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.

Season of Creation

Videos, Sept. 4, 2022 – Season of Creation I

1. Hymn – “When Morning Gilds the Skies”

2. Hymn – “A Scottish Blessing”

3. Gospel reading Luke 14:25-33

4. Sermon

5. Selection from Prayers of the People on creation

“We pray for your creation: convict us of the ways in which we break down and destroy the fabric of your world and give us the will to amend our ways as we seek to live in harmony with the goodness you have created. ”

6. Offertory – Solo piano

7. Eucharistic Prayer – “We Give Thanks”

8. Concluding Blessing

9. Concluding Hymn – “This is My Father’s World”

Plastics Polluton

Plastics are present in furniture, construction materials, cars, appliances, electronics and countless other things. According to the New York Times, the main cause for the increase in plastic production is the rise of plastic packaging. In 2015 packaging accounted for 42% of non-fiber plastic produced. That year, packaging also made up 54% of plastics thrown away.

Plastic pollution is now recognized as a hazard to public health and the human body

Chemicals leached from some plastics used in food/beverage storage are harmful to human health. Correlations have been shown between levels of some of these chemicals, and an increased risk of problems such as chromosomal and reproductive system abnormalities, impaired brain and neurological functions, cancer, cardiovascular system damage, adult-onset diabetes, early puberty, obesity and resistance to chemotherapy.

The EPA estimates that production of plastic products account for an estimated 8% of global oil production. The drilling of oil and processing into plastic releases harmful gas emissions into the environment including carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, ozone, benzene, and methane (a greenhouse gas that causes a greater warming effect than carbon dioxide) according to the Plastic Pollution Coalition. 

When plastics break down due to exposure to water, sun or other elements they can break into tiny pieces -so tiny,most of them cannot be seen with the naked eye. These small plastic fragments are now everywhere. When you drink water, eat fish or other seafood, or when you add salt to your meals, chances are you can also be ingesting tiny pieces of plastic. Those particles -called microplastics- are a contaminant which is now present in the oceans, water ways, the soil and even in the food that we eat. Once plastic enters the bloodstream of an organism it stays there.

What you can do – Reduce, Recycle, Remove

 You can calculate your plastic footprint here

 Step 1  –Reduce your consumption of plastics.

 1. Take a reusable coffee cup with you.

 2. No to plastic straw

 3. Cut down on plastic carrier bags    bring your own!

 4. Use dishes, glasses, and metal silverware instead of their plastic counterpart

 5. Choose cardboard and paper over plastic. 

 6. Say no to single-use plastic bottles! Stop buying bottled water. Carry a reusable bottle to limit the number of throwaway bottles, a major source of pollut

 7. Select products that are designed for multiple uses and making sure nothing gets thrown away before its usefulness is spent is another effective way to drastically reduce one’s plastic pollution footprint.

8. Take a little extra time while doing your shopping and select products without plastic packaging. and always be sure to avoid products that are  xcessively wrapped in plastic.

9. When you go clothes shopping, avoid fabrics with plastic microfibers such as nylon and polyester.

Step 2- The second step to be sure to take is recycling the plastic you do use and making sure you are doing so properly.

 Port Royal Convenience Site

25516 Tidewater Trail

Port Royal, VA 22535

Step 3 The final step is contributing to the removal of plastic that is already in the environment by recycling your plastic bags and participating in roadside and river clean-ups.

Season of Creation, 2022

The burning bush is the Symbol for the Season of Creation 2022. Today, the prevalence of unnatural fires are a sign of the devastating effects that climate change has on the most vulnerable of our planet. Human greed, desertification and land misuse lead to the disintegration of ecosystems, the destruction of habitats, and the loss of livelihoods and species at an alarming rate. Creation cries out as forests crackle, animals flee, and people are forced to migrate due to the fires of injustice that we have caused.

On the contrary, the fire that called to Moses as he tended the flock on Mt. Horeb did not consume or destroy the bush. This flame of the Spirit revealed God’s presence. This holy fire affirmed that God heard the cries of all who suffered, and promised to be with us as we followed in faith to our deliverance from injustice. In this Season of Creation, this symbol of God’s Spirit calls us to listen to the voice of creation.

May this 2022 Season of Creation renew our ecumenical unity, renewing and uniting us by our bond of Peace in one Spirit, in our call to care for our common home. And may this season of prayer and action be a time to Listen to the Voice of Creation, so that our lives in words and deeds proclaim good news for all the Earth.

Dr. William P. Brown of Columbia Theological seminary wrote the following about creation care. “The fundamental mandate for creation care comes from Genesis 2:15, where God places Adam in the garden to “till it and keep it…” Human “dominion” as intended in Genesis is best practiced in care for creation, in stewardship, which according to Genesis Noah fulfills best by implementing God’s first endangered species act.”

