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 Oct 6

“A Case for Love” movie is online

A Case for Love”, the movie is now available for home viewing on satellite, cable and digital rental outlets

Here is the link for Amazon and a list of the other outlets:
• Amazon Video Direct
• iTunes
• DIRECTV
• U-verse
• Sling TV
• Vudu (Fandango At Home)
• Dish Network
• Verizon Fios
• Microsoft
• Google Play

Seven people from St Peter’s went to the Paragon Theater in Fredericksburg on Jan 23, 2024 to see “A Case for Love” movie. It was 3+ years in the making by an Episcopalian filmmaker and is based on Bishop Curry’s “Way of Love” concept.

The movie spotlighted 13 stories involving unselfish love plus many more “man on the street” questions about Love. “What is love? Is love dead?” A number of prominent individuals were spotlighted including Episcopalians, Bishop Curry, Senator Danforth, and Al Roker.

As Bishop Curry writes in his book Love is the Way “Love as an action is the only thing that has ever changed the world for the better..” “Love is a commitment to seek the good and to work for the good and welfare of others.”

“A CASE FOR LOVE reminds us that no matter who you are or where you are from, love and kindness is a thread that connects us all. We just have to be willing to choose it. Through wide-ranging interviews, the audience realizes that each of us is unique and has our own story to share. But it is the power of love and kindness which helps us overcome challenges, differences, and division.”
Jaclyn Lindsey, Co-Founder & CEO, KINDNESS.ORG

Three links including the trailer, our promotion and Brian Ide one of the organizers:

Trailer
Our promotion
Interview from Brian Ide, one of the organizers

Sunday Links, Oct. 6, 2024

20th Sunday After Pentecost Oct. 6, 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., Oct 10, Ecumenical Bible 10am in the Parish House reading the lectionary for Oct 10

    • Coming up!

  • Diocesan ECW 134th Fall Meeting, Oct. 12, 2024

  • All articles for Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024

    • Recent Articles, Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Oct. 6, 2024


    Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Oct. 6


    Lectionary, Oct. 6
    World Communion Sunday, Oct. 6
    Lectionary Commentary
    Visual Lectionary
    Gospel in Oct. 2024

    Remembering St. Francis Oct. 4
    How the artist Giotto brought the life of St. Francis to the People”
    Richard Rohr on St. Francis
    A Case for Love is online

    Diocesan ECW 134th Fall Meeting, Oct. 12, 2024
    Connecting Season of Creation to Stewardship
    Pictures of Early Fall
    Episcopal Lingo, Part 7: Initiation or Confirmation

    St. Francis, Oct. 4

    A Pet Blessing for St. Francis day, Oct. 4 

    The blessing -“Our pets have already blessed us. On St Francis Day, we get to bless our pets.” St Francis of Assisi, who lived from 1182 to 1226, had a great love for animals and the environment. He understood the earth and everything in it as God’s good creation and believed that we are brothers and sisters with everything in creation. So on this day, we remember St Francis and thank God for the gift of our pets.

    When you have a moment with your pet, offer this blessing written by Bishop Mark S. Sisk:

    Live without fear. Your Creator loves you, made you holy, and has always protected you. May we follow the good road together, and may God’s blessing be with you always. Amen.

    “Who was St. Francis? ” – a link collection

    Brief biography

    St. Francis movie on Youtube

    “Brother Sun, Sister Moon”- trailer

    Director Franco Zeffirelli’s “Brother Sun, Sister Moon” focuses on the early years of Francis of Assisi in this 1972 film.

    Poem by Jan Richardson from the “Painted Prayerbook”

    Addressing myths about St. Francis

    St. Francis preaching to the birds

    Paintings by Giotto on St. Francis

    Rhonda Mawhood Lee: “Go a little crazy on St. Francis Day”, a sermon preached at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Durham, N.C

    “It’s appropriate to go a little crazy on St. Francis Day, because during his own lifetime, many people thought Francesco Bernardone was insane.” 

    How the artist Giotto brought the life of St. Francis to the People

    The Upper Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi.

    Slideshow

    “St. Francis’ affinity for the environment influenced the artist Giotto (ca. 1270–1337), who revolutionized art history by painting figures which were three dimensional and including natural elements in his religious works. By taking sacred images away from Heaven and placing them in an earthly landscape, he separated them definitively from their abstract, unapproachable representation in Byzantine art.

    “Giotto’s works are distinctive because they portray daily life as blessed, thus demonstrating that the difference between the sacred and profane is minimal. Disseminating the new ideas of St. Francis visually was very effective, as the general populace was illiterate. Seeing frescoes reflecting their everyday lives in landscapes that were familiar changed their way of thinking. The trees, plants, animals and rocky landscapes were suddenly perceived as gifts from the Creator to be used, enjoyed and respected. Furthermore, Giotto recognized that the variety of dramatic landscapes would provide spectacular visual interest in the works.”

