FROM ROBERT McCORMICK: THE ASTOUNDING AEOLIAN-SKINNER

Parishioners, friends of Saint Mary’s and passers-by are all deeply appreciative of our Aeolian-Skinner organ.  It is truly something to treasure.  Not only is it an historically important instrument built by G. Donald Harrison, but also the match of this instrument and our incredible acoustic is hard to beat.  Beautiful, subtle, complex—and, can it ever make a lot of noise!  I have had numerous conversations with colleagues and organ enthusiasts who speak of our organ in hushed, reverent voices,

FROM FATHER SMITH: THE REAL PRESENCE

Shortly after I was ordained deacon in 1989, I began working at an Anglo-catholic parish in New Haven, Connecticut.  The rector there knew Saint Mary’s a bit and often talked about it.  On more than one occasion he recalled how, as a young Lutheran seminarian, he had gone to Benediction at Saint Mary’s one Easter Day afternoon and had never forgotten the experience.  Indeed, that hour at Saint Mary’s seems to have played a part in his decision to become an Anglo-catholic and a priest of the Episcopal Church.  He always ended the story the same way: 

FROM JOHN BEDDINGFIELD: WHO’S TO BLAME?

It happened again the other night.  We had just concluded Evensong & Benediction with the visiting choir of men and boys from Christ Church, Greenwich.  The service was glorious.  The singing was prayerful, the preaching was strong, the incense dense and mysterious.  But then, someone pointed out to me that we had not made a special sign made for the street, announcing the guest choir.

I AM NOT THE GOOD SHEPHERD

The Second Sunday of Easter was for many years known as “Good Shepherd Sunday,” from the theme found both in the Epistle (I Peter 2:19) and the Gospel (John 10:11) appointed for that day.  This is no longer the case—at least not in the Episcopal Church.  For the Second Sunday of Easter, the lectionary of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer now appoints a large portion of the twentieth chapter of John’s Gospel.  The passage is the story of Jesus’ first appearance to his disciples and his appearance to Thomas.  The shepherd discourse and the stories that

Easter Songs

Every Sunday during the Easter season we are singing the traditional Easter Day sequence – “sequence” is the church word for a hymn assigned by tradition to be sung on certain days before the proclamation of the Gospel.  It’s not used at the Easter vigil.  The historic sequence for the Vigil is Psalm 114 – “When Israel came out of Egypt.”  But on Easter Day it is “Christians to the Paschal victim” (Hymn 183).

Warm and Smiling

Among the many kind notes we received in the parish office after the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter Week was one that spoke of how much it meant to receive a “warm and smiling welcome” at the door of Saint Mary’s, a welcome that continued through the liturgy.  I was delighted by her words, of course, and very proud of our parish community.  Our intentional welcome does matter, because when someone walks through the door, he or she is our brother or sister.

Phenomenal

This year on Maundy Thursday I did not go into the Mercy Chapel before the Transfer of the Eucharist to the Altar of Repose.  It was a phenomenal experience to walk into that sacred space in the midst of the candles of the altar servers, choir and assisting clergy while bearing the Blessed Sacrament for the communion of the Church on Good Friday.  I was as close to speechless as a celebrant can or should be. 

Witnesses

Near the end of the Palm Sunday procession, just before the deacon, subdeacon and I turned from Seventh Avenue onto Forty-sixth Street, a woman brought me a small pile of palms.  She said, “These had fallen down.”  I smiled and thanked her; but as soon as we turned the corner, I slowly dropped them.  Smiling, I turned to Father Weiler and said, “Witnesses.”

Easter Triduum

It’s not an ordinary English word, Triduum, that is.  It is a word derived from Latin for “three days.”  The word does not appear in our current Prayer Book.  But what it represents is in it.  The Easter Triduum is nothing less than the principal service of worship of the entire year.  This is the term most Christians now use for this service.  It really is all in the Prayer Book, even if the name is not.

His Gifts

Jesus’ first gift to his disciples was life.  It was and is his will that all should be saved.  Jesus had a last gift too, as John tell us in his account of the Last Supper.  “Peace” was Jesus’ last gift to his disciples.  The entirety of Jesus’ gifts to us will be offered to us as we gather to celebrate his death and resurrection during the “Three Days,”

The Body of Christ

Our parish since its inception has been known for pushing the envelope, as it were, especially in matters of worship.  Saint Mary’s was founded in 1868 at a time when the “liturgical act” was a dream for a very small group of Christians, Anglicans, Roman Catholics and others, who were stumbling onto the heritage of their Christian tradition.

