Calendar for Week of November 2

Sunday, November 2
8:00am Holy Eucharist
Celebrant & Preacher: The Reverend Peter Chase
9:45am Childcare
10:00am Holy Eucharist
Celebrant & Preacher: The Reverend Peter Chase
11:00am Coffee Hour
3:00pm Cello Workshop
See insert for Church school
Monday, November 3
8:00pm AA (6:30 newcomers)
Tuesday, November 4
9:30am Holy Eucharist
10:00am WSM Board Meeting
Wednesday, November 5
6:30pm Sharing a New Song
Thursday, November 6
6:30pm Junior Choir
7:30pm Adult Choir
Friday, November 7
10:00am Church Women United
at Friends Meeting - Wellesley
Sunday, November 9
Church School (see church school article)
8:00am Holy Eucharist - Peter
10:00am Morning Prayer – Peter
1:00pm West Gallery

Update on Katrina Outreach Activities

Last week, we shipped another trailer load of gently used furniture and appliances to the greater New Orleans area. This time, the shipment went to Houma, Louisiana, an area hit by Katrina and further devastated by Hurricane Gustav. The success of the program—more than 50 tons of household goods have been shipped during the past—is due in large measure to the donated services of Gentle Giant Movers in Somerville, Walter Mucha (pronounced “moo hah”), a local independent mover in Brookline and StoragePlus in Waltham. We have had extensive experience with all three companies and can attest to the quality and professionalism of their services. Please consider using these businesses should you have storage or moving requirements.

Notes from the Annual Vestry Retreat

The Vestry met for its annual retreat on Sunday, October 5. The topic for this year’s retreat was advance planning for St. Mary's 200th Anniversary in 2013. Among the items discussed were:

• Growing our membership, and retaining and engaging current members, are critical to maintaining a vital church. Suggestions for ways to do this include pairing up new/prospective and existing members, and a more robust adult education program.

• The Vestry will consider potential property projects that can increase our energy efficiency and reduce energy costs.

• As a parish, we should look at Outreach projects that can involve the entire congregation, e.g. bringing parish members from Santa Maria Virgen to St. Mary's, and offering Spanish classes to St. Mary's members.

More information will be provided at the Annual Meeting in January 2009. If anyone has an interest in serving on the steering committee for the 200th anniversary, please contact either Peter Chase or one of the Wardens.

Good News: October 20, 2008

The Good News from October 20 is available for download:

Good_News_2008_October_20.pdf

The topic of this issue is Practicing Our Faith During an Economic Crisis...

"What is a Christian response to a deepening economic crisis like this? What should people of faith be thinking, saying, and doing? What is the responsibility of the churches to their own parishioners, to their communities, to the nation and the world? And where is God in all this?..."

Minutes, September 2008 Vestry Meeting

Minutes from the September 2008 Vestry meeting, as approved at our October Vestry meeting, are available for download:

Vestry_Minutes_2008_Sept_09.pdf


Also available for download is the budget summary from the October 21 Vestry meeting, showing actual vs. projected spending year to date:

Expenses_vs_budget_2008_Sept_30.pdf

Please direct any questions to our wardens, Paul Pyzowski and Mary Green.

Calendar for the Upcoming Week

Sunday, October 26
Youth Sunday
8 & 10 am Holy Eucharist - Peter Chase
9:45am Childcare
11:00am Coffee Hour
See below for Church school
Monday, October 27
8:00pm AA (6:30 newcomers)
Wednesday, October 29
6:30pm Sharing a New Song
Thursday, October 30
6:30pm Junior Choir
7:30pm Adult Choir
Sunday, November 2
8:00am Holy Eucharist - Peter Chase
9:45am Childcare
10:00am Holy Eucharist - Peter Chase
11:00am Coffee Hour
See below for Church School
3:00pm Cello Workshop

Minutes, August 2008 Vestry Meeting

Minutes from the August 2008 Vestry meeting, as approved at our September Vestry meeting, are available for download:

Vestry_Minutes_2008_August_19.pdf

Please direct any questions to our wardens, Paul Pyzowski and Mary Green.

Photos: Peter Lea-Cox Reception

Thank you to our guest organist Peter-Lea Cox, along with Kirsten and the choir for a wonderful special music Sunday.

Reminder: October 19, 2008 - Service of Sung Morning Prayer with Peter Lea-Cox, Guest Organist and Conductor

St. Mary's will welcome Peter Lea-Cox, English organist, composer and conductor, to the 10AM. service on Sunday, October 19. He will lead the St. Mary's Choir and congregation in a Service of Sung Morning Prayer featuring music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Peter Lea-Cox has visited St. Mary's on three other occasions in recent years to lead Evensong, conduct a Bach cantata, and celebrate Palm Sunday with music by Buxtehude. Currently Mr. Lea-Cox directs the Lecosaldi Ensemble of London, a group of professional singers aind instrumentalists. The Ensemble specializes in 18th-century music, but also performs works from all musical periods. Formerly Mr. Lea-Cox was on the administrative and teaching staff of the Royal Academy of Music in London, and the Cantor at the Lutheran Church of St. Anne and St. Agnes, also in London.

