The Church in Modern Times

The historic shrine ministry of our church to members of the theatrical profession, as well as to couples seeking Christian marriage, had increased during the twenty-five year rectorate of George Clarke Houghton. Dr. Ray seemed admirably prepared to take advantage of the increasing urban nature of our parish by further developing our theater and marriage ministries, and that is what he did. At the same time our third rector popularized our nickname, "The Little Church Around the Corner." In 1943, during World War II, the number of weddings in our church reached a peak of 2,900 marriages performed in one year. Every Saturday - sometimes on weekdays as well during this period when servicemen in vast numbers were being posted overseas - couples would line up in the church garden to await their turn to be married.

Shortly after his arrival in 1923, Dr. Ray joined with the Rev. Walter Bentley and Deaconess Jane Hall to found the Episcopal Actors' Guild of America, an association formed both to foster the work of the church among people of the theater and to express the needs of theater people to the church. Walter Bentley, a priest who had been a Shakespearian actor, had founded the Actors' Church Alliance in 1892. Deaconess Jane Hall had established the Rehearsal Club, a residence for young actresses newly arrived in New York City. It seemed natural for the Church of the Transfiguration to become the home of the organization formed to link church and theater. J. H. Randolph Ray was made the Actors' Guild's first warden by virtue of his office as rector of our church, and all succeeding rectors have been ex officio wardens of the guild ever since.

The noted actor George Arliss was elected first president of the Episcopal Actors' Guild. Such theatrical greats as Otis Skinner, Basil Rathbone, Walter Hampden, Vinton Freedley, Tallulah Bankhead, Peggy Wood, Cornelia Otis Skinner, Walter Abel, Sidney Blackmer, Charlton Heston, Joan Fontaine, Rex Harrison, and Barnard Hughes have graced the annals of the guild as president, vice president, or as member of its council.

Even as Dr. Ray carried on his extensive work with people of the theater, he also reached out in response to wider social needs brought on by the Great Depression. In 1930, beneath the lych-gate of our church, he organized a breadline that distributed food to hungry people, even as his two predecessors had done before him in times of economic crisis. The breadline usually extended over to and up Madison Avenue and then back toward Fifth Avenue on Thirtieth Street. In consultation with Dr. Ray, Heywood Broun, along with Mrs. William Randolph Hearst and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, set up an employment bureau in a nearby brownstone. The bureau was designed to help the men in the breadline prepare to get a job by providing facilities for showering, before receiving a new ten-dollar suit, and by doing whatever else was necessary to make them employable.

Dr. Ray also founded "The Family of the Little Church Around the Corner," affectionately known as "The Little Family," which is an organization made up largely of persons who had been either married or baptized in our church, though open to any friend of the parish. Through "The Little Family" a worldwide network of friends of our church was created. It continues to this day.

In 1958, having reached the recently mandated retirement age of seventy-two, J. H. Randolph Ray retired. He died in 1963.

The Rev. Orin A. Griesmyer was soon called to be our fourth rector. For twenty-one summers prior to his call, Father Griesmyer had acted as supply priest while Dr. Ray was on vacation. In consequence, the fourth rector was familiar with our life and work when he was called to lead this parish. Father Griesmyer saw the need for a more fully equipped parish house. As a result of his leadership, the parish replaced the century-old brownstone with a modern structure for parish activities. It was completed in 1963. Fifteen years later, we found we could have used an even bigger building.

The borough of Manhattan experienced extensive demographic changes during the 1960s, similar to the changes our parish neighborhood had undergone forty years earlier. Middle-class families found life in Manhattan prohibitively expensive and education for their children less and less satisfactory. To respond to the increasing urban isolation of our church, Father Griesmyer encouraged community activities and established a club for couples and for single young adults. At the same time he attended to the growing number of "Little Family" members, traveling to different parts of the United States to visit them and welcoming them back to visit the place of their nuptials - or baptisms - anytime, but especially on Foundation Day.

As have all of our rectors, Father Griesmyer practiced and taught the full faith of the universal Catholic Church, maintaining the eucharistic ministry of Sunday and daily masses.

Perhaps one of the most important stands that Orin Griesmyer made came early in his ministry here. New York City was preparing to build a crosstown aerial highway that would have left this charming landmark church stranded between the east- and westbound lanes. Father Griesmyer led the parish to adopt a strong position against such a highway. He argued that the building of more roads would increase incoming traffic and so in no way diminish congestion in south midtown Manhattan. In 1962 this was a new idea to many in the world of urban planning. One newspaper, the New York World-Telegram and Sun, derisively called the theory "Griesmyer's Law." Fortunately the aerial highway plan was ultimately abandoned, and today we can see that our fourth rector was right: "Griesmyer's Law" has too often proved lamentably true.

Father Griesmyer's thirteen years as rector of our church came to a close with his retirement in 1971. He is now rector emeritus and lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, with his wife Doris.

When Norman J. Catir, Jr., arrived at the Church of the Transfiguration in 1971 as our fifth rector in 123 years, the Episcopal Church was in the midst of Prayer Book revision. Having been made chairman of the Liturgical Commission of the Diocese of New York soon after his arrival, Father Catir brought the parish into this process through the trial-use rites provided by the Standing Liturgical Commission of the Episcopal Church. Eventually a conservative liturgical renewal evolved - as exemplified in the regular celebration of Solemn Mass on Sundays (according to the use of Rite I in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer), public baptisms, and full celebration of the Easter Vigil with Holy Baptism and the first Mass of Easter.

