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.

2024 Sun Aug 11

Jonathan Myrick Daniel, Aug 14

Who Was Jonathan Daniels ?

This week is the anniversary of the arrest of seminarian Jonathan Myrick Daniel in 1965 at the height of the racial strife in Selma in 1965. Daniel was killed when he took a shotgun blast that was intended for a black female, Ruby Sales. It killed him instantly. Daniels’ life showed a pattern of putting himself in the place of others who were defenseless and in need.

Describing the incident, Dr Martin Luther King said that “one of the most heroic Christian deeds of which I have heard in my entire ministry was performed by Jonathan Daniels.”

What happened to Ruby Sales? Sales went on to attend Episcopal Theological School in Massachusetts which Daniels had attended (now Episcopal Divinity School). She has worked as a human rights advocate in Washington, D.C. She founded The SpiritHouse Project, a non-profit organization and inner-city mission dedicated to Daniels.

The Rev. Gillian Barr in an Evensong in honor of Daniel in Providence RI provides an apt summary of Daniels. “He was a young adult who wasn’t sure what he was meant to do with his life. He had academic gifts, a sense of compassion, and a faith which had wavered from strong to weak to strong. He was searching—searching for a way to live out his values of compassion and his faith rather than just studying them in a book. He was living in intentional community, first at VMI, then at EDS, and then finally with activists in Alabama. His studies, and his prayer life, and his community all led him to see more clearly the beauty and dignity in the faces of all around him, even those who looked very different and came from very different backgrounds than the quiet boy from Keene, NH.”

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The Virgin Mary, Aug. 15

We celebrate her saint day on August 15, the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven. The day represents God’s redeeming work in all of the world.

Mary lived circa 18 BCE- 41 CE. She was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, the daughter of Joachim and Anne and the wife of Joseph, the carpenter. Little is known of her life except when it relates to Jesus life. She remained faithful to him through his death (when his disciples denied, betrayed, and fled), and even after his death, continued life in ministry with the apostles.

The New Testament records many incidents from the life of the Virgin which shows her to be present at most of the chief events of her Son’s life:

  • her betrothal to Joseph [Luke 1:27]
  • the Annunciation by the angel Gabriel that she was to bear the Messiah [Luke 1:26-38]
  • her Visitation to Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist [Luke 1:39-56]
  • the Nativity of our Lord [Luke 2:20]
  • the visits of the shepherds [Luke 2:8-20] and the magi [Matthew 2:1-12]
  • the Presentation of the infant Jesus in the Temple at the age of forty days [Luke 2:22, 2:41]
  • the flight into Egypt, the Passover visit to the Temple when Jesus was twelve, [Matthew 1:16,18-25; 2; Luke 1:26-56; 2];
  • the wedding at Cana in Galilee [John 2:1-11]
  • and the performance of her Son’s first miracle at her intercession [John 2:1-11],
  • the occasions when observers said, “How can this man be special? We know his family!” [Matthew 13:54-56, Mark 6:1-3, Luke 4:22; also John 6:42],
  • an occasion when she came with others to see him while he was preaching [Matthew 12:46-50,Mark 3:31-35, Luke 8:19-21],
  • her presence at the foot of the Cross, where Jesus commends her to the care of the Beloved Disciple [John 19:25-27],
  • her presence with the apostles in the upper room after the Ascension, waiting for the promised Spirit [Acts 1:14].   

Besides Jesus himself, only two humans are mentioned by name in the Creeds. One is Pontius Pilate, Roman procurator of Judea from 26 to 36 AD and the other is Mary. There are more feast days in The Episcopal Church honoring Mary than anyone else.

There have been many appearances of Mary over the centuries. Tradition says that in 39 CE, the Virgin Mary appeared in a vision to Saint James the Great in Zaragoza, Spain. Over the centuries, there have been dozens of additional reports of appearances of the Virgin Mary in different times and places. Two of the most influential visions of the Virgin Mary are the Virgin of Walsingham and the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Her story was carried by National Geographic in December, 2015 –”How the Virgin Mary Became the World’s Most Powerful Woman”

Her message to us was simple – “Listen to Him. Listen to my Son. Do what He tells you.” 

Recent Articles, Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Aug. 11, 2024

3 years ago on the river

Twelth Sunday after Pentecost, Aug. 11
Schools begin Aug.12


Lectionary Pentecost 12, Aug 11
Visual Lectionary
A sermon on Ephesians – Ways to Live
The “Bread of Life” discourse in John
The “Bread of Life”, Part 2
A Discovered Leonardo- “Salvador Mundi”
The Ugly Duckling and John’s Gospel
C.S.Lewis, Watchman of his generation


Jonathan Myrick Daniel, Aug 14
The Virgin Mary, Aug 15

Lectionary, Pentecost 12, Aug 11, 2024

I. Theme –   Nurture and Community

“The Breadline” – Grigori Grigorjewitsch Mjassojedow (1872)

The lectionary readings are here  or individually:

Old Testament – 1 Kings 19:4-8
Psalm – Psalm 34:1-8
Epistle –Ephesians 4:25-5:2
Gospel – John 6:35, 41-51

Today’s readings constellate around the themes of nurture and community.

We learn from David’s story (Tract 1, not in our readings) that violence breeds violence, that injustice must be brought to light. We know this is not easy

In 1 Kings  God nourishes Elijah for a journey that takes forty days and forty nights and he is constantly on the brink of not continuing it.  Poor Elijah was ready to die as he ran into hiding to escape persecution, violence and injustice.  In Psalm 34, the righteous also cry for help, for they are afflicted, broken-hearted and crushed in spirit.

