Weekly Update from Fr. van Dooren 10.10.25
Dear members and friends of our dear parish,
Greetings from London and from our sister parish of St. Matthew’s Westminster. I am here with Bishop Shin and other priests from the New York Diocese who are “linked” to parishes in and around London. London is the companion diocese to New York.
And as fate and grace would have it, the present bishop of London has been appointed the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, The Rt. Rev. & Hon. Dame Sarah Mullally. Our clergy group had lunch with her today as a welcome to the Diocese of London. Oh me of little faith! I thought she might cancel with this elevation, but she is working diligently as the Bishop of London until her enthronement as Archbishop of Canterbury.
And in just two weeks, we are so excited to welcome the choir from St. Matthew’s Westminster to New York City! They will join us for our Tuesday Midday Concert (October 21), for a special Saturday evensong (October 25), and for our Sunday (October 26) solemn mass. They will also be visiting St. John’s in the Village, St. Thomas Fifth Avenue and The Church of the Holy Trinity while they’re here. Click here to see the full schedule.
I am so thankful to have our associate priest, Fr. Patrick Cheng to celebrate and preach this upcoming Sunday at the Little Church. For the past decade, Fr. Patrick has blessed us with tireless ministry and profound love. Thank you dearly, Fr. Patrick!
This week’s music includes a new mass setting for the choir by the late baroque/early classical composer Baldassare Guluppi (1707-1785). He was born in Venice and spent most of life there, holding the premiere position of Maestro di cappella at the Doge’s chapel, St. Mark’s Basilica. He was also know as leading composer of opera, especially comic operas in the new dramma giocoso style. He was one of the world’s most famous composers and musicians during his lifetime and toured Vienna, London, and was contracted by Catherine the Great of Russia to produce and write music for the Russian court. The Boys and Girls and I have decided that he gets the prize for the best name in the roster of composers. The anthem Cantata Domino is by Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612), the late Renaissance composer who also has ties to Venice through his teacher Andrea Gabrieli, who was the organist at St. Mark’s.
Thank you for such generous spirit and love for last week’s celebration of Foundation Day and Pet Blessing! A special thank you to those who prepared food and assisted with clean-up following the festivities!
This Sunday, October 12 at 1 pm in the Holy Family Chapel, our Adult Christian Education series "A Great Cloud of Witnesses" continues! Matthew Sava will lead our discussion on John Donne (1572-1631). Come learn about this English Metaphysical Poet and celebrated Anglican preacher who recognized that "no man is an island" and asked us to consider "for whom the bell tolls." For the full schedule, click here.
Our Midday Music Concert series continues this Tuesday, October 14th at 1:00pm. Our series “One West / One East” is a collaboration with Marble Collegiate Church. The next concert will be held at Marble Collegiate Church with Eddie Zheng, organ, performing “Ad nos Salutarem” by Franz Liszt. Suggested donation is $10.
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.
Guided tours of the church will be held Saturday at 10:30, 1:00, and 4:00, and Sunday at 12:30 (in Spanish) and 1:00. Concerts will be held Saturday at 11:45 (Family Concert) and 3:00 (piano concert with Matei Varga), and on Sunday at 2:00 (“Celebrate Freedom” with Episcopal Actors’ Guild). Other events include a presentation on vestments, a tour of the EAG theatre archives, and an art gallery reception. For details and a complete schedule of events, please click here.
If you would like to volunteer to be a greeter (two-hour shift), please contact parishoffice@littlechurch.org. Don’t miss it!
As part of our celebration for our 177th anniversary, we wanted to officially announce our refreshed website. The URL is still the same - you can find our new look at littlechurch.org. Stylistically, it might feel pretty similar, yet our website has some new features. The weekly calendar can now be found right on the home page. The website now has videos of past sermons and of our choirs. Our concert schedule and ticket links are now easier to find. And in case you ever miss an email, our weekly updates and mass reminders can be found under "news and events". The mass reminders and bulletins will be posted at 8 am on Sundays.
We want to extend special thanks to Kate Okeson who designed our new beautiful website, and we look forward to being able to offer more content!
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 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