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.

Easter Commentary

Easter Sunday, the culmination of Holy Week!

Easter celebrates the reality of Jesus’ resurrection in all its many aspects. Hope, Transformation, Evangelism and a new life.

“The miracle of the resurrection is that time itself has started over. The new time has begun! Just as it was in the beginning, when the word was with God, the Word will be with God again. Jesus is ascending to the Father.

“In other words, in this new time that has begun with Jesus’ death and resurrection, the family relationship that was broken in the Garden of Eden has now been restored and healed.

From the sermon in 2018:

Read more

Easter Year B

 
 "Noli Me Tangere" (Touch Me Not)
– Correggio (1534) 

I.Theme –   Easter celebrates the  reality of Jesus’ resurrection in all its many aspects.  Hope, Transformation, Evangelism and a new life.

John’s Gospel, one of the longer accounts of the Resurrection, shows the ability of the risen Christ to bring transformation and hope into the most difficult situations of human pain and grief is powerfully and movingly highlighted. With this encounter, John ‘leads the reader from the empty tomb to that which is the real meaning of the resurrection – the creation of a new relationship between Jesus and those who believe in him.’

By contrast, Mark’s account is the shortest. And in Mark’s account, not even the women, who faithfully come to the tomb on that first morning, go out to proclaim the good news–instead, they flee in terror and amazement, and say nothing to anyone (vs. 8).   However, it should be noted and appropriate that  the first witnesses to the Resurrection are women,  who would not have been considered reliable witnesses at the time.  It is a life changing event and one outside our normal expectations. The Resurrection is The Resurrection of Jesus, though foretold in the Gospels, was never expected or understood by the people closest to Jesus. It is something new, something amazing, something so wondrous that it takes a while for it to sink in. 

The Corinthians reading is the oldest of all testimonies to our Lord’s resurrection from the apostle Paul. Indeed, the point at which 1 Corinthians 15 stands closest to the Gospels is the identification of Simon Peter (Cephas: verse 5) as among the first to whom the risen Lord appeared (cf. Mark 16:7; Luke 24:34; John 21:1-8). At this point, Paul’s list omits the most obvious part of all the gospel resurrection narratives, when his account is set next to them — where are the women? Paul’s writings precede the writing of the Gospels. It is historically impossible to know what kind of information Paul received from others about the resurrection.   The point is that while Paul was late to the Church, Paul senses God’s presence and grace and that Jesus dies to save sinners for all.  

The Acts reading emphasizes the broader nature of the resurrection spreads the message of Christ to all and in particular the Gentiles.  It is Peter’s missionary speech to Cornelius, a Gentile centurion, and his household. The conversion of Cornelius marks an important turning point in the understanding of God as impartial and consequently the outreach of the Church to Gentiles. Many “circumcised believers” (11:2) rejected and feared the possible inclusion of Gentiles in the Church, but Luke makes clear that Peter himself (even before Paul) began the mission to the Gentiles under the direction of the Holy Spirit (1:8) because his idea of God had changed. 

The Psalms speak to the type of life we receive in Christ. 

1. In death to sin, self, and the world (v.3a; cf. 2:20; Rom. 6:6-11)
2. In spiritual resurrection to newness of life (v.1a; cf. 2:12-13; Rom. 6:6, 11)
3. In new, spiritual life, aliveness to God (vv. 3b, 4a; cf. Rom. 6:11, 13)
4. In resurrection glory (v.4b; cf. Rom. 8:17-18; 2 Thess. 1:10) 

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

Old Testament – Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm – Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 Page 760, BCP 
Epistle- Acts 10:34-43
Epistle- 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Gospel John 20:1-18
Gospel – Mark 16:1-8


Read more

Good Friday is an Essential Service

From “Good Friday” – Right Rev Brian Burgess. From the Anglican Digest, Spring, 2024

A childhood friend reached out to Burgess close to a weekend.  The friend was serving as a sheriff.  At the time the friend was 2 hours away. He asked if the priest could get away for the weekend to catch up.  It was not the usual weekend, however.  It was the Triduum, the last days of Easter. The priest could not slip away. So his friend came to his church. Although not part of any church, he came to the priest’s Good Friday service. The priests reflected in an article about Good Friday.

He described the church as “tomb-like in an intentional way”. What my friend experienced was the church – “stripped, cold, and bare.” “It was a place where death goes in order to be prepared for the resurrected glory in Christ.” The priest wrote that Good Friday is the one service essential for those unchurched. “I believe we lose sight of the essence of Easter when we have no concept of what it is we are being saved from. We can become distracted from the cross of Christ. To merely survive is to shoot too low.”

“The goal of our Christian lives is our death and resurrection in Jesus Christ.” He noted the sheriff has “experienced the worst of the worst when it comes to the human condition, and who by default has been given secular responsibility for broken and fractured lives.”  On Good Friday, “the very worst of our secular lives is turned into sacred”  “Eternal life begins now.”

With Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter “are an expression of God that demands to be told as well as experienced, in one, complete, ongoing story.” “Our dying in Christ while being stretched out on the hardwood of the cross is integral to that story.”

Good Friday Service 2024

Bulletin

This service continues our worship through the Triduum, the last three days of Holy Week. Friday was the day of the execution of Jesus . Good Friday is “good” because the death of Christ, as terrible as it was, led to the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, which brought new life to those who believe.

The Good Friday service is under the section in the Prayer Book “Proper Liturgies for Special Days” which contain key services in Lent – Ash Wednesday,  Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, the Great Vigil.  Good Friday is good because the death of Christ, as terrible as it was, led to the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, which brought new life to those who believe. 

The service has 6 parts:
1. An entrance in silence,  
2. Readings which include Isaiah, the ever present Psalm 22 and the John 18:1-19:42 Passion reading,
3. the Solemn Collects,
4. The Entrance of the Cross, the Veneration of the Cross,
5. Musical Meditations and
6. Conclusion. 

The first reading is from Isaiah, the ever present Psalm 22, Hebrews, and John Passion Gospel reading, John 18:1-19:42.

Read more

Sermon, Good Friday, March 29, 2024

Before his crucifixion and death, Jesus shared a last supper with the disciples. 

“After supper he took the cup of wine; and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and said, “Drink this, all of you; This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.” 

Blood is essential to life.  Blood carries oxygen and  nutrients throughout our bodies and helps to regulate our body temperatures.   Blood carries waste materials to the organs that rid the body of that waste.  Blood also fights off infections.  Without blood, we cannot live. 

Read more

Good Friday art – Andrea Di Bonaiuto

Andrea Di Bonaiuto
Road to Calvary, Crucifixion, and Descent into Limbo, c.1365, Fresco,
Spanish Chapel, Santa Maria Novella, Florence


Commentary by Paula Nuttall for theVCS.org

“Located opposite the entrance, the fresco dramatically confronts the visitor. Dominating the scene at top centre, Christ hangs on the cross above a multitude of figures, the two thieves to either side, all three figures prominent by virtue of their pale forms silhouetted against the dark sky.

Read more

Maundy Thursday, 2024

Maundy Thursday marks the beginning of the Triduum, the last three days of Holy Week, in which our worship flows in one continuous liturgy, beginning with the Maundy Thursday service. “Time is suspended as we ponder and celebrate the great mysteries of our redemption.” The word “Maundy” is derived from Middle English, Old French and from the Latin word mandatum, meaning “commandment,” the first word of the phrase “Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos” (“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another, as I have loved you”), the statement we hear from Jesus to his disciples in tonight’s gospel reading.

The service is known for:
1. The Last Supper and the institution of communion
2. Washing of feet.
3. Stripping of the altar in preparation of Good Friday.

Bulletin is here

Read more

Sermon, Maundy Thursday, March 28, 2024

Exodus 12:1-4, 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, John 13:1-17

Have you ever had a favorite song or piece of music get stuck in your head?  You find yourself humming it or singing it, and you realize in odd moments that the melody and the words are running along in the background of your mind, accompanying you through the day, an unexpected gift.

At least for me, this music is not something I’ve heard only once, or even a few times, but music I’ve heard over and over.   To hear the music singing in my soul is the result of my having listened to and even having sung that song many times. 

The fact that I’ve heard the music and the words frequently causes that music to come to me when I want and need it, or to just start playing in my mind when I least expect it. 

Those of you who play musical instruments know the importance of repetition and practice to make the music on the page a melody in your mind that you can remember, even under pressure. 

In tonight’s Old Testament reading, God composes the background music of freedom for the Israelites when God tells Moses and Aaron to prepare for their escape from Egypt.  God gives them specific directions about preparing a lamb for the last meal that they would share as slaves. 

And then God tells Moses and Aaron that this day, these directions to Moses and Aaron are to become familiar music to the Israelites, the music of freedom that they are to remember, the music that they will practice over and over as a festival to the Lord, a perpetual ordinance throughout the generations. 

And so, to this day, our Jewish brothers and sisters celebrate the Passover.  They sing their freedom song every year. They observe the day as a perpetual ordinance.  When they remember the Passover, they remember that God loves them and takes care of them and frees them.   

In the New Testament, the Corinthians have gotten their music all mixed up. They are no longer singing together in harmony.  In their arguing about how they should eat together, they’ve forgotten the reason that they are eating together.   They’ve forgotten Jesus.   Paul writes his first letter to them to help them remember Jesus.

Paul reminds them that Jesus took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he said, “This is my body that is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.” Jesus took the cup also, after supper, saying “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.  Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 

And so, to this day, we Christians celebrate the Holy Eucharist, which is our freedom song.  We remember that Jesus, through his death, resurrection, and ascension,  brought us out the bondage of sin into righteousness, and out of prison of death into life.     

