Happy 100th, St. Mary's!

With the exception of the earthquake in San Francisco, 1906 was pretty much a ho-hum year. Some things of note did happen: SOS became the international signal for distress; U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize; and, closer to home, there was a landslide over in Haverstraw, New York, that killed twenty people.

Right here in New Castle, however, a big event took place “On Thursday the twenty-first day of June, being the Octave of Corpus Christi, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and six.”
 
On that day, the Right Rev. George Franklin Seymour, Bishop of Springfield, and The Right Reverend Leighton Coleman, Bishop of Delaware, acting for the Bishop and Bishop Coadjutor of New York, met together with the faithful at 191 South Greeley Avenue for “The Order for the Dedication and Consecration of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, in the Village of Chappaqua, in the State of New York.”

Since then, a hundred memorable, eventful years have passed in the life of our community and our church—and that calls for a celebration. So on Sunday, June 25th, 2006, at four o’clock in the afternoon, the faithful will gather again at 191 South Greeley Avenue to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the consecration of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin.

Our parish flowed from a tragic event: the death of a child. Muriel Morton Gwendolen Clendenin was just days beyond her fifth birthday when she died in October of 1903. Her mother, Gabrielle, and her father, Frank, decided to honor her by building a chapel that would be a replica of one of their favorite parishes in England — the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Monken Hadley, a small town a few miles north of London.

Gabrielle donated the land from her inheritance as a daughter of great newspaper publisher Horace Greeley, and Frank provided the funds for the building of the church. Over time, a congregation gathered and the family deeded the property to the Episcopal Diocese of New York so that a parish could be formed. Indeed, this parish was founded on an act of generous giving in response to a tragedy.

As we are about to begin our second century as a community of faith, what legacy shall we leave in place for those who will be celebrating the 200th anniversary in June, 2106? My experience of St. Mary’s is that we are a people who have continued the generous spirit in which our parish was founded.

That is most evident by so many of you giving your time in ministries here, from Strawberry Festival to Sunday School teaching, from singing in the choir to serving in the altar guild, from working on the vestry to supporting outreach, and on and on.

That generosity is also evident in your giving to the Capital Funds Campaign to make sure our beautiful church building will last another century, and to the Timothy Vernon Memorial Organ Fund.

Our community is made solid by the wonderful gifts of time, talent, and money that make our various ministries possible. And our community is made even more solid by the love and concern we share for each other.

Look to the north transept in the church. You will see a small, beautiful stained glass window bearing the words, “…light has fallen through this window for nearly five hundred years upon the children of the Catholic Church of England and now falls through the same glass upon the daughter Church in America, witnessing to us the unbroken life through the ages of the Catholic Church of the English speaking people.”

We have added 100 more years of light falling through that window. It has witnessed a community of faith, ever evolving and changing, but holding fast to the ministry of love and outreach to each other and to our larger community.

The Right Rev. E. Don Taylor, Vicar Bishop of New York, will be here to help us celebrate this milestone. I hope you will be able to take part in the festivities that mark the ending of one century and the beginning of another for the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in the Village of Chappaqua.

Joel t