85 pictures shot over 3 months emphasizing the interior of the church often in different light settings.
History
Annual Council, 2013 – Jan. 24-26, 2013
Annual Council is like a great medieval fair. There are vendors, contests, parades and events but like a fair a meeting place among those who assemble once a year. It is a cacophony of sights, sounds and talk. There is the business of council the morning session each morning on Friday and Sat and the workshops in the morning and various breakfast before the Sat. session. Just enough. Catherine and Eunice represented St. Peter’s. The pictures are a combination of the vendors and personalities of the council and some of the program.
175th Anniversary – May 15, 2011
78 pictures of the festivities of May 15, 2011. A lot of hard work by members of the Church led to this historic event
William Wilberforce (1759-1833), man of faith, abolitionist
We remember his day on July 29 on the date of his death in 1833.
The rock-like faith of Peter is at the heart of William Wilberforce’s crusade against the slave trade. England was exporting 50,000 Africans to America a year in his life time. Wilberforce’s life is the subject of the movie “Amazing Grace” (2006). You can see the trailer here. There is also a short 3 minute introduction to Wilberforce here.
Wilberforce was an English politician, philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. He was a political activist and a man of strong faith.
By the late 1700s, the economics of slavery were so entrenched that only a handful of people thought anything could be done about it.
Physically he wasn’t imposing – he was less than 5 1/2 feet tall and was sickly for most of his life. He enjoyed the plush lifestyle of his early life. However, after leaving religion he came back to Christianity through the evangelical faith of John Newton, who penned the hymn “Amazing Grace”. He urged him to use his parliamentary position to advance his causes. He attracted a number of friends, including future prime minister William Pitt. Helping him were his oratorical skills though he wasn’t the best strategist.
He won seat in Parliament in 1780. Under the influence of Thomas Clarkson, he became absorbed with the issue of slavery. Later he wrote, “So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the trade’s wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition.” Although opposed to slavery itself, the abolitionists wisely thought that it would be easier to abolish the trade before tackling slavery itself.
Wilberforce was initially optimistic, even naively so. He expressed “no doubt” about his chances of quick success. However, bills introduced were defeated in 1791, 1792, 1793, 1797, 1798, 1799, 1804, and 1805.
When it became clear that Wilberforce was not going to let the issue die, pro-slavery forces targeted him. He was vilified; opponents spoke of “the damnable doctrine of Wilberforce and his hypocritical allies.” The opposition became so fierce, one friend feared that one day he would read about Wilberforce’s being “carbonated [broiled] by Indian planters, barbecued by African merchants, and eaten by Guinea captains.”
It would take twenty years of pleading, educating, demonstrating, and maneuvering before William Wilberforce would emerge victorious—in 1807. Helping him was the news of a slave uprising in Haiti. A year after Wilberforce’s death (in 1833) all the slaves of the Empire were declared to be free, almost 30 years before they would be set free in the United States, and over fifty years in Brazil.
At one point in the early 1790s Wilberforce actually had enough votes to pass his bill of abolition, but on the night of the vote (Parliament’s business sessions often did not begin until early evening) many of his supporters were attending a comedy at the theater, and thereby the bill failed for lack of votes.
Mary Magdalene (July 21)
“Noli Me Tangere” (Touch Me Not) – Correggio (1534)
In Bishop Curry’s book Crazy Christians: A Call to Follow Jesus, he writes “We need some crazy Christians like Mary Magdalene and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Christians crazy enough to believe that God is real and that Jesus lives. Crazy enough to follow the radical way of the Gospel. Crazy enough to believe that the love of God is greater than all the powers of evil and death.”
Facts from Living Discipleship:Celebrating the Saints:
- We know Mary was from Magdala in Galilee (thus the surname “Magdalene”).
- Luke reports that Jesus cast seven demons out of her (8:2). After her healing, rather than returning to her home, Mary Magdalene followed Jesus for the rest of his life and ministry. While she followed Jesus, she also helped provide financial support (Luke 8:1-3). Unlike most of the other disciples, she was present at his crucifixion, remaining faithfully with him as the others fled and hid (John 19:25). She then accompanies Jesus’ mother to bury the body of Jesus (Matthew 27:51); she is the only one of his followers who is there when his body is laid in the tomb (Mark 15:47).
- All four gospels report that Mary Magdalene was the first witness to Jesus’ Resurrection. As if that were not enough, she is the one who is commissioned by Jesus to go and tell the other disciples this good news (John 20:17-18, Mark 16:9-11). For this reason she is often called “the apostle to the apostles.”
