The First Sunday after Pentecost Trinity Sunday 30 May 2021 In-Person & Live-Streamed High Mass at 10:00 a.m. Low Mass at 8:00 a.m. The Zabriskie Memorial Church of Saint John the Evangelist Newport, Rhode Island Liturgical Notes Trinity Sunday and Christ the King Sunday, both of which feature white vestments, are like dazzling bookends to a long green season officially known in the Episcopal Church since 1979 simply as “the Season after Pentecost.” The usual liturgical color for the Season after Pentecost is green. During this season, the focus is on the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, and by extension, the life of the Church as it grows in the midst of the world. Green, therefore, is an apt color, as it is associated with growing things. Robert Webber, in The Services of the Christian Year (vol. 5 of The Complete Library of Christian Worship), writes that unlike Advent, or Christmas, or Epiphany, or Lent, or Holy Week, or Easter, “the various Sundays [after Pentecost] are not connected by a particular theme. In Advent we await the coming of Christ; during Christmas, we celebrate his arrival; and at Epiphany, we proclaim that Christ is manifested to the world as Savior. During Lent, we prepare for the death; in Holy Week, we reenact his death; then in Easter, we celebrate his resurrection and complete the Easter cycle with the celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit. But in the nonfestive season of the church year, there is no unified theme that ties the Sundays together.” By “nonfestive,” Webber simply means the season isn’t organized around preparing for or celebrating a central feast of the church, namely Christmas, Epiphany, or Easter, but the word itself isn’t very elegant. And while there may be no “unified theme” based on such a central feast, one might say that discipleship is the unifying theme. In this season, we ask, “What does it mean to pay heed to Jesus’ earthly ministry, his healing and other miracles, his parables, and his moral teachings? How do these relate to the work of Redemption through his Incarnation, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, and promised Second Coming?” The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops writes that this season “is a time for growth and maturation, a time in which the mystery of Christ is called to penetrate ever more deeply into history until all things are finally caught up in Christ. The goal, toward which all of history is directed, is represented by the final Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.” You may have heard the Season after Pentecost referred to, as these Roman Catholic Bishops do above, as “Ordinary Time.” This is derived from the English-language calendar of the Latin Church. On the one hand, this season is not at all “ordinary” in the usual sense of the word, that is, mundane or commonplace, but on the other hand, the word can be taken as referring to the normal way in which Christians grow in love and discipleship. But the technical etymology of “Ordinary Time” is rather banal; “ordinary” is derived from mathematics, as in “ordinal numbers,” because in the Season after Pentecost, the way one finds one’s way is according to the “Proper” assigned to that week. This is because the date for Easter is different each year, and thus Pentecost Sunday, always fifty days after Easter Sunday, is a “movable feast.” So the Season after Pentecost begins and ends on different dates each year. Prior to this, the Prayer Book tradition, including the 1928 BCP, numbered the Sundays from Trinity, so the season took its name from the beginning of the season rather than the last Sunday of Eastertide, Pentecost Sunday. Why such a change? Blame Vatican II. The reforms of that ecumenical council eventually led ecumenically-minded liturgical churches such as ours to compile the Revised Common Lectionary, which this parish has followed since mid-2013, so that we are hearing the same lessons as pretty much every other parish in the Episcopal Church, as well as our brothers and sisters in Christ in several other denominations (and, much of the time, though not always, the Roman Catholic Church). While the 1928 BCP lectionary has much to commend it, only Epistles and Gospels were appointed at Communion, on the theory that you would get the Psalter and much of the Old Testament through Mattins (Morning Prayer) and Evensong (Evening Prayer). Sadly, the tradition of attending church three times on a Sunday has faded in many places, though some college chapels and cathedrals, particularly in England, carry on the tradition as Thomas Cranmer, the architect of the first Book of Common Prayer, intended. Until such a tradition is restored here, we are stuck with “Ordinary Time.” Music Notes Missa Zabriskie is a new congregational Mass