Weekly Update from Fr. van Dooren 9.19.25
Dear members and friends of our Little Church family,
Tomorrow, September 20 at 10:30 am, our dear seminarian intern Danelie Millien will be ordained to the sacred order of priests at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine. I am so honored to be one of the presenters. All are invited to attend in person or through livestream on the Cathedral’s YouTube and Facebook pages. Bless you, ‘almost’ Mother Danelie!
As we prepare for Sunday’s masses, we look so forward to the return of the gentlemen of our choir this Sunday, with the boys and girls choirs returning the following Sunday. I hope that all can attend to welcome them, albeit with the challenge of the Mexican parade that is scheduled for this Sunday on Madison Avenue. So allow a little extra time for your commute. And perhaps we can welcome some of our parade friends for our Spanish mass this Sunday at 5:00pm.
The gospel passage and sermon text for this Sunday is probably one of the most difficult passages in the New Testament, the parable of the “Unjust Steward” (Luke 16:1-13). A dishonest steward mishandles his boss’ money and is discovered. Then, he quickly makes deals with his boss’ debtors to gain friends for when he is fired and out of work. His boss actually commends the steward for his cleverness! The plot thickens when Jesus wishes for such cleverness among his followers.
This strange and difficult parable has much to say about our faith, and it is one to be taken very seriously, but also perhaps with a bit of enjoyment. Come and see!
As mentioned above, this week we welcome the Gentlemen of the Choir back. They will be singing a three voice mass, composed by the Venetian composer Antonio Lotti who was born in 1667. This mass was frequently performed at Transfiguration during the early 70s and 80s when John Morris was the music director here. John was a musicologist who had an intense interest in early music. The music library here has his old manuscripts which he used to create parts for the men of the choir. John, who died an early death from AIDS, was one of the first to succumb to the disease in the early 80s. He was much loved by the choir and the congregation. Our music library, which contains music some of which might even be over 100 years old, is a treasure trove of Anglican and traditional Catholic music.
Our Midday Music Concert series resumes this Tuesday, September 23rd at 1:00pm with "One West One East,”. Our series this fall will be a collaboration with Marble Collegiate Church. The first concert will be held here at the Little Church, with our very own Claudia Dumschat playing Music of Bach, Sweelink, Torelli (arr. Walther), and Franck on our Fisk pipe organ. Suggested donation is $10.
We have an extra special concert coming up on Friday, October 3 at 7 pm featuring two of our dear parishioners. Matei Varga, piano and Susan Olsen Maren, hardanger fiddle will be performing The Original Hardanger Fiddle Tunes and The Complete Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72 for piano by Edvard Grieg. Suggested donation is $25 for general admission and $15 for students and seniors. To purchase tickets in advance, click here.
For the fall we return to our Adult Christian Education series with another round of "A Great Cloud of Witnesses.” Come learn about some of the "Anglican Divines" who influenced and contributed to the Christian faith and our Episcopal tradition. Each saint will be introduced by a member of the Adult Christian Education Committee, with a discussion of short selections from the saint's writings to follow. This series will be held in person at 1:00 PM on Sundays after Mass in the Holy Family Chapel. The schedule is as follows:
September 28: Lancelot Andrewes (led by Christopher Walsh)
October 12: John Donne (led by Matthew Sava)
October 26*: Pauli Murray (led by Karina Martin Hogan)
(*corrected date)
November 9: Evelyn Underhill (led by Nanci Blaisdell)
November 23: Samuel Seabury (led by Joan Seymour)
We give special thanks to Fr. Chris Corbin of Trinity Church in Oshkosh, WI,
who provided the artwork of these sainted figures for our flyers!
Please plan on joining us for the yearly celebration of our Foundation Day, Sunday, October 5th. To make the day special, we are hosting a special reception following the 11:00am mass. Donations of salads and desserts, as well as volunteers to assist with the clean up, would be greatly appreciated. Please email the parish office (parishoffice@littlechurch.org) to coordinate food offerings.
Also on Sunday, October 5th, we will have our annual pet blessing in the garden. If you have a well-behaved pet, please bring them to this special mass. We will meet in the garden roughly at 12:30 pm for our annual pet blessing. Pets of all faith traditions are welcomed to receive a blessing.
The Holy Rosary will be prayed in the Family chapel at 9:30am this Sunday. We will pray the Luminous 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