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.

Shred-it, May 19, an Essential Ministry

Above – From Left to right, top to bottom – 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022

Please note the change of date from Wed, May 10 to Fri, May 19

Shred-it is an essential ministry because it involves a number of people around a common necessary task that is best accomplished by professionals.

Shred-it’s goal is to safely dispose of records no longer needed. It may be old Tax returns, bank statements, investment records,  any expired document etc.   They lie around gathering dust and may contain personal information that needs to be kept secured even if the records are no longer pertinent or useful. For obvious reasons we don’t want to put them in the regular trash or even recycling bin.

There is also the environmental benefit for having these documents shred rather than lying in  some landfill. We don’t need any more paper cluttering our lives!

Shred-it is a fellowship event as well that goes beyond the church. It is a community event  We get to see people who come around once a year from the community. We might ask “What’s new ? How has your life changed over the year ? Have you seen so and so from the neighborhood” and then .”Thanks for contributing to St. Peter’s ministries.” Andrea usually had food to encourage the fellowship.

It is also a time to remember those no longer part of our lives whether due to relocation, sickness, death  or some other reason. It is another event that is part of the scrapbook of our lives.

It is also a fundraiser for our outreach ministries.  We have netted $2,570 over the last 10 years for outreach ministries.

Finally, Shred-it is another opportunity to thank Andrea Pogue who came up with the idea and has organized it since.  For all these reasons here it is a great ministry!

So I am encouraging you to check your valuable records, stuff that needs to go that you don’t want to entrust with your regular garbage or recycling services and plan to bring it to St. Peter’s on May 10 to let the professionals dispose of it securely.  Publicize it to your friends!

Sermon, Easter 6, May 14, 2023 – Praying for God to fill our imaginations

Have you ever wondered about what is going to happen to church as we know it?  What is going to happen to St Peter’s after we are gone? 

Like many churches, we now have fewer people here at St Peter’s.   Even the huge denomination of Southern Baptists has declined by over three million members since 2006, losing almost half a million members in just this past year. 

The signs of the decline of what we can broadly term Christendom are everywhere. 

We ask ourselves how many people we can lose and keep going.    Maybe we ought to spend our money differently.    Do we need to change our worship services?  We are puzzled, clueless and troubled when we think about these things.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want St Peter’s, after a long slow decline, to someday be deconsecrated so that it can be sold and turned into yet another Port Royal antique shop! 

The disciples had some of the same questions we do.  They wondered what would happen to them when Jesus was gone.  They were worried about how they’d continue without him.   

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Recent Articles, May 14, 2023

Sunday links, Easter 6, May 14, 2023 – Rogation Sunday, Mother’s Day

  • Web site
  • YouTube St. Peter’s Page for viewing services
  • Facebook St. Peter’s Page

  • Flowers, May 7, 2023


  • Sun. May 14, 2023, 11am Holy Eucharist, St. Peter’s Live and on YouTube 823 Water St. Port Royal, VA 22535
  • Lectionary for May 14, 2023, Sixth Sunday in Easter, Sixth Sunday in Easter, Rogation Sunday
  • The Psalms study Mon, May 15, 7:00pm Zoom link Meeting ID: 879 7169 4710 Passcode: 803192 Studying Psalms 19,20,21,24,25. Please join us for this hour’s discussion
  • Ecumenical Bible Study, Wed., May 17, 10am-12pm, Parish House Reading Lectionary for May 21, Easter 7
  • Village Harvest, Wed., May 17, 3pm-5pm. Please email Andrea to volunteer at wakepogue.public@gmail.com, or (540) 847-9002. Pack bags 1-3PM, Deliver food to clients’ cars 3-5PM.
  • Thurs., May 18, The Ascension. Regional Ascension Service at St George’s, 7PM
  • Fri., May 19, Shred-It. We will know the time closer to the date.

  • Coming up!

  • Sun., May 14, UTO Boxes distribution
  • Mon., May 15, 187th Anniversary of St. Peter’s
  • Wed., May 17, Village Harvest, 3PM-5PM
  • Thurs., May 18, Vestry, 2PM
  • Thurs., May 18, Regional Ascension Service at St George’s, 7PM
  • Shred-It. is scheduled for Fri., May 19, AM. Times to be provided.

    Dispose of sensitive documents safely and securely, and free up needed space at home or work.


  • May, 2023 Newsletter
  • All articles for Sunday, May 14, 2023
  • All articles for Rogation
  • All articles for Mother’s Day
  • Voices, Easter 6, May 14, 2023

    From the Lectionary this week

    1 Peter 3:13-14 “Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. “

    John 14:15-16, 18-29 “Jesus said, ”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth..”

    I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.

    Acts 17:26-28
    From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,

    ‘For we too are his offspring.’

    SALT’S Lectionary Commentary- Easter 6

    Easter 6 (Year A): John 14:15-21 and Acts 17:22-31

    Takeaways:

    1) Jesus is saying, in effect, Don’t worry, the best is yet to come. I’m leaving, but I’m not abandoning you. We’ll still be together — and what’s more, God will send you another Advocate as well, the Spirit of truth. In other words, what’s coming isn’t distance but rather a radical closeness, a companionship so intimate as to blur any sharp distinction between companions.

