FROM THE RECTOR: HOLY WEEK AND EASTER AHEAD

Music—organist, cantor, and, as needed, a quartet—has made Lent special this year. I was afraid that the absence of congregational chant and hymnody on Ash Wednesday would be a particularly painful loss. So, it was wonderful to experience the ways in which the music we heard that day somehow made up for what was lost. There was an appropriate modesty to Dr. David Hurd’s programming that made Ash Wednesday, though we had no ashes, feel more than complete. It was clearly the First Day of Lent—and it certainly felt like it during Mass that day.

FROM THE RECTOR: ALL ARE ESSENTIAL

Last week I had the chance to read one of the well-known devotional writings on the Eucharist with a newcomer to the parish community. I’m speaking of Dom Gregory Dix’s words in his book, The Shape of the Liturgy (1945). The famous passage begins with these words, “At the heart of it all is the eucharistic action, a thing of an absolute simplicity—the taking, blessing, breaking and giving of bread and the taking, blessing and giving of a cup of wine and water, as there were first done with their new meaning by a young Jew before and after supper with His friends on the night before He died . . . He had told His friends to do this henceforward with the meaning ‘for the anamnesis’ of Him, and they have done it always since. Was ever another command so obeyed?” (page 743–744).

FROM DR. DAVID HURD: LENT, PRAYER BOOK, AND MUSIC

We are now in the second week of observing Lent. The Book of Common Prayer lists as “Days of Special Devotion” Ash Wednesday and the other weekdays of Lent and of Holy Week. The Prayer Book advises that these days “are observed by special acts of discipline and self-denial” (BCP, page 17). Note that Sundays are not included in the category of such “Days of Special Devotion.” While the Prayer Book goes on to include all Fridays of the year as “Days of Special Devotion” as a weekly remembrance of our Lord’s crucifixion on Good Friday, it reminds us elsewhere that “All Sundays of the year are feasts of our Lord Jesus Christ” in recognition of his resurrection on Easter Sunday. This “feast day” designation presumably then includes the Sundays in Lent. It may be noted that the 1928 edition of the Prayer Book, in its front material, contained equivalent characterizations of the days and seasons of the church year (pages L-LI).

FROM THE RECTOR: LENT AND HOLY WEEK 2021

A year ago, few of us foresaw that the pandemic would still be with us in the spring of 2021. The shutdown last March emptied midtown Manhattan. As February 2021 began, I was hopeful that we could offer Evening Prayer and Stations of the Cross on the Fridays of Lent. But I don’t think we’re ready to be open in the evening. If I am walking home after dark by myself, I know that I need to be very careful about reaching the rectory. Until the pandemic was underway, I never carried the key to enter the locked doors of the church complex on West 46th. It’s a large key—I’m still not used to it being on my keyring.

FROM THE RECTOR: WORTHY TO STAND

The arrival of COVID-19 meant that the seat cushions and kneeling cushions in the nave pews needed to go. They could no longer be repaired and cleaned; they are gone. (There are some cushions left in the chancel that were bought about ten years ago. We have not thrown them away.) This notice has appeared in all service bulletins since we reopened for public worship on July 1, 2020: The members of the Congregation should feel free to stand, sit, or kneel, as they wish, and as they are able, throughout the celebration of the Eucharist.

FROM THE RECTOR: DYING IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

Father Edgar Wells was gravely ill at the beginning of June 2020. He died at home on Trinity Sunday, June 7. His companion, Evan Wong, was at home with him. His body was taken to the funeral home before we knew of his death. His body was cremated. Father Jay Smith officiated at the Reception of the Body and the Commendation of the Dead for him on Wednesday, June 17, at the Vault in the Lady Chapel. A Memorial Eucharist will be celebrated for him when it is possible for us to gather safely in church and sing. He will be buried at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in a niche with his parents and a dear friend, the Reverend Walter Edgar Hartlove, who died in 1996.

FROM THE RECTOR: CANDLES, NO; ASHES NO; PALMS, YES

During announcements at Mass last Sunday, I spoke briefly about challenges for worship presented by the need for all of us to be vigilant about safe distancing. Our bishop has asked us not to impose ashes this year. We will follow his pastoral direction. I also mentioned that we would not be distributing and lighting candles on the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple on Tuesday, February 2, and that we couldn't think of a way safely to distribute palms on the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday, March 30. But someone else did.

