This morning my wife and I attended the 9:00 a.m. Mass (that’s what they call it) at St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church in New York City, on West 45th Street just off of near Times Square. It’s a beautiful church. The parish was founded in 1868.
I’d heard it was a very Anglo-Catholic parish. It was indeed. Lots of genuflecting and bowing. The main church bell was rung thrice at the consecration of the bread, and thrice again for the wine. The schedule described the 10:00 a.m. service as a sung Mass with incense. So it obviously was a “bells and smells” parish ….
Only one thing struck me as odd:
During the sermon I counted the congregation. (Once an usher captain, always an usher captain.) If I counted correctly, there were a total of 18 people present. This included my wife and her brother and sister-in-law, along with the celebrant and the seminary-student preacher.
The sermon was preached by a senior seminary student from the General Theological Seminary. She did a very nice job.
Afterwards, during brunch at a restaurant across the street, we saw only a very few people coming out the back door at the end of the 10:00 a.m. sung Mass. Perhaps more of them left by the front door.
The parish bulletin and Web site indicate that the parish has three priests and two assisting priests (I would guess they’re part-time). The Web site says they have three Masses each Sunday, along with daily Morning Prayer, Noon Office followed by a Mass, and Evening Prayer followed by a Mass.
I have no idea how many parishioners are active, nor what the average Sunday attendance is. It seemed very strange, though, that the 9:00 a.m. service on Sunday would be so sparsely attended. With so few people in the pews, I wondered how the parish could afford to stay open. I would imagine, given its age and location, that it has a significant endowment to support its ministries.
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