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, and we respect and honor with gratitude the land itself, the legacy of the ancestors, and the life of the Rappahannock Tribe. Our mission statement is to do God’s Will in all that we do.

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.

Conversion of Paul, Jan 25

On January 25 we remember how Saul (or Paul) of Tarsus, formerly a persecutor of the early Christian Church, was led by God’s grace to become one of its chief spokesmen. Here are two art works that depict the event :

“The Conversion on the Way to Damascus; ” (1601)   “ The Conversion of St. Paul ” Nicolas-Bernard Lepicie, 1767

 "and suddenly a light from heaven shined round about him. And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Who said: Who art thou, Lord? And he: I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. " Acts 9: 3-5

Italian painter Caravaggio painted the one on the left in 1601 for the Cerasi Chapel of the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in Rome. The painting depicts the moment recounted in Chapter 9 of Acts of the Apostles when Saul, soon to be the apostle Paul, fell on the road to Damascus.

Caravaggio is close to the Bible. The horse is there and, to hold him, a groom, but the drama is internalized within the mind of Saul. There is no heavenly apparition. He lies on the ground stunned, his eyes closed as if dazzled by the light.

Caravaggio’s style featured a dark background with usually one point of breaking light. Paul is flung off of his horse and is seen on his back on the ground. Although Paul reflects the most light out of all the characters, the attention is given to him in a strange way. Because Paul is on the ground, he is much smaller than the horse, which is also at the center of the painting but he is pictured closer to the viewer.

The second painting constrast with Caravaggio in the use of color and light. This one has some of the most vibrant colors.  Heaven’s light is shown coming dynamically from left to right.  The painting is like the key frame in a movie on the conversion.  At the time Lepicie was a professor at the  Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris

Read more

Is This Cana?

Archaelogists claimed in 2018 they have found the real site of Cana from John’s Gospel

A number of compelling clues suggest the site is Khirbet Qana, a Jewish village that existed between the years of 323 BC and AD 324. Excavations have revealed a network of tunnels used for Christian worship, marked with crosses and references to Kyrie Iesou, a Greek phrase meaning Lord Jesus. There is also an altar and a shelf with the remains of a stone vessel, plus room for five more. Six stone jars like this held the wine in the biblical account of the miracle.

Dr. Tom McCollough who is directing excavations at the site points to the work of first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. “His references to Cana align geographically with the location of Khirbet Qana and align logically with his movements.

Accomplishments of Martin Luther King

He promoted a vision of equal rights under the law in public accommodations and eliminating segregation throughout America, ignoring the differences in skin color

To work toward this goal, King helped to popularize the technique of nonviolent confrontations based on his reading of Gandhi, Whitman and others which combined with his organizing abilities helped to bring about successes. King’s techniques for non-violent confrontations are explored here.

During the less than 13 years of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s leadership of the modern American Civil Rights Movement, from December 1955 until April 4, 1968, African Americans achieved more genuine progress toward racial equality in America than the previous 350 years had produced.

Here’s a sermon Catherine preached in April, 2018 on the 50th anniversary of his death.

Here are 10 accomplishments of his life:

Read more

King: A Filmed Record (1970)

King: A Filmed Record … Montgomery To Memphis is a 1970 American documentary film biography of Martin Luther King Jr. and his creation and leadership of the nonviolent campaign for civil rights and social and economic justice in the Civil Rights Movement.

It uses only original newsreel and other primary material, unvarnished and unretouched, and covers the period from the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 and 1956 through his assassination in 1968. The original newsreel segments are framed by celebrity narrators Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, Ben Gazzara, Charlton Heston, James Earl Jones, Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman, Anthony Quinn, Clarence Williams III, and Joanne Woodward.

The movie was produced by Ely Landau and directed by Sidney Lumet in what was the only documentary he would direct in his whole film career. It lasts 1 hour 45 minutes.