One of the threads that runs through 2019 is extending our reach and activities through the Port Royal Community and beyond.
You can see it in the Spanish Bible Study that started in Lent and continued through the year. Like most ministries there are mutual benefits. It allows the people in the congregation who speak or learning the language to converse with native Spanish speakers in a common language – scripture.
The children’s summer program was a multi-week program in the summer bringing children together from Port Royal and those from St. Peter’s to the Parish House for cooking, fellowship and Bible study. This was an extension of the one day program on Maundy Thursday which we have done for several years and also this year “Cooking with the Kids” in March.
We also walked with Shiloh Baptist in the MS Walk in May continuing the work done in 2018 to promote participation with our neighboring churches. The path took us around Port Royal twice and then around the village square – 3+ miles. It is a good cause which made over $880. There were 30-40 walkers including 7 from St. Peter’s.
We reached out to other churches with the Way of Beauty Retreat. To find what gives you harmony in your life, the moral condition of good, the things that are harmonious, blessed, good and satisfying are all part of living the way of beauty. The mindset of The Way of Beauty gave the Navajo people the strength to persevere and to survive the ordeal in the forced walk to Ft. Sumner in Arizona.
We created a “Blue Christmas Service” held on Dec. 22 for those not in Christmas spirit feeling sad, lonely, or depressed. We partnered with Connexion, choir from Colonial Beach to bring light in our midst with their music. They sang “Lully, Lulla, Lullay” and the “Seal Lullaby” while candles were lit on the altar.
We continued our relationship with Essex and the Baptist Church with “Hunters for the Hungry” which we have done for 5 years. The program is coordinated through the Baptist churches in Essex County. Hunters store the deer in a truck with Champlain. Johnny and Cookie Davis filled Caroline’s social service empty freezer with packaged meat and ground meat for burgers.
It is easy to forget the events we do monthly/weekly in this connection. We celebrated 5 years of the Village Harvest, our food ministry and continued the Village Dinners on the second Wednesday of the month as well as weekly Ecumenical Bible Study. Through funds collected through the Village Dinners and other events, the ECW was able to distribute $2,750 to charities at the end of the year.
We also furthered our relationship with the environment with the Season of Creation during September and the purchase of a new composter. The season focuses on the role of God as Creator and Jesus dwelling in nature as one of us to bring us abundant life. We had a procession of parishioners bringing up a part of nature to the altar. Catherine led Christian Ed during September to places in the world with a spiritual emphasis. Several sermons has the Season of Creation as their main focus.