From the Rector: Trinity Sunday

One might wonder how popular Trinity Sunday was among Anglican Christians before hymn singing brought us two of the most popular hymns, Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! and I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity.  The latter is exhibit number one for the ability of average Episcopalians to sing and enjoy hymns with challenging tunes.  They are great, great hymns and we get to sing both of them this Sunday at 11:00 AM.  (At 10:00 AM we just get to sing the former.)

From the Rector: Pentecost

“Pentecost” means “fiftieth day.”  I don’t always remember that without giving it some thought.  I confess the word too often brings to mind a great deal of liturgical silliness that is visited on Christian communities, usually by clergy who don’t know what they are doing.  We won’t be having a wedding cake (as Father Beddingfield says, “It is not the birthday of the Church.”) or reading the appointed lessons in fifteen different languages.  We will not be flying dove kites in the entrance procession. 

From the Rector: He’s Here

From time to time I love to tell the story of losing Jesus one day at the weekly school Mass when I was a curate in Baton Rouge.  I was the celebrant.  Father John Senette was assisting.  We celebrated facing the congregation of two hundred school children and their teachers.  After holding up the Bread and Cup for the elevation at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, we genuflected.

From the Rector: Ascending

If forty were not such an important number in the Old Testament, we probably would not be celebrating Ascension Day.  One of the New Testament accounts of Jesus’ ascension into heaven, the one in the Acts of the Apostles, fixes the Lord’s ascension on the fortieth day.  Some may remember when the Church made a ceremony of putting out the paschal candle during Mass on Ascension Day as a remembrance that the Risen Christ in his physical person was now gone from us. 

From Father Mead: Smoke Signals

I was treated to a bit of a surprise today at lunch when my wife informed me that a new pope had been elected.  This is the only time in my life I have witnessed a papal election – technically this is the fourth pope of my lifetime but I have no memory of the first two.  Like many others I have watched from a distance, learning something new about smoke and what its different colors can represent. 

From the Rector: In the News

I’ve resigned myself to the Episcopal Church being in the news for the foreseeable future.  This morning’s Times reported that six rectors in the Diocese of Connecticut are about to be punished for “abandoning the Communion of this Church” because they cannot accept being in communion with a bishop who supported the ordination of the present bishop of New Hampshire. 

From Father Beddingfield: Do we want to be healed?

One of my favorite stories from John’s gospel tells of the man Jesus met at the Bethesda Pool.  Invalids of all kinds, the blind, the lame and the paralyzed, lay near the pool, hoping for healing.  Jesus looked at one man and asked, “Do you want to be healed?”  While we know that the desire for healing does not always bring healing, this story points to the reality that sometimes we become satisfied with unhealthy situations when the energy for improvement actually lies within.  I think of this story of healing with regard to the healing and growth of churches. 

From the Rector: Amazing Easter

So much goes into making Holy Week special at Saint Mary’s that I hardly know where to begin.  There’s an old expression about rules of life: We don’t keep the rule; the rule keeps us.  In a real sense, we don’t keep Holy Week at Saint Mary’s.  Holy Week keeps us. 

From the Rector: The Sunday of the Resurrection

Easter music has been creeping into the offices (and into the rectory – no wimpy organ at SMV!) this week.  It’s not Easter as I write.  It’s the last morning in Lent, which will end tonight at sunset.  The Church then enters the Easter Triduum, the Three Days when we celebrate the Lord’s death and resurrection. 

From the Rector: Holy Week II

As the ministers of the liturgy enter for the principal Mass of Palm Sunday, the solemn rite greets and challenges the assembly of the baptized with these words, “Hosanna to the Son of David: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  O King of Israel: Hosanna in the highest.”  These words address the Lord Jesus Christ, reigning in heaven, and his Body, the pilgrim Church here on earth.

From the Rector: Holy Week I

Christian worship emerged as Jesus’ followers gathered, first in fear, then in faith after his death and resurrection.  There has not been a day since that first Good Friday when Christians did not gather as a community and for worship.  God’s Word still calls people to faith, to community and to worship.

