A review of the years at St. Peter’s by year.
2024 Sun June 23
Weekful of Saints
June 29 – Feast of Peter and Paul
The Feast of Saints Peter and Paul commemorates the martyrdom in Rome of the apostles St. Peter and Paul of Tarsus, observed on June 29. The celebration is of ancient origin, the date selected being either the anniversary of their martyrdom in 67AD or of the translation of their relics. They had been imprisoned in the famous Mamertine Prison of Rome and both had foreseen their approaching death. Saint Peter was crucified; Saint Paul, a Roman citizen, was slain by the sword. Together they represent two different Christian traditions.
Why do we remember them ? Peter is pictured on the left with the keys – the keys to the kingdom. In Matthew 16, Christ says ” And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.” They keys since then have been symbols of Papal power. Peter represents that part of the Church which gives it stability: its traditions handed down in an unbroken way from the very beginnings, the structures which help to preserve and conserve those traditions, the structure which also gives consistency and unity to the Church, spread as it is through so many races, cultures, traditions, and geographical diversity
Paul is pictured with the Bible. He, on the other hand, represents the prophetic and missionary role in the Church. It is that part of the Church which constantly works on the edge, pushing the boundaries of the Church further out, not only in a geographical sense but also pushing the concerns of the Church into neglected areas of social concern and creatively developing new ways of communicating the Christian message. This is the Church which is constantly renewed, a Church which needs to be constantly renewed
Sunday Links, June 23, 2024
Fifth Sunday After Pentecost June 23, 11am
Lector: Cookie Davis
Chalice Bearer:Andrea Pogue
Altar Clean up:BJ Anderson
Episcopal General Convention 81
The General Convention is the governing and legislative body of The Episcopal Church. Every three years it meets as a bicameral legislature that includes the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops, composed of deputies and bishops from each diocese.
The 81st General Convention will take place June 23 – 28, 2024 in Louisville, Kentucky at the Kentucky International Convention Center. Link
This General Convention marks the conclusion of Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry’s primacy and the election of his successor, the 28th presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church. There are 5 nominees
What is the main work of the convention? Work on the resolutions that come before the convention make up much of its work. Resolutions arise from four different sources: 1) “A” resolutions from interim bodies whose work is collected in what is referred to as the “Blue Book” 2) “B” resolutions which come from Bishops 3) “C” resolutions which come from diocesan conventions and 4) “D” resolutions which originate from Deputies. Each properly submitted resolution is referred to a convention committee which makes its recommendation to the House. When one house has acted on the resolution it is sent to the other house for consideration.
Who is going to be there? Deputies from each of our 110 dioceses in the United States and abroad, lay leadership and diocesan bishops, as well as members of the Episcopal Church Women, and other visitors.
Youth. This is the General Convention Official Youth Presence (GCOYP.) This group was established by a resolution at General Convention in 1982 and has been further defined at subsequent conventions, with legislation passed as recently as 2000. Up to two youth from each of the church’s nine provinces will be selected to participate in the Official Youth Presence The GCOYP have seat and voice on the floor of the House of Deputies and can testify at hearings held before and during General Convention.
Special topics:
1. The Blue Book Reports by each standing committee, the Executive Council, the House of Deputies, and the House of Bishops. This is the way to follow the path of the resolutions.
2. Calendar of the Convention – What happens each day, including the election of the next presiding bishop
3. Organization chart
4. The Virtual Binder. This system replaced reams of paper in 2018. It enables users to track the progress of convention resolutions. It also includes each house’s daily agendas, calendars for each day and journals (a list of messages sent between the houses informing the other of actions taken), committee calendars and reports. It contains tabs for checking on current action and floor amendments in each house.
5. Media Hub This has live video from the two houses as well as video clips, photos and press conferences.
6. Event App. A. Search for the “Cvent Events” app on the iOS Apple App Store or Google Play Store. B. Upon opening the app search for “The 81st General Convention,” and download the event to the app.
Recent Articles, June 23, 2024, The Fifth Sunday after the Pentecost
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, June 23
Photos
Videos
Bulletin
Sermon
Lectionary, June 23, 11am service
Commentary
Voices of Mark’s Gospel
Chaos in the Gospel
Visual lectionary from Vanderbilt
So, What is an Epistle?