    From St. Francis and Giotto: The Saint and the Artist Started the Ecological Movement

    World Communion Sunday, Oct. 6

    What is World Communion Sunday? Churches this Sunday all over the world celebrate oneness in Christ in the midst of the world ever more in need of peacemaking and the universal and inclusive nature of the church. The tradition originated in the Shadyside Presbyterian Church in 1933, was adopted throughout the US Presbyterian Church in 1936, and subsequently spread to other denominations. The Episcopal Church also remembers students serving abroad, particularly the Young Adult Service Corp in the Episcopal Church.

    Poem for World Communion Sunday

    THE TABLE WITH NO EDGES by Andrew King

    We will sit down where feet tire from the journey. We will sit down where grief bends the back.

    We will sit down under roofs wrecked by artillery. We will sit down where cries sound from cracked walls.

    We will sit down where heat beats like hammers. We will sit down where flesh shivers in cold.

    We will sit down where bread bakes on thin charcoal. We will sit down where there is no grain in baked fields.

    We will sit down with those who dwell in ashes. We will sit down in shadow and in light.

    We will sit down, making friends out of strangers. We will sit down, our cup filled with new wine.

    We will sit down and let love flow like language.We will sit together at the table with no edges. We will sit to share one loaf, in Christ’s name, in one world.

    Lectionary, Proper 22, Year B, 20th Sunday after Pentecost

    I. Theme – Relationships

    Cerezo Barredo – Mark 10:2-16

    The lectionary readings are here or individually:

    Genesis 2:18-24

    Psalm 8

    Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12

    Mark 10:2-16

    You may want to call this “relationship” Sunday- Man to Woman, God to Man Genesis is about the creation of women (“helper”  who married and becomes “one flesh” and the Gospel when Jesus is questioned about divorce from the pharisees (yet another relationship). The Psalm is about the dominion of God  but brings in Man. “God made humans “a little lower than God.”  Well how much lower ? Sometimes we are really “low” but echoing Genesis we have dominion over the earth and there is assertion we are royal creatures. ” Hebrews considers a special Christian community and relationships to others. Christ is seen as the model who walked a difficult road with the realization of something greater lay ahead

    Read more

    Gospel in Oct., 2024

    October 7. Mark 10:2-16 – Jesus tested on divorce

    Commentary from The Gospel of Mark, by Mary Healy. “With his pronouncement on marriage, Jesus brings his teachings o suffering, self-denial, humility, and service into the most intimate sphere of human life…The union in marriage is a sign pointing to God’s own mystery and our call to communion with God. God is a communion of “persons”, an eternal exchange of love, and God has destined us to share in that exchange.”
    In the second part of the gospel reading, Jesus tells the disciples to let the little children come to him. “To receive the kingdom of heaven is as simple, trusting, and humble an action as receiving the embrace of Jesus. Indeed, to enter the kingdom is nothing other than to enter into a relationship with Jesus.”

    October 14. Mark 10:17-31 – The Rich Young Man

    This familiar story of the rich young man who asks what he must do to inherit eternal life and Jesus’ comment that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” are reminders that Jesus demands of all of us that we must have total detachment from our possessions if we are to be his disciples.

    October 21. Mark 10:35-45 – The request of James and John

    In this passage, Jesus reverses the usual understanding of greatness: those who would lead must serve. Jesus doesn’t dispute the idea of greatness, but radically redefines greatness from hierarchical power to “servant power.” Jesus’ own example sanctified the lowly and humble role of discipleship.

    October 28. Mark 10:46-52 – The healing of Bartimaeus

    When Jesus heals Bartimaeus, three things happen: Bartimaeus can now see, Bartimaeus no longer has to beg, and Bartimaeus serves as a witness and metaphor to others—God can remove what is in the way of our vision, what is causing us to stumble, what is causing us to be stuck, what is causing us to remain oppressed. And God calls us to do what we can to remove barriers from those around the world who are marginalized and oppressed.

     

    Connecting our Stewardship Campaign to the Season of Creation

    Language from the Bible supports both the Season of Creation and our pledge campaign using the language of – planting, growth, production of fruit, and feeding.

    Here’s some of our language and imagery, linking these practices, both ancient and continuing, with our common life at St. Peter’s:

    • Plant: We begin with the seeds: Worship and prayer, baptism, evangelism, welcoming, pastoral care
    • And the seeds soon grow: Education, communications, upkeep of buildings and grounds
    • And produce fruit: Fellowship, belonging, new members, confirmation, marriages
    • To feed people who are hungry in body and spirit: Village Harvest, Christma
    • And our roots are deep: Tradition, reconciliation…
    • Settled into the ground of our being: Jesus Christ
    • Watered by the vows of the Baptismal Covenant – to continue in worship, repent and return, respect the dignity of others.
    • Jesus said, “I am the vine, You are the branches…bear much fruit.”
    • All of this depends on your gifts, regular income that provides the rector and staff; that lights, heats, and cools our buildings, that provides materials for worship, for service, for outreach.