FROM MARYJANE BOLAND ON BEHALF OF THE AIDS WALK TEAM

In its 20 years of walking, the Saint Mary’s AIDS Walk team has encountered every kind of weather—heat, cold, wind, rain, humidity—and today was the reward: blue skies with fluffy white clouds and temperatures not yet summer hot. Smoky Mary’s gold tee-shirts were joined by Trinity’s blue shirts and every kind of festive attire. We were among the first teams over the start line and, as we progressed up the east side of Central Park, we encountered music groups, cheerleaders, water stations and lots and lots of colleagues from all over the city standing up against HIV+/AIDS. A glorious happy day to make our statement against this dread disease.

Seventeen of our 18-person team walked today, while Father Matt was at Saint Mary’s to celebrate Mass. We had four people new to our team and 13 experienced walkers. We also had two dogs walk with us—14-year-old Hudson and 7-month-old Musigny. Some of us who are acolytes had to return to Saint Mary’s for rehearsal for next Sunday’s Pentecost Mass with Bishop Shin.

All of our team are deeply grateful to all of our supporters who put us over the top. And we aren’t done yet. As I write this on the day of the Walk, we have surpassed our goal of $60,000 by $2,192 and counting. If you had planned to contribute but haven’t made it yet, we have several more weeks to raise money. You can click here to support our team.

Official final results will not be known until July—but right now Saint Mary’s is NUMBER ONE! Thanks to everyone who has supported our team!

PARISH PRAYERS

We pray for the people and clergy of our sister parish, the Church of All Saints’, Margaret Street, London, and for the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, in the Anglican cycle of prayer.

We pray for those who are to be baptized, especially Florence, and for those preparing for confirmation or reception, especially Elena, Sam, and Yue.

We pray for those who are preparing for ordination, especially Alden and Andrew; and Monica Clare, religious.

We pray for those who have asked us for our prayers, for Jeff, Sara, Joe, Derick, Harley, John, Malany, Jim, Phil, Laura, Marley, Willie, Sue, Sumar, Christine, Emilie, Sharon, Monique, Cassius, Lisa, Sue, Ruth Ann, Rosemary, Holly, Becky, Bill, Grady, Chris, Violet, Pat, Allen, Nadia, Giovanna, Ronald, Jose, Ben, Russell, Robert, Sandy, Desarae, David, Tony, Jan, Carlos, Quincy, Leroy, Margaret, Bob, and Robert; James, Victoria, and Laura Katherine, religious; Lind, deacon; and Beth, Jay, and Stephen, priests.

We pray for the repose of the souls of those who have died, especially Catherine; and Thomas, bishop, and for those whose year’s mind is on May 24: Alleine Ward (1917), Mary Sanders Barrett (1934), Pearl Yerkes Fellowes (1982), and Raymond Lee Duncan (2001).

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE

The Rt. Rev. Thomas E. Breidenthal, ninth bishop of Southern Ohio, died last week on Ascension Day. Many in our parish community may remember when he served as an assisting priest at Saint Mary’s. From the announcement on Episcopal News Service: “Elected bishop in 2006 and consecrated the following year, Breidenthal served the Diocese of Southern Ohio until his retirement in 2020. A theologian, teacher and pastor, he was known for his intellectual depth, his commitment to formation and his care for the people of the diocese. He was a leader in the wider Episcopal Church, notably for his support and leadership in the blessing of same-sex unions, including overturning a diocesan ban in 2009. In 2015, he was nominated for election as presiding bishop. Breidenthal advanced the church’s ongoing work of racial reconciliation through Beloved Community, commissioning a Task Force on Racial Reparations in 2020 that continues today as the Commission for Reparative Justice. He was a gifted teacher and writer, and the author of Christian Households: The Sanctification of Nearness and Sacred Unions: A New Guide to Lifelong Commitment. He was ordained to the diaconate and priesthood in the Diocese of Oregon in 1981 and 1982, respectively, going on to serve congregations and an Episcopal school in Oregon; Oxford, England; and New York. He was an Episcopal Church Foundation Fellow at Oxford University, where he earned a Doctor of Philosophy in theology. From 1992 to 2001, he served as the John Henry Hobart Professor of Christian Ethics and Moral Theology at The General Theological Seminary in New York City, later serving as dean of religious life and of the chapel at Princeton University. Breidenthal is survived by his wife, Margaret, whom he married in 1984, as well as their two daughters, Magdalene and Lucy, and their families and friends.” Please keep Bishop Breidenthal and his family in your prayers.

AROUND THE PARISH

Bp. Shin visits this Sunday! — On the Day of Pentecost, this Sunday, May 24, The Rt. Rev. Allen K. Shin, Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of New York, will be the celebrant and preacher at the 11:00 AM Solemn Mass. Three of our parishioners are preparing to be confirmed or received by Bishop Shin and a baptism is also planned.

Ascensiontide Novena — As a parish, we are praying a novena to the Holy Spirit from Ascension to Pentecost. Click this link for the prayers and more details about novenas.

Catherine of Siena and Zoom Theology — For those unable to attend Fr. Matt’s class on Saint Catherine of Siena, he is giving a summary presentation at our sister parish’s Zoom Theology series this Saturday, May 23, at 2:00 PM NYC (7:00 PM London). The details and Zoom link can be found here on All Saints Margaret Street’s website.

Memorial Day — This coming Monday is Memorial Day, and we will be following our Federal Holiday Schedule. The church will be open from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM and Mass is offered 10:00 AM.

Corpus Christi — Mark your calendars for Sunday, June 7, when we will celebrate Corpus Christi. Weather permitting, we will process with the Blessed Sacrament to Times Square at the conclusion of the 11:00 AM Solemn Mass.