World Refugee Day, June 20
Connection between Juneteenth and World Refugee Day
Why we should welcome refugees?
Anything but Ordinary! Ordinary Time
Celebrating Midsummer’s Night
A Weekful of Saints
St. Peter’s Wildflowers
Celebrating the Rappahannock River
General Convention
All About General Convention
Bishop Harris on General Convention
Ministries
Special – May, June
Cleo as Harriet Tubman, June 19
Shred-it results from June 12
Shred-it Gallery
Words, Pictures 2010-2024
Some Favorite Pictures
Thy Kingdom Come
St. Peter’s Anniversary
Chancellor’s Village
Chancellor Village Photos and sermon, May 14
Chancellor’s Village Sermon, April 23
Sacred Ground
Foundations of an African-American Community
Sacred Ground, May, 2024
Sacred Ground, Feb., 2024
Sacred Ground, Jan., 2024
Season of Creation
St. Peter’s and the Earth
Team Up to clean up event, April 20
Episcopal Church Men
ECM Maintenance, May 11
Newsletters
June newsletter
May newsletter
Episcopal Church Women
ECW Chair change
ECW Spring meeting, April 9
Jamaica
Breakfast program in Jamaica
Performance
Portland Guitar Duo at St. Peter’s, April 19, 2024
Village Harvest
Summer meals
Village Harvest, May 2024
Village Harvest, April, 2024
Village Harvest, March, 2024
Village Harvest, Feb., 2024
Education
Creeds class notes 5 sessions- Conclusion
God’s Garden collection
Card of thanks to Elizabeth & Jim Heinbach
Catherine read the anniversary prayer to Elizabeth who is celebrating her 56th anniversary to Jim. Both are moving to Fredericksburg within the month. So it was a time of thanks and best wishes and as well as sadness.
Johnny then presented a card from the Vestry:
“Members of St Peter’s Church greatly appreciates your service during your years in Port Royal. Jim has been a faithful Treasurer keeping accurate records weekly while Elizabeth has been a leader in the ECW women and vestry serving as registrar for the church supporting all meetings. We hope you had a wonderful anniversary with love and appreciation.” St. Peter’s Vestry
Videos, June 23, 2024
01 Opening Hymn – “Shall we gather at the river”
01 Opening Hymn – “Shall we gather at the river” – Congregational level
02 Hymn of Praise -“Eternal Father, strong to save”
03 Readings
Sermon, 5th Sunday after Pentecost, June 23, 2024, “Storms in our Lives”
Sermon, Proper 7, Year B, 2024
“Christ Asleep in His Boat”, Jules Joseph Meynier (1826-1903)
Do you ever wonder “Why?” and get frustrated with God when life is a struggle and you find yourself in a metaphorical storm tossed boat, wondering if you’ll survive?
In today’s Old Testament reading, Job, a good man, has had his world fall apart and has lost everything, even though he has lived a good and righteous life. Job bitterly complains to God and accuses God of not hearing his cries.
Lectionary, Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, June 23, 2024
I. Theme – God’s control over creation
"Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee" – Ludolf Backhuysen, 1695
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Job 38:1-11
Psalm – Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32 Page 746, BCP
Epistle –2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Gospel – Mark 4:35-41
Today’s readings remind and reaffirm God’s complete command over all creation. God’s reply to Job asserts the majesty of God as the Creator and Ruler of the world. Paul commends the ministry of reconciliation to all Christians. In the gospel, Jesus stills a storm at sea, revealing that he shares God’s power over creation.
Much as we would like to think otherwise, “the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom.” And how much better to fear God who saves than to fear the things that threaten to destroy us!
Unlike the world of ancient myth where the chaos waters rage and threaten the order that makes life possible — threatening — chaos, in our texts, has been or is being tamed by a benign God who, in the end, means all God’s creatures well. In the process, capital-C Chaos becomes merely "chaos" — a real power that retains a place in God’s world, but one now "fenced in," become part of God’s ordered creation.
A word of hope in the Gospel (and Job and the Psalm) is that God has the power to control the chaos. God may not always do it according to our schedule. Sometimes God may appear to be sleeping in the boat while our world is falling apart, but that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t have the power to calm the storm.
This theme can also lead to the idea that sometimes the storms in our lives are beyond our control. The chaos in our lives may be caused by people or situations or evil powers which we can do nothing about. Sometimes it is not our fault. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Sometimes even the world of faithful Christians comes crashing down.
