Youth Group reorganizes around music, Sept 25.
Oct. 2, 11:00am – Holy Eucharist
Season of Creation 5, Sept 1 – Oct. 4
A Pet Blessing for St. Francis day, Oct. 4
The blessing -“Our pets have already blessed us. On St Francis Day, we get to bless our pets. St Francis of Assisi, who lived from 1182 to 1226, had a great love for animals and the environment. He understood the earth and everything in it as God’s good creation and believed that we are brothers and sisters with everything in creation. So on this day, we remember St Francis and thank God for the gift of our pets.
When you have a moment with your pet, offer this blessing written by Bishop Mark S. Sisk:
Live without fear. Your Creator loves you, made you holy, and has always protected you. May we follow the good road together, and may God’s blessing be with you always. Amen.
“Who was St. Francis? ” – a link collection
“Brother Sun, Sister Moon”- trailer
Director Franco Zeffirelli’s “Brother Sun, Sister Moon” focuses on the early years of Francis of Assisi in this 1972 film.
Poem by Jan Richardson from the “Painted Prayerbook”
Addressing myths about St. Francis
St. Francis preaching to the birds
Rhonda Mawhood Lee: “Go a little crazy on St. Francis Day”, a sermon preached at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Durham, N.C
“It’s appropriate to go a little crazy on St. Francis Day, because during his own lifetime, many people thought Francesco Bernardone was insane.”
The location has varied over the years but the format is similar – singing favorite gospel hymns on various instruments with food either before or after brought by those who attend. (This year after). It is usually sometimes in September or early Oct. just before the fall coolness arrives. It has been in the church, besides the Parish House, in Portobago Bay at the Heimbach home but returns to the church this year.
The history of the event goes back to 2007. As Helmut describes, “From our residence, we see the river front improvement here at Portobago. The Lord has created this beautiful spot for us. So, why not thank him and praise him right there in the midst of his beautiful creation.”
The Beau Soir Ensemble https://www.beausoir.org is a flute, viola, and harp trio in the Washington, DC area dedicated to the performance of standard and contemporary repertoire spanning a variety of musical genres. The group was founded by harpist Michelle Lundy in 2007.
They will be in concert at St. Peter’s, Episcopal Church, Oct. 14, 7pm. The concert is free but we encourage donations so we can continue our concert series, our 9th one since 2013
Help us promote the concert! Download the poster for individuals who may be interested and businesses to display Or print directly:
Click here to view in a new window.
Frequently asked questions about Stewardship at St. Peter’s
What is stewardship?
Stewardship is an expression of gratitude and thankfulness for the blessings of life that come from God. It is love shared and love returned. A life lived in gratitude is a life lived in love
Why does St. Peter’s call stewardship a spiritual practice?
Any spiritual practice is based on faith – faith that the act repeated regularly will increase our awareness of the presence of God and will gradually remove from our lives walls we erect that block God’s grace. Spiritual practices include worship, prayer, silence and meditation, contemplation, reading scripture, and giving. Giving (financial stewardship, in our focus here) has numerous spiritual benefits. Here are just three: First, stewardship reduces our attachment to things material. We learn that by giving away something we “have” really does not diminish us at all. Our needs continue to be met by God. Second, giving chips away at our belief in the concept of “mine” and “yours”. Giving helps us better experience truth that we are indeed one in spirit. And finally, in some mysterious way, our willingness to give determines our willingness to receive. No doubt all of us know someone who would never give anything to someone else and, in turn, would never accept a gift. We must be willing to give in order to be open to receiving. And God is giving to us every moment of the day. Our willingness to give enhances our ability to accept God’s gifts.
Is my stewardship defined only by the money I give to the church?
Absolutely not. Time and service given to others is a critical component of stewardship. Our church can’t function without these gifts of time and service.
Why is making a pledge important?
Pledges have two purposes. One is between you and God. Pledging yourself to any spiritual practice increases the likelihood you will actually do it. In the fall each year we ask you to commit to the practice of giving. We’re most concerned with your commitment to this practice, and less concerned with how much you give. For many of us, a pledge to give money to the church is a way that we say thanks to God and practice our faith.
Second, the vestry does its best to operate the church on a sound financial basis, and having a good handle of how much people plan to give in the coming year enhances the vestry’s ability to plan responsibly.
Our pledges are due on Sunday, October 9, 2022. Here are some thoughts on giving and stewardship from From The Evangelist, Newsletter-letter of St. Mark’s Cathedral Shreveport, Louisiana, Nov. 2021
Click here to view in a new window.