FROM THE RECTOR: CHRISTIAN UNITY 2021

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has its roots in the Episcopal Diocese of New York. The Rev. Paul James Francis Wattson, S.A., born Lewis Wattson in 1863, 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 that time, was on his way to Rome. In 1909, his Episcopal religious community, the Society of the Atonement, for men and women, the latter being led by Mother Lurana White, was received into the Roman Catholic Church as the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement. He continued to work for reunion throughout his life. He died in 1940.

FROM THE RECTOR: LITURGY IN THE TIME OF COVID

Since I became rector in 1999, Ash Wednesday has been by far the day of the year when the greatest number of people enter our church. Some come for the said Masses at 7:00 AM and 8:00 AM. It’s been our custom for Miserere mei by Gregorio Allegri (c. 1582–1652) to be sung during the imposition of ashes at the Sung Mass at 12:10 PM and the Solemn Mass at 6:00 PM. Many, many more just come to be marked on the forehead with ashes and to hear the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (The Book of Common Prayer [1979], 265).

FROM THE RECTOR: EPIPHANY 2021

I usually go to the gym first thing in the morning, right after coffee and Morning Prayer. But Wednesday, January 6, was the Feast of the Epiphany. I was on my Sunday schedule: up early for coffee, Morning Prayer, and to finish writing a sermon. I got to the gym about 3:00 PM, entirely unaware of what was going on in Washington. I walked over to the rows of elliptical machines and treadmills. Above them is a row of five television sets. A mob of Americans had invaded the Capitol and shut down the Congress of the United States. My eyes teared up. The Capitol was breached “at 12:53 PM, led by a group in tactical gear” (“Riot at the U.S. Capitol,” Wall Street Journal, January 7, 2021). This had been going on for over two hours. How could the President, upon hearing this news, not immediately order whatever forces were on hand to secure the Capitol and then go to the White House Briefing Room to address the nation and condemn the insurrection?

FROM THE RECTOR: CHRISTMAS AND EPIPHANY

The Draft Proposed Book of Common Prayer and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (1976) proposed three possible gospel lessons for the Second Sunday after Christmas Day. There had been no proper (that is, collect and lessons) for this Sunday in the medieval missals “though it occurs four years out of every seven” (Shepherd, The Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary [1950], 106-07). In 1928, the story of the return of the Holy Family from Egypt was appointed (Ibid.).

FROM THE RECTOR: MATTHEW’S CHRISTMAS STORY

Prayer Book Studies 19: The Church Year (1970) described its decision to follow the Roman Catholic Church’s then-new lectionary and assign Matthew’s story of Jesus’ annunciation, birth, and naming (Matthew 1:18–25) to the Fourth Sunday of Advent in Year A. Since 1549, Matthew had been the gospel for the First Sunday after Christmas Day. Brother Thomas Bushnell BSG reminded me that though Luke’s story of Jesus’ birth was not read during Holy Communion, Morning Prayer, which included Luke’s story of Jesus’ birth, always preceded Holy Communion on Christmas Day (until the adoption of the 1892 Prayer Book—a subject for another day). The gospel for Christmas Day in the Christian West is anciently the beginning of John’s gospel. The present lectionary means that one of the two stories of Jesus’ birth is only heard at the Eucharist once every three years in Advent—and never at Mass during the Christmas Season.

FROM THE RECTOR: CHRISTMAS 2020

Reservations are coming in for the 4:00 PM Christmas Eve service and the 11:00 AM Christmas Day service. We hope we can seat everyone who makes a reservation on or before Monday, December 21, 2020. Reservations will be made on a first-come/first-served basis. The total seats available to be assigned will be determined by the order in which reservations are made for households (some more than a couple) and individuals. Instructions for making reservations can be found here. The services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will be live-streamed on Saint Mary’s Facebook page. I will be celebrant and preacher on Christmas Eve, Father Jay Smith on Christmas Day.

