From the Rector: Identity and Commitment

A curious thing happened to me on vacation this year.  A parish priest recognized me and said he was surprised to see me in church on a vacation Sunday.  I can’t help myself.  I’ve gone to church almost every Sunday of my life, the majority of years of which, still, I was not ordained.  I go to church on Sundays because I am a Christian. Even on my vacation.  It is part of the basic Christian commitment.  It’s identity.

From the Rector: Opening Doors

Many readers know that in the Mercy Chapel there are small doors in the balcony.  On Wednesday, October 5, Father Matthew Mead, our building mechanic Hector Rojas and sexton Wilfredo Zapata tore down a false wall in the Mission House which had been erected to block this doorway.  The doors are still there.  It turns out they are pocket doors and at least one of the two opens easily.  (There is more debris to be removed before it is possible to really get at both of them.)

From the Rector: He is with us

Margaret Lawhon Schott is a vestry member at Saint Luke’s Church, Baton Rouge, where I served as curate from 1985 to 1988.  The following is her report of a visit made by the Presiding Bishop, the Bishop of Louisiana and others.  I offer it as a meditation not only on the work we are called to do to help our sisters and brothers in the midst of the tragedy in the Gulf Coast region of our country but also as a mediation on the Lord’s presence here as we gather on Sunday, October 2, to celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Church.  Stephen Gerth

From the Rector: Service Schedule Changes

Beginning Saturday, October 1, we are going to offer a Saturday Vigil Mass at 5:20 PM.  Evening Prayer will still be at 5:00 PM.  The Saturday Vigil Mass will be a Sunday service.  It will be a said Mass.

From the Rector: Whole Attitude

I spent the last days of my vacation in Austin, Texas, just a few blocks from the center of the Whole Foods empire.  Their flagship store is a third again larger than their Columbus Circle store here in Manhattan.  It’s a great store.  There’s more of just about everything there.  Cold beer is kept in an imposing walk through aisle called “Beer Alley.”

From Father Beddingfield: The Gift of Tears

This article is revised from Father’s sermon at Evensong on September 8, 2005.

A few months ago Ohio Senator George Voinovich did an amazing thing during Senate confirmation hearings.  His behavior was talked about on the radio and shown on television.  The New York Post wrote, “Voinovich should be ashamed of himself.”  What, you may wonder, was the radical, extraordinary, bizarre and “shameful” thing the Senator did?  George Voinovich cried.  He cried openly and he cried profusely.  He showed emotion on international television, choked back sobs and shed tears. 

From Father Mead: What Can We Do?

In a sermon I read last week at Noonday Prayer Saint John Chrysostom stated that he was having an easy time bringing in money for decorations in the church, but having a hard time getting his congregation to help the poor.  Then, as now, most of us love to see results, and when we give money or time to enhance the beauty of our worship space we often see immediate results.  The poor, on the other hand, we sometimes view as simply part of normal life. 

From Father Beddingfield: Making Connections

Throughout the writing of E. M. Forster there runs a subtle theme of two words: “Only connect.”  The phrase is most overt in Howard’s End as Margaret is trying to help Henry connect his “prose with his passion.”  But the phrase also has a lot to do with the interactions of characters and the connections or lack of connections made across every kind of divide.  In spite of differences in gender, education, nationality, class and sexual orientation, Forster suggests that the key to living fully, to loving fully, is found in the mystery of that little phrase, “only connect.”

From the Rector: New Gifts for 2005

At various points in my younger life I worked in retail sales.  It was customary to thank a customer as you rang up an order or handed a package to him or her.  As years have passed I’ve come to realize that there’s a new generation of sales clerks in most stores.  My guess is that the method a store uses to pay its employees is what creates a distinction between employees who say thank you and those who have an attitude that they are doing you a favor by taking your money.

From the Rector: The Assumption

Saint Mary’s has always occupied a special place in the life of the Episcopal Church.  Since its beginning an important part of its mission has been to bear witness to the catholic tradition within Anglicanism.  There are many outward and visible signs of this. 

From the Rector: Looking Ahead at Worship

During my first year in New York more than a few people helped me to get settled here.  Each person moving here learns a lot on his or her own, of course.  But words of hope and encouragement are very welcome as are words of advice.  Because of the pace of work here, time with friends is very precious.  A really wise person also told me that one has to work really hard in New York during the summer, or the fall is a disaster.  That may not be true for every organization or business but it is certainly true for an active church like Saint Mary’s.