UNITED THANK OFFERING - OCTOBER 19

The United Thank Offering (UTO) is a program of The Episcopal Church for the mission of the whole Church. It was founded by and administered by women and will celebrate its 120th birthday next year. UTO is entrusted to promote and receive thank offerings and to distribute the monies through grants. A committee awards and administers the grants within a framework developed by the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the The Episcopal Church. In 2008, a total of 91 grants amounting to almost two and a half million dollars were awarded. 75% of these grants remained in the United States and the remaining were shared throughout the world. Our offerings and prayers are a way to help provide for this important ministry of The Episcopal Church. Please support this outreach effort. You will find UTO envelopes enclosed in your bulletin in church on Sunday morning. Checks should be made payable to St. Mary’s-UTO and placed in the offering plate, sent directly to the office, or given to Amy Molloy.

Calendar for Week of October 19 at St. Mary's

Calendar for the Upcoming Week
Sunday, October 19
8:00am Holy Eucharist - Preacher & Celebrant: Peter Chase
9:45am Childcare
10:00am Morning Prayer - Special Music by Peter Lea-Cox
11:00am Coffee Hour
See below for Church school
Monday, October 20
8:00pm AA (6:30 newcomers)
Tuesday, October 21
7:30pm Vestry Meeting
Wednesday, October 22
6:30pm Sharing a New Song
Thursday, October 23
6:30pm Junior Choir
7:30pm Adult Choir
Saturday, October 25
1:30pm Wedding
Sunday, October 26
8:00am & 10:00am Holy Eucharist - Preacher & Celebrant: Peter Chase
11:00am Coffee
1:30pm New Lower Falls Association - Parish Hall

Photos: Welcome Back BBQ (September 21, 2008)

Good News Article: Reflections on Padre Julio’s Visit

This article was written by Peter Chase for the September 30, 2008 Good News. Click here to view the complete article.

Padre Julio Rivera arrived on September 1 from our sister parish in El Salvador with a big smile and a bear hug. At first our conversational skills relied heavily on body language, and we communicated like two mimes. Then it occurred to me that my favorite Mexican restaurant in Newton Centre could provide us with the perfect communication venue. The menu was in Spanish, and the waiter could translate our conversation between courses. The waiter graciously translated that Padre Julio was to spend the next 17 days learning, teaching, resting and sharing.

It is said that the best way to learn a language is to relax and have fun with it. The next two weeks with Padre Julio felt like an intense Spanish immersion class as I began to learn a new vocabulary...

The next morning we went to San Lucas in Chelsea to learn about Hispanic ministry in the diocese and attended Morning Prayer at 8:00 a.m. with Padre Edgardo from Columbia. During the service a young woman in tears walked in and sat towards the back of the sanctuary. She was penniless and lost, alone without friends in a country she couldn’t understand. It turned out she was from El Salvador, and her eyes lit up as Padre Julio helped her and prayed with her for comfort, guidance, and courage to meet the days ahead. She left the church much stronger than when she had arrived. I thought my frustration over not being able to communicate in Spanish was insignificant in comparison to her problems. I was also reminded of the powerful voice of prayer for those who have faith.

The following day we went to the Salvation Army’s Miracle Kitchen in Framingham, where Julio met a lady from Central America who had come to be fed a meal prepared by members of our parish. While there we were interviewed by Jorge Quiroga for the 11:00 p.m. news. Jorge’s father was an Episcopal priest from Columbia who served parishes in New York City. His questions and our answers where short and to the point. Question: “Why are these people here?” Answer: “They are here because they need food.” Question: “What would happen if this place was closed?” Answer: “They would go to bed hungry.” Question: “So you think it is important to keep this place open?” Answer: “Yeah!”

The next morning, The Reverend Mark McKone-Sweat, assistant rector at St. Paul’s in Natick, invited Julio for two days on the Cape before being their guest preacher. On Monday we went to Santa Anna in Lowell and met with Padre Ramon from Cuba, who told us about immigration ministries in Lowell, Lawrence and Lynn.

A highlight of Padre Julio’s trip came during three refreshing days spent in Vermont dining on blueberry pancakes and maple syrup, fresh corn on the cob and other New England treats. During mealtime I discovered that Julio’s sister lives and works in Maryland. They were both orphaned during the civil war when their village was bombed. Julio was seven years old at the time and ended up in a Catholic orphanage sponsored by Cardinal Oscar Romero (who later became an Archbishop and was assassinated during a mass because he had become an advocate for the oppressed.) At the age of eight, Julio dedicated himself to God and a future ministry of peace and reconciliation. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest and quickly rose to the top of the diocesan hierarchy, becoming the Archbishop’s chancellor.