When the author of Ephesians says, “Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us,” he reminds us of God’s providence. Christ’s extraordinary sacrifice on our behalf manifested God’s love and power once again and gave us safe passage into a new life with God. These acts demand a response from us. We are challenged as much by God’s gifts as we are by the lack of them. Our conduct toward each other must reflect God’s outpouring of love toward us.   The author encourages Christians to be as loving as Christ to one another.

The Gospel emphasizes God’s sustenance through Jesus who gives himself for us.  Jesus promises that he will save all who come to him.    But God will renew our strength, will give us courage and will continue to encourage us. Jesus calls us into this new life, in which we must stand against injustice but in nonviolent ways. We are called to lead by example, to love and forgive, to use our anger at injustice to bring about justice through peaceful means. We are called into this new life.

Jesus points out that the Israelites ate manna in the wilderness and they died. He is reminding the people that people do not live by bread alone—true life comes from the word of God. Jesus identifies himself with God. Those “taught by God” will come to Jesus to be fed the living bread for eternal life in that long-promised land where there will never be scarcity. Anyone who tastes this bread will never die.

We need spiritual soul food not superficial fast food. We need the bread of heaven, embodied in earthly relationships; not spiritual quick fixes and easy answers. We feast on the Spirit when we see God in all things and all things in God.  We come to the unsearchable mystery of the eucharist with a joyful hush of thanksgiving in our hearts. Jesus sustains our souls with his life now and forever.

Consider: How can I imitate Jesus example of total, selfless giving?

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The Bread of Life discourse in John Chap. 6 – the first three weeks

For the first 3 weeks in Aug, 2024, we hear the “Bread of Life” discourse in John Chapter 6. It is a discussion led by Jesus with later responses from the people following him. The discourse uses the metaphor of bread to emphasize faith in Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God. Jesus compares himself to bread, which is essential for life, and says that he is spiritual bread that provides eternal life. It takes the people beyond the physical bread the they received in the “Feeding of the 5,000” (July 28, 2024) into something more. The discourse becomes the basis for Holy Communion. While communion was introduced as a practice during Holy Week, these passages explore the meaning.

At the beginning of the discourse, Jesus takes the crowd beyond mere food they received in the “Feeding of the 5,000”. The bread from heaven that the people ate in the wilderness met the people’s needs daily, but Jesus meets the needs of our whole lives.

The crowd the day after the “Feeding of the 5,000” finds Jesus in Capernaum where He introduces Himself as the Bread of Life, teaching that whoever comes to Him will never go hungry or thirsty, and whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. Jesus is instructing them on the importance of Holy Communion and receiving him in the bread and wind. It is not just a daily meal!

In Week 1, there is the first Bread of Life statement “Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

By Week 2 Jesus expands the “Bread of life” to provide more clarification. ” I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The people were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” The listeners knew that Jesus, by claiming to come from heaven, was declaring that he was God. He was the real Bread of Heaven—the ever-present daily Manna—the lifegiving, eternal source of provision for today, tomorrow, and all eternity.

Week 2 ended with “…the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” which is repeated and expanded in Week 3

Then in Week 3 he starts where he ended in Week 2 by repeating verse 51. In verse 51 “Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The people’s reaction turned to revulsion when Jesus explained that he had come to give his flesh and blood—to sacrifice His life—so that the world could have eternal life. Eating flesh and drinking blood seemed an affront to the Jewish faith.

Many disciples find Jesus’ teaching hard to accept and decide to leave Him. When Jesus asks the Twelve if they want to leave too, Simon Peter in Verse 68-69 affirms their faith in Jesus as the Holy One of God. He saved the day. ” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

“We are constantly relearning Jesus” (Gospel of John: A Commentary – Frederick Dale Bruner). “Sometimes Jesus removes himself from us, though he still wants us, until we learn to accept him on his own terms, as he defines himself — which self-defining is exactly what happens in the Bread Sermon that follows.”

The “Bread of Life” Discourse, Part 2

Reference – Gospel reading for Aug. 11

There are three parts to this reading:

The Gospel starts (part one) with a repeat of the last sentence from Aug 4, the first week of three in the “Bread of Life Discourse.” Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”  So there is a sense of continuity, The third part is the lead in for Week 3 on Aug 18.

The second part is the heart of the reading. In part one, those who listened responded. “They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” A key word in this section is “complain.” Now he gets complaints from the “Jews” when he asserts “I am the bread of life” The Jews may indicate a subset of the crowd or it may tie back to those who crucified him.

Those who complain only know him as the carpenter’s son and the mother and father whom they know. So how can he assert “I am the bread who came down from heaven”? He should be talking about carpentry!

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Sermon on Ephesians – Respecting all

Introduction- In 2012 St. Peter’s began participating in a Bible Study at Peumansend Jail near Bowling Green, VA.

The facility opened in September 1999 as the Peumansend Creek Regional Jail and features a campus style layout, designed to operate as a fourth-generation direct supervision facility. Low custody inmates from six jurisdictions and the Virginia Department of Corrections were housed at the facility until March 2017 when it closed .

Catherine’s sermon for this Sunday in 2012 used the ministry as a main focus to consider Ephesians 4:25-5:2:

“This past Thursday night at our monthly jail Bible Study, a prisoner started off our discussion with this question.

“So if you were challenged by someone who was going to take your life depending on whether or not you were a Christian, and you said you were, and then they killed you because you’d said you were Christian, would you go straight to heaven?”

“The ten men there pretty much agreed that yes, the person would go to heaven because he had died professing his belief in Jesus.

“But then another prisoner pointed out that it’s not just what we say we believe, but it’s how we live out those beliefs, because how we live reflects what we truly believe.

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