Holy Eucharist 11:00 AM.

AROUND THE PARISH . . . Matthew Aaron Lobe was baptized during the Easter Vigil on Saturday evening, April 3. Matthew—whose last name is pronounced Low-Bee—moved to New York with his partner, Jeremy Jelinek, last year. Matthew grew up in the Northwest. He is a musician and designer and is currently working for a design company downtown. He and Jeremy, who is studying organ at Juilliard, live in Hell’s Kitchen and have been worshipping with us on most Sundays for several months now. Matthew and Jeremy will both be teaching Sunday sessions in our adult-education series this spring. It is wonderful to have them both here at Saint Mary’s. We rejoice that Matthew was baptized here. Please keep him in your prayers, and, if you haven’t met him yet, please introduce yourself when you get a chance. Welcome, Matthew and Jeremy! . . . The Flower Guild welcomes volunteers for Easter Week. Help is needed for the watering of arrangements, and the eventual dismantling of everything. Please contact Brendon Hunter if you would like to assist. All volunteers must wear a mask and abide by the Church’s COVID safety policies.

MUSIC AT SAINT MARY’S . . . The organ prelude on Easter Day is from the Orgelbüchlein (“Little Organ Book”) of J. S. Bach (1685–1750). The Orgelbüchlein is a collection of forty-six chorale preludes mostly composed between 1708 and 1717 when Bach was organist at the ducal court in Weimar. Although the original plan was for a collection of 164 settings of chorales for the church year, the realized collection nonetheless spans the yearly liturgical cycle impressively. Christ ist erstanden (“Christ is arisen”) is a three-stanza Easter chorale, found in The Hymnal 1982 at #184. Its origin is medieval, based upon the Easter Sequence Victimae Paschali laudes. Bach’s Orgelbüchlein setting generously treats each stanza separately, the melody always being represented in the uppermost of the four-voice counterpoint.

The setting of the Mass this morning is by Calvin Hampton (1938–1984). Hampton was a vibrant member of the New York music scene his entire adult life. A brilliant organist and imaginative composer, Hampton was music director at Calvary Church, Gramercy Park, from the early 1960s until shortly before his death. His distinctive art-song styled hymn settings and liturgical service music brought a distinctive spark to congregational singing in the years after the Second Vatican Council and the ecumenical wave of liturgical renewal which followed. Hampton’s Mass for the New Rite, composed especially for the Episcopal and Roman Catholic Eucharistic common texts which took hold in the early 1970s, was published in 1976. The Creed from this setting, revised for the text of the Book of Common Prayer 1979 and included in The Hymnal 1982, has become a staple for singing congregations far and wide, including the congregation of Saint Mary the Virgin, New York City. The other portions of Hampton’s Mass are less well known, perhaps because they appear challenging for congregational singing and were published at a time when there was little interest in choral settings of the new rites. On Sunday morning the choir will sing the Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei of Hampton’s Mass.

This joyful Eastertide, Sunday’s Communion motet, is an Easter carol with words by George R. Woodward (1848–1934). It is based upon a hymn by the Dutch theologian, Joachim Oudaan (1628–1692), first published in 1684. Woodward was an Anglican priest remembered for writing and translating religious verse. His musical activities included playing the cello and the euphonium as well as bellringing. He harmonized melodies for some of his writings but more frequently collaborated with Charles Wood for musical arrangement. Charles Wood (1866–1926) had a decided influence on the development of English church music in his time. His principal composition teachers were Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924) and Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848–1918), and his students included Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) and Herbert Howells (1892–1983). Irish by birth, Wood received his early musical training as a treble chorister in the choir of the Church of Ireland’s Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. In 1883, he became a member of the inaugural class of the Royal College of Music. His career included teaching music, directing, and playing the organ at several colleges. After Stanford’s death in 1924, Wood succeeded his mentor as Professor of Music at Cambridge. Wood’s compositions are varied and include eight string quartets, but he is chiefly remembered for his church music and his arrangements of carols.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR . . . Monday, April 5, Easter Monday, Mass 12:10 PM. The parish offices are closed. The church will be open from 11:00 AM until 2:00 PM It is a holiday for the resident priests. The Daily Office will be prayed privately . . . Thursday, May 13, Ascension Day, Mass 12:10 PM . . . Sunday, May 23, The Day of Pentecost, Mass 11:00 AM.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION . . . Beginning on April 18, and continuing until Sunday, May 30, we will begin a new adult-education series on Sunday mornings at 9:30 AM, To Read and Mark: How We Interpret Scripture and Why It Matters. The classes will be led by a new teacher each Sunday. We will not be focusing just on modern historical-critical methods of interpreting the Bible, but rather on the variety of ways in which Christians have used and interpreted the Bible over the centuries: to create art and music, shape liturgy, found religious orders, discuss morality, prepare baptismal candidates, and care for the newly baptized.

This is the schedule for the first four of this seven-part series:  Sunday, April 18, Dr. Mark Risinger, a musicologist who sings in the Choir of Saint Mary’s, will discuss the use of biblical texts in one of Handel’s oratorios or one of Bach’s passions . . . Sunday, April 25, Father Matthew Jacobson, will discuss an example of patristic biblical interpretation, perhaps focusing on a text of Saint Ambrose of Milan . . . Sunday, May 2, Mr. Jeremy Jelinek, a degree candidate in organ at Juilliard and the interim organist at the Church of the Epiphany, will discuss the use of the Bible in some of the Gregorian chants that we hear at Mass on Sundays here at Saint Mary’s . . . Sunday, May 9, Brother Thomas Bushnell, BSG, will talk about the ways in which medieval authors read the Bible differently from their modern successors, focusing on the advantages of those medieval interpretive techniques. In succeeding weeks, we will hear from Sister Monica Clare, C.S.J.B, who will be teaching via Zoom; Mr. Matthew Lobe; and Ms. Mary Robison. Details to follow.

I am looking forward to hearing more about these very different techniques and points of view, and I am very grateful that so many members and friends of the parish have agreed to share their time and expertise with us. Please join us. All are welcome. —Jay Smith

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.

WORSHIPPING SAFELY AT SAINT MARY’S: If you are at all unwell, please do not come to church. If you are experiencing symptoms, contact your primary-care physician and get tested. If you have a fever of 103.5, which is not being handled by an analgesic, and/or you are having difficulty breathing (by difficulty we mean you must stop talking in order to focus on your breathing), go to an emergency room immediately. That said, we are very happy to be able to welcome you to worship with us here at Saint Mary’s (11:00 AM on Sunday, 12:10 PM Monday–Saturday).

When you arrive, please fill out the contact sheet at the ushers’ table. Please take a seat in one of the open pews, and feel free to ask an usher, one of the brothers, or a member of the clergy if you have questions about seating, Communion, or safe-distancing. Face masks are required while in the church building. We know all too well that many of these precautions are tedious, but we accept them as a way to keep ourselves and each other safe and healthy. We continue to pray for those who are sick and for a swift end to the epidemic.

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 mail and e-mail, with the assistance of Christopher Howatt and parish volunteer, Clint Best.