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

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.

Early Fall, Oct, 2015

Early fall, Oct. 4, 2015 (full size gallery)

Fall is a wonderful time to pause and look at nature all around you. You have to take the time and not think of the minutes. The time before church is my time to let nature envelop me.

The effect of fall is magnified after a rain. Add another plus for leaves beginning to fall around you in all their color. It’s the sound of the crunching of leaves beneath your fee. It’s a time to look at those small things along the ground- small flowers, water pellets on leaves. It’s time to lookup to see fall advancing in our trees.  So many things we never notice or take the time to see.

Water is life giving – and destructive. The effect of rain was seen this week along the gravestones, often with leaves falling around.  The wet leaves along the ground reflect up at you. Then over the river to see the water rushing along as I am trying to be still.

Fall is a time to get out Robert Frost for yet another fall.

October
By Robert Frost

“O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—
For the grapes’ sake along the wall”

The Episcopal Lingo, Part 7: Initiation or Confirmation

Parish Church

There were certain rites of passage marked by colonial churches—birth, initiation, marriage, and death for the great majority of its white population and to lesser and varying extents for non-adherents and African Americans as well. We will look at the second one this week – Initiation of confirmation.

Last week we looked at Baptism. Baptism brought Church membership but was only an introduction into the church. Initiation and confirmation was the next step. Technically the child had to memorize the Apostle’s creed, the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments. (See  tablet below) There was less specific requirement – attendance at church and training in virtuous habits.

Since there was not a system of public schooling in colonial Virginia, the family was the key unit in education and in particular the parents. Since the family was also the entity pushing confirmation, there was a blurring of the lines of secular and religious education. It was all part of one process. The backup was the godparents. Promises made on behalf of the bap¬tized infant obligated godparents to see that the child was nurtured and brought to a mature understanding of the faith

Parents passed on the knowledge and skills they had acquired and which seemed appropriate to their station in life. Part and parcel of this process would be the "do’s and don’ts" of conduct, moral precepts, and traditional stories, verse, and songs, including those biblical in their source. Whether regular Bible reading and family prayers were a fea¬ture in a few, some, or many Old Dominion households is unknown

Other than parent teaching their children, there were local Anglican parson that did teach in private schools which tended to meet the affordability of those with more modest mean. Wealthy families employed their own teachers.

Confirmation was the ritual means — a veritable "rite" of passage—by which the Church of England marked the assumption of adult religious re¬sponsibilities. The Bishop confirmed in England but since there was no Bishop in Colonial America there was a problem with confirmation

Presumably ministers modified or dropped the final exhortation to godparents in the baptism service whereby they were charged to bring the child to the bishop for confirmation when they were satisfied that the child had been sufficiently instructed in the essen¬tials of the faith

Front Table

(tablets required by the 1606 canons and the basic catechism for those seeking initiation)

Despite the fact there wasn’t a bishop that confirmed children, they still took communion. The Prayer Book rubric provided an escape clause; communion might be administered to those "ready and desirous to be confirmed." Again, what is not known is whether Virginia parsons adopted measures to satisfy themselves that communicants not only desired to be confirmed but could repeat the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments and make the approved responses to the catechetical questions.

While few colonial Virginians were actually confirmed, they realized the the purposes of confirmation but unfortunately without benefit of the rite.

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

The ECW Fall Meeting will be hosted by Aquia Episcopal Church on Saturday, October 12, 2024. 9am. registration/continental breakfast. Meeting begins 10am.

The Rt. Rev Gayle E. Harris is the keynote speaker. Theme -“A Child of God, A Woman of Faith, A Warrior of Christ. ” The address is 2938 Richmond Highway, Stafford, VA, 22554.

The meeting concludes at 1:30pm with Holy Eucharist.

Registration is here. Please register by Oct. 1.