We are a small Episcopal Church on the banks of the Rappahannock in Port Royal, Virginia. We acknowledge that we gather on the traditional land of the first people of Port Royal, the Nandtaughtacund, who are still here, and we honor with gratitude the land itself and the life of the Rappahannock Tribe. Our mission statement is to do God’s Will in all that we do.

Concerts

Portland Guitar, April 19 concert

They will be performing music written for two guitars at St. Peter’s, Friday, April 19 at 7pm as part of our annual concert series. (Reception 6:15pm in the Parish House.)

The concert is free but donations gratefully accepted for future concerts, held yearly since 2013. This is our 10th concert.

The Portland Guitar Duo are James Manuele and Foti Lycouridis and have been playing together since 1999.

Foti shared some of the details of the concert – “This time we will do a program of 19th century music on copies of period instruments. It will be mostly transcriptions of piano music of the period along with a few duets and solos written for guitar/guitars. We will also talk about the guitar history of that particular time. As performers and researchers we are very interested in music of other media that we can play on guitar, and piano music of that period has a very rich repertoire to draw from.”

Born in California, James Manuele began playing the guitar at age eleven. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree at Mansfield University, where he also studied voice and viola. Later, he earned his Masters of Music in Guitar Performance at Portland State University and has taught in colleges -Clark College in Vancouver and at Concordia in Portland.

Foti Lycouridis was born in Egypt of Greek parents. In 1981, he started his music education at the University of Portland. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Guitar Performance and a Master’s in Music Theory. He also can perform on a 10-string guitar and Baroque lute.

A. Here is a 3 minute summary of the Duo:
B. Live
1. Part 1 of a set for the Portland Community Media.
2. Part 2 of a set for the Portland Community Media.
3. “Miller’s Dance” by Manuel de Falla
4. At Oregon State University. “Spanish Dance no. 2 ‘Oriental'” by E. Granados”
5. “The Caprice” by Isaac Albeniz

Portland Guitar Duo – Web site

Concerts at St. Peter’s

The recent concert series began in 2013 as a way of inviting people into St Peter’s and to the town of Port Royal and to provide additional inreach for our own congregation. Our church with its excellent acoustics are attractive to both performers and audience. We have enjoyed vocal ensembles, guitarists and other string instruments. Past concerts have included:

9. Beausoir, Oct. 14, 2022

8. The Philharmonia, Nov. 2, 2019

7. 13 concert Feb. 11, 2018

6. Magical Strings in Concert April 22, 2017

5. Lyra – Sept 23, 2016

4. Portland Guitar Duo -April 15, 2016

3. Flamenco Concert – Sept 15, 2015

2. Lyra Sept 16, 2014

1. The Thirteen Oct 22, 2013

Earlier Concerts Most of the concerts in this time period were during Nell Clarke’s tenure as organist (1982-2000).

2023 Highlights at St. Peter’s

This is a topical summary. We have another page that is a chronological listing of 2023 events with table of contents with links to the events.

The highlights can be grouped as follows:

A. New ministry
God’s Garden
Chancellors Village
Advent Worskhop

B. New expressions in ministry
Stewardship tree
Lent -Stations of the Cross in the graveyard and more services

C. Expanded and revised ministries
Mission trip to Jamaica
Anniversary Village Harvest Food Ministry
Sacred Ground revised
ECM (Episcopal Church Men) end of year expanded donations and use of an art auction.
Community – Prayer service, Outside Christmas pageant, Work with community organizations
Key parishioner volunteering
ECW (Episcopal Church Women) projects

D. Music provided new delights
Easter, the summer and Christmas
Blue grass concert

E. Losses connected with two historic trees and two heating systems.

1. New ministry – God’s Garden

A new ministry debuted Sept 17, 2023. God’s Garden for 5 to 9 year olds began with 4 children and two experienced teachers, Elizabeth Heimbach, the originator of the class and Jan Saylor.

One of the first activities was to “God’s Garden” which explored what it meant to be a saint, today (Oct. 1, 2023) for St. Francis Day on Oct. 4. As an example they told the story of St. Francis taming the Wolf of Gubbio. Then, they made Pet blessings with treats to give out in church to make pets happy on St. Francis Day, Oct. 4.

2. Expanded ministry in Jamaica

Even before the mission began, we hosted Annette Steele, principal of Victoria Primary School who enjoyed a full day at St. Peter’s on Sun, Aug. 13. She addressed the church at announcements about our joint mission to help the students in her elementary school get ready for school in Sept, both in 2021 and 2023. She explained how much it meant to the students and her community.

After the service, she enjoyed St. Peter’s hospitality at a luncheon and met our parishioners and guests.

The group of 3 on the mission team distributed our donations in Jamaica on Aug. 26

We not only brought the usual school supplies but added 6 tablets. Separately, 7 used computers were donated to a school that had never had a computer.  

There were different ways of distributing the items.  There were contests for tablets and food baskets won by answering questions. Certificates given out based on merit overall and in areas like math. A number of students won $1,000 Jamaican dollars for math competency. Teachers were not forgotten – 2 footballs were given out to the coach!

3. Village Harvest ended its 9th year and began its 10th year in August, 2023 and ended the year serving the most people since 2019.

