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.

Photos

Portland Guitar Duo concert, April 19, 2024

The Duo meets with guitarists in the audience after the show

The Portland Guitar Duo are James Manuele and Foti Lycouridis and have been playing together since 1999. This was their second performance at St. Peter’s, the first being almost exactly 8 years years ago in April, 2016.

We had about 30 for the concert. A reception organized by the ECW was held before in the pavilion. After the show, the two guitarists, provided an opportunity for the guitarists in the audience to meet the Duo, ask questions, and play their guitars.

Romantic guitars were used for the concert, smaller than the current classical guitars. The period had standardized on 6 strings in contrast to the baroque guitar of the 18th century with 5 strings.

The Romantic guitars were used in transcriptions of pianos pieces from Chopin, Liszt, and Schubert as well as dipping back to the 18th century for Domenico Cimarosa. Foti does many of the transcriptions for the duo.

1. Photos

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2. Video – Introduction and opening number

3. Video – Pan of the Audience

Photos, Sunday April 14, Third Easter

This was a beautiful Sunday, mild with the green coming out into force on the trees and plants. We had 18 in attendance.

Brad, our organist, was out with Covid. Luckily, there is a deputy in Caroline County who is an experienced organist we had befriended and had used our organ for practice . The congregation was wowed with his offertory.

Tom’s sermon was largely from 1 John- “What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.” See the sermon

Busy week with the Village Harvest on Wed (April 17), Portland Guitar Duo on Friday (April 19) and “Team up to Clean Up” trash in Port Royal on Sat. (April 20)


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Photos, Sunday April 7, Second Easter

Notes
1 A beautiful Sunday, clear blue skies after a week of cool weather, rain and winds. It approached 60 degrees later in the day
2. Tom’s sermon on the breath of God for Easter Tide.
3. Upcoming activities – “Teach up to Clean up” on April 20,
ECW Planning April 9, New details on the Portland Guitar Duo
concert on April 19.
4. Wonderful Sunday coffee hour – more of a brunch with eggs and sausage but with a generous helping of sweets

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Stations of the Cross in our graveyard

The Stations of the Cross began as the practice of pious pilgrims to Jerusalem who would retrace the final journey of Jesus Christ to Calvary.

Later, for the many who wanted to pass along the same route, but could not make the trip to Jerusalem, a practice developed that eventually took the form of the fourteen stations currently found in almost every church. This allowed people to follow the way in their hearts as they meditated on the last hours of Jesus’ life.

Our Stations features 14 paintings of our talented parishioner Mary Peterman and the work of Creative Color in Fredericksburg to create the posters. They are hung outside in our graveyard to increase visibility.

This video features photos taken by Catherine on the actual day they went up combined with the haunting Adagio of Tomaso Albinoni. If you are in the area, come by and walk the stations.

The stations can be walked in a small group or in solitude. Meditating on the words for each station, and on Mary’s watercolors, will be a spiritual experience that will deepen your relationship to Jesus and your faith.

Walking the stations of the cross also remind us that Jesus lived and died as one of us, and knew horrible suffering. As we travel with him through his last hours, we come to know that Jesus travels with us in our hours of greatest need.