Remembering Father Ritchie

With all the craziness last week of celebrating our first female presiding bishop, the hoopla over Corpus Christi, the benefit for Christ Church, Slidell, praying for Gilberto's ticker and trying to decide which type of pigeon spikes to order, I forgot to wish a happy 157th birthday to Fr. Arthur Ritchie, our second rector. He was born June 22, 1849, in Philadelphia. He graduated from General Seminary and thereafter worked at Church of the Advent in Boston and briefly at St. Clement's Philly before becoming rector of Church of the Ascension, Chicago. He soon got into trouble with Bp. McLaren in Chicago over his reservation of the Sacrament and the so-called non-communicating high mass. He stood his ground and continued his catholic practices with the full approval of the parish until he accepted the call to become rector of St. Ignatius in early 1884. It wasn't long before he had introduced at St. Ignatius a much more advanced catholic ritual than Dr. Ewer had done and incurred the disapproval of fellow New York clergy and Bp. Potter with his use of vestments, candles, incense, holy water, confessionals and reservation of the Sacrament as well as Benediction (believed to be the first American use of this service, then called Adoration). Fr. Ritchie was rector for 30 years and made St. Ignatius a stronghold of Anglocatholicism with his superb preaching and his unswerving devotion to the catholic faith and traditions.

We have him to thank for our current marvelous church building and its furnishings. In 1900 he and Charles Frederic Zabriskie, then senior warden and also recently moved to the neighborhood, scouted out the frontier property of the Upper West Side and found a nice plot of land at 552 West End Avenue. Thanks to the generosity of Zabriskie and other vestrymen, they were able to build quite a nice little church.

Fr. Ritchie died on July 9, 1921, and is buried in the St. Ignatius section of Rockland Cemetery near Nyack. We are planning a trip to the cemetery on July 16, which the Parish at Fr. Ritchie's suggestion purchased in 1891 and in which any parishioner may be buried at no cost for the plot. We need to figure out how many plots there are left and make the parish more aware of its existence. We haven't paid a visit in several years, since Fr. Weatherby, our seventh rector, was buried there about 10 years ago.

Neither Fr. Ritchie nor Fr. Weatherby would have approved of the new presiding bishop, I'm sure. They wouldn't have approved of me being "on the altar" either, but I trust we will not see evidence of them turned over in their graves on either count. As for all the bitter defeatists, I wish they would just get over it already. As one button at the Convention said, "God is not a boy's name."

Corpus Christi

Lo! upon the altar lies,
hidden deep from human eyes,
Bread of angels from the skies,
made the food of mortal man.

The Feast of Corpus Christi was one of those rare, perfect days of Spring. I took the day off and spent most of it at church, setting up for Solemn Mass with Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction and also making a visit up to the roof to see the progress of the flashing work being done by AWR. The skylight over the tower apartment was being removed and a new base built as I climbed up. The work looks excellent thus far, so now we just have to persuade the terrace residents next door not to throw towels and cigarette butts into the gutters and we may be making progress.

The service was rather dismally attended this year and there was no reception afterward. The rector was in Columbus as alternate delegate to the Convention so Fr. Chris Pyles, our erstwhile seminarian and now a curate in Valley Forge, celebrated and preached. Deacon Kate Malin, our Norris fellow last year and soon to be curate of Christ Church Bronxville, was deacon. I was MC as I have been for the past several years.

Somehow we had never taken pictures of a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament so I asked Alison if she would take pictures from the rector's office, without a flash. She took quite a few shots so I hope they turn out well. We may not put them on the website, however, if Fr. Pyles has anything to say about it. Apparently he had quite a few comments about his first Mass at St. Ignatius last September, which Alison photographed beautifully and put on the website. That jackass Young Fogey posted a link to it on his boring blog and the resulting comments from his band of jackals mortified poor Chris and got him in bad with his St. Clement's buddies. He doesn't want to be seen with a lady deacon and MC, it could just ruin his career you know. He said he did not want any pictures of him celebrating Corpus Christi at St. Ignatius on the worldwide web. As if it's all about him.

Trinity

Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

Trinity Sunday was also our episcopal visitation, this year from Bp. Cathy Roskam. I'm so glad she has a sense of humor because several things went wrong. First thing was the MC only rang half the Angelus for some reason. But what totally mortified me was when we led Bp. Roskam out the West End door to go around to the narthex, there was a huge puddle of pigeon doo right outside the door. We have the usual New York pigeon problem but this was extraordinary. They had to really hike up her cope and everyone else's to get over it as she clucked and said "Ewwww, well that's New York for you."

