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.

2023 Sun Dec 17

Sunday links, Dec. 17, 2023

Advent 3, Dec. 17 – Rejoice!


  • Web site
  • YouTube St. Peter’s Page for viewing services
  • Facebook St. Peter’s Page
  • Location – 823 Water Street, P. O. Box 399, Port Royal, Virginia 22535
  • Ecumenical Bible Study, Wed., Dec. 13 10am-12pm, Parish House Reading Lectionary for Dec. 17, Advent 3
  • Wed., Dec. 13, 12:15pm right after Bible study— Come all to help put together Advent/Christmas arrangements for the church windows.
  • Thurs., Dec. 14, Vestry, 2pm
  • Compline Thursdays in Dec. Dec. 14 on Zoom, 7pm. Praying for a peaceful night during a hurried season Zoom Link
  • Sat. Dec. 16, 2023, 5pm, Christmas Outdoor play
    • Meet in front of the church
  • Sun. Dec. 17, 2023, 11am Church service – Eucharist Live or YouTube St. Peter’s Page

  • Poinsettia forms and Gifts to the Endowment Fund are on the back pew. Poinsettia due Sun., Dec. 10th. Endowment due Sun., Dec. 17th Endowment Fund gifts are tax deductible.
  • Lectionary link for Dec. 17, Advent 3
  • Serving – Holy Eucharist
    Lector: Cookie Davis
    Chalice Bearer: Alice Hughes
    Altar Cleanup: Andrea Pogue

  • Ecumenical Bible Study, Wed., Dec. 20, 10am-12pm, Parish House Reading Lectionary for Dec. 24, Advent 4
  • Compline Thursdays in Dec. 21 on Zoom, 7pm. Praying for a peaceful night during a hurried season Zoom Link
  • Christmas Eve, 4pm, Dec. 24, 2023
  • Dec., 2023 newsletter

  • All articles for Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023

    • Recent Articles, Dec. 17, 2023

    Advent 3, Dec. 17, 2023
    Christmas play – photos, video
    Bulletin
    Lectionary for Advent 3, Dec. 17
    Sermon
    Sermon and Offertory
    Videos, Dec 17, 2023
    Photos, Dec 17, 2023
    Advent Candle 3, Joy
    Advent 3 Commentary
    Arts and Faith, Advent 3
    John the Baptist in Art – National Gallery, London
    Advent compline
    Christmas without Anglicans
    Origins of the 12 Days of Christmas

    All About Advent
    Getting Ready for Advent
    Living Compass Advent meditations
    Shape of Scriptures in Advent
    Advent Season Resources
    Advent Online Learning

    Ministries
    Chancellor’s Village Eucharist, Dec. 12, 2023
    Flower arranging for the church windows, Dec. 13, 2023
    Christmas play – 25 year tradition
    Golden Hour at St. Peter’s
    Music of compline, Dec. 7
    ECW takes dinner to the “House”, Dec. 5
    Giving Tuesday results (updated Dec. 4)
    Advent Workshop – the Nativity blocks
    Advent Workshop – the Christmas trees
    Christmas play poster download
    Discretionary Fund in 2023
    End of year gift to the Endowment Fund

    Advent 3, Year B

    Advent 3

    Explore Advent, Part 3 – Over the Sundays in Advent there will be a presentation each week focusing on that week’s scriptures, art and commentary and how they demonstrate the themes of advent. Let’s continue with Advent 3.

    A. Voices for Advent 3

    “In Advent the church emphasizes these ways of continual change: Repentance. Conversion of life. Self-examination. Awakening. Deepening.  “

    – Suzanne Guthrie

    B. “You Don’t Want to Be a Prophet (Isaiah, Luke)

    Christmas without Anglicans?” – Anglican contributions to Advent and Christmas carols.

    Voices, Advent 3, Year B

    1.  "In Advent the church emphasizes these ways of continual change: Repentance. Conversion of life. Self-examination. Awakening. Deepening.  "

    – Suzanne Guthrie
    2.

    "Advent invites us instead to pause for a moment that we might reflect long enough to assess our deep need and longing for something more, for something beyond ourselves, for something of the divine to penetrate the ordinary even if for just a moment to remind us that there is indeed, something beyond the possible that will save us.  "
     

    – David Lose

    Read more

    Arts and Faith- Advent 3, relating art and scripture

    Commentary is by Daniella Zsupan-Jerome, director of ministerial formation at Saint John’s University School of Theology and Seminary.

    On this third Sunday of Advent, we witness the prophetic call of St. John the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord. Anton Raphael Mengs’ Saint John the Baptist Preaching brings us face-to-face with John, as he addresses us with expressive gestures. Mengs’ portrayal is intensely psychological, inviting us to encounter John’s deep conviction, prophetic presence, and sense of urgency. John’s penetrating look, coupled with his raised arms, make a burning appeal for us to listen, to look for “the one among us whom we do not recognize,” and to wait attentively for the coming of him whose sandal this prophet is not fit to untie.

