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

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.