Neighbors in Need — As we enter warmer weather, you may have lost interest in your winter coat, but we have not. We can store coats until next winter—and we would love to! Please bring us your lightly-used coats and jackets. We accept all kinds of casual clothing: jackets, pants, tops and shoes, but we do not need professional clothing or children’s clothing. Thanks to many wonderful cash donations, we are able to purchase toiletries and underwear. Please speak to MaryJane Boland or Marie Rosseels for more information or send an email to neighbors@stmvnyc.org.

THE DIOCESE AND WIDER CHURCH

Ordination of Sr. Monica Clare, CSJB — Good friend of the parish and former residential member of our community, Sr. Monica Clare, CSJB, will be ordained to the priesthood on Saturday, June 20, at 10:00 AM at the Community of Saint John Baptist’s convent in Mendham, NJ. All Saint Marians are welcome to attend, but please do RSVP via email to Sr. Monica Clare, CSJB, so that the convent can prepare.

The Debut of Dr. Hurd’s concert opera at Trinity Wall Street on May 31 — Commissioned by Trinity for the 250th birthday of the United States, Great Awakenings: John Henry Hobart and America is a powerful new concert opera by acclaimed composer (and former Trinity organist) David Hurd. With a libretto by Christopher Dylan Herbert, a former member of the Trinity Choir, the work brings to life a pivotal era in American religious and civic history by celebrating the visionary leadership of Bishop Hobart (1775–1830), Trinity’s seventh rector (1816-1830). Click here for more details and to RSVP. Dr. Hurd notes that while the website refers to it as an oratorio, it is in fact a concert opera.

ABOUT THE MUSIC ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST

Composers of organ music in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries produced a wealth of pieces based upon the melodies of the well-known hymns of their time. Some of these were plainsong melodies or chorales based upon plainsong. Others were tunes of the time or adaptations of contemporary popular songs, but they all took on a life of their own when sung with sacred texts in worship. Even instrumental settings of these melodies conjured the devotional intent of these sacred songs, and such pieces were used as introductions to actual singing, or as substitutions for sung stanzas. Today, the melodies of some of these chorales are not as widely recognized as they were in times past, but many organ pieces based upon them continue to have great expressive power. Johann Sebastian Bach’s setting of the chorale Komm, heiliger Geist, Herre Gott (Come, Holy Ghost, Lord God), Sunday’s postlude, is one of Bach’s Great Eighteen Leipzig settings. It delivers the rushing wind and burning flame of Pentecost in a brilliant and energetic torrent of counterpoint which dances and cavorts above the chorale melody, stated on the pedals in long notes. Whether or not one recognizes the melody, the excitement of Pentecost can be felt in this music.

The setting of the Mass is Missa Aeterna Christi Munera by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525–1594). Palestrina was both a source and inspiration for many of the composers who followed him and a practitioner of already established musical practice. He stood on foundations largely laid by the Netherlandish composers Guillaume Dufay (c. 1397–1474) and Josquin des Prez (c. 1450–1521) and is credited with having set the canons for renaissance polyphony and the enduring standards for Catholic liturgical music. Among his hundreds of compositions are 105 Masses, most of which were published in thirteen volumes between 1554 and 1601. Missa Aeterna Christi Munera is a four-voice setting based upon a plainsong melody for the hymn commemorating Apostles and Martyrs attributed to Saint Ambrose (340–397). As one often finds in renaissance polyphonic Masses, an additional voice is added for a richer final Agnus Dei.

The Communion Motet is a setting for four voices of the Collect For Clergy and People (Book of Common Prayer, p. 817). It was composed by David Hurd, organist and music director of Saint Mary’s, in 1990 in thanksgiving for the clerical and lay ministries of All Saints Church, Manhattan, where he was Director of Music at the time. According to Marion J. Hatchett’s Commentary on the American Prayer Book, this prayer dates from the Gelasian Sacramentary, Liber sacramentorum Romanae ecclesiae (Book of Sacraments of the Church of Rome), compiled near Paris around 750. It entered the Book of Common Prayer in 1559 and, in the 1662 Prayer Book revision, was appointed for daily use at Morning and Evening Prayer. Since the issuance of the American Book of Common Prayer 1928, the daily recitation of this prayer is provided for but no longer rubrically required. The present language of this prayer dates from the American Prayer Book of 1789. 

The Post-Communion Hymn on Sunday is a four-stanza modern paraphrase of the ninth-century Latin Veni Creator Spiritus set to music by McNeil Robinson (1943–2015). McNeil Robinson, an internationally celebrated organist, composer, improvisateur, and teacher, headed the organ department at the Manhattan School of Music for many years in addition to serving religious institutions. In 1965, while still a student at the Juilliard School he began his long and well-remembered associations both with the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin and with Park Avenue Synagogue. He left Saint Mary’s in 1982 and subsequently served at Park Avenue Christian Church and at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church until failing health necessitated his retirement. He is represented in The Hymnal 1982 by settings of the Christmas hymn While shepherds watched their flocks by night and seven items of service music including the setting of the contemporary Lord’s Prayer most widely sung throughout the Church.

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Saint Mary’s is a vibrant Anglo-Catholic witness in the heart of NYC. With our identity in Christ and a preference for the poor, we are an inclusive, diverse community called to love God and each other for the life of the world.

This edition of The Angelus was written and edited by Father Matt Jacobson, except as noted. Father Matt is also responsible for formatting it on the parish website and distributing it via mail and e-mail, with the assistance of parish volunteer, Clint Best. If you have an idea for an article that you would like to publish in an upcoming issue of The Angelus, Father Matt would be happy to discuss it with you.