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Twelfth Sunday of the Year
20 June 2010
Dear Friends in Christ,
1. After many months of work, the restoration and preservation of our stained glass windows is nearly complete. Last Thursday afternoon, the new frame of the Washington Street window was lifted by crane and set into the wall of the church; this new frame was built by hand in Iowa out of Honduran mahogany, and it took over 600 man hours to complete the work. Each of the 54 stained glass windows in the church has now been repaired, cleaned, and covered with ventilated protective glass, and after the few remaining details are finished this week, no additional work on the windows should be needed for decades to come. This work was begun just in time to avoid catastrophe: when the old frame of the Washington Street window was removed early last week, we confirmed what was already known from spot inspections; it had rotted almost completely, and the huge window in the choir loft would have been in danger of complete failure if the project had been postponed much longer. Thank you for your generous support of our capital campaign “Light from Light,” and if you have not yet made your gift or pledge to help with this essential work, please do so at your first convenience.
2. I am pleased to announce that Arlen Clarke is now officially the permanent Choirmaster and interim Organist of St. Mary’s Church. Arlen has served with distinction as our Assistant Organist and Choirmaster for nearly a year and has established an outstanding rapport with both the adult and youth choirs, and effective immediately he is our Choirmaster. Then, early in the fall, Arlen will be joined by Robert Lee who will serve as our Organist, and together they will be responsible for all of the musical leadership of the parish. Having two musicians of their caliber will allow us to build upon an already outstanding program of sacred music at St. Mary’s, and I am most grateful to Arlen for his willingness to serve as our Choirmaster. You can learn more about Arlen’s work at www.arlenclarke.com.
3. This Thursday, 24 June, is the Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist, one of the earliest feasts in the Christian liturgy. According to St. Luke (1:36), John was born six months before the Lord Jesus, and so this feast is kept six months before Christmas. John would say of himself in relation to his cousin Jesus, “He must increase; I must decrease.” (John 3:30) For this reason, St. Augustine found it appropriate that the feast of John’s birth be celebrated at the summer solstice when the light of day begins to shorten, while the feast of Christ’s birth is celebrated at the winter solstice, when the days begin to lengthen. Come to Mass this Thursday morning at 7 am and celebrate with us the birth of the greatest man born of woman (cf. Luke 7:28), the forerunner of the Messiah.
Father Newman