Weekly Update from Fr. van Dooren 10.17.25

Dear brothers and sisters of our beloved parish family, 

This weekend is OPEN HOUSE NEW YORK! Join with the Church of the Transfiguration, the Episcopal Actors’ Guild, and Houghton Hall Arts Community for a spectacular weekend of music, art, and history celebrating our long tradition of diversity and inclusion! Open House New York is an annual celebration of all the places that make New York a special place to live, work, play, and worship, and we're looking forward to welcoming many guests to our "little church" with a variety of events this weekend! 

Guided tours of the church will be held Saturday at 10:30am, 1:00pm, and 4:00pm, and Sunday at 12:30pm (in Spanish) and 1:00pm. Concerts will be held Saturday at 11:45am (Family Concert) and 3:00pm (piano concert with Matei Varga), and on Sunday at 2:00pm (“Celebrate Freedom” with Episcopal Actors’ Guild). Other events include a presentation on vestments by Steve Leavitt, a tour of the EAG theatre archives, and an art gallery reception at Houghton Hall. Don't miss it, and invite your friends! Click here for more details on these events. 

We will gather this Sunday with sincerest love for God as expressed in our worship, prayers, and study. All of the scripture passages emphasize the theme of persistence in prayer and courage, and I will use the Old Testament story of Jacob wrestling with the angel as the sermon text (Genesis 32:22-31). 

In this Sunday’s music, the prelude, offertory, anthem, and communion anthem focus on the gospel theme of the widow, who ceaselessly prayed to God for help against injustice, and because of her relentlessness, God finally answered her prayer. The piece that we divide into three sections this week is Hear My Prayer, by the German composer Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847). The piece was written for performance in England, and therefore has an English text. The text is based on Psalm 55 which includes the beautiful lines “ O, for the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. I would fly far away and stay in the desert. I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm.” The first performance took place in Crosby Hall, London in 1845. The librettist, William Bartholomew, and organist, Ann Mounsey, of the first performance later married. 

We will also celebrate our monthly Spanish mass this Sunday, October 19 at 5:00pm in the Family Chapel. 

During the first part of this upcoming week, we will mail (electronically) our Stewardship letter which will begin our annual financial pledge drive for the support of the parish. Stay tuned. 

And the choir from our sister parish, St. Matthew’s Westminster, arrives this Monday for an exciting week of performances throughout the city! Click here to read their schedule. They will start their tour here at the Little Church at our Midday Music concert this Tuesday, October 21 at 1 pm. The choirs under the direction of Nigel Groome will sing Music by Mozart, Gibbons, Mendelssohn, Rutter, and Standford. Suggested donation is $10. 

Next Sunday, October 26 at 1 pm in the Holy Family Chapel, our Adult Christian Education series "A Great Cloud of Witnesses" continues! Karina Hogan will lead our discussion on Pauli Murray. Come learn about the life and writings of this 20th century Episcopal priest, who was also a legal scholar, human rights activist, feminist, author, poet and multiracial member of the LGBTQ community.

The Holy Rosary will be prayed in the Family chapel at 9:30am this Sunday. We will pray the Joyful mysteries. 

We continue to live-stream each Sunday’s mass at 11:00am, and a link is sent out each Sunday morning at 8:00am. We live-stream on Facebook and YouTube. Please email the parish office (parishoffice@littlechurch.org) if you would like to pray the morning and evening offices with us by Zoom. 

Thank you for your continued faith, support, and love for the parish.  

Fides Opera

With loving wishes,
Fr. van Dooren