Dear Friends,
Lent is almost upon us; please make every effort to attend one of the Ash Wednesday Services in-person or on-line. Ashes will also be available all day in-between the services. The clergy will be available to hear confessions, give spiritual advice, listen to a problem, or pray with you. Please take advantage of this special day of prayer and fasting. A word about fasting and abstinence: It is traditional to refrain from meat on Fridays in Lent, and some people also abstain on Wednesdays. However, fish can often be more expensive than meat! I think it is important to live into the spirit of Lent by living more simply. I certainly would not encourage switching to Dover Sole or lobster thermidor on Fridays! So, Lent is a good time to think about our habits and planning what we are going to eat. Giving something up that we enjoy is also a way of fasting. True fasting is to go without food, and many Christians fast from food on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, waiting until the evening before having a simple vegetarian meal. However, in the Bible, Fast Days were days when one did not work! Instead, one went to the Temple or the Synagogue. So we must be sensible, especially if you have a medical condition where drastically reducing your calorific intake might be dangerous. Again, it is the spirit of Lent that matters.
In a similar vein, people sometimes ask me what to do with the ash on their forehead after mass. Some people have turned wearing a cross of ash into a witness to Jesus. Certainly in New York this is true – last year, after the 8am mass, I went down to the sidewalk and had people receiving their ashes there, including a bus-driver who stopped her bus and ran across the sidewalk! But if we decided to keep our ashes on, we must ensure that we are not doing so out of a sense of spiritual pride. The Gospel of the day is very, very clear:
So, after mass I always wash my face. I remember when I worked with Franciscans in East London – after mass, a brother would stand near the door to wipe off the ash from peoples’ foreheads and anoint them with the holy Chrism, doing just as Jesus directed. Whether you follow that Franciscan (Gospel) Tradition, or whether you keep your ash on as a witness to Jesus, remember that it is keeping the spirit of Lent that matters.
You can access all of our Lenten offerings online.
On Sunday at 11am, we welcome the Rev. Dylan Turner, Anglican Communion Relations Officer for the Archbishop of Canterbury. Fr. Turner is based at Lambeth Palace and is representing the Archbishop at Bishop Matthew’s installation on Saturday morning.
The Chantry Chapel Altarpiece will be restored starting next week. From Monday, the daily mass will move to the Resurrection Chapel until Holy Week.
The Altarpiece is now 100 years old and in need of conservation, cleaning, and repair, particularly the gilding which has been damaged or has lost its shine over many years. The work was budgeted for last year as part of our Bicentennial projects to restore and renew our building. As stewards of this place, it is our responsibility to ensure the altarpiece lasts another hundred years, and I would like to ask for a donor or donors to help cover the $65,000 cost of the work so that it may return it to its original glory. We are happy to place a plaque commemorating this work, and it can be done in memory of someone or as a thanksgiving. Please contact me or Bruce Smith if you are interested in contributing to this Bicentennial project or underwriting the whole work as a gift.
Any gifts received to offset the cost of this project will not only preserve a beautiful part of our worship space, but also preserve funds in the endowment that are restricted for the maintenance of the Church building. Every dollar that we receive from parishioners would be the equivalent of adding twenty dollars to the endowment. What a gift that would be in preserving this magnificent aspect of our Church!
Pamela Lewis has written a second article on the statues of emancipators and you can find it below. Please register for the discussion group to be held on Saturday, March 2, so that we can plan the refreshments accordingly. You can register online.
As we all prepare to embark on our Lenten journey to the Cross and Easter, I encourage you to spend a little time over the coming days to think about how you will keep Lent.
Your Priest and Pastor,
Carl
