The Rector's Message for the Week of November 19, 2023

Dear Friends,

This week I share my address to the Parish Annual Meeting with you:

King James Version of the Bible has these words in the Book of Proverbs: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

The vision of our forebears was handed on to future generations, but we need to remember the humble beginning of this parish – in a simple room on Broome Street 200 years ago. In January 1824, when the parish was incorporated into the City and County of New York, there were only 23 parishioners on the roll. Those first parishioners also came from other churches – we are what is called in evangelical circles a “church plant” – and, nourished by the gospels and the sacraments, that church plant has grown into a vibrant community, and part of the family of the Episcopal Diocese of New York.

In 2019, we engaged in a period of self-study, the results of which are still available on our website. In the resulting Strategic Plan, we shared a vision:

To become more Christ-like in everything that we do, making a difference to midtown Manhattan by being a vibrant community of faith where all can feel at home. Our beautiful building and musical tradition help us to reach out as a beacon of hope. To do this, we need to ensure that our mission is strong, resolute, ordered, and appropriately resourced.

Shortly after sharing that vision came the worst pandemic since 1918, but unlike some institutions, our parish responded to the pandemic with hopeful living. Many things changed, and we had to re-think many of our programs, but new initiatives have emerged, new staff have been appointed, and many new members in-person, and particularly online, have arrived. Church attendance across the world has been affected by the pandemic and, as Fr. Gioia suggested in his sermon last week, many Christians have stopped attending in-person worship every week.

Nevertheless, there are signs of encouragement if we look at the parish registers:

Coming out of the pandemic, in-person attendance is solid and slowly growing. Although numbers in church are not what they were before the pandemic, to them we add those who join us live on the website. On average, 250 people join us live for 11am, and 150 live at 4pm, making our average Sunday attendance in 2022 796 which is very robust. Even our audio livestream of the simple, said daily Shrine Prayers and Mass has on average 10 people joining us each day.

The numbers attending the Pilgrims’ Course has significantly increased because most of our education and formation is now hybrid, and the Young Adult Group is flourishing. But it is this online community that has brought us the biggest encouragement: Since we started streaming our services to YouTube on September 5, 2021, we have received well over half a million views. Interestingly, the most watched service has been the Commemoration Service for the late Queen Elizabeth II with 18,000 views. This is followed by the ‘Behind the Scenes Tour’ we filmed which has received nearly 12,000 views. Our third most viewed service is the Bicentennial Eucharist with nearly 9,000 views thus far (but that is only in the past month!) All in all, around 13,000 people joined us for all or some of our Bicentennial services. Interestingly, only 60% of views come from the USA, with almost 10% coming from the UK, many more than we receive from Canada. But we have viewers from all over the world.

The most amazing statistics are the fact that YouTube numbers have almost doubled year over year. For example, in the summer months, when the boy choristers are not even here, June 2022 saw 8000 viewers, and this year 19,000. In July 2022, 10,000 viewers and this year 20,000. And in August 2022, 9,000 viewers, and this year almost 20,000. Last month we had 45,000 viewers.

Engaging with these online people is a challenge to us and we are always trying to find ways to engage. Every week, I meet people at the 5^th Avenue doors that tell me that they are a member of our livestream community. If you had told me nine years ago that in December last year we would have 38,000 people spending (on average) 25 minutes here in church, I don’t think I would have believed it. This Church is now an oasis of prayer – a Gate of Heaven – not just to the people of New York, and those visiting day by day, but to thousands of people all over the United States and further afield.

And that is just YouTube! Our website continues to attract huge traffic and, again from all over the world…so far this year, Avery tells me that we have had around 802,000 page views from almost 80,000 unique users. 80,000 unique users. (See Chart 1 below).

This chart that Avery has produced is most fascinating…the top countries in 2023 and users; look…we have more users in China than Ireland! (See Chart 2 below.)

And look at how many UK and Canada users we have but, more importantly, how many engaged sessions match the numbers.

In May of this year, the Vestry spent three days on a residential retreat, two of those days with the senior staff, thinking and praying about our future vision. One of the goals of the 2019 Strategic Plan was to grow our children and family ministry, and we are starting to see that come to fruition. Very little of our budget is committed to that area of our parish life, so the Vestry is going to invest more in it, particularly thinking about teens and young adults. Our Young Adult Group at the moment is really growing and consolidating, with a core of around 45 active members. You have heard tonight from many key staff and their areas of responsibility.

I want to pay tribute to my hard working and extremely collegial team of lay and ordained colleagues. It was nice what Fr. Gioa said about this place; it is true that he has worked in kinds of communities, but, I have too! I have to say that I love this Church. I love working with my lay and ordained colleagues, but also with the lay leaders of the Church – the Vestry and the leaders of our Guilds and groups; you are precious to me, and I know that you are precious to my clergy colleagues also. And I need to tell you about the amount of time that some of your Vestry give to this Church, especially your Wardens; and the time that the leaders of the Guilds give to this place; it is phenomenal. It is quite humbling at the moment, coming as we do out of this pandemic, to realize how robust we are. Yes, we have problems to deal with, but we are very robust as a community. It was wonderful over the Bicentennial weekend that Fr. Mead was here at every event, so I had lots of time to talk to him, and he was really encouraged.

