Artist-in-Residence at SMST
Beginning in October, ComplineNYC will collaborate with the Church of St. Matthew and St. Timothy (SMST) on Manhattan’s Upper West Side to establish itself as artist-in-residence. SMST is a parish whose outreach to the community is a celebrated institution. The parish is home to a renowned neighborhood center that responds to the needs of the city, and ComplineNYC will draw from the wealth of experience this parish has in pioneering thinking “outside of the box.” This association gives the project a needed administrative center of operations and a once-a-month permanent venue for singing.
SMST has started (with the help of new Rector, Frank Russ) to write another chapter in their ministry of outreach. Working with a team of consultants, Fr. Russ and the vestry have begun to ascertain future steps. As part of this, a Parish Forum was held recently at which they unveiled a newly formed mission statement - a statement that reaffirms a commitment to support the existing programs and seeks to find new ways to reach out to the community. The offering the church seeks to make to the community is not unlike the philosophy of ComplineNYC, an accessible, public service for all.
SMST was host to the first-ever public offering of Compline as part of ComplineNYC in July of this year. It was an encouraging beginning to ComplineNYC’s mission of outreach to the city, and interest in the project from the church has grown. As part of SMST’s schedule of services, Compline will be the evening liturgy on the third Sunday of each month. At other times, ComplineNYC will seek alternate spaces in and around the city.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006