A Spiritual Look at Climate Change

The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.” –Dietrich Bonhoeffer

1. Creation is a reflection of the glory of God to be good stewards of God’s creation, which includes all of us who live within it

2. Climate change is a spiritual challenge.  Handling climate change is part of how we live our faith.

3. We have a responsibility to care for the least of us. The poorest amongst us bear the greatest burden and risk of climate change.

4. We are called to respond to what we see around us. We are moral messengers for the common good, translate  compassion into action.

Earth Day – The Plastics Problem

We need to stop thinking of plastic just as a waste problem, one that can be solved by changing consumers’ habits alone and stopping using plastic bags. We need to think of plastics as a climate problem, as a product that creates damage along all its journey, from the drilling up of hydrocarbons to the spread of microplastics. And that can only be addressed in a systemic way. Single-use plastics account for half of the plastic we use each year with an average useful life of 12 to 15 minutes but can take up to 500 years to disappear!
 
In March, 2022 representatives from over 170 nations at the UN Environment Assembly adopted an initiative to end plastic pollution, committing all these countries to participate in creating, by 2024, a legally binding agreement that addresses the full life cycle of plastics, from production to design to disposal.
 
1. Plastics breed GHG – For 99 percent of all plastics the starting point is fossil fuel hydrocarbons. Oil, gas and coal are extracted and refined to produce plastic and other synthetic chemicals.  Studies indicate that if nothing is done, the production of single-use plastic alone will contribute to more than 10 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. 
 
2. Once plastics enter the environment, landfill, are dispersed in soil or water, they start a process of breaking down into micro and nanoparticles.  And this process of breaking down emits powerful gases such as methane, ethylene and CO2. And that’s true for both traditional and biodegradable plastics. 
 
3.  On the surface of microplastics, new microbial communities can grow. We call them the plastisphere.  And their biological activity also releases additional CO2 and nitrous oxide into the environment, creating the possibility of further magnifying the climate problem. It means that microplastic can also impair the growth and the photosynthesis capacity of phytoplankton, which are the microorganisms producing much of the oxygen we breathe. But also microplastics can have toxic effects on zooplankton, and the health of these organisms [is] essential for the functioning of all aquatic food webs.
 
4. Microplastics bind with the so-called marine snow, which are made out of the clumps of bacteria, plankton and other organic material that sinks down into the ocean depth, acting like a biological carbon pump. But microplastics risk affecting this marine snow and potentially decreasing the capacity of the ocean to absorb and sequester carbon from the atmosphere. And microplastics can be decreasing the reflective properties of snow and ice, potentially accelerating the melting of glaciers and polar ice.
 
5. Plastics are everywhere and so are microplastics.  plastics are present in furniture, construction materials, cars, appliances, electronics and countless other things.   Microplastics are everywhere, from the mountaintops of Everest to the deepest sediment in the Mariana Trench. They are in the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. They are now found in our bloodstream and our lungs. And personally, the most terrifying, in the placenta of our unborn children.
 
It is estimated that 75 to 199 million tons of plastic are in our oceans. It is increasing 9-14 million tons a year. If nothing is done, it could increase to between 23 and 37 tons per year by 2040!.

Read more

Earth Day 2023. Focus on Plastics

Earth Day was founded in 1970 and included environmental teach-ins that educated  Americans about environmental and species conservation issues, and connected those issues to their health and well-being.

On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to call for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and  universities organized demonstrations and teach-ins against the deterioration of the environment.

Earth Day 1970 activated a bipartisan spirit that motivated the passing of the Clean Air,  Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.  2020 is the 50th anniversary Earth Day

The theme for 2023, “Invest in Our Planet” is the same theme as 2022. What gives?  We are behind on  reducing greenhouse gases to keep global warming below 1.5C. 

We need to be in a neutral position or a net zero emissions position by 2050,  A net-zero emissions balance is achieved when the amount of greenhouse gas released into the atmosphere is balanced by what we take out. This can be done by carbon sequestration, i.e. by removing carbon from the atmosphere, or through offsetting measures, which typically involve supporting climate-oriented projects. We need to absorb more and emit less. 

We need to bring the  different groups together – governments, businesses, and citizens – in a concerted, organized effort to speed up the process of neutrality. We need to act (boldly), innovate (broadly), and implement (equitably). We need to act in defense of the planet. 

It starts at home. One of the continuing themes of  Earth Day is reducing plastics, our focus at St. Peter this year.  On one day walking 20 minutes in our neighborhood, we bagged up these plastics shown in the picture.  

The Earth Day site has a plastics calculator this year – https://www.earthday.org/plastic-pollution-calculator-2/

Use this calculator to learn about how many plastic items you  consume and discard every year.

For May, consider all the types of plastics you use. For every material listed, you’ll see three boxes. In the first box, fill in your daily consumption of the specific item. The second box will auto-populate with your total consumption every year. The third row is your projected reduction of this type of plastics for the year.  

Let’s document your actual reduction in May and then return it to Catherine at the end of May and see what difference we can make as a church.