For the year, we recovered from a slow 1st quarter, 2023 and ended the year serving 1,063 people compared to 1,051 in 2022. It was the best yearly total since 2019.

Unfortunately, the same trend overall wasn’t present with food. Food increased from 2021 to 2022 (14,303 to 15,302 pounds) but dipped to 13,859 pounds in 2023. The first quarter was the problem. We had 2,913 pounds in that quarter compared over 4,000 for 2022 and 2021.

As a result, pounds provided per individual dropped from 14.56 in 2022 to 13.04. In 2021, it was in the same range at 14.32. Overall, pounds per individual are substantially higher since 2019 than in earlier periods.

The 2023 collection on Giving Tuesday, Nov 28 of $1,205 was the highest Giving Tuesday figure since 2019 and provides over 5 months of support for purchasing food for 2024

4. Sacred Ground revised their scholarship program

Representatives from Sacred Ground met with Jessica Thompson, Executive Director of the Germanna Educational Foundation, for lunch at Castiglias in Fredericksburg on Oct. 10, 2023.  The goal was to determine how we could move forward with a new focus on our scholarships for students.

Sacred Ground voted unanimously by email in early December to fund the recommendation forwarded by Jessica Thompson at Germanna for scholarships for students entering the trades. Each student is “in financial need and from underserved populations.” The $2,700 would be split equally to pay for their training.

Each student owes approximately $1,500 for the classes to complete the training. We will pay for the additional expense for each student through additional scholarship funds

They also toured Patawomeck Village in November. The goal of the visit was to understand their history and culture as well as our role

Earlier, the Sacred Ground group had the pleasure of meeting with Alanna Gray (beside Catherine), and her mother and grandmother (opposite Alanna) at Cuppa Cheer in February

Read more

What Does Ministry Look Like ?

This is a PowerPoint comprising a list and description of St. Peter’s ministries under four headings – internal, local partners, state and national partners and international partners. The internal are distinguished by parishioner involvement and are generally active yearly. The others may not be active every year.

Many of these ministries represent the day to day work of the church, both outreach into the world and inreach for those within the church. The church is more than just Sunday and the St. Peter’s building but is working in the world! They involve the both the clergy and parishioners in the church as well as others. Many of these ministries are historic (Bible Study is 20 years old) but some, like Sacred Ground were created in the last five years.

To see a full screen version, press right button in the bottom windows   to open in a new window

Your giving for 2024 is crucial to making these ministries thrive. Also, consider joining these ministries and contribute toward their successes. We are always on the lookout for new ministries. An example is Andrea Pogue’s work with Shred-it which originated with her.

Little Falls Bluegrass Band at Pentecost – A Treat

We were entertained during our Pentecost picnic by the Little Falls Bluegrass Band from Stafford. The gentlemen have played bluegrass music for many years in many bands, including this one. They comprise all ages – the banjo player celebrated his 18th birthday on Pentecost. They have played for weddings, social and church services. They are tight both in music and friendship – and it shows! Their acapella numbers were especially wonderful.

Several attend Community Baptist Church in Stafford. (They attended an early service there to get to St. Peter’s for our picnic). Their pastor also came.

Keith, the bass player, has a side grass-cutting business and has cut Catherine and Ben’s rental property in Fredericksburg for many years. He was our contact.

Beau Soir Concert, Oct 14, 2022 – a concert to remember!

The Friday night concert on Oct 14 featured picture perfect weather. Rain from the day before cleared in the morning leaving a pleasant fall day .

We had a wine and cheese reception at 6:15pm for the concert outside in our pavilion. About 35 came to the concert our first concert since 2019 due to the pandemic but was in a line of eight previous concerts since 2013.

You can hear more of the group from Soundcloud. Also we featured some of their works from Youtube.

There is also a promotional video

The Beau Soir Ensemble is a flute, viola, and harp trio dedicated to the performance of standard and contemporary repertoire spanning a variety of genres and formed in 2007 by Michelle Lundy. The viola in particular often gets lost in the harmonies of string quartets so it is welcome to hear its own voice here. Most of the pieces presented were modern.

How to describe their music ? Lyrical, rich in texture and harmonically, shifting rhythms with acknowledgment to folk and other forms of music. Totally engaging!

Our concert featured the World premiere of “Los Mensajeros do Otono” written in 2022 for this group by the Mexican composer Eduardo Angulo. Michelle, the harpist, has a story of chasing down this composer to get the music and finally came with the help of other musicians. The last composition “Bacanal”, also by Angulo, was a wild dance orignally written as a viola concerto and recast for these instruments It was also the USA premiere of “The Chasing Tale” (2021) by Martryn Adams, a British Composer.

The concert was noted for excellent introductions of the pieces by the members of the group. We knew what to listen for as a result.

The Program

Click here to view in a new window.

Beau Soir concert videos Oct. 14, 2022

1. Catherine’s Introduction

2. Introduction to Dubois’ – “Terzettino”

3 Selection from “Terzettino”

4. Introduction to Eduardo Anguilo’s “Los Mensajeros de Otono”

5. Introduction to “The Chasing Tale” by Martyn Adams

6. Introduction to “Bacanal” by Eduardo Angulo