Richness

For the 2,500 people or so who came through the doors of Saint Mary’s on Ash Wednesday, I’m sure it felt as if Lent had started.  My heart was in what I call “producer mode.”  I was reading the lessons, presiding at Mass, ‘ashing’ – a verb among members of the clergy in the city – those who presented themselves, encouraging all who were here to help, and trying to remember the details that make our ministry of hospitality so remarkable. 

Our Father

There are a few things in the Prayer Book (and things left out) that strike me as reflections of the less attractive side of the Church in the 1970s.  For example, I do not understand how it was possible for the revisers, who did such good work in so many ways, to give us Eucharistic Prayer C, a prayer that praises God primarily for the material creation. 

Lenten Worship & Lifestyle

Lent is the season when the Church prepares to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  In the early centuries of the Christian era, the word Easter (and especially its non-English equivalents) was not the name of a day as much as it was a gloss for the word “Baptism.”  Easter was when those the Holy Spirit was bringing to faith would die and rise in Jesus.  Easter was not the occasion for Baptism; Baptism was the Easter event – “Jesus dying and rising still in his holy ones” - to use a phrase, if I recall correctly, of Aidan Kavanagh.

FROM THE CURATE: PUTTING AMAZING BACK INTO GRACE

One can learn a lot in a monastery.  They almost always have fine libraries and there is plenty of time for reading.  There is time to think, too.  Not only that, but there is time to reflect on nature—time to “consider the lilies of the field how they neither toil nor spin” yet they are clothed more splendidly than Solomon.  When I was on retreat in November at Saint Gregory’s Abbey in Three Rivers, Michigan, I did a little of all these things.  I learned a lot about the cure of souls from reading, for the first time, Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Care. (It won’t be the last!) 

Anglo-Catholic Vision

Saint Mary’s was founded by a priest and a group of laypersons who caught a particular vision of renewed Christian community that had sprung to life among Anglican Christians in the nineteenth century.  It was in part a revival of patterns of living and praying from the past but it was grounded in their present and future.  Saint Mary’s quickly became a center for a widespread revival that recalled the Episcopal Church to much of the most important parts of its heritage.  Since those days, a renewed consciousness of the Lord’s sacramental presence among us has marked the life of the Anglican Communion.

Annual Meeting

The Annual Meeting of the congregation of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin will be held this Sunday following the Solemn Mass in Saint Joseph’s Hall.  For a number of years it has been customary to have a parish brunch on the Sunday of the annual meeting.  Because of the early date for Easter, our Carnival Sunday brunch – another tradition – falls on Sunday, February 10.  After consulting with the parish leadership I decided we should simply have a meeting and save our fellowship for two Sundays hence.

Evensong and Preaching

Yours truly is going to preach at Evensong for the first time in his life this Sunday.  At seminary it would have been possible for me to preach once at Evensong when I was a senior.  It was voluntary and I chose not to do so.  I have never served in a parish where Evensong & Sermon was a regular service.  In my former parish in Indiana, when we had Evensong & Benediction at different festivals through the year, I would almost always have preached already to the same congregation at Mass in the morning.

The Evening Sky

There was a beautiful sunset in New York City on Wednesday, January 9.  I didn’t see much of it.  I was in midtown.  But when I looked down the streets south and west I could see wonderful small clouds colored pink and orange.  Even if a million people and I were stuck in the caverns of the city, I knew that if I could get to the Battery or even to the Hudson River, the sky would open up for me.  I wasn’t able to stop my mind from thinking of the song from the musical Annie about the sun coming out tomorrow.  It wasn’t a Beethoven or Vaughan Williams moment, but it did bring a smile to my heart.

The Great Tradition

When I went to work after seminary, I encountered for the first time something called “The Feast of Lights.”  It is an Epiphany pageant, popular among southern Episcopalians.  (Does anyone know when or where it was invented?)  It’s usually a good way for Episcopalians who still care about the integrity of the Christmas Season,