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 July 28

Daniel Bonnell on his painting, “Feeding of the 5,000”

"Feeding of the 5,000

"This is an important divine moment here that perhaps we miss. The scripture says that Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed the loaves and the fishes. All eyes are on Him as the crowd is instructed to sit down in the grass. He then gave thanks. In this painting all the focus is upon Jesus, the viewer looks up as if he or she were one of the crowd. Jesus raises a basket with two small fish in it to the sky. He gives thanks and before he finishes speaking the basket is filled to overflowing. Jesus is called the bread of life. We see Him performing many miracles that have symbolic meanings to those — that have eyes to see. He is victory over death. We see Him raising the dead in more than one instance. He is the water of life, as he tells the woman at the well. He is the Prophet who knew of her five husbands. Look closer and you will see Jesus not just raising a basket of bread to the sky but you will see him upon the cross. The band of white sky forms a perpendicular bar with his arms and hands, which are pierced."

The Feeding of the 5000 and the Graham cracker

 

In the mid-1800s there was a group of people in America known as the Millerites–a Christian sect firmly convinced that Jesus would return sometime late in the year 1843. He didn’t, setting off what was called "the Great Disappointment."

At least some of these folks, however, made the best of the situation by declaring that as a matter of fact Jesus had returned but that it had turned out to be an invisible, spiritual advent. Believing themselves to be living in an already-present millennial kingdom, these Adventists decided that as part of this new identity they should invent alternative foods as a sign of their not being fully in this world.

One preacher named Sylvester Graham invented a new kind of cracker for his congregation to eat. Sylvester Graham (1794-1851) believed physical lust was harmful to the body and caused such dire maladies in the sexually overheated as pulmonary consumption, spinal diseases, epilepsy, and insanity, as well as such lesser ailments as headaches and indigestion.  Graham believed a strict vegetarian diet would aid in suppressing carnal urges; to this end, he advocated a regimen devoid of meat and rich in fiber as a way of combating rampant desire.

His famed "Graham bread" was fashioned from the coarsely ground wheat flour he espoused and which came to bear his name. Convinced that eating meat and fat leads to sinful sexual excess, the good reverend urged total vegetarianism. He also warned that mustard and ketchup cause insanity, urged followers to drink only water, and recommended sleeping with one’s windows open regardless of the weather. More reasonably, he touted the merits of a high-fiber diet and promoted the use of homemade unsifted wheat flour instead of refined white flour.

Some sources assert Graham himself invented the snack in 1829; others claim the graham cracker did not come into being until 1882, 31 years after Graham’s death. Many bakers tried to market the crackers, but it wasn’t until 1898 that the National Biscuit Company (now Nabisco) made any real inroads into the market with their Nabisco Graham Crackers product. Nabisco achieved even greater success with their Honey Maid line, introduced in 1925, which boosted the original graham flavor through the addition of honey. 

Today’s graham crackers are made with bleached white flour, a deviation that would have set Sylvester Graham to spinning in his grave — he regarded refined flour as one of the world’s great dietary evils. 

Another Way to Feed the 5,000 – in a Chevy!

From Ft. Worth City Magazine

"Fort Worth has an unusual new entrant in the food truck scene: Arlington Heights United Methodist Church.

"The West Side church on Sunday officially launched Five & Two – a take on Jesus’ feeding of the multitude with five loaves and two fishes – in a refurbished 1996 Chevy plumbing truck.

"’It’s a full commercial kitchen on wheels,’ Allen Lutes, associate pastor and director of the church’s new food truck ministry, said after a dedication ceremony with hot dogs and chips.

"The church sees the food truck as a way to take its ministry to people, rather than rely on them to come to the church. “How much more meaningful if we meet them where they are?” Lutes said during a Sunday sermon.

"Beginning June 18, and on the third Thursday of each month, Five & Two will begin serving dinner to the 30 homeless veterans who live at the Presbyterian Night Shelter’s Patriot House off of East Lancaster Avenue.

"In July, the truck will be at the Night Shelter’s women and children’s unit once a month. ‘This is going to be an opportunity to do more,’ to serve as mentors and work with children, Lutes said."

A Food related issue – handling waste

Feeding the 5,000 is a program, part of the European organization FeedBack that is tackling hunger in a specific way – using food that would normally be wasted. They work to glean crops from farms that would be wasted also but host public events to bring awareness to this issue. They explain it this way "At each event, we serve up a delicious communal feast for 5000 people made entirely out of food that would otherwise have been wasted, bringing together a coalition of organizations that offer the solutions to food waste, raising the issue up the political agenda and inspiring new local initiatives against food waste."

An example is an event that took place in Vancouver, Canada on May 27, 2015.

It was grassroots “lunch and learn” on a grand scale. Everything on the menu came from industry donors. Those attending got a tasty free 3 course lunch, an appreciation of food waste in the region, connections with those already taking action to reduce waste, as well as ideas for reducing food waste in their own lives. Here is a video.