setting based on the hymn Sweet Sacrament Divine, dedicated to The People of The Zabriskie Memorial Church of Saint John the Evangelist, Newport, Rhode Island (Past, Present, and Future). The work was written for use in the transition to our 15th Rector after the eight-year tenure of Father Humphrey, who introduced Stanfield’s hymn to the composer and congregation and whose vision of both the Eucharist and the provision of music to support it, inclusive of the people’s song, has been a particular inspiration. The organ part of the Gloria contains two hymns for Maundy Thursday: Pange Lingua and Ubi caritas. Missa Zabriskie will be continued over the coming weeks so that we may sing it with increasing confidence while now able to return to nearly full worship in person. It’s fun to say Missa Zabriskie out loud (try it), honoring the namesake parishioner who caused our present building and organ to be built in 1894 at a time when a fledgling nineteen-year old congregation in financial straits might have perished. The offertory anthem was commissioned for Trinity Sunday 2016 for a celebration on that day of the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the Springfield, MA chapter of the American Guild of Organists. The text, by a trinity of authors, is in three clear sections as reflected in the music. The recording was made at Fr. Humphrey’s prior parish, St. Paul’s K Street in Washington, DC, with our choir joined by the Cathedral Choir from Springfield, who joined together on a tour in summer 2016. The organist is the late John Bradford Bohl, a supremely talented and beloved colleague. Knighted in 1902, Dublin-born Charles Villiers Stanford had a long and distinguished career in Cambridge and London as a professor, composer and conductor. In addition to his legacy of ever- popular church compositions, and lesser-known orchestral and chamber music, songs and incidental music, he is known for his great influence as a teacher of the next generation of English composers, notably Vaughan Williams, Ireland, Holst and Howells. His stirring music is superbly wedded to the text of the Te Deum, one of the most ancient hymns of praise. Authorship of the Te Deum is traditionally ascribed to Saints Ambrose and Augustine, on the occasion of the latter’s baptism by the former in AD 387. The genius of J. S. Bach manifested itself in many ways, including a fascination with numerology and symbolism. Bach’s fugue associated with the hymn-tune “St. Anne” (“O God, our help in ages past”) is a testament to the Trinity, written in triple meter, with a key signature of three flats, and in three sections. The first section represents God the Father with the stately foundation stops of the organ; God the Son is depicted in the lighter second section, without pedals; the exuberant conclusion evokes the power of the Holy Spirit. ______________________________________________________________________________ Copyright and Recording Notices: The Cover art is of an icon of the Holy Trinity, 2014, inspired by Andrei Rublev’s The Trinity, made available via a Creative Commons public domain license. Excepting as below, the music was recorded in past services and provided by St. John’s choir member Christopher Scott. The offertory anthem was sung by the Professional Choristers of the Choir School of Newport County, the St. John’s Adult Choir and the Cathedral Choir and Choir School Springfield, Massachusetts, recorded at St. Paul’s Parish, K Street, Washington, DC during the choirs’ tour there in July 2016. The Te Deum and Gospel Acclamation were recorded at Hereford Cathedral during the tour of England in August 2018. The Mass setting was recorded in the church in March 2021. The Te Deum is as included on the recording Strength, Joy, and Peace – A Choral Year at St. John’s. All music graphics reproduced from The Hymnal 1982 are copyright The Church Pension Fund, reproduced by permission of the Rite Song License of the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island. Missa Zabriskie graphics are copyright Peter Stoltzfus Berton and reproduced by permission of the composer. All other graphics are proprietary to St. John’s or in the public domain. All rights reserved. Reproduced under One License, License #734228-A. Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained: One License, #734228-A. Until further notice, anyone who has not been fully vaccinated as defined at www.cdc.gov is required to wear a face covering at all times when in the church building, especially during the sermon and any music, which must be sung softly while the face covering is in place, and when coming forward to receive communion. See the inside cover for more details. The First Sunday After Pentecost Trinity Sunday The Mass setting today is Missa Zabriskie by Peter Stoltzfus Berton (born 1968).