Нью-Йорктегі Әулие Томас шіркеуі және оның тарихы

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Saint Thomas Church is an Episcopal parish church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York at 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Also known as Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue or Saint Thomas Church in the City of New York, the parish was incorporated on January 9, 1824. The current structure, the congregation's fourth church, was designed by the architects Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue in the French High Gothic Revival style and completed in 1914. In 2021, it reported 2,852 members, average in person attendance of 224 (due to pandemic restrictions) and $1,152,588 in plate and pledge income. In 2020, following a gift from the family trust of the late John and Mary Alyce Merrow, a camera system with a dozen 360 degree rotating cameras was installed. Online attendance has remained significant; during Advent and Christmas, 2022, on line participation was 38,000 with an average attendance of 25 minutes. The church is home to the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, a choral ensemble comprising men and boys which performs music of the Anglican tradition at worship services and offers a full concert series during the course of the year. The men of the Saint Thomas Choir are professional singers and the boys are students enrolled at the Saint Thomas Choir School, the only church affiliated residential choir school in the United States where the choristers make up the whole student body. Only three such schools remain in the world currently; the two Anglican Choir Schools are Saint Thomas Choir School and Westminster Abbey Choir School in the United Kingdom.

On October 12, 1823, members of three Episcopal parishes in Lower Manhattan collaborated to organize a new episcopal church in New York. These included William Backhouse Astor, a wealthy Manhattan landowner; Charles King, later president of Columbia University; and jurist William Beach Lawrence. The congregation came from Grace Church, Trinity Church, and St. George's Church. Saint Thomas Church was incorporated on January 9, 1824, and the cornerstone of the new church building laid in July 1824 at the northwest corner of Broadway and Houston Street. The first church edifice opened in 1826 and was described as "the best specimen of Gothic in the city." The location was the northern extent of developed settlement in Manhattan during the early 19th century. It was designed in a Gothic Revival style by architect Joseph R. Brady and John McVickar, professor of moral philosophy at Columbia College (now Columbia University). The church was enlarged and remodeled in 1844 to accommodate a growing congregation. Two years later, on October 6, 1870, the congregation moved into its new home. This structure, in a neighborhood at the time dominated by the mansions of Manhattan's upper class, featured a prominent 260 feet (79 m) high tower and a bas relief reredos by Augustus Saint Gaudens and murals by John LaFarge. This structure was destroyed by fire on August 8, 1905. Only the tower remained from the third church.

The fourth and current church, designed in 1906, was built from 1911 to 1913 to a design by Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue of the architectural firm of Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson. The cornerstone was laid on November 21, 1911, and the new building opened to congregants on October 4, 1913. It was consecrated on April 25, 1916. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake had so shocked the church's rector, Rev. Ernest M. Stires, that he rushed the accumulated balance in his parish's building fund to aid the stricken city. The public responded in kind to his generosity with unsolicited gifts that more than replenished the fund. Cram and Goodhue are also noted for having designed Saint Bartholomew's Church on Park Avenue and East 50th Street, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Amsterdam Avenue and West 110th Street, the chapel and a large portion of the campus at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, the Princeton University Chapel at Princeton University and the Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago.

In the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001, Saint Thomas Church reached out to the British expatriate community in recognition of its Anglican heritage. This culminated in an interfaith service held at the church on September 20, 2001. The service was addressed by Prime Minister Tony Blair and broadcast live in its entirety throughout the United Kingdom. On October 28, 2002, the rector of Saint Thomas Church, Andrew C. Mead, was made an honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. The honor was conferred at a ceremony at the British Embassy in Washington, D. C.

Rector Years as Rector 1. Cornelius Roosevelt Duffie 1824–1827 2. George Upfold 1827–1831 3. Francis Lister Hawks 1831–1843 4. Henry John Whitehouse 1844–1851 5. Edmund Neville 1852–1856 6. William Ferdinand Morgan 1857–1888 7. John Wesley Brown 1888–1900 8. Ernest Milmore Stires 1901–1925 9. Roelif Hasbrouck Brooks 1926–1954 10. Frederick Myers Morris 1954–1972 11. John Gerald Barton Andrew 1972–1996 12. Andrew Craig Mead 1996–2014 13. Carl Francis Turner 2014–present

The present church, a New York City designated landmark, was designed by a partnership of Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. Lee Lawrie designed the sculptures and decorations.