At the door the Rector, wardens and vestry greeted the Bishop effusively and she was duly soaked and smoked before we headed up the aisle. The MC of the day was the type that doesn't believe in rehearsals so the last minute instructions he threw at us at 5 minutes before the service created more confusion than light, and poor SrT as verger thought we were going all the way around the church after we got in. She was so worried that she would go the wrong way again, but apparently failed to get the MC to give her clear instructions and so mortified herself yet again as she and the cross and candles went off toward the Lady Shrine and the rest of us up to the sanctuary. I was blessedly just the bishop's cross so I couldn't get blamed for it. People looked at me rather strangely not realizing I was supposed to be carrying the crucifix backwards so the bishop can see it at all times.

We had not put the throne up because there was a rehearsal in the nave on the one night the crew had available to do it (yes, I know it's not necessary for a suffragan, but we always put it up for any bishop, except this time) so at least that was not the usual complication. Bp. Roskam celebrated and preached and confirmed four.

When she got up to preach, her sermon was not on the lectern. The deacon went around the sanctuary looking for it and then headed into the sacristy. Meanwhile Bp. Roskam ad libbed and vamped as long as she could and then just started to speak ex tempore about the Trinity. About five minutes went by before the deacon emerged from the sacristy with her sermon in hand and she laughed and started all over. Apparently she had preached the sermon at the 9:00 mass and was expecting it to still be on the lectern, but the acolyte had apparently removed it and it had gotten thrown in the garbage, where Fr. Gentile found it finally, slightly crumpled but fortunately still readable. The speakers in the sanctuary are on the blink so I couldn't follow it too well, but it was apparently a decent sermon on that difficult concept of the Trinity.

Afterward we had a lovely reception after just a bit of unpleasantness with the very prayerful lady who always kneels in the crossing before, during and after the service and goes around caressing all the statutes. Today she felt the spirit move her to march right up into the sanctuary and light her candle from the altar before the acolytes got out to extinguish them. The rector came out with the Bishop and asked her to please not enter the sanctuary, whereupon she got rather huffy and chided us for our "restrictions". It was then someone reminded me that it was a full moon so maybe that accounts for some of all this.

Pentecost

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful. And kindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit and we shall be created. And you shall renew the face of the earth.

The Feast of Pentecost was blessedly cool and partly cloudy after a monsoonal Friday and Saturday. I was rather worn out from some unaccustomed manual labor. I did a couple of hours of mopping on Friday night after a small flood from a backed-up rain gutter left the undercroft covered with an inch or so of water. God’s Favorite was opening at 8:00 pm and it took until right before curtain to get the place sopped up. Just when I think I’ve discovered every pitfall there is to find in that church, another problem area makes itself known. It’s just a small drain at the bottom of the stairwell but when covered with debris or whatever the water has nowhere to go but down into the undercroft. At least that floor got a good soaking and mopping and looks cleaner than it has in years.

On Saturday the sexton called in with a killing wisdom tooth so I had to do his job, at least the basics. I was hoping to start refinishing the archive cabinet I found last week but that was off. At least the sidewalks got naturally washed so the outside was easy.

On Sunday I was subdeacon and got the rare treat of wearing the red tunicle. I also wore the red humeral veil and a biretta, so I was very glad it was not too warm. I got to administer the second chalice since there was no other priest present. Fr. Gentile was home with a broken door so Fr. Bodie filled in as deacon. The rector celebrated and preached a very compelling sermon about the Holy Spirit.

Afterward I made a hasty exit with Rob, SrT and Gil to catch a train up to All Saints Briarcliff Manor for the Ultreya for Cursillo #84. It was a lovely afternoon out on their lawn with good food, fellowship, excellent witness and group reunion. We ended up with Evening Prayer inside in their lovely stone and wood church which is very tastefully done except for the electric sanctuary light. We left from the scenic Scarborough station and then had dinner at the classic old TGIF by Grand Central.

Yesterday of course was 6-6-06 so I spent a few hours at work scanning some more of Zabriskie's photos of St. Ignatius altars and praying that the apocalypse would wait awhile longer. Last night I had a visitation from a very large cucaracha which the cats cornered but would not kill, so I had to summon up my feeble Terminator skills and kill it with a mop, imagining it was the antichrist. Damien, look out!

We give you thanks, almighty God, for all the benefits you have given us. You who live and reign forever and ever, amen.