When the lord answers Job out of the whirlwind giving an awesome view of creative power and might, Job’s heart trembles before the one with whom he had contended so ignorantly and reproachfully. His fear is not only the beginning of wisdom, but also the beginning of real faith, as his ensuing humility leads to confession and acceptance by the lord. Job makes one of the greatest confessions of faith in the Bible: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God” (Job. 19:25-26).
Job’s spiritual experience is repeated by the disciples’ experience on the Sea of Galilee. Putting out to sea in the evenings was a grave risk, since the sudden storms that come up on the sea often occur at sundown. In this scene, the disciples were obeying the lord’s command against the odds for security. We tend to think that having Jesus in the boat would have spared them any trouble.
The disciples are not prepared for the action Jesus takes. He stills the storm at sea in an exhibition of God’s power and control over creation. His question: “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” is meant to convey to the disciples that their security lay in a different realm. When God is in control, no forces of destruction can touch them. Not a bad lesson to learn, even if fear is the teacher.
Visual Lectionary Vanderbilt, 5th Sunday after Pentecost, June 23, 2024
Click here to view in a new window.
Voices of Pentecost 5 – Mark’s Gospel
The Storm on the Sea of Galilee– Rembrandt (1633)
This is Rembrandt’s only seascape picture and dramatically depicts Mark’s Gospel. Being lost at sea was a constant threat at the time. Rembrandt did not try to capture historical accuracy but used boats of his time. Ironically, this painting is now lost. On the morning of March 18, 1990, thieves disguised as police officers broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston and stole The Storm on the Sea of Galilee and 12 other works. It is considered the biggest art theft in US history and remains unsolved. The museum still displays the paintings’ empty frames in their original locations.
The museum describes the painting- “The detailed rendering of the scene, the figures’ varied expressions, the relatively polished brushwork, and the bright coloring are characteristic of Rembrandt’s early style…The panic-stricken disciples struggle against a sudden storm, and fight to regain control of their fishing boat as a huge wave crashes over its bow, ripping the sail and drawing the craft perilously close to the rocks in the left foreground. One of the disciples succumbs to the sea’s violence by vomiting over the side. Amidst this chaos, only Christ, at the right, remains calm, like the eye of the storm. Awakened by the disciples’ desperate pleas for help, he rebukes them: “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” and then rises to calm the fury of wind and waves.”
“Set me alight We’ll punch a hole right through the night Everyday the dreamers die See what’s on the other side “
-U2 “In God’s Country”
“People fear miracles because they fear being changed.” Which is the source, I think, of this other kind of fear that stands somewhere between a holy awe and mighty terror: the fear of being changed. And make no mistake, Jesus is asking the disciples to change. In this very moment he is drawing them from the familiar territory of Capernaum to the strange and foreign land of the Garasenes. And he is moving them from being fishermen to disciples. And he is preparing them to welcome a kingdom so very different from the one they’d either expected or wanted.”
“The change they are facing is real, and hard, and inevitable, and all of this becomes crystal clear as they realize the one who is asking them to change has mastery over the wind and see and is, indeed, the Holy One of God. That change, of course, will also and ultimately be transformative, but I doubt if they see that yet.”
– David Lose, President of Luther Seminary
Bulletin, 5th Sunday after Pentecost, June 23, 2024
Click here to view in a new window.
Bible Study on the road to hear Cleo Coleman as Harriet Tubman
Bible study broke their usual routine and ventured to hear fellow member Cleo Coleman’s portrayal Harriet Tubman at the Juneteenth celebration in Fredericksburg. 6 were served lunch at Castiglias before the event and then on to Market Square. Cleo was delayed to perform at 2:30pm so Senator Tim Kaine could be there to hear Cleo’s performance. Cleo has been a member of that group for over 20 years.
There are two videos. The first one of 10 minutes is Cleo talking out of character about Tubman and her life. The second 28 minutes is Cleo in portrayal. That video is audio only with image overlays.
Photos
Videos
01 Introduction to Harriet Tubman
02 Harriet Tubman – portrayal- audio and photos
Midsummer’s Night – June 21-24, Solstice June 20
Midsummer’s Night, Celebrate Light and community-
We pass Midsummer’s Night in June . European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice, or that take place on a day between June 21 and June 24, and the preceding evening. This year it is being celebrated on June 24.
