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The New Year 2006
-- We are in the process of updating our website, please check back frequently --
Schedule for week of January 1st
The New Year 2006 -- We are in the process of updating our website, please check back frequently -- Schedule for week of January 1st
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The Parish Messenger April 1999
For better or worse, one of the features of a midtown parish is the presence of any number of "street people" - homeless, "drunks," "bums." For many people the presence of these "undesirables" in the midst of proper Anglicans is a source of distress. I am never so mindful of their presence as I am at stations of the Cross, or, as Holy Week approaches, with the reading of the Passion. The lines referring to our Lord seem to fit these outcasts of society as well as that solitary figure, trudging the streets of Jerusalem, shouldering the burden of His Cross - "We have seen him without beauty or majesty, with no looks to attract our eyes. - He was despised and rejected by men; and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not." For those who find these persons in our midst unsettling or troublesome, I would agree. They prick our consciences. They offend our senses and sensibilities. They shatter our convictions that the world is as we would imagine. And so does Our Lord. Christ calls us to see the world through His eyes, not our own. He commands us to love those whom He loves and calls his own, to eat with those with whom He ate and to bring into our company those who were in His company; tax collectors, harlots, lepers, blind and lame. As we encounter these people in our midst, let us always remember those honest folk who asked our Lord, "when did we see Thee naked and clothe Thee, hungry and feed Thee?" And, let us always remember His answer to them, "when you did it to these, the least of my brethren, you did it to Me." Holy Week There is no time more sacred in the Christian calendar than this week immediately preceding Easter. The whole of salvation history is brought dramatically before our very eyes as we see our Lord walk the steps to the Holy City where He will accomplish that "full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world." How sad that our Lord will make this journey without all of His faithful present to walk the way with Him. How sad that there will be people who will not be there on Maundy Thursday to see the feet of the disciples washed, to hear His command to love as He has loved, to serve as He has served. How sad that there will be those who will not be at the Holy Table as He institutes the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. How sad that there will be those who will not see that Sacred Body and Blood carried in solemn procession to the Garden of Gethsemane and watch with Him there as He prays to the Father, "that they all may be one." There will be those too who are not present at the foot of the Cross on Good Friday; those who will miss the opportunity to venerate that Sacred Wood and kiss the feet of Him who gave His life that they might live. What a loss that these people will not make their Communion on that day as the saving Victim offers that perfect sacrifice. Just think, there will be some who will miss the greeting of the Dawn when the Easter Fire is struck and the Paschal Candle, the blazing symbol of Our Lord bursting through the night of sin and death, is lighted and carried into the Great Vigil. Think of those who will not hear the story of salvation recounted, from the time of Creation to the creation of the New Jerusalem, as the Prophecies are read at that Vigil. Just imagine, there are those who will not hear the cry of joy shattering the silence of the tomb, "Alleluia, Christ is Risen," as the First Mass of Easter is celebrated in golden radiance. Just imagine, there are those who will miss all this. Thank God that you are not one of those people. Holy Week ScheduleMonday and Tuesday in Holy Week Low Mass A Celtic PrayerO Son of God, perform a miracle for me: Adopt a sack As stewards of "this fragile earth, our island home," we are called to do what we can to maintain her resources. Recycling is an easy way to do this. At the church we make every effort to recycle. However, sometimes our efforts are thwarted by those who help themselves to our green recycle bins from the alley. You could help the church and the city’s recycling effort by "adopting a sack" of the church’s waste paper. We will place the church’s waste paper in approved recycling sacks, all ready for you to take home to recycle with your own waste materials. The brown grocery sacks with recyclable paper will be placed next to the Undercroft door. Please consider taking one of these sacks home with you to put in your green recycle bin.
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