Donatello – The Prophet Habakkuk (1386?-1466)
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
First Reading – Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4
Psalm – Psalm 37:1-10
Epistle – 2 Timothy 1:1-14
Gospel – Luke 17:5-10
Today’s readings call us to believe in God’s ability to make the impossible possible. Habakkuk is called to patience and faith in the face of incomprehensible evil. Paul encourages Timothy to endure in power and love, guarding the truth of the gospel. Jesus teaches that faith thrives in simple obedience in Luke’s Gospel
Faithfulness, endurance, patience—these are the themes of walking the faithful life with God. For the people in the prophet’s time, it was to endure in faithfulness through generations in exile. In the time of Jesus, it was for the disciples to find their way to trust in Jesus, because Jesus couldn’t just give them the ability to magically trust and be faithful. For Paul’s day and following, it was for the followers to continue to live in faith by what they had been taught and had witnessed. For us, we are called to be faithful because of our tradition, our teaching, but also still, hope for the New Day, which began long ago and we can read through the prophets, through the Gospels, and through the Epistles: hope that God will continue to do a new thing, and that we will remain faithful to God.
Everywhere we turn, we see the need for reform. Sometimes our society seems like a house we can’t get clean. We get one room in order, but then another confronts us with disarray. If we improve the environment, we still have problems with education. If we manage political reform, we are still troubled by the unjust allocation of resources or the abuse of children.
Our frustration with the public scene can be mirrored in our own lives. There we find the same ups and downs: a career achievement offset by a damaged relationship; progress toward a personal goal–the setback of an illness. How does faith view this roller coaster?
In today’s gospel, Luke consoles us with the good news that even minimal faith will suffice in the face of both worldly concerns and our own particular challenges. To the apostles who picture grandiose schemes, Jesus offers the image of a tiny seed. Perhaps we won’t reform the world in our lifetime, he seems to say. What matters more is the simple service, the generous response to the demands of our particular situation. Jesus uses the ordinary example of providing food and drink, a service many people perform so often we don’t even think about it. Faith transforms duty so that even our unconscious efforts nurture many.
Peace activist John Dear writes: “Without our faith, nothing happens. The mountainous violence of the world doesn’t budge. But with our faith–behold! All things become possible. Non-violence. Disarmament. Justice.” The scriptures offer us confidence, vision, reassurance. How do they clarify our own vision?
These passages point to the importance of living in the spirit of Jesus and aiming high in our faith journeys. Aiming low leads to personal and social destruction. In contrast, a life of faithful discipleship creates circles of well-being that transform families, communities, and nations
Early Fall(full size gallery)
Fall is a wonderful time to pause and look at nature all around you. You have to take the time and not think of the minutes. The time before church is my time to let nature envelop me.
The effect of fall is magnified after a rain. Add another plus for leaves beginning to fall around you in all their color. It’s the sound of the crunching of leaves beneath your fee. It’s a time to look at those small things along the ground- small flowers, water pellets on leaves. It’s time to lookup to see fall advancing in our trees. So many things we never notice or take the time to see.
Water is life giving – and destructive. The effect of rain was seen this week along the gravestones, often with leaves falling around. The wet leaves along the ground reflect up at you. Then over the river to see the water rushing along as I am trying to be still.
Fall is a time to get out Robert Frost for yet another fall.
October
By Robert Frost
“O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—
For the grapes’ sake along the wall”
To Strive
God, creator of the universe,
Fill us with your love for the creation,
for the natural world around us,
for the earth from which we come
and to which we will return.
Awake in us energy to work for your world;
let us never fall into complacency, ignorance,
or being overwhelmed by the task before us.
Help us to restore, remake, renew. Amen
To Safeguard
Jesus, Redeemer of the World,
Remind us to consider the lost lilies,
the disappearing sparrows;
teach us not to squander precious resources;
help us value habitats: seas, deserts, forests
and seek to preserve this world in its diversity.
Alert us to the cause of all living creatures
destroyed wantonly for human greed or pleasure;
Help us to value what we have left
and to learn to live without taking more than we give. Amen
Integrity of Creation
Spirit of the Living God
At the beginning you moved over the face of the waters.
You brought life into being, the teeming life
that finds its way through earth and sea and air
that makes its home around us, everywhere.
You know how living things flourish and grow
How they co-exist; how they feed and breed and change
Help us to understand those delicate relationships,
value them, and keep them from destruction. Amen
To Sustain
God, of the living earth
You have called people to care for your world –
you asked Noah to save creatures from destruction.
May we now understand how to sustain your world –
Not over-fishing, not over-hunting,
Not destroying trees, precious rainforest
Not farming soil into useless dust.
Help us to find ways to use resources wisely
to find a path to good, sustainable living
in peace and harmony with creatures around us. Amen
To Renew
Jesus, who raised the dead to life
Help us to find ways to renew
what we have broken, damaged and destroyed:
Where we have taken too much water,
polluted the air, poured plastic into the sea,
cut down the forests and soured fertile soils.
Help all those who work to find solutions to
damage and decay; give hope to those
who are today working for a greener future. Amen
Anne Richards, Mission Theology Advisory Group, Resources available on www.ctbi.org.uk The Dispossession Project: Eco-House<
