19jan22

Our Annual Meeting will occur, this Sunday, after the 10:30 am service. We will gather in the School Gym for social distancing purposes. Tables and seating with be available for all in attendance. Lunch is being catered by Downtown Pizza. Also to ensure safety, we will transport anyone needing assistance from the church to the gym. Presentations will be delivered from both the Senior and Junior Wardens, the Finance leaders, and the Head of School, Dr. Spencer Taintor. During the meeting we will also elect new members to the Vestry. Please learn about the candidates: Nominees to the Vestry.

At the Saint Mark's Annual Parish Meeting parishioners will have the opportunity to elect a new class of Vestry members. This year we will elect 4 new members to the Vestry. Two current members, Tracy Beeson and Lori McFadden, have fulfilled their one-year term and are now retiring. We are grateful for their service.

The Vestry voted at their November meeting to restore the number of Vestry members back to 12 from the 10 who have served during this transitional year, so there are 4 open positions on the Vestry. We continue to add programs and responsibilities and we need a Vestry at full strength.

In a very transparent nomination process, the Nominating Committee, composed of our retiring members, used bulletin notices, weekly updates, and service announcements to offer any parishioner the opportunity to run for a position on the Vestry. This year 4 candidates expressed interest in serving.

During the Vestry by-laws update in 2021 there was a new provision added. It states that during the period of Rector transition, a Vestry member whose term is expiring may be held over in order to support a new Rector. The Vestry is invoking this provision to allow our Senior Warden, Chuck Gregory, and Debbie Ferguson, whose terms are expiring, to stay an additional year. The Canon to the Ordinary supports this decision.

The parishioners nominated for the Class of 2024 are Carmen Carriazzo-Cannon, Norm Carroll, Gail Cuthbertson, and Pia Delvaille. They will be joining the Class of 2023 (Junior Warden; Harry Richardson, Treasurer; Ryan Brukardt, and Giselle Dorsett) and the Class of 2022 (Secretary; Robin Dreyfuss, Lynne Coughlin, and Mike Mullins. With Senior Warden Chuck Gregory and Debbie Ferguson being held over for 1 more year, this makes a total of 12 Vestry Members for 2022 with 4 of them new this year.

An active team has been formed for the purpose of planning church programs and worship for the upcoming Holy Season. Along with Father Harvey and music director, Dr. Kevin Estes, we will be working on services, music, special events, decoration of the church, prayer services, etc. If you are interested in being a part of the team, please email Mike Mullins (mmullins10@aol.com). 

Our choral anthem this week, “The Heavens are Telling the Glory of God,” is part of Joseph Haydn’s, “The Creation” oratorio written between 1797 and 1798. It is considered by many to be one of his masterpieces. The oratorio celebrates the creation of the world as described in the Book of Genesis.

The text of “The Heavens are Telling…” is based on Psalm 19:1–3. Haydn's century, influenced by the discoveries of Newton, had the view that an orderly universe—particularly the mathematically governed motion of the heavenly bodies—attests to divine wisdom. Haydn had an amateur interest in astronomy, – in England he visited William Herschel, discoverer of Uranus, in his observatory.

Our priest-in-residence, Fr. Errol Harvey is currently available to provide pastoral care for our parish. You may contact Fr. Harvey at 917-653-8839, or by email at eahnyc@yahoo.com.