From the Rector: Who’s Coming to Dinner

Let me see if I have this right.  Rowan Williams has asked Frank Griswold not to come to dinner because if he shows up Peter Akinola and his friends won’t come.  Rowan Williams is the archbishop of Canterbury.  Frank Griswold is our presiding bishop.  Peter Akinola is the archbishop of the Church of Nigeria.  Akinola thinks Griswold does not belong at the archbishop’s table any more.  I wonder why Williams is letting Akinola get away with this.

From the Rector: Unlocking Holy Week

There’s a wonderful Saturday morning class on March 5 on Holy Week (read on in this issue for details).  Father Beddingfield, Robert McCormick and Robert McDermitt will be leading the class.  I commend it to you.  There will be a chance to learn about the great rites, to ask questions and to rehearse some of the chants that we only do once a year.

From the Rector: Who are these people?

This is not really an article about new members and new friends of Saint Mary’s, although the title may suggest just that.  It could be.  But it isn’t.  We’ve almost reached the point over the last year when people who think of themselves as regular members but who only are here once every other month have realized what some of us have known for a while.  Saint Mary’s is growing.  There are more people getting to know us and becoming part of our community all of the time.  It’s really exciting.

From the Rector: Lent at Saint Mary’s

Lent has begun.  There are no flowers in the church.  The liturgical color is purple.  You will hear the organ played only to sustain singing.  No lesser feasts are observed and the only major feasts that fall during Lent this calendar year are the Feast of Saint Matthias the Apostle, February 24, and the Feast of Saint Joseph, March 19.  On the Fourth Sunday in Lent, commonly known as Rose Sunday, this year March 6, there is relaxation of this discipline. 

From the Rector: Transitions

At its long-range planning retreat on Saturday, January 31, the parish’s Board of Trustees received a presentation from the Reverend Canon Hannah Anderson, canon for congregational development in the Diocese of New York, on the differences between a medium size congregation and a large congregation.  We are on the cusp of becoming a much larger parish community. 

From Father Beddingfield: The Power of Conversion

I’ve only met a few people who have experienced a real religious conversion.  I grew up mostly around other Christians.  I, and others, might have experienced changes in our spiritual lives.  We might even have had renewals or awakenings of some kind.  But very few have had what might be called a real, life changing, “the old is dead, the new has come,” conversion. 

From Father Beddingfield: Living Stones

Villanueva is a section of Tegucigalpa, Honduras that does not appear on official maps of the capital city.  It was formed as a squatter’s village on steep sides of the mountainous outskirts.  Some 200,000 people live there in quarters that range from shacks of tin and cardboard to small dwellings of cinderblock.  Some have electricity.  Few have plumbing.  The first working toilet in the area was installed last year in the Episcopal Church of San Juan Evangelista. 

Truth and Unity

The Rev. Paul James Francis Wattson, S.A., born Lewis Wattson, was still an Episcopal monk and priest, in 1908 when he suggested that the week between the January feasts of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (now known as the Confession of Saint Peter on January 18 and the Conversion of Saint Paul on January 25) be observed as a “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.”  But Wattson by this time was on his way to Rome.  And in 1909 his Episcopal religious community, the Society of the Atonement, was received into the Roman Catholic Church.  He continued to work for reunion throughout his life.  He died in 1940.

From Father Beddingfield: Why Mission Matters

“Why should we do mission in far away places when there is so much need right here at home?”  The question was asked at a meeting with Canon Sylvia Vasquez, last March at Saint Mary’s, when we first began to think and pray about a mission trip to Honduras.  The person who asked the question went on to say, “I mean, there is hunger and homelessness and teenage pregnancy and drug abuse and poverty of all kinds right in our own neighborhoods.  Why are we talking about going to another part of the world?”  Canon Vasquez then said very gently to the person,