Rector’s Chronicle

As he begins his final choral season as Rector of Saint Thomas Church, Fr Mead looks forward to the centennial year of our beloved church building, and also shares some thoughts regarding his summer reading list.

In this Lenten Chronicle, the Rector writes about Holy Week, Fr Fletcher, Jon Meacham, Fr Austin, two new assistant organists, the Eton Choirbook, Kierkegaard, Dr Stires and Dr Noble. He does all of this before he answers, at long last, a $77,000 parish history question.

What does Superstorm Sandy have to do with Christmas? The Rector, in his December Chronicle, gives us his answer.

Never have 11,545 Chantry folks, seven books, and Saint Cyprian shared space in a single publication. Never, that is, until now.

Our orbit around the sun hasn’t yet taken us out of spring, but at Saint Thomas summer has arrived. Commencement has commenced, Leaving Sunday has left, and the choristers are long gone. (They’ve not only left the building, they’ve left the country!) All of this yields happy peace at Fifth and fifty-third.

The Rector, like the calendar, is in summer mode. So, too, is his Chronicle. Having lost its winter weight, the Chronicle is two pages instead of four. Short on words, it is long on gratitude: for uncommon clergy and for common prayer.

What do Lent, Bishop Gillies, Easter, heaven, Japanese netsuke, a high-wire artist, nuclear warheads, Henry VIII, Gerre Hancock, a dozen funerals and the organ fund all have in common? They are all on the Rector’s tireless mind. Read his mind here.

This Advent, the Rector writes about Messiah concerts Past (a good review was won); Bishops Present and Future (that our Diocese may be one); the EMC 2012 (a canvass that was, is and is to come); and how his own numbers add up (and why he still is having fun).

This relatively short issue chronicles our response to Hurricane Irene, our plans for September 11, and our ongoing transformation regarding how we communicate. It also includes the annual (this year abbreviated) Summer Book Report.

In this season of summering, the Rector gives thanks–for the Church and her clergy, staff, Vestry and volunteers; for John Scott’s Easter Mass; for the Choir School and the Class of 2011; and, in great depth, for Holy Scripture, and especially at this time of its 400th anniversary, the King James Version.

The Rector begins with the Holy Week to come and ends with the Ash Wednesday past. In between, he writes about an organ to be publicly played, a play to be publicly read, and more.