From Father Beddingfield: Living for the Kingdom

This article is adapted from Father’s sermon on Sunday, July 24, 2005.

Last week, Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, moved into the former Compaq Sports Arena and made it their new home.  Now, I wouldn’t have a lot in common with the worship or even much of the theology at Lakewood, but we’re missing something if we don’t look at them with some admiration.  Can you imagine a church – any church you know – having the faith to buy a sports arena?  Think of the churches in New York City.  Our Diocese, having had several opportunities, cannot even pull together enough resources to buy the former Church of the Holy Communion back from the nightclub industry.  Say what you will about places like Lakewood, but they know something about living into the kingdom of God, about ordering life as though the kingdom of God is happening right now, right here.  Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” 

From the Rector: Trinity Rant

Often people bring me church bulletins from their summer travels.  I enjoy seeing bulletins from other churches even when the occasional parish may be doing some really goofy things.  I try to keep on an even keel, though, but I confess one bulletin I received recently made my blood boil.  They had left out the “Father” and “Son” from the most important prayer of the Eucharist.  Yes, that’s right, the Father and the Son didn’t get a mention.  This drives me crazy.  Unfortunately, there’s far too much of this nonsense going around.

From the Rector: Layers

Three of the most important years of my life were spent in Baton Rouge where I served as curate at Saint Luke’s Church.  There I was introduced to many things, among them, the food of Louisiana.  A number of women at Saint Luke’s were part of the local club that produced what remains the top-selling club cookbook of all time, “River Road Recipes.”  And shortly after I moved there, Paul Prudhomme published his first cookbook, “Chef Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen.”

From Father Beddingfield: Risks and Rewards

For two weeks in June I attended the Summer Leadership Institute at Harvard Divinity School.  The program brings together resources of the divinity school with Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government to help church leaders learn more about leadership and management.  One of the most eye-opening sessions for me was the segment we had on entrepreneurship.  We began with the business school’s definition:

From the Rector:  Matthew’s Gospel

It’s easy for me to have lots of arguments with Saint Matthew’s Gospel.  I have particular difficulties with “Ask, and it will be given you” (Matthew 7:7) – people still pray daily for innocents to be spared suffering and these prayers go unanswered – and “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:28) – perfection is not possible.  I’m not a biblical scholar but it seems to me that Matthew is never able to resolve the plain contradiction between his recounting of many of Jesus’ words and the reality he, Matthew, knew. 

From the Rector:  Generous and Forgiving

The Bible and the liturgy are the foundations of Christian life and living.  Encountering Scripture and Christian worship is the primary way most of us engage the mystery of God.  How we came to be in this world, how we live our lives, how we respond to the Good News we have heard and how we relate to others shapes our conversion and formation as Christians. 

From the Rector:  Go

On Saturday, June 11, the Feast of Saint Barnabas the Apostle, I attended the Ordination of Deacons in the Diocese of Newark at their cathedral, Trinity & Saint Philip’s.  There were seven ordinands.  Twenty-two years ago, on the same feast, a Saturday then as well, I was one of seven ordained deacon in the Diocese of Chicago at Chicago’s cathedral, Saint James’s.  It was great to see Clare Nesmith, Nick Szobota and the others ordained on a Saturday that was also the Feast of Saint Barnabas the Apostle.

From the Rector:  Expulsion

Most days of the past quarter century I have been in church for Morning and Evening Prayer. Most days, not every day. Over the years I have experienced some periods of fairly intense devotion but rarely intense boredom. The Office is the ongoing liturgical prayer of the Church. I experience the Office as something of which I am a part but not as something that depends on me. Ita a gift. Its part of life. Saint Benedict referred to the monastic Office as the "Work of God." In a sense going to the Office is part of my job but rarely does it feel that way. Its just one aspect of life as a parish priest, one of the many, many good things about this vocation.

From the Rector:  Expulsion

One of the most profound experiences one can have is to encounter Masaccio’s frescos in the Cappella Brancacci in Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, Italy.  His painting of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden (Cacciata dal Paradiso) is the most moving.  Adam and Eve are naked.  They have already lost Eden and the garments of skin the Lord made for them.  Adam’s hands cover his face.