A young and charismatic figure in the Roman Catholic diocese, Padre Julio’s unexpected conversion to Anglicanism was a shock. He studied at an Anglican seminary in Mexico and returned to a labor of love in some of the poorest parishes in El Salvador. He makes $300 a month as a vicar of Santa Maria Virgen, which has become the largest parish in the diocese since his arrival. There are only five priests in the entire diocese, but the good news is that five members of Santa Maria Virgen are university students who have expressed an interest in attending seminary and following in Padre Julio’s footsteps. Santa Maria Virgen has just completed building a new church. I have been invited to attend the consecration of their new sanctuary this December at which time they will also dedicate a new altar given through the generosity of one of our members. Padre Julio said he “wouldn’t trade Christ’s ministry in El Salvador for the world.”

On the way back to Saint Mary’s, we met with clergy from Vermont who had been to El Salvador on earlier mission trips. That evening we had a reunion of our own mission team including those members from St. Paul’s in Natick to El Salvador at a dinner hosted by Tim and Mary Green. The following day, Padre Julio preached and taught an Adult Forum at St. Mary’s and that evening nearly 50 people enjoyed Salvadorean cuisine in the Parish Hall.

On Monday, Padre Julio met with the faculty and students at the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, where he celebrated the Eucharist for the entire student body. Finally, before leaving he met with diocesan clergy and toured a Spanish immersion preschool in Weston and Epiphany School in Dorchester.

This was a rewarding experience for him and one that I will never forget. I not only learned some new words in Spanish but also was reminded of the importance of prayer. Padre Julio joined me during three pastoral visits to members of our congregation and prayed for their recovery. And I know he continues to be a man of prayer, keeping us in his daily petitions to God for health and strength.

- Peter Chase

Good News Article: Morning Prayer

This article was written by Peter Chase for the September 30, 2008 Good News. Click here to view the complete article.

As an undergraduate, I attended an Anglican university in Canada where The Daily Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer were held in an historic chapel. The atmosphere was similar to Oxford, England with students in academic gowns sitting quietly across from one another. There was a lack of ritual and pomp in these simple services which were often sung. They provided a time for reflection and elicited prayerfulness from Monday through Friday...

I graduated from college in 1971, and it was not until I attended seminary in 1977 that The Daily Offices were a regular part of my life. It was great to get back in the groove again.

At seminary we were reminded that “All Sundays of the year are feasts of our Lord Jesus Christ” (The Book of Common Prayer, page 16) and that “The Holy Eucharist [is] the principal act of Christian worship on the Lord’s Day” (BCP, page 13). Yet, Morning Prayer on two Sundays of the month was a regular occasion in my upbringing in the Episcopal Church. That experience was missing from my life for the twenty-three years I did not live in Massachusetts. It wasn’t until I returned in 1992 that I experienced again a church that did not have Holy Eucharist every Sunday. I find Morning Prayer to be rewarding on some Sunday mornings even though I have been scolded, reprimanded and hung out to dry by my peers for this. In the spirit of Anglicanism, I continue to feel the value of The Daily Offices but realize that few, if any, would attend these weekday services and see the importance of Morning Prayer on Sundays as a way to collect our lives from the busyness of the world.

However, there are occasions when conducting Morning Prayer on Sundays is inappropriate. For example, on Sundays when there is Baptism, or during the Easter Season when the collects and lessons lead up to the celebration of the Eucharist.

Last spring I read The Parson’s Handbook by Percy Dearmer and learned what I believe to be a more proper observance of Morning Prayer on Sundays. He suggests the following:

First of all when we arrive for the service, the tone should be more reflective and contemplative in nature. Unlike the celebration of Holy Eucharist, Morning Prayer does not lend itself to a triumphal entry with processional hymns, crucifer and choir. Instead the service begins with the prelude, tolling of the bells and a meditative hymn sung by the choir in place. This leads up to the opening sentences and confession, concluding with the Venite sung in a simple chant. Likewise the Psalm is to be led by the choir in chant, followed by lessons and canticle. The choral anthem is given before the third lesson, followed by sermon, creed, and prayers. The offertory hymn is then sung by the congregation towards the end of the service, while the collection is being taken up, and serves as our doxology. It is in the act of giving and not the elevation of our donation that God is honored. The service concludes with announcements ending with A Prayer of St. Chrysostom and Dismissal.

We tried this approach to Morning Prayer on Sunday, September 28 at 10:00 a.m. and will conduct our next Morning Prayer service on October 19, on the occasion of a special music program with Peter Lea Cox. Please feel free to give me any input on this subject, as we are trying to make worship a deeper and richer experience for all the people of St. Mary’s.

—Peter Chase

Good News: September 30, 2008

The Good News from September 30 is available for download:

Good_News_2008_Sept_30.pdf

This issue includes articles on Morning Prayer, and Reflections on Padre Julio’s Visit.