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.

Sunday Links, June 30, 2024

Sixth Sunday After Pentecost June 30, 11am

  • Web site
  • YouTube St. Peter’s Page for viewing services
  • Facebook St. Peter’s Page
  • Instagram St. Peter’s Page
  • Location – 823 Water Street, P. O. Box 399, Port Royal, Virginia 22535
  • Staff and Vestry
  • Wed., June 26, Ecumenical Bible Study, Parish House, 10am-12pm  Reading Lectionary for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, June 30, Track 2
  • Servers, June 30, 11am
    Lector: Jennifer Collins
    Chalice Bearer:Johnny Davis
    Altar Clean up: Elizabeth Heimbach
  • Reception for Catherine, June 30, 12pm
  • Wed., July 3, Ecumenical Bible Study – Cancelled this week
  • Thurs., July 4 at St. Peter’s, 10am-2pm
  • June newsletter
  • All articles for Sunday, June 30, 2024
  • Recent Articles, June 30, 2024, The Sixth Sunday after the Pentecost

    Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, June 30
    Bulletin
    Sermon
    Photos
    Videos – Service
    Videos – Reception
    Sunday’s Thoughts
    Lectionary, June 30, 11am service
    Commentary
    Visual lectionary from Vanderbilt
    Jairus Daughter on “The Chosen”
    Crossing the Barriers in Mark
    July 4 – All about the Declaration
    Anything but Ordinary! Ordinary Time
    A Weekful of Saints
    St. Peter’s Wildflowers
    Celebrating the Rappahannock River

    Ministries

    Special


    Sunbucks program, Beginning July, 2024
    Stories to remember 2010-2024
    Mid-Year 2024 review
    Some favorite photos, 2010-2024
    Cleo as Harriet Tubman, June 19
    Shred-it results from June 12
    Shred-it Gallery
    Thy Kingdom Come
    St. Peter’s Anniversary

    Chancellor’s Village


    Chancellor’s Village Photos and sermon, June 25
    Chancellor’s 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


    Award winners in Jamaica
    Breakfast program in Jamaica

    Performance


    Portland Guitar Duo at St. Peter’s, April 19, 2024

    Village Harvest


    Summer meals
    Village Harvest, June 2024
    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

    Lectionary, Pentecost 6, Year B, June 30, 2024

    I. Theme –  Compassion and Healing

    "Jesus heals the bleeding woman"  – From the Catacomb of Sts Marcellinus and Peter

    The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

    Old Testament – Lamentations 3:21-33
    Psalm – Psalm 30
    Epistle –2 Corinthians 8:7-15
    Gospel – Mark 5:21-43  

    Today’s readings encourage us to remember God’s goodness and act toward others with the same unflinching generosity and compassion. Lamentations reminds those who are suffering that God’s goodness will surely come. Paul encourages the Corinthians to offer their surplus of wealth to other communities who are in need. In the gospel, Jesus brings the daughter of Jairus, a synagogue official, back to life in anticipation of his own resurrection.

    We are called to live for others and not for ourselves.  We are called to share what we have with others and to be in solidarity with the poor and the marginalized. We are called, most of all, to remember that God’s love endures forever, and that at times we need to wait, and not lose hope. The woman who suffered for many years in Mark’s Gospel did not lose hope, neither did Jairus in the time of crisis for his daughter. We know that God through Jesus Christ gives us new life, a life that transcends death, a life that calls us into solidarity with others and to share what we have, for Christ lived not for himself but for all; we also are called not to live for ourselves but for others.

    The Judeo-Christian concern for the poor and needy has become overwhelming in this day when the whole world of nations is at our doorstep. We hardly know how to respond. International economic injustices prevent the distribution of national resources on the basis of simple human need. Welfare and many other social obligations have largely become the responsibility of governmental agencies and institutions. We are not too conscious of the individual injunction to be our brother’s keeper.

    Still, those who live under biblical mandates do what they can to relieve human need, as they are able. “For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a man has, not according to what he has not.” Voluntary and secret pledging may be hazardous to the Church, but it is in the spirit of what we are called to do. As Paul says, “…so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have.”

    The motivation for such stewardship of our resources is our response to Jesus’ voluntary poverty that we “might become rich.” If our gratitude and love for his life given for us is genuine, we are spontaneous givers. Paul equates liberality with our desire to fulfill the will of God, who has given us all that is necessary for our well-being. What and how we give it is really a matter between ourselves and God and reflects our relationship with God.

    The passage from Mark seems incongruous with today’s other readings, but it may be related squarely to our sense of gratitude. There are two open secrets in the Gospel of Mark. One is that Jesus is lord over all life in both the natural and spiritual worlds, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear. The signs of God’s kingdom come in Christ are staked out all over the countryside if we can but read them in his words and deeds. The other secret is that faith alone will enable us to receive the blessings Jesus brings to the world.

    For the first time in Mark’s gospel, a respectable member of society “falls at Jesus’ feet.” Whatever mixture of motives he might have, the ruler of the synagogue also has some faith that Jesus can help his dying child. Jesus recognizes the quantum of faith in Jairus and responds to it. Our lord is quick to respond to any budding faith, no matter how it is mixed with self-serving interests.

    But the little girl dies before Jesus reaches her. Why trouble him further when death strikes in the midst of hope? We say “where there is life there is hope.” But Jesus, already challenged and victorious over the violence of nature and demonic forces, goes immediately to meet death head-on and calls the daughter of Jairus out of her “sleep.”

    God is not the God of the dead but the living. “I am the resurrection and the life…He that believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” So Jesus vanquished death also, demonstrating that he is lord even over the last enemy of life.

    Jesus has proved how genuine is his love for us. Our gratitude moves us to find our brothers and sisters in need and carry on his gracious work.

    Read more

    Sermon, Pentecost 6, June 30, 2024 – “This day of ending is also a day of resurrection, a day of new beginnings for all of us.”

    Sermon, Proper 8, Year B 2024

    We are an alleluia congregation. 

    Throughout the year, except during the season of Lent,  the last word we share as we head out the door each week is “Alleluia!”  Despite the directions of the prayer book and our bishops, who all remind us that alleluia is only to be added to the dismissal during the Season of Easter, our last word every Sunday is “Alleluia!” When Bishop Shannon visited us several years ago, I warned him ahead of time that we would be following our custom and that alleluia would be our last word.  He looked taken aback, but then he laughed and gave our out of season alleluia his blessing.   Because think about it!  What bishop wouldn’t want every church in his or her diocese to be an alleluia congregation?

    Read more

    “Jairus Daughter” on “The Chosen”

    Jairus daughter appears in Mark 5:21–43, Matthew 9:18–26 and Luke 8:40–56. The Mark account is this Sunday, June 30.

    Jairus was a synagogue ruler who asked Jesus to come to his house and heal his 12-year-old daughter. On the way to the house, Jesus healed a woman who had been sick for 12 years. By the time they arrived, the little girl had died, and the funeral had already begun. Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead. Jesus is amazed at Jairus’ faith even though he is suffering.

    Here is how “The Chosen” dramatizes it:

    Sermon on the scripture”

    After Jesus asks why the crowd is making a commotion and weeping, Jesus says, “The child is not dead but sleeping.” This statement is SO powerful! Because in making this statement, Jesus reminds us that God can see life where we only see death. God gives life in the midst of death. Our vision is limited. What we can see is only a piece of the whole. Sometimes, we can only see death. But God sees all, knows all, and redeems all.