Another Feeding – Babette’s Feast, Grace in a movie

Summary – French War refugee Babette works for 2 sisters & their ascetic sect. When she cooks a feast they reluctantly eat but soon the grace of the meal transforms all, including a former suitor of one of the sisters. 

Babette’s Feast is a high regarded Danish Academy Award winning movie from 1987.

The setting of the film is a barren, windswept coastal village of Denmark in the 19th century. The village is populated by a very conservative and pious community of Protestant believers. It is led by two elderly sisters who struggle to maintain the faithfulness and the spirit of the community, which is aging and growing quarrelsome. When Babette, a political refugee from Paris, turns up in their village, the sisters charitably take her in and make her their housekeeper. They ask Babette to cook their very simple fare, for extravagance of any kind is suspect, and enjoyment of worldly pleasures (including lavish eating and drinking) is sinful. 

Read more

Prevail

“Whatever it is that we wrestle with, whatever is our struggle, God will strengthen us. God will bless us. God will allow us to prevail. And, having prevailed, we will be changed.” – Br. James Koester, SSJE

July – It’s Crepes Myrtle time

The first crepes myrtle was brought to Charleston by botanist to Louis XVI, André Michaux in 1786. Originally from China and exported to England, it did not bloom since the clammy British climate wasn’t hot enough. But the south was!

Southern Living writes “Audacious spikes of pink, purple, white, and red flowers crown its sculptural branches for months in summer. In fall, leaves turn a brilliant red or orange, and its peeling bark brings winter interest. Crepe myrtles are found in many shapes and sizes, but their arching branches make them a mainstay for framing many a courtyard. The tree loves heat and humidity, tolerates drought, and grows quickly. Unlike the azalea, camellia, and gardenia, which pine for acid soil, crepe myrtle flourishes just about everywhere. No wonder it ranks as the South’s most popular (and coveted) ornamental tree.”

St. James the Apostle, July 25

St. Josemaria Institute

We celebrate James the Apostle on July 25. With his brother, John, the Gospels (Matthew 4, 21-22; Mark 1, 19-20; Luke 5, 10-11) record that they were fishermen, the sons of Zebedee, partners with Simon Peter, and called by Jesus from mending their nets beside the sea of Galilee at the beginning of his ministry

Jesus nicknamed them ‘the sons of thunder’ – perhaps justified by the story (Luke 9, 51-56) that they once wished to call down fire from heaven to destroy a village which had refused them hospitality.

They made it to key events in Jesus life – the Transfiguration, Gethsemene and at various healings and miracles – Peter’s mother-in-law and raising of Jairus’s daughter. Obviously, James was of Jesus closest followers.

He is known as James the Great to distinguish him from James the Less, or James the brother of the Lord.

About AD 42, shortly before Passover (Acts 12), James was beheaded by order of King Herod Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great (who tried to kill the infant Jesus–Matthew 2). James was the first of the Twelve to suffer martyrdom, and the only one of the Twelve whose death is recorded in the New Testament.

Tradition is he was a missionary to Spain in his life and, at his death, was buried at Compostela, a site of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages. 

Relics of the saints were believed to possess great power. Spain needed it in the 8th century. Jerusalem fell to the armies of Islam in 636 A.D., and less than a century later, in 711, Spain was also invaded and conquered. Islam rapidly reached northern Spain, and sent raiding parties into France. In northwest Spain, however, a small Christian kingdom, including Asturias and present-day Galicia, emerged in the 8th century, and at this time James’ tomb was discovered near Finisterre. James was the most senior member of the intercessionary hierarchy whose relics remained undiscovered.  The discovery of his tomb helped to bolster the resistance.

In the 12th Century Santiago came to rank with Rome and Jerusalem as one of the great destinations of medieval pilgrimage. The first cathedral was built over the site of James tomb, and Benedictine houses were established.  The cathedral where he is buried was depicted in the film, The Way, at the end of the “Way of St. James”, a pilgrim’s path across Spain.  

The relics of St James are housed in a silver casket below the high altar, above which his statue presides over the cathedral. On the feast of St James on July 25, and other high days and holy days, a giant censer, the Botafumeiro, is swung on ropes by red-coated attendants in a great arc from floor to vaults, emitting clouds of incense over delighted crowds. It’s considered a symbol of both the cathedral and the city.

Here is the scene from The Way that depicts the pilgrims reaching  Santiago and venturing to the cathedral with the swinging of the censer or incense burner.  This has never been filmed before and the production crew had to get special permission to film it. They were allowed only 1 hour!

The “Way” is actually many paths across France and Northern Spain that has been followed by pilgrims for 800 years. In recent decades it has enjoyed a resurgence as a spiritual journey with many organized and unorganized journeys.  You can the take the route across Northern Spain (800km) taking 6 weeks or break it up into shorter journeys.