In the US, we tend to celebrate the solstice, a one day event which occurs June 20, 4:50pm.
The solstice occurs when one of Earth’s poles is tilted toward the sun at its most extreme angle, and due to Earth’s tilt, this happens twice a year. In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer solstice falls in June (while the Southern Hemisphere experiences the winter solstice), and in the Southern Hemisphere, it falls in December (while the Northern Hemisphere experiences the winter solstice).
The Midsummer’s night celebration began in pre -Christian times when it was believed that forces could slip between this world and the next at a time when there was more light than at any time of the year. Fires were lit to ward off the evil spirits.
We may think of Midsummer’s Night in terms of Shakespeare’s play of the same name. Ironically, most of the play takes place in a dark forest in a wild, mysterious atmosphere, rather than in the light, in which the magical elements of Shakespeare’s plot can be played out. One of the subplots involves the brawl of the ferries, Oberon and Titania which creates a disturbance in nature.
Chaos!
Chaos is a real threat at any time and in Jesus time was seen often on the Sea. Today’s Gospel takes place on the Sea of Galilee crossing to the other side. Surrounded by hills and at a depth of 680 feet below sea level, the Sea of Galilee was a funnel for surprisingly sudden and dramatic storms. The sea itself was shaped like a wind tunnel at twelve and one-half miles long and anywhere from four to seven and one-half miles wide.
Mark Davis in this article provides a setting for the Gospel story. “And everybody lived with the risks of such dangers because the waters were the resources for work, food, portage, import, and export.” He provides the setting for that ship on the water.
But there is another meaning that he explores because the Gospel of Mark was written in a time of Chaos in the 60’s. In the Spring of 66 A.D., the Jews of Judea began a full scale rebellion against Rome. In 69 A.D., Vespasian was made emperor of Rome and gave his son Titus the honor of delivering the final death blows to the rebellious Jews and their capital city. The Romans brutally slaughtered an estimated 600,000 people in Jerusalem including many of the Passover visitors who had been trapped there for the 143 days during the Roman siege. The temple was burned in 70AD. By the year 73 A.D., all traces of a self-ruling Jewish nation had seemingly disappeared. Out of these ruins, Christianity reappeared in Antioch in Turkey, in Greece and other parts of the Mediterranean world. As Davis writes “Jesus’ word is more powerful than Rome’s storm.”
The Gospel in June, 2024
We are back to Mark! In May the readings were from the Gospel of John as it explored the effects of the Resurrection, the roles of the disciples and their relationship to Jesus. This month explores the challenges to Jesus with the Pharisees, with the disciples and even from his own family. Jesus is not on the defensive – these stories help enlarge the concept of the Kingdom of God.
June 2 – 2nd Sunday after Pentecost -Mark 2:23-3:6
Sometimes rules and regulations can get in the way of our mission. The connection this week is in the role of the Sabbath. Jesus’ operating principle is that the Sabbath ( and the law and the rituals of holiness) was created for humanity, and not the other way around. ’ In that sense, God is chiefly known as love and the laws and purity rituals are for humanity’s own good. The alternate theology is that for humans have to achieve a certain level of holiness – through following laws or practicing purity rituals – to be acceptable to God. That’s the focus on the Pharisees whose religion had deteriorated into rules, regulations and rituals..
To make His point still further, Jesus goes into the synagogue and brings a man with a withered arm into the middle of the gathering. Then, He asks the simple question – is it against the law to do good on the Sabbath – or to save a life? Needless to say, His critics have no answer. Jesus has an answer – he heals the man. Mark’s description of healings were important – they were signs that the Kingdom of God was at hand
Shred-it shreds the documents and adds cash for the church
With the 12th year of Shred-it on June 12, 2024, St. Peter’s received donations of $1,316 for shredding people’s important papers. With costs of $335, we cleared, $981 the best in the dozen years. Thanks to all who participated and Andreas leadership!
Andrea brought tea and lemonade and set up a covered area for people to sit and visit – which they did since it was a beautiful day and not too hot. Shred-it is great for the environment and facilitates fellowship.
Bishop Harris on General Convention
An impromptu talk before lunch after the Bishop Visitation on Pentecost.