- From John -John 20:1-18 Early on Sunday morning (“the first day of the week”), before dawn, Mary Magdalene (witness to Jesus’ death and burial) comes to the tomb and finds that the “stone” door has been rolled back, so she and those with her (“we”, v. 2) tell “Peter and the other disciple” (traditionally thought to be John) that they suspect that someone has removed the body. The “other disciple”, apparently younger, outruns Peter (v. 5). But the orderliness of the “cloth” (v. 7) and “linen wrappings” show that the body has neither been stolen nor spiritualized. John, when he sees, comes to trust that God is active; by implication, Peter does not understand yet. They do not yet understand the significance of what is occurring (v. 9), of how it fits into God’s plan, because they have not yet fully received the Holy Spirit.
The remainder of the reading (vv. 11-18) concentrates on the experiences of the solitary Mary Magdalene in the garden: her weeping (v.11a); her sight of two angels inside the tomb and her response to their question about the cause of her tears (vv. 11b-13); her sudden sight of the ‘gardener’ whom she failed to recognise as Jesus (v.14); Jesus’s identical question to that of the angels, with the additional and significant, ‘Whom are you looking for?’ (v. 15a;) and Mary’s uncomprehending response (v.15b). She recognizes Jesus when he calls her by name. But something has changed: they are in a new relationship: “do not hold on to me” (v. 17). Since he has not yet reached his goal of returning to the Father she must not cling to him or try to keep him to herself (v.17a). Significantly, Mary again becomes an ‘apostle to the apostles’, charge with a message of promise (ascension) as much as of fulfilment (resurrection), conveyed in a manner that highlights the deepened relationship his followers would enjoy with the risen, ascended Jesus as his brothers and sisters, and with the Father as his beloved children (vv.17b-18).
- Many believe that Mary Magdalene also became a leader in the early church, and her influence on some forms of Christianity lasted well into the fourth and fifth centuries. Some traditions propose that after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Mary Magdalene followed the Beloved Disciple John to Ephesus, where she died. Another (late) tradition tells of her journey to France by way of boat with Lazarus.
- There are a whole lot of Marys in the New Testament! This makes it difficult to know who is being described in certain passages and has led to much confusion about Mary Magdalene. The extra-canonical Gospel of Philip captures this confusion well: “There were three who always walked with the Lord: Mary his mother and her sister and Magdalene, the one who was called his companion. For Mary is his sister and his mother and the one he is joined with” (59:6-11).
- Regardless, Mary is singled out as Magdalene in the New Testament twelve times, more often than most of the male apostles!
- Mary Magdalene’s special status as a close friend and benefactor of Jesus is supported amply by New Testament evidence. One significant text is the so-called Gospel of Mary. In this text, the disciples repeatedly affirm her status as someone whom Jesus loved more than all the other disciples. She is given a place of authority and teaches Peter, Andrew, Levi, and other followers about the mysteries of the kingdom of God. After Peter rebukes her, Levi replies, “Peter you have always been hot tempered. Now I see you contending against the woman like the adversaries. But if the Savior made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Savior knows her very well. That is why he loved her more than us. Rather let us be ashamed and put on the perfect Man, and separate as he commanded us and preach the gospel, not laying down any other rule or other law beyond what the Savior said. And when they heard this they began to go forth to proclaim and to preach” (9:6-10).
- It is commonly believed that Mary Magdalene was a repentant prostitute. Although the New Testament in no way suggests that she was, some important early church fathers, notably Ephrem the Syrian and Saint Gregory the Great, depicted her as such, and the image stuck. Some have suggested that they did so intentionally out of spite, as Mary Magdalene was an important figure in some forms of heterodox Christianity
St. James the Apostle, July 25
St. Josemaria Institute
We celebrate James the Apostle on July 25. With his brother, John, the Gospels (Matthew 4, 21-22; Mark 1, 19-20; Luke 5, 10-11) record that they were fishermen, the sons of Zebedee, partners with Simon Peter, and called by Jesus from mending their nets beside the sea of Galilee at the beginning of his ministry
Jesus nicknamed them ‘the sons of thunder’ – perhaps justified by the story (Luke 9, 51-56) that they once wished to call down fire from heaven to destroy a village which had refused them hospitality.
They made it to key events in Jesus life – the Transfiguration, Gethsemene and at various healings and miracles – Peter’s mother-in-law and raising of Jairus’s daughter. Obviously, James was of Jesus closest followers.
He is known as James the Great to distinguish him from James the Less, or James the brother of the Lord.
About AD 42, shortly before Passover (Acts 12), James was beheaded by order of King Herod Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great (who tried to kill the infant Jesus–Matthew 2). James was the first of the Twelve to suffer martyrdom, and the only one of the Twelve whose death is recorded in the New Testament.