    2) Reading this passage from John together with the passage from Acts, what emerges is a series of nested spheres: the Spirit indwelling us (the Spirit “will be in you”); us indwelling Jesus (“abide in me”); Jesus indwelling God the Creator (“I am in my Father”); and all of creation, too, indwelling God, the One in whom “we live, and move, and have our being” (John 14:17; 15:4; 14:20; Acts 17:28). God is indeed “out there” — and also “in here,” within and without, as far away as the farthest star and as near as — nearer than! — our own breath. As Paul puts it, God “is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27).

    3) A human relationship with God, then, isn’t about relating to a far-off presence. Nor is it about relating to a merely “interior” one. Nor is it a matter of luring God to “come closer.” If we take Paul’s speech at the Areopagus seriously, God is already there, already here; it’s we who need to become more “present” and attentive. The divine life is swirling in and through and around all things, all the time, all the way out to the edges of creation and beyond. A prayer, for example, to borrow C.S. Lewis’ classic image, isn’t a telegram sent to a faraway deity but rather a “stepping in” to the ongoing divine dance: praying with God the Child, through God the Spirit, and to God the Father, Mother of us all. We can’t enhance the degree to which we “have our being” in God; the very fact that “we are” in any given moment we owe to God’s ongoing generosity. But we can enhance the degree to which we’re aware of this symbiosis, the degree to which we’re thankful for it, and the degree to which we live and act accordingly.

    4) And speaking of action: in this passage in John, Jesus makes clear that “keeping my commandments” is important — but it’s not the most important thing. The most important thing, he says, is mutual indwelling, this intimate life together with God; “keeping commandments” will follow, as the night the day, from that symbiosis. Jesus doesn’t say, Keep my commandments, and then I’ll let you abide in me. Rather, he says, Abide in me, as I abide in you; love me as I have loved you; come close to me and live in me in love, and you will, by virtue of that closeness, keep my commandments. Love’s symbiosis comes first, and everything else flows from that wellspring. Our good works, then, don’t earn our way into God’s love; rather, they’re expressions of truly living with and in the God of Love. And the Spirit, the Advocate, the Helper “called alongside” us, is here to help us do just that — precisely so we might, in turn, come alongside a broken, beloved world.

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    Easter 6, Year A

    I.Theme –   We will know Jesus after his resurrection in the Holy Spirit.  This Spirit, the Spirit of Truth will abide in us as Jesus abides in us. 

     "The Advocate"  –Misioneros Del Sagrado Corazón en el Perú. 

    The lectionary readings are here  or individually:


    Old Testament – Acts 17:22-31
    Psalm – Psalm 66:7-18 Page 674, BCP
    Epistle –1 Peter 3:13-22
    Gospel – John 14:15-21

    This week is somewhat philosophical in the search for meaning – who will support the disciples after Jesus is gone ?

    Paul goes to Athens and tries to build a common basis with Greek philosophy and Christ though Christ divinity was hard to muster with the Athenians. There is an appeal to universal wisdom.

    So too does the writer of first Peter  by presenting Jesus as proclaiming salvation to the lost souls in Hades during the time between Good Friday and Easter morning.  The writer tries to ease the suffering of those at his time saying "even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed." This week brings in the Holy Spirit. 1st Peter says "He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit."

    John’s Gospel tries to provide of meaning of the Holy Spirit. The readings are shifting from Jesus physical presence to the presence of the Holy Spirit which will help the disciples carry on his work.   The Holy Spirit is called the advocate, communicating the truth and to be a consistent presence with both the community and the disciple. This Spirit will abide in us as Jesus abides in us. 

    The Spirit is sent in Jesus’ name and reminds us of what he taught. The spirit is the advocate – one who will support, help and intercede for them. The Paraclete (counselor, helper) comes to speak to us for Jesus. Jesus emphasizes the intimate unity of Jesus, God, the Spirit, and the believer. 


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    Rogation Sunday

    Rogation Sunday, a time of celebration and prayer, is a time set aside to appreciate and recognize our dependence upon the land for our food and most importantly upon our dependence of God for the miracles of sprouting seeds, growing plants, and maturing harvest.

    The Rogation Days, the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Ascension Day, originated in Vienne, France in 470 after a series of natural disasters had caused much suffering among the people.  Originally, the Christian observance of Rogation was taken over from Graeco-Roman  religion, where an annual procession invoked divine favour to protect crops against mildew.   Archbishop Mamertus proclaimed a fast and ordered that special litanies and prayers be said as the population processed around their fields, asking God’s protection and blessing on the crops that were just beginning to sprout.

    The Latin word rogare means “to ask”, thus these were “rogation” processions. The tradition grew of using processional litanies, often around the parish boundaries, for the blessing of the land. These processions concluded with a mass. The Rogation procession was suppressed at the Reformation, but it was restored in 1559. The poet George Herbert interpreted the procession as a means of asking for God’s blessing on the land, of preserving boundaries, of encouraging fellowship between neighbours with the reconciling of differences, and of charitable giving to the poor. The tradition of ‘beating the bounds’ has been preserved in some communities. In the latter   a group of old and young members of the community would walk the boundaries of the parish, usually led by the parish priest and church officials, to share the knowledge of where they lay, and to pray for protection and blessings for the lands. Others maintain the traditional use of the Litany within worship. In more recent times, the scope of Rogation has been widened to include petition for the world of work and for accountable stewardship, and prayer for local communities, whether rural or urban.

    The Sunday before the Rogation Days came to be considered a part of Rogationtide (or “Rogantide”) and was known as Rogation Sunday. The Gospel formerly appointed for that day was from John 16, where Jesus tells his disciples to ask, and ye shall receive.