From the care of the building to outreach, the energy in the parish is palpable, and we are well placed to make some very important decision about the future with confidence. Financial sustainability is a key area of work for the Vestry; we have a large operating budget but not a large enough endowment to cover it. The Bicentennial Gala was a terrific success – now we need to be even more successful this Sunday as we launch the next stage of our Bicentennial Appeal – so please come to church to one of the services, and bring a friend or a parishioner who has not been for a while. We need your help.

The Bicentennial Year has only just begun, and we have a lot of wonderful opportunities for community growth and connection across the Anglican Communion because of our unique heritage. Shortly after the anniversary of the incorporation, in February, we welcome Jon Meacham to give a lecture and then to preach; a group of us have been invited to visit St. James’s Palace, Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, and the King’s Private Library and Archive. In April, the Choristers of the Chapel Royal, founded in medieval times, will make their first ever visit to the United States to Saint Thomas.

In May, we will celebrate the twinning of the Centenary of the twinning of York and New York with a large delegation coming from York to present the city with a beautiful, large, carved and gilded commemorative stone that will be housed here in the Nave. The Archbishop of York will spend a week in mission with us, and we will host a three-day international symposium on the engagement of Church and Civil Society. In June, our Choir will make its first overseas tour in many, many years and we will be raising awareness of our commitment to excellence in liturgy and music. The Choir will sing at Canterbury Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Handel’s House where he composed the Messiah, Buckingham Palace for a very special Concert, then up to York where the BBC will broadcast an historic evensong sung by our joint choirs in the very place where Noble was organist. There will be a companion tour for parishioners led by Fr. Schultz and details will be available very soon.

The Vestry is delighted to have received an initial gift from the estate of the late Martha Dodge, who was devoted to the musical excellence of our church and its choral tradition. Martha commissioned a chamber organ that has her beloved cats carved on its case. Her estate plans include the setting up of a trust that that will, eventually, significantly benefit Saint Thomas Church. The tour will, therefore, be known as the Choir Tour in honor of Martha Dodge.  I think she would probably be rather taken by the fact that her name will be on the program given to the guests in the Ball Room of Buckingham Palace!

One-off gifts for particular work help the Church with its mission, such as the gift from the John and Mary Alyce Merrow Foundation that allowed us to install the livestream system at a time when we were actually locked down. It means that we do not have to use our operating income or even fund-raise for these one-off special projects.

We will also have a new Gift Shop near the exhibition area, together with a new Guide Book and, this Christmas, some Bicentennial gifts that will be unique and exclusive.

In the summer, there will be a block party to celebrate the laying of the first cornerstone of the first church. Then, at the end of the Bicentennial Year, we will have another celebratory party, concerts, liturgies, and the Order of St. John will hold their annual investiture here.

With special events for children and families; visits from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Presiding Bishop, great theologians and speakers; we will affirm to the world that Saint Thomas is a vibrant place of faith, worshipping, loving, and serving our Lord Jesus Christ.

And that is where everything leads to, my friends…worshipping, loving, and serving our Lord Jesus Christ.

But…(yes, you knew there would be a but!)…engagement, programs, worship, music…all these things are showing growth in depth as well as in number, but there is one number that concerns the Vestry and me…the bottom line of our finances. I have said it before, and I will say it again, we have benefited for years from the generosity of the dead, but their generosity is not enough for us to run a church and a choir school here in Midtown Manhattan. You have received the reports of the Finance and Advancement Teams. On Sunday, we shall hear again the Parable of the talents from Jesus. All of us have to give of our time and talent, but we also need people to give of their treasure. This is not a new problem – but since the crash of 2008, things have become more pressing. The sale of our air rights helped, but it was not enough. We managed the pandemic because our skillful teams utilized federal grant schemes. But now, with war around the world, increased energy costs, supply costs, medical insurance costs, and just the cost-of-living rises, we find ourselves thinking hard about how we make a sustainable future that will allow us to continue to grow our parish and provide even more opportunities for excellence.  The fact remains that we are asset rich and cash poor with only 10% of our operating budget coming from pledging members. We cannot cut ourselves out of this problem, neither can we fund-raise our way out it seems. When the pandemic started, I used that famous phrase “for things to remain the same, everything must change.” Change can bring a sense of threat, but change can also bring fresh opportunity and growth; as John Henry Newman so prophetically so long ago – “To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.” And just think – he was a Victorian!

Let me end with some words of my predecessor, Fr. Andy Mead, Twelfth Rector, who has been a wonderful support to me over many years, and it was a great joy that he and Nancy were with us for the Bicentennial weekend.  When he preached last month during the Bicentennial Weekend on our Patronal Feast Day, he said these words:

The Rector’s address concluded with the following video:

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