Tradition is he was a missionary to Spain in his life and, at his death, was buried at Compostela, a site of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages.
Relics of the saints were believed to possess great power. Spain needed it in the 8th century. Jerusalem fell to the armies of Islam in 636 A.D., and less than a century later, in 711, Spain was also invaded and conquered. Islam rapidly reached northern Spain, and sent raiding parties into France. In northwest Spain, however, a small Christian kingdom, including Asturias and present-day Galicia, emerged in the 8th century, and at this time James’ tomb was discovered near Finisterre. James was the most senior member of the intercessionary hierarchy whose relics remained undiscovered. The discovery of his tomb helped to bolster the resistance.
In the 12th Century Santiago came to rank with Rome and Jerusalem as one of the great destinations of medieval pilgrimage. The first cathedral was built over the site of James tomb, and Benedictine houses were established. The cathedral where he is buried was depicted in the film, The Way, at the end of the “Way of St. James”, a pilgrim’s path across Spain.
The relics of St James are housed in a silver casket below the high altar, above which his statue presides over the cathedral. On the feast of St James on July 25, and other high days and holy days, a giant censer, the Botafumeiro, is swung on ropes by red-coated attendants in a great arc from floor to vaults, emitting clouds of incense over delighted crowds. It’s considered a symbol of both the cathedral and the city.
Here is the scene from The Way that depicts the pilgrims reaching Santiago and venturing to the cathedral with the swinging of the censer or incense burner. This has never been filmed before and the production crew had to get special permission to film it. They were allowed only 1 hour!
The “Way” is actually many paths across France and Northern Spain that has been followed by pilgrims for 800 years. In recent decades it has enjoyed a resurgence as a spiritual journey with many organized and unorganized journeys. You can the take the route across Northern Spain (800km) taking 6 weeks or break it up into shorter journeys.
The Connection – Juneteenth (June 19) and World Refugee Day (June 20)
Juneteenth is related to World Refugee Day.
Juneteenth and World Refugee Day are times to celebrate what has been done to make our world better for all and reminds us to recommit ourselves to the healing work we need to do before we can all truly be free. It also reminds us to attend to the systemic forces that prevent change, keep oppression in place, and distract us with the falsehood that one person’s freedom must be another person’s loss. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”—Ruth Frey
Jesus disturbed the comforted and comforted the disturbed – Ryan W. Clayton
Junetenth is about personal freedom. World Refugee Day also proclaims the value of each person as a unique child of God and commit ourselves to the healing and wholeness of all persons.
There is a community element as well. As the Bishop of Atlanta writes “God rejoices when we celebrate the truth-that we were made for each other and for God’s glory. “How good and how pleasant it is for brothers and sisters and siblings to dwell together in unity.”
Juneteenth also preserved the integrity of the family by allowing families to stick together without the possibility of being sold. World Refugee Day remembers and honors the families and individuals made homeless by disasters, wars, poverty, and intolerance around the world.
St. Peter’s Anniversary, May 15
In 2011, St. Peter’s celebrated its 175th anniversary. May 15, 2025 is the 189th anniversary of the consecration of the church in 1836. The photo shows various scenes of that day in 2011.
The sermon on the 175th anniversary was based on John 10 the good shepherd passage. Jesus says “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. “
From the sermon- “The gatekeeper opens the gate for the shepherd, and the sheep hear his voice. The point is –not who is in, and who is out, but whose voice the sheep listen to and follow. The voice of Jesus, the good shepherd. But there were warnings in John’s passage. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
The sermon continued – “Those thieves and bandits call out to us with voices that divide us—into those who are in and those who are out based on how much money we have, or what color our skin is, or what our political viewpoints are, or even what religion we are—whether Christians, or Muslims, or Jews, or Buddhists or Hindus—remember, all of humanity is in this sheepfold “
“In 1814, Channing Moore became the Bishop of Virginia and he was, we are told, “an earnest and powerful preacher, able leader, loving and beloved, who was followed as a man sent from God. He awoke this diocese out of its lethargy and started it upon a career of growth and influence that has continued to the present day.
“Meanwhile, the people of Port Royal had resolved to build a church, and so St Peter’s was raised up on this city lot, and was dedicated 175 years ago to the day. Bishop Moore came here, on May 15, 1836, and consecrated this space, set it aside as a sheepfold in which the people of Port Royal could “come in and go out and find pasture,” following the voice and the teachings of Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd. “
Secrets Over 185 years – Some personal thoughts.
1. Do the job that needs to be done in good times and bad. Carefully plan what you do. St. Peter’s came together over decades, not overnight.