    In this portrayal, Mengs dares to move St. John the Baptist away from more traditional interpretations. Rather than the heroic portrayal of a martyr, the serene portrayal of a devoted servant recognizing the Lord, or a dutiful prophet preaching to a crowd, Mengs shows us a John who is caught up in emotion. This John is making his passionate appeal stirred by the dangerous knowledge of Christ coming, dying, and rising. In this image, John exists not in the historical moment of Jesus’ early ministry, but in the post-Resurrection reality of the Church that now awaits the final coming of the Risen Lord. The red shroud draped across his body and the cross-shaped staff to his right hint at this. The shroud is a symbol of his martyrdom, and the staff points to the crucifixion of Christ. Here John comes to us not as the wild preacher in the desert, but as the saint who has lived the whole story, who exists now in God’s eternal presence, and who intercedes for us as we continue to watch and wait. He is not the light, but he now dwells in it—demonstrated by Mengs by illuminating his body brightly from above.

    St. John’s intercession is as intense as his preaching was—a voice that is still crying out with urgency, this time for the Lord’s Second Coming. His urgent voice comes before God filled with love for the Body of Christ, a love that seeks desperately to rouse this Body to readiness.

    Chancellor’s Village Eucharist

    (full size gallery)

    During early August, 2023, the local Episcopal region organized a weekly Euchriast at Chancellor’s Village, a retirement community just west of Fredericksbug, VA.

    Catherine participates once or twice a month and shares the pulpit with the other priests of the Fredericksburg Region. The service is a regular Sunday service complete with sermon and Eucharist. The faciity has a dedicated worship space with altar and seats over 30.

    Boyd and Barbara Wisdom have been there since July, 2022. Barbara and Tom Segar joined them by September.

    Today, December 12, there were 10 initial participants but two came in at the end of the service and were given the Eucharist. The service was based on the readings from the previous Sunday, Advent 2, Year B.

    As a bonus Chancellor’s Village was completely decorated for Christmas.

    St. Peter’s Endowment Fund – An end of the year gift to the Church

    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.

    Advent Season Resources

    An online Advent potpourri in 6 categories of things to do in Advent – Read, Watch, Learn, Listen, Pray and Reflect and Make. There is something for everyone!

    An Advent Collection

    Read includes key points of Advent, the beginning of Advent, and waiting

    Under Watch there are  videos –Nativity: The Art and Spirit of the Creche and The Story of Silent Night .

    The Learn tab has the classes we have had at St. Peter’s including Luke’s Canticles, Matthew’s Infancy Stories, Christmas Carols and Dickens.

    Listen includes Lessons and Carols from National Cathedral as well as an exploration of Antiphons .

    Pray and Reflect features Advent meditations  a workshop involving prayer, scripture, candlelight and an adaptation of the Way of Love for Advent.

    Finally Make has all sorts of crafts from Advent calendars, cooking and wreath creation.

    Advent Meditations, 2023 – Living Compass

    Living Compass produces a book of daily meditations for Advent- “Living Well through Advent which begins Dec. 3

    https://shop.livingcompass.org/collections/advent-and-lent-resources   The printed copy is $1 and the download is free.  (We have purchased 20 copies.)

    The Living Compass Model for Well-Being offers us guidance in four dimensions of our being: heart, soul, strength, and mind and focus on how they are interconnected. The goal is wellness and wholeness

    The theme this year is “Practicing Wonder as we move toward Christmas.”  Each week has an example of it demonstrated by the lives of the author

    Week 1 is the connection between wonder and love. Through time and space, adversity and divide, love remains. Love is a constant. Like love, wonder opens the heart and touches our soul.

    Week 2 is the connection between wonder and stories. Stories so often help us remember the One whose love we are preparing to celebrate, and those who have taught us so much about wonder and love through the years. Think of the diverse family members in your family

    Week 3 explores the connection between wonder and thin places, be they physical, spiritual, emotional, or relational.  . A thin place is a location where the distance between God and Heaven and the Earth is thin. It is a place where deep transformation can happen as we strengthen our personal connection to God.

    Week 4   is  the wonder of  God as made manifest in Mary’s faith and courage described in Luke, the birth of Jesus, and the reverent response of the shepherd

    Advent Compline

    Join us online for the 20 minute service on Zoom , Dec. 7, 14, and 21 at 7PM.

    Link Meeting ID: 863 3487 7905 Pass 868383

    Compline was a service to close the day, an opportunity to give thanks for the joys and graces experienced, a chance to confess sins committed throughout the day, and the perfect moment to close the day the same way it started: in prayer. If Morning Prayer is designed to start the day off right then Compline is designed to end it well. It frames you for sleep and puts the day in perspective. It helps you recommit yourself to prayer during Advent. Give it a try!

    St. Peter’s Christmas Play – A 25 year Tradition

    St. Peter’s Christmas play has been different from the typical Children’s Church play. The above is the 2015 play.

    First it has involved parishioners of all ages and not just children. Second it takes up most of the Sunday service. Lastly the play is written fresh every year. No repeats. The tradition began in the 1990’s under the Rev. Karen Woodruff when there were many children in the parish.