Dear Friends,
There was much excitement this week as the boys returned to the Choir School and we prepared to welcome new students. The Choir School community has been welcomed so warmly by the Professional Children’s School, and they are all beginning the year with a parent, student and staff party on an evening Circle Line Cruise! The boys have already had their first choir practices, and Mr. Tanner has said that they are in good voice. We look forward to welcoming them back on Sunday. You can also read updates from Mo. Turner and Mr. Tanner.
The Noble Singers return this week, and have their choir camp on Saturday. They will begin singing again on Sunday at the 9am mass, and Jennifer Lane will be looking to expand the program. If you know children who love music, but for whom the Choir School is not an option, please click here for the Children and Family Ministry website.
Please make every effort to be in-person or on-line for the 11am on Sunday when we will commission Richard Tanner as our new Organist and Director of Music. We will also welcome Pippa, his wife, as well as Bethany Dame, our new graduate Organ Scholar, and Jennifer Lane, our new Music Associate for Children and Youth. We have an exciting term planned with some wonderful music. Our preacher at the 11am service will be The Rt. Rev. Dorsey McConnell, retired Bishop of Pittsburgh, and a former curate of Saint Thomas when Fr. John Andrew was Rector. We are treating September 7 as Back to Church Sunday and I am encouraging everyone to invite a friend or a family member to join them in Church.
We are having a simple but tasty brunch on Sunday after the 11am mass. We are asking folk to indicate that they are coming to help with catering; please click here. We also invite you to make a donation towards the cost which you can do when you register or on the day by tapping your credit or debit card on one of the devices.
At the same time as we welcome back our students and their families, our hearts go out to the children, staff, and families of Annunciation School, Minneapolis, where two children were killed, and fifteen children and three adults were injured by a shooter who opened fire during a mass to celebrate the beginning of the school year. It seems hard to believe that someone would choose to target a religious service let alone young children. The Bishop of Minnesota, the Rt. Rev. Craig Loya, wrote movingly to his Diocese about how we seem to reconcile ourselves to these kinds of shootings, and how helpless we can feel. He said:
“We remember that Jesus always goes where the pain is. Jesus always, always shows up most fully with those who are doubled over with grief, pushed aside by oppressive systems, ignored by the powerful, or afraid in the shadows. Jesus goes most fully to those places in our own hearts, and in the world around us. Jesus always shows up with the balm of love where there is deepest pain, and that’s where we show up as his hands and heart today.”
This Sunday is also known as ‘Stand Up Sunday’ because of an interfaith campaign organized by the Appeal of Conscience Foundation and the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism. Attacks on religious institutions and people of faith have surged at alarming rates across the United States in Churches, Synagogues, Temples, Mosques and Houses of Worship in recent years. The number of assaults on Houses of Worship has doubled since 2021, and Jewish hate crime has disproportionately increased during that time. Together with other churches in New York, snagogues, mosques, and other places of worship, Saint Thomas is representing our Diocese in participating in Stand-Up Sunday, by raising awareness of the sinful nature of faith-based hate crime. There will be some materials in the Narthex for you to take away, should you want them.
Weekday Choral Evensong resumes next week; if you are in the vicinity of Saint Thomas on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, you can come to evensong at 5:30pm, which is the most wonderful way to end the day and begin the evening ahead. Evensong is a gift to the Church and, at Saint Thomas, to the people of New York; as someone once said to me “at the end of a busy and stressful day, I can come to Saint Thomas and the worship and the music washes over me and brings me such calm and peace.”
Congratulations are in order to: Christopher Seeley, our former Head of School, who has begun his new work as Associate Head of School for Advancement at The Cambridge School of Weston, Massachusetts. Dr. Jeremy Filsell also takes up a new role as Director of Music and Organist for Christ Episcopal Church, Bradenton, Florida, while Rebecca Kellerman-Filsell continues her work as Associate Artistic Director and Operations Manager of the Sarasota Young Voices, Florida. We wish Chris, Jeremy, and Rebecca, every success in their new roles.
I look forward to some wonderful liturgy and music this coming Sunday and the rest of the year; remember to encourage friends and family to join you in worship on Sunday!
Affectionately,
Your Priest and Pastor,
Carl
Sonnet for St. Thomas the Apostle – Malcolm Guite
“We do not know… how can we know the way?”
Courageous master of the awkward question,
You spoke the words the others dared not say
And cut through their evasion and abstraction.
Oh doubting Thomas, father of my faith,
You put your finger on the nub of things
We cannot love some disembodied wraith,
But flesh and blood must be our king of kings.
Your teaching is to touch, embrace, anoint,
Feel after Him and find Him in the flesh.
Because He loved your awkward counter-point
The Word has heard and granted you your wish.
Oh place my hands with yours, help me divine
The wounded God whose wounds are healing mine.