FROM THE RECTOR: CONSECRATION ANNIVERSARY

Saturday, December 12, 2020, was the one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary of the consecration of our present church home. Almost everything about the church complex was new. In The Story of St. Mary’s (1931), we read from that day’s New York Evening Post . The headline was, “The New Protestant Episcopal Church Consecrated by Bishop Potter.” The article began: “At 10:30 A.M. today Bishop Henry C. Potter officiated at the consecration service of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, on West 46th St. The bishop was received at the porch of the rector, the Rev. Thomas McKee Brown, his assistants, the Rev. Al. Mason and the Rev. F. A. Staunton, and the Board of Trustees, Beverly Chew, Haley Fiske, Edward H. Clarke, R. Whiting Pierson and William H. Lane.

FROM THE RECTOR: SESQUICENTENNIAL MASS

Newbury Frost Read (1887–1950) in The Story of St. Mary’s: The Society of the Free Church of St. Mary the Virgin New York City 1868–1931 (1931) quoted a newspaper account of the opening service of our parish: “On the Patronal Festival, Thursday, Eight December 1870, the Church was opened, and was dedicated by the Right Reverend Horatio Southgate, sometime Bishop of Constantinople" (page 26). On July 23, 1892, Sara Louie Cooke died. She had made St. Mary’s “her residuary legatee” (page 59). It was this legacy that enabled the purchase of the land and the building of our second church home. The cornerstone of the new church was laid on December 4, 1894. The new church opened one year later, on Sunday, December 8, 1895.

FROM THE RECTOR: COVID-19 AT ST. MARY’S

We begin the new church year with the church open for public worship only on Sundays. I write on Saturday afternoon, the Eve of Advent Sunday. On Wednesday morning, November 25, Father Jay Smith learned that he was positive for COVID-19. During Evening Prayer on Sunday, November 22, he coughed and sensed that a cold was coming on. His symptoms were, and continue to be, relatively mild. He reports that it feels as if he has the flu. He is at home and in contact with his physician. He is in isolation in a bedroom in the apartment. His husband, José Vidal, is in quarantine. José was tested on Thanksgiving Day for the virus. The rapid test result showed that he was negative. The more accurate test result should be available for him tomorrow or Monday.

FROM THE RECTOR: A KING WHO WEEPS

The shortest sentence in the New Testament is in John’s account of the Raising of Lazarus. When Jesus sees the tomb where his friend was buried, the evangelist writes, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). (It’s a three-word sentence in the Greek New Testament, and I suspect it’s still the shortest sentence in that language, too.) I was celebrant and preacher for the Daily Eucharist on Thursday, November 19, 2020. The appointed gospel was from Luke. It includes the only other occasion of Jesus weeping in the New Testament. Compassion is one of the Lord’s virtues.

FROM THE RECTOR: ADMINISTRATION NOT CONSECRATION

While looking online for a book review, I came across reviews of the Reverend Dr. Louis Weil’s book Liturgical Sense: The Logic of Rite (2013). I found my copy on the shelf. I came across a quotation that had caught my eye years before, but I don’t think I’ve ever written about it. Vernon Staley (1852–1933) was a priest of the Church of England, a liturgical scholar, and the author of The Catholic Religion: A Manual of Instruction for the Members of the Anglican Communion (1893). It was an important book for generations of Anglo-Catholics. It’s still in print, but I don’t recommend it. Scholarship, not to mention church and society, has moved on. Father Weil's quotation was from a book by Staley that I did not know, The Manual Acts (1913), and it’s spot on.

FROM THE RECTOR: DAILY COLLECTS

Since I went to Nashotah House Seminary in the fall of 1980, my ordinary experience of Daily Morning and Evening Prayer has been in church with others, five or six days a week, most weeks of the year. Before the pandemic, I rarely prayed the office on my days off. On Saturday evenings, when I am off and at home, I go to the church for Evening Prayer—it’s Sunday’s eve. When I’m away from home, I’m more likely to pray Morning Prayer than Evening Prayer—and, if I skip the offices, I don’t beat myself up. During the pandemic, there are days when Father Jay Smith or I will pray aloud the Angelus (while ringing the tolling bell) and the evening office in the church alone. Occasionally, the friars will pray Evening Prayer in the friary chapel when Jay and I are not here.