Weekly Update from Fr. van Dooren 10.2.26
Dear members and friends of our parish family,
We celebrate our Founding as a parish this coming Sunday, always on the Sunday closest to October 1st when we held our first service in 1848. Click here to read an exempt from our own Fr. Warren Platt’s book regarding the details of that special time!
The Old Testament lesson and sermon text for this Sunday is the famous story of Jacob’s Ladder (Genesis 28:10-17). Curiously, it was also the Old Testament lesson for last week’s feast of the Holy Angels, and it is such a fitting story for our celebration of our Founding as a parish family. I am honored to be the preacher, and Fr. Patrick will celebrate the mass.
This Sunday is also the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, when parishes traditionally hold their annual pet blessings. St. Francis is associated with a love for animals as he preached to them when humans refused to listen! Thus we often see his statue in gardens and parks. So all well-behaved pets are invited to this Sunday’s mass, and others will join us after the mass in the garden for blessings and fun. Please let me know in advance if your snake is attending….smile!
To make the day even more glorious, we will host a special reception following the 11 am mass. The church is providing the majority of the main course but donations of homemade or store bought salads and desserts are still needed and greatly appreciated. Volunteers to help clean up are also needed. We are grateful for those who have already contributed, but please contact our head of hospitality, Lee Alderson at leealderson04@gmail.com if you are able to volunteer or contribute.
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 this year it will be held on Saturday, October 17 and Sunday, October 18.
Guided tours of the church will be held Saturday at 10:45 and 1:00, and Sunday at 12:30 (in Spanish) and 1:00. Concerts will be held Saturday at 11:45 (Family Concert with Claudia Dumschat) and 3:00 (pianoconcert with Matei Varga), and on Sunday at 2:00 (“Broadway in Song” with members of COT, EAG, and HHAC). Other events include a display of vestments with Steve Leavitt, a display of the EAG theatre archives, and a trading card activity at Houghton Hall. For the complete schedule, please click here.
The Bishop of New York, The Rt. Rev. Matthew Heyd, will make his first visitation to Transfiguration on Sunday November 15th. If you are considering Confirmation, Reception, and Reaffirmation, please contact the office. This is a beautiful time of renewal.
Thank you so dearly for the outpouring of generosity and response to our restoration of the St. Joseph of Arimathea Chapel. How privileged we are to have stewardship of this treasured and historical space! Scaffolding is going up and the large Transfiguration window will soon be removed for restoration. So we’ll look a little ragged for the winter months before the dazzling completion. Click here to read more about this current project.
The Holy Rosary will be prayed in the Family chapel at 9:30am this Sunday. We will pray the Joyful mysteries this Sunday.
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