St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Port Royal, VA
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.
This is a blog episode for the SALT project. SALT is an Emmy Award winning, not-for-profit production company dedicated to the craft of visual storytelling
It is hosted by SALT’s Matthew Myer Boulton, who’s spent twenty years teaching the Bible and theology to students at Harvard Divinity School and seminaries in New England and the Midwest,
There is a part 2 of their 7 part series “Undertanding Easter” titled “10 Ways of Understanding the Cross”
Links
1. Audio file
2. Text
We had 8 people online for the first class, Feb 21, 2024.
Weekly Sessions
1. Why we have the creeds and the origin?
2. Creed about God – “I believe in God, the Father almighty”.
3. Creed about Jesus.
4. Creed about the Holy Spirit.
5. Creed about baptism, resurrection.
Creeds are ultimately for the unity of the Church containing the beliefs that are central to the faith. They hold us together. They are used to teach new members.
By Kimberly Knowle-Zeller
God of mystery and wisdom, be with us this Lenten season. It’s been a long way, already sickness, worry, isolation, fear, waiting our hearts are heavy our souls are weary our bodies are hurting our hope is wavering yet, you are with us.
God of mystery and wisdom, be with us this Lenten season. Show us your grace in the small moments of silence the prayers offered in person or virtually the kindness of a stranger the lighting of a candle the listening to a friend the care of neighbors, you are with us.
God of mystery and wisdom, be with us this Lenten season. Settle our hearts revive our spirits increase our faith spread our love.
God of mystery and wisdom, be with us this Lenten season. In ashes and dust reading and listening wandering and walking praying and singing eating and fasting show us the way forward.
God of mystery and wisdom, be with us this Lenten season. As we walk to the cross keep our eyes fixed on you and your love – caring for others crossing boundaries reaching out to the poor taking our pain transforming death into life over and over again.
God of mystery and wisdom, be with us this Lenten season.
Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
We began our observation of Jesus’ death and resurrection by preparing for Easter with a season of penitence. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. We had 17 in attendance. Sally Hartman who did her vocational discernment at St. Peter’s and now is a Deacon was the preacher.
The church changes its look encouraging you to see things differently – purple on the altar, minimal flowers, pottery communion cup, a special red processional cross.
The liturgy provides words about the purpose of Lent. “I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.”
It is all about reconnecting with God with by these specific activities and others of your choosing. Examine yourself to see what divides you from others, from the earth and from God, and repent from these divisive things. As the bulletin stated “only God can take away our sins, create clean hearts in us, renew a right spirit within us, and sustain us with God’s bountiful spirit.” The sermon enouraged us not to just give up but to take on new practices to do that and see other possibilities in the world.
The Christian practice of listing vices and virtues has a long history, going back at least to the times of the very early desert monks in the fourth and fifth centuries. As they cultivated their little patches of land in order to sustain themselves, they also cultivated their bodies and souls to make them as fruitful as they could. Later, medieval Christian manuscripts featured the motif of the ‘virtue garden’, in which the virtues (usually seven) are shown as trees, being watered by prayer.
Christianity, like Judaism, likes having things in sevens. The sixth-century Pope Gregory the Great codified what he thought of as the seven ’capital’ sins—the vices from which all other wrongdoings flow—establishing what we still commonly refer to today as the seven ‘deadly’ sins. The list has varied a little over time. Some vices have dropped out and others have been dropped in. But overall, it has been remarkably consistent.
There has also been variety in the seven virtues Christians have listed for special consideration and imitation. Some lists are based on Jesus’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (‘the Beatitudes’); some were developed to describe specific antidotes to each of the capital vices; and one was a combination of four ‘cardinal’ virtues, celebrated in ancient classical philosophy as well as in Jewish and Christian tradition—Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude—with the three ‘theological’ virtues outlined by St Paul in 1 Corinthians 13—Faith, Hope, and Love.
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
Consider a gift to the St. Peter’s Endowment Fund this year by Dec. 17. If you have not taken your IRA minimum distribution, this would be a good fund to consider. It’s tax deductible These funds, which are invested, will help assure financial security for St Peter’s for years to come. Money from the fund can be used for the future maintenance of the buildings in the future and also for outreach projects that the church may take on. On your check, just designate the “Endowment Fund” in the memo line.
Giving to the Endowment Fund also offers some tax advantages. You can donate stock which is sold by the church with the proceeds going into the Endowment Fund. There are no capital gains for you and you can get a deduction for the appreciated value of the stock. Supporting St Peter’s in this way can increase your tax deduction and not your tax bill.
You can also go further and add a percentage of your estate which is taken off the total estate when computing estate tax.
For details consult one of the trustees, Johnny Davis, Ken Pogue or Ben Hicks.
Click the button to donate to Giving Tuesday in honor of the Village Harvest on Giving Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023.
You can also send a check by mail or donate on Sunday in the plate:
St. Peter’s Church P. O. Box 399 Port Royal, Virginia 22535
St. Peter’s play is not just an original play for children but for the entire congregation. And it was certainly true when entire families were coopted to help prepare a Mass for St. Francis. He wanted to see the birth of Jesus with his own eyes.
This play was different in that it was not set in Bethlehem but 13th century Italy. Part of the fun was to see how St. Peter’s family names were converted into an Italian script. Helmut made it work playing Giovanni that loveable guy who wanted to turn the village upside down preparing a wonderful mass for St. Francis. He made you believe he was making it happen.
6 families he was able to convince to participate in the mass were the following -Alexandros Long, Davissimos, Foxittis, Felicianos, Fishuttis, and Pogmattis. What a convincing guy ! No one turned him down. Clarence as St. Francis was a perfect look a like for St. Francis. He could easily blend in with the monks.
We had 54 to see this wonderful play on a brisk late fall day (last day of fall) under clear skies and broad sunlight.
I.Theme – Look carefully at the vineyard you are cultivating!
"Vineyards with view of Auvers" – Van Gogh (1890)
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm – Psalm 80:7-14 Page 703, BCP
Epistle –Philippians 3:4b-14
Gospel – Matthew 21:33-46
The main motif in 3 of the 4 readings is about the vineyard which beginning in the Old Testament refers to Israel and by the Gospel to those tending it. Corruption is evident in Israel in the 8th Century BC and in 30AD with Christ. In Christ time the vineyard represents all places where we have been called by God to produce the fruits of the kingdom. The real villains move from Israel as a country to specific groups cited by Matthew.
The Isaiah reading is one of the oldest parables in the Bible. This song of the vineyard is a parable and a prophetic attack on corrupt Israel. It begins as a love song, singing of a deep love that is giving and caring, moves on to convey disillusionment, and then to express anger and a withdrawal of love and care. The coming destruction (verses 5-6) results from the people’s failure to do what God "expected," and more literally and poignantly, what God "hoped for" (verses 2, 4, 7). God doesn’t destroy the vineyard directly. Instead, what he described was simply the removal of his care and protection of the vineyard, the careful work done earlier.
Pentecost 9, July 30, 2023
Lectionary for Pentecost 9
Union Soldier on the Old Testament reading
Commentary for Pentecost 9
Parish House’s new clothes
Outreach July, 2023
Village Harvest, July 2023
Willian Wilberforce – anti-slavery activist
Vanderbilt Visual Lectionary
Summer Films
It’s Butterfly time!
Anything but Ordinary! Ordinary Time