The style of worship at Saint Thomas Church has varied greatly over the history of the parish. Beginning with the rectorship of John Andrew in 1972, however, it has informally followed the Anglo Catholic or high church tradition within the Episcopal Church that developed out of the Oxford Movement. This was further developed under the rectorship of Andrew Mead. Sunday services include Low Mass, High Mass, and Evensong, and Solemn Mass on Christmas, Easter and major feast days. Special liturgies and processions are held for Advent, Epiphany, Candlemas and Holy Week. The Litany is sung in procession in Advent and Lent. For masses at the High Altar, the Church uses a variation on the three traditional sacred ministers ad orientem, however as with many other Anglo Catholic parishes that do not look to Tridentine Rome for liturgical cues, many of the unique traditional roles of sacred ministers are currently in use the Deacon reads the Gospel and the Subdeacon reads the Epistle. The two sacred ministers who are not celebrating the mass essentially vest and act as priests in tunicles. The readings are not chanted. The choir of men and boys sing most Sundays in term time and, if there are no visiting choirs during the school vacation, the gentlemen of the choir sing the services. The church uses traditional language for many of its services on Sundays and weekdays and the King James Version of the Bible is used at Sunday choral services and at Choral Evensong and Solemn Mass on feast days during the week. Rite II of the BCP 1979 is used for the 12:10 pm mass Mondays to Fridays. In Lent 2015 Shrine Prayers were started at the image of Our Lady of Fifth Avenue and intercessions are offered at noon after the Angelus Mondays to Saturdays; these intercessions may be left in the church or submitted online via the church website, and many prayer requests come from around the world every week. Confessions are heard each Saturday from 11:00–11:45 am. Since 2021, the 9 am Sunday mass has become a Low Church Novus Ordo type children and family focused service, using Rite II and ad populum altar placed in the Chancel. A robed children's outreach choir called the Noble Singers and composed of local girls and boys sings at the 9 am service. On the second Sunday of each month, a Sunday mass is offered in Korean Language. The church is open every day of the year.

Music is an important component of worship and liturgy at Saint Thomas Church. It follows in the Anglican tradition of the all male choral ensemble. The choir's primary function is to provide music for five services each week, as well as an annual concert series sponsored by the church. In addition, the choir has toured throughout the United States and Europe, with performances at Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, London, King's College, Cambridge, and the Aldeburgh Festival. In 2004, the choir toured Italy and received a papal audience at the Vatican. In 2005, the choir toured in the southern United States, with a benefit concert in New Orleans. Upon returning to New York, they performed in Saint Matthew Passion at Carnegie Hall. Other appearances have included performances at Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, and alongside artists such as Jessye Norman and Plácido Domingo. In addition, the choir gave the world premiere performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem, which was subsequently televised internationally by the BBC. The choir was also featured in a recording of Carly Simon's "Let the River Run". The boy choristers reside at Saint Thomas Choir School, founded in 1919 and the only church affiliated boarding choir school in the United States. In 2007, there were three tours to Mexico City, Baton Rouge along with other domestic cities, and a tour to the United Kingdom in the early summer. The choir typically records and releases one CD a year.

Musical offerings at Saint Thomas Church are enhanced through three organs. The Arents Memorial Chancel Organ, which has been replaced with the Irene D. and William R. Miller Chancel Organ in Memory of John Scott, was initially built as the "Opus 205" of the Ernest M. Skinner Company of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1913. The Loening Hancock Gallery Organ was built as "Opus 27" of Taylor & Boody Organbuilders of Staunton, Virginia, in 1996 to honor Gerre Hancock for 25 years of service to Saint Thomas Church. Located in the gallery beneath the church's Rose Window, this organ features a mechanical key and stop action, originally possessing 2 manuals, 25 stops, and 32 ranks. In 2015 it was slightly enlarged, according to original preparations, to its current 3 manuals, 31 stops and 44 ranks. Its case sports
fumed white oak with pipe shades gilded in 23 carat gold. Its predecessor, the Loening Memorial Organ, dedicated in memory of Hermine Rubino Leoning, was built by Gilbert F. Adams in 1969 and featured 4 manuals, 59 stops, and 90 ranks.