News from Saint Thomas Church for the Week of February 9, 2020


In this week’s news…

A Message from the Associate Rector

Father Matthew Moretz, Associate Rector (photo credit: Alan Barnett)

Dear Friends,

This week I have been reading a gripping intellectual history by Alan Jacobs entitled “The Year of Our Lord, 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis.” The book introduces and weaves together the common themes of the creative work of five prominent Christians of that day: Jacques Maritain, T. S. Eliot, C. S. Lewis, W. H. Auden, and Simone Weil. These thinkers, working mostly separately, developed a powerfully consistent sensibility about how civilization should be rebuilt after the Second World War. (I was grateful to read that, for a few of these thinkers who either visited New York City or lived here, the city’s cultural vitality played a pivotal role in their seeing the West anew.) They all longed for a spiritual and moral regeneration of the post-war world, and they applied great diligence to mapping out a path. That path could be called “Christian humanism,” an understanding of society animated by the ultimate value of human beings as beloved creations of God, alongside a stark recognition of the profound limitations that humans bring to the world.

Among so many lively stories and much incisive analysis of the “Christian humanism” of these writers, a particular quote leapt off the page and grabbed me by the heart. It was a portion of a sermon that C. S Lewis preached at Oxford’s University Church of St. Mary the Virgin in June of 1941. He titled the sermon “The Weight of Glory” and preached this: “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit: immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.”

In this sermon, Lewis seeks to de-center the world of politics and ideology. This is not to ignore such things, but it is a clarion call to be sure to put first things first. His is a bold vision of the human person: one that puts all of our political, cultural, and organizational projects second in relationship to the supreme task of loving our neighbor as Christ has taught us. As Lewis was during wartime, we may be beset by a sensation of collapse of institutions, cultural and ecological breakdown, or even a sense of living in the ruins of a time gone by. But the only viable path for Lewis and his colleagues is one that resolutely rebuilds our relationships and our society on the foundational “heart” of the matter: the “hearts” that live and beat in the people around us and the “hearts” which contain God’s image and presence (as well as obscure it). As Lewis also wrote, “perhaps civilization will never be safe until we care for something else more than we care for it.” I would agree with this, yet I would remove the word “perhaps!”

As our Lord preached: “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?. . . for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:31-33)

Grace and peace,

Matthew+

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Candlemas: the Feast of the Presentation

This past Sunday morning, Saint Thomas Church celebrated the Feast of the Presentation with a Candlemas Procession and Solemn Eucharist. At this morning service, we commemorated Mary and Joseph bringing the child Jesus to be presented to the Lord in the Temple. We lit our hand-held candles, singing and proclaiming Jesus as the light who casts out all darkness.

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Strategic Plan Update

Dear Parishioners,

As you may know, over the past few months, our task forces have been working to implement certain key elements of our Strategic Plan.

The following is an update and a request for help from the Institutional Advancement Task Force, which has been tasked to:

      • Determine the optimal staffing configuration for a new Office of Institutional Advancement at Saint Thomas Church and Choir School
      • Define job descriptions
      • Recruit key positions for the new department

We have made many great strides in beginning to build this new office. Our accomplishments include:

      • Defining and hiring a new Director of Development. We congratulate Adam MacDonald for a successful start in this critical role!
      • Defining the role of a Director of Communications, which will ideally be hired by the new CAO.
      • Defining the role of Chief Advancement Officer and recruiting for the role through the church website, and several job posting sites including: Chronicle of Philanthropy, LinkedIn, Indeed, Diocese of NY, Episcopal News Service, and the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes.
      • We’ve received a good initial response for the CAO search, with several applications, and we have had positive discussions and/or meetings with top candidates.

We are still accepting applications, and would greatly appreciate your assistance in recruitment. Please share this link with your network, for instance by posting it on LinkedIn and/or emailing to raise awareness.

If we do not have a sufficient candidate pool by the end of the month, we will begin interviewing search firms to help us complete this very important search.

With much gratitude,

Chris Haley
Chair, Institutional Advancement Task Force

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EAST Speaker Event: the Rev. Winnie Varghese

The Reverend Winnie Varghese

Join us Thursday February 13, 6:30pm in the Living Room of the Parish House for the EAST (Episcopal Asian Supper Table) Speaker Event. “How do you make sense of things in troubled times?”, with the Reverend Winnie Varghese, Strategic Clergy for Global Initiatives at Trinity, Wall Street. She will offer a personal reflection about how Asian-American Christians can consider our global citizenship in ways that lead to active engagement in movements for liberation. Join us for prayer, discussion, and suppers. RSVP by Tuesday, Feb. 11 using this email: East@dioceseny.org

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Pilgrimage to the Holy Land Meeting

We will have a pre-pilgrimage meeting for all who are registered on Sunday, February 16, at 12:30pm (after the 11am mass) on the Fifth Floor of the Parish House. If you have any questions, please bring them; alternatively, you can email them to pilgrimage@saintthomaschurch.org.

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Next Week’s Office and Mass Schedule

Monday, Thursday and Friday Services

      • 8 a.m., 12:10 and 5:30 p.m.
      • The Tuesday 12:10 p.m. Healing Eucharist includes the laying on of hands and anointing of the sick.

Tuesday and Wednesday Services

      • 8 a.m. and 12:10 p.m. only.
      • The 5:30 p.m. services are cancelled due to choral recordings.

Choral Evensong

      • Thursday, February 13, at 5:30 p.m.

Saturday February 15

      • Confessions in the Resurrection Chapel, Saturday, February 15, from 11 to 11:45 a.m.
        Confessor – Mother Turner
      • Eucharist: 12:10 p.m.

Prayers at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fifth Avenue

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