We observe this meal around God’s table as a perpetual ordinance. 

We practice, over and over, how to eat together at God’s table so that whenever we gather around our tables here in this world, we will find Jesus there with us too. 

We practice, so that when we share our food, we remember that we share with others because Jesus shared himself with us.   Without practice, we find ourselves clutching to ourselves what we have,  instead of stretching out our hands in love.

“Do this in remembrance of me,” Jesus said, not just coming to this table for ourselves alone, but for the benefit of the whole world. 

Many of our Catholic brothers and sisters go to mass every day, to remember every day what Jesus asks us to remember, “This is my body that is for you…”   and then to go out and do as Jesus did—to let God break us open so that God’s love can pour out through us into the world. 

In John’s gospel, Jesus washes the feet of the disciples that night when they’ve gathered around the table for the last time. 

Jesus wants them to understand that he is welcoming them into his home, the home of his own Father, God.  They are so welcome that God will stoop and wash their feet to welcome them in, and then will invite them to God’s own table, where God will serve them, where they will share in the heavenly banquet with all nations and tribes and people and languages, where the music is a song of unending joy and praise and love. 

Once a year, on this night, we physically remember at the foot washing that we stand on the threshold of God’s house, that we bring our whole selves, our dusty, dirty, confused mixed up lives to God’s door.  God is waiting.

As the invitation to the Eucharist in our Celtic Eucharistic prayer puts it,  “Those who wish to serve him must first be served by him, those who want to follow him must first be fed by him, those who would wash his feet must first let him make them clean.” 

Jesus set an example for us when he washed the feet of his disciples. 

So we practice how to love one another tonight, as we wash one another’s feet.  We remember how to welcome in and to love one another graciously and generously.  The practice of foot washing becomes our perpetual ordinance of welcoming one another in love, as Jesus welcomes us. 

Bread, wine, water, welcome—God weaves these strands of melodies together into our resurrection song, our song of praise and thanksgiving for God’s love for us.    

When we practice this song, God’s welcoming love song for us will become the music that plays forever in our hearts, the unforgettable music that calls us to remember, the music that sings us through our days and shapes us into love.   

Tenebrae, 2024

Tenebrae is the opening of the Holy Week services for the church.

Links:
1. The bulletin is here.
2. The description of this day in Holy Week with the Bible readings and commentaries is here. 
3. The background of the service is here.  
4. Digging into Tenebrae
5. A photo gallery of the day from 2019 can be found here.
6. A photo gallery from 2024 can be found here.
7. The video stream of the service in 2024 is here

This was our introduction to the service in 2019:

The service requires both a good acolyte and reader. There are 15 candles to extinguish and creating a sense of drama as the service progress. The service is 100% scripture so the reader has a challenge.

Selective extinguishing the candles in 2024:

Unlike the other Easter services, Tenebrae doesn’t relate to a specific Holy Week event as Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter.

“Tenebrae” is Latin for shadows. The purpose of the service is to recreate the emotional aspects of the passion story. This is an unusual service with its own Liturgy. There is no music – the readings carry the service. And it’s not from the traditional Gospel readings.

It sets a mood and brings you through the Holy Week story through a set of “shadows”. The shadows move through the agony of last week- Betrayal, Agony of the Spirit, Denial, Accusation, Crucifixion, Death and Burial – symbolized by the lighted candles.

Read more

Digging into Tenebrae, Holy Week

This article is based on St. Peter’s Tenebrae service which is here. It is taken from the Episcopal Book of Occasional Services. Tenebrae is an ancient service the goes back to the medieval service (9th century).

Tenebrae is divided into 3 nocturns or sections and 9 lessons within them. Antiphons are excerpts from psalms said before the lesson.  Responsory are responses said after a lesson.

Read more

Holy Week Introduction

Various Holy Week links

Holy Week Summary

Holy Week between Palm Sunday and Easter is the most sacred time of year.. The purpose of Holy Week is to reenact, relive, and participate in the passion of Jesus Christ, his triumph, suffering and resurrection. Ultimately it’s about ours. From our Baptism liturgy- “We thank you, Father, for the water of Baptism. In it we are buried with Christ in his death. By it we share in his resurrection. Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.” Every Sunday is an Easter.

From early times, Christians have observed the week before Easter as a time of special prayer and devotion. As the pilgrim Egeria recorded in the late fourth century, numerous pilgrims to the holy city of Jerusalem followed the path of Jesus in his last days. They formed processions, worshipped where Christ suffered and died, and venerated sacred sites and relics. The pilgrims took the customs home with them. Holy week observances spread to Spain by the fifth century, to Gaul and England by the early seventh century. They didn’t spread to Rome until the twelfth century. From this beginning evolved the practices we observe today on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

Read more