2. Know your mission to do God’s will, united in love for God, one another and our neighbor. Never forget the mission! We have learned how to extend the pasture and our congregation is diverse.
3. Maintain the important links – close connection with parishioners and through them the community. We need the support of both.
4. Accept the generosity of parishioners. They live through what they give you and find meaning to their lives and enhance your life as well.
5. Tell your stories and retell. Relish in who you are and where we have been and never forget the blessings that have been received along the way.
6. Remember the past but don’t live in it. We can look back but can only move forward.
St. Peter’s 150th Anniversary in 1986
These pictures are from Linda Upshaw’s pictures of 1986, the 150th anniversary celebration. Captions were placed on the back.
This picture shows our retired priest of 20 years at that time Rev. Fall (smoking a cigarette) talking to Byrd Holloway(?). Jim Patton is talking to Edna Gouldman (pink dress) on the right. We had at least 3 priests that day. Sadly many people in this picture have passed on. Note the Parish house in the back so the tent was set up on the right side of the church
You can see the pictures here 150th Anniversary
Francis Perkins and Mother’s Day
Frances Perkins listened sympathetically as a stalwart member of the New York state legislature confessed a political misdeed. Because she barely knew him, she asked why he had confided in her. ‘Well, Miss Perkins,” he said, “all men have mothers.” The young lobbyist for workers’ welfare realized her tricorne hat and sober manner of dress reminded him of his mother.
As the chief advocate and architect of the Social Security Act as Secretary of Labor under Franklin Roosevelt, Perkins succeeded in lifting half the nation’s elderly out of poverty shortly after it became law in 1935. Through it, she also provided unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation to millions of others and stipends through age 18 to millions of children who lost a wage-earning parent.
A lifelong associate of All Saints Sisters of the Poor, she spent one day a month in silent retreat at their Maryland convent throughout her 12 years in the New Deal cabinet. Perkins was also ahead of her time in fighting human trafficking in Philadelphia.
St. Mark’s Day, April 28
John Mark is the author of the Gospel of Mark which we are reading this year in Year B.
The painting was done in 1625 by Frans Hals, a Dutch painter, who painted portraits of all the Gospel writers.
Mark’s work was the first Gospel probably written in the 60’s AD. Gospel means “Good News” of Jesus Christ reflecting His life and work. The Gospel says the Kingdom of God is at hand and brings new life, sanctification and hope to the world. It is also one of the Synoptic Gospels.
Synoptic, in Greek, means “seeing or viewing together,” and by that definition, Matthew, Mark, and Luke cover much the same subject matter and treat it in similar ways. Some scholars believe an oral gospel existed first, which Matthew, Mark, and Luke used in their versions. Others argue that Matthew and Luke borrowed heavily from Mark. A third theory claims an unknown or lost source once existed, providing much information on Jesus. Scholars call this lost source “Q,” short for quelle, a German word meaning “source.” Still another theory says Matthew and Luke copied from both Mark and Q.
Mark stresses Jesus’ message about the kingdom of God now breaking into human life as good news (Mk 1:14–15) and Jesus himself as the gospel of God (Mk 1:1; 8:35; 10:29). Jesus is the Son whom God has sent to rescue humanity by serving and by sacrificing his life (Mk 10:45).
Tradition holds that Mark was present when Jesus Christ was arrested on the Mount of Olives. In his Gospel, Mark says: “A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked.” (Mark 14:51-52, NRSV) Because that incident is not mentioned in the three other Gospels, scholars believe Mark was referring to himself.
John Mark first appears by name in the book of Acts. Peter had been thrown in prison by Herod Antipas, who was persecuting the early church. In answer to the church’s prayers, an angel came to Peter and helped him escape. Peter hurried to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many of the church members were praying
Paul made his first missionary journey to Cyprus, accompanied by Barnabas and Mark (Acts 13). When they sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. No explanation is given for his departure, and Bible scholars have been speculating ever since. Whatever the shortcoming was, it disappointed Paul though Paul later forgave him
According to Coptic tradition, John Mark is the founder of the Coptic Church in Egypt. Copts believe Mark was tied to a horse and dragged to his death by a mob of pagans on Easter, 68 A.D., in Alexandria. Copts count him as the first of their chain of 118 patriarchs (popes).
St. Mark’s day is a public holiday in Venice since Mark is Venice’s patron saint. One of the highlights during the Feast of St Mark is the Regata di Traghetti, a boat race featuring gondoliers who compete while transporting passengers in their gondolas. One tradition associated with St Mark’s festival was the Festival of the Blooming Rose, symbolizing love and romance. The custom of giving a rose bud (bocolo) to a loved one is still practiced today.