Many visitors, as well as regular parishioners, appreciate the beauty and dignity of worship at Transfiguration, which is enhanced by the singing of our fine choir of boys and men. To insure the continuance of this choir, the Anthony J. Mercede Choir Scholarship Fund was founded in memory of our devoted junior warden and treasurer after his death in 1985.

Many organists have said that our new organ (the Arnold Schwartz Memorial Organ, dedicated in 1988) is the finest in New York City, and the story of how it came to be is worth telling. The need for a new organ had been increasingly evident in the 1960s and 1970s. The parish did not have the resources to purchase a new instrument, but that did not stop Father Catir from praying every day for a solution to the organ problem. He did this for seven years, starting in 1973, during his daily intercessions after Morning Prayer. His faith and perseverance were rewarded in due time.

In 1978 the vestry decided to initiate a pledge campaign to underwrite the cost of organ replacement. After two years of fund raising from the parish and "The Little Family," it became clear that help was needed from beyond the membership rolls. At Father Catir's suggestion, John Baker, a vestry member who was a commercial artist, designed an appeal poster that was placed at the entrance to the church. The appeal began, "Our tired old organ has given up the ghost. . . ." This poster remained at the church entrance for two and a half years. Then, in November 1980, Mrs. Arnold Schwartz, visiting our church for the first time, saw the appeal when she came inside to pray. She wondered if she might do something to help and considered the matter over the following weekend. During the time she was meditating on this idea, Mrs. Schwartz came across a book on old New York churches in a bookshop near her home. She opened the book, and what did she see but a picture of "The Little Church" at the turn of the century. Suddenly a yellowed newspaper clipping fell out of the book onto the floor. When she retrieved it, Mrs. Schwartz found that it was an article about George Hendric Houghton, our founder. "I wonder if someone is trying to tell me something," she asked herself.

After further prayer for guidance, she called Father Catir to inquire into the possibility of making a gift to enable the church to purchase a pipe organ of distinction and character. In the end, Marie Schwartz pledged a gift that would triple the then current size of the organ fund. With gratitude the vestry unanimously accepted Mrs. Schwartz's generous gift and agreed to name the new instrument in memory of her late husband, Arnold Schwartz, who had been a philanthropist himself. From the day Mrs. Schwartz first saw the organ appeal until the evening on which the vestry thankfully accepted her gift, one week had elapsed.

At about this time, Father Catir and the vestry also initiated the renewal and refurbishment of the church fabric with reconstruction of the nave roof and work in the transept and the rectory. New ornamentation of the sanctuary carried the decoration of the church more into the Gothic Revival style inspired by the Cambridge-Camden Society and A. W. N. Pugin, one of the seminal English Gothic Revival architects. Father Catir, exercising his longtime interest in architectural decoration and following the example of previous rectors, chose the color scheme and design motifs. ArteNova, under the direction of the late Andrzej S. Bak, executed the work of renewal and redecoration.

This project was made possible in part by unexpected offers of assistance from two women who had not previously been connected with the church. A substantial gift was made by Mrs. Arnold Schwartz - after she made her gift for the organ. And at about the same time, the late Greta Kempton, an artist who had achieved national fame for her portraits of President Truman, his family, and members of his cabinet, volunteered to restore many of the church's old paintings, which had become darkened by time and city pollution. The paintings were rededicated in 1987.

Father Catir has maintained and added to the church's theater connections during his years as rector. He nurtured and helped found the Joseph Jefferson Theater Company, which as an off-off-Broadway company performed regularly from 1971 to 1978 in the church transept. Further productions continue to be performed on occasion in the church, and the top floor of the rectory was for many years a hostel for acting students.

In keeping with its roots in the Anglo-Catholic revival, our parish hosted the opening evensong of the national celebration of the Oxford Movement Sesquicentennial on October 23, 1983.

Finally, social outreach and inclusivity have continued to be part of our parish. Since 1971 the Murray Hill SRO Project for Older People has ministered to the needs of the elderly in the neighborhood. Most of our frail elderly people live in single room occupancy hotels and have little contact with other people except through our special program. They breakfast and lunch in our parish hall, and special holiday celebrations are made possible by members of our parish. Medical, financial, and social services are available to the men and women who attend the program.

In order to expand its mission, the parish reinstituted a Sunday school in the 1970s. It sought to work with homeless families housed in nearby welfare hotels in the years 1985 - 90. In 1993 we welcomed the Korean-American Episcopal Congregation to worship here and so have extended our mission in yet another direction.

The Church of the Transfiguration was designated a National Landmark in 1973 in recognition of its position as a shrine of the American church and theater. In 1988 the vestry established the Landmark Fund, which was later named the Willis L. M. Reese Landmark Fund in memory of our beloved longtime senior warden. The purpose of the fund is to maintain and enhance this historic landmark.

To celebrate our 150th anniversary in 1998, our clergy, staff, and loyal parishioners continue to work to build a community whose longevity and dedication to service will carry our parish into the twenty-first century and the third millennium of Christianity. The parish hopes to raise $3,000,000 - that is, $10,000 in thanksgiving for each of its past 150 years and $10,000 for each of its next 150 years - so that we may continue our work as both parish church and shrine in the heart of New York City.

A Word From the Fifth Rector

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