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 Sept 15

Lectionary, Season of Creation III

How do we act with hope, in the face of so much despair and calamity? The role of Christians is very important in the environmental movement. Not only do we bring hope when many are despairing, but we also work in the power of the Spirit – the Spirit of wisdom and the spirit of renewal and re-creation.

Proverbs 1:20-33

Out in the open wisdom calls aloud, she raises her voice in the public square; v20

In this passage Wisdom is personified as a woman, one who permeates creation and who holds divine authority. She is shouting out in the streets and the public squares warning us that disaster is coming. She does not spell out the practicalities of what we must do, she presumes that we know the Torah, that we have learned from our ancestors the right way to live.

When calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind v27

We are ignoring the voices that are calling out to us, the climate scientists, the indigenous voices, and we are staring disaster in the face. We are already suffering from the effects of our destruction of forests, our overuse of fossil fuels and yet we still do not listen to those voices. We fail to listen to the voice of God who called us to be keepers of the Earth.

Looming over our planet is a threat of extinction, acknowledged now as a sixth extinction. The Season of Creation is an appeal not only to hope but also to act. The living soil, the seas, rivers, and oceans are being polluted – trampled underfoot by the massive human footprint. Let us not ignore the prophetic voice of Lady Wisdom, let us learn from climate science, listen to the wisdom of our ancestors and indigenous people from around the world.

 

James 3:1-12

James brings up the evils of unbridled speech. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue– a restless evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.

The tongue gets us into dialogue with others. We need to avoid getting into useless fights with people – how do you respond for instance when someone says that climate change is a myth? The tongue operates much as a bridle does to control a horse or the rudder to steer a ship (v 3 and 4). It is small but influential. Negatively it can be destructive. It can be the spark initiating a raging forest fire. For the person carrying the image of God it should not be like this. We need to find ways to disagree and education but with respect for the other person.

Mark 8:27-38

Jesus teaches that a prophetic ministry carries with it the perils of suffering and death. Peter, like many of us, does not really understand. He is hoping to see the restoration of a Jewish king. Jesus on the other hand is focussing on the suffering and death ahead. “Get behind me, Satan!” he says for Peter has made the error of offering the same temptation that Satan offered Jesus in the wilderness (Mark 1.13)

Jesus calls together the crowd and reminds them what it means to be intentional in our Christian discipleship. The imperatives “let them deny themselves” and “let them take up their cross” (v.34) are what it means to follow Jesus. Jesus is seeking in His followers is something more than pious resignation in the face of the ways of the world, but spiritual activism.

Environmental and climate activism requires sacrifices, we are called to sacrificial living to live more simply.
A part of our sacrifice is giving up old habits, such as with plastics. We use plastic straws, consumer plastic coffee cups buy products that use plastic microfibers – such as nylon and polyester. We had to consider substitutes.

We will sacrifice our time, our resources, our energy to move on the side of reducing fossil fueat.. There may be times when we feel that we are burning out because the challenges are so great, and yet we are called to act with hope. It is action that brings hope, and it is hope that inspires action.

The Advantages of Native Plants

A native plant is one that has evolved in a particular place and continues to inhabit that geography in the wild.

1. Native Plants Are Easier To Maintain Than Non-Native Plants.
They depend on the local environment and less on human support.
2. Native Plants Provide Food and Shelter for Local Wildlife.
Because these plants have evolved in their habitats over millennia, the organisms around them have also evolved to eat, find shelter in, and otherwise rely on these specific native plants.
3. Native Plants Need Less Chemical Treatment.
4. Native Plants Can Improve Air Quality – Long-living trees such as maples and oaks are great for pulling carbon dioxide from the air and storing it.
5. Native Plants Tend To Use Less Water. 
Another advantage of these plants is that they can reduce a significant amount of water runoff and help reduce flooding.
6. Native Plants Provide Nectar for Pollinators – Native pollinators such as bees, butterflies and hummingbirds feed on the nectar that their local plants provide. Almost 40% of all animals on Earth are insects, and they rely on native plants Likewise, plants rely on pollinators to fertilize them so they can grow.
7. Native Plants Help Prevent Soil Erosion – Many of these plants have deep root systems that can stabilize your soil and keep it from shifting.

Boosting Pollinators during the Season of Creation

A pollinator is an animal or insect that carries pollen from the male part of a flower to the female part. This process is necessary for plants to reproduce and produce seeds, fruits, and young plants.

Birds, bats, bees, butterflies, beetles, and other small mammals that pollinate plants are responsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food. They also sustain our ecosystems and produce our natural resources by helping plants reproduce.

Pollinating animals travel from plant to plant carrying pollen on their bodies in a vital interaction that allows the transfer of genetic material critical to the reproductive system of most flowering plants – the very plants that

They bring us countless fruits, vegetables, and nuts, ½ of the world’s oils, fibers and raw materials; prevent soil erosion, and increase carbon sequestration

Restoring native plant habitat is vital to preserving biodiversity in the Season of Creation. Each patch of native habitat becomes part of a collective effort to nurture and sustain the living landscape for insects, birds, other animals, and humans.

Reminiscent of the Victory Gardens promoted by the government during World War I and II, the Pollinator Garden effort is intended to help cover food shortages, only this time, for insects. The goal of the effort is to provide sufficient food (nectar and pollen) to reverse the decline of pollinators, bees in particular, and to provide habitat (milkweed) for monarch butterflies.

Pollinator decline is attributed primarily to loss of habitat and to the use of pesticides. For bees, the Varroa mite and Colony Collapse Disorder are also causes of decline. Habitat loss is due not only to the conversion of prairie and meadow to cropland but also to the use of herbicides that eradicate wildflowers in the agricultural and ornamental landscape.

In response to the alarming decline of pollinators, the US government took action. In 2008, the US Farm Bill made funding available for research on bees and mandated that conservation programs support habitat restoration and management for pollinators. In 2015, the Obama Administration released National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators. Through public-private partnerships, the primary goals of the strategy are to reduce honeybee colony losses, increase populations of the eastern monarch butterfly, and to restore or enhance seven million acres of land for pollinators over the five years.

Native Plants on the Rappahannock – Season of Creation

The guide to Native Plants for Central Rappahannock Virginia highlights the plants native to the Central Rappahannock area – Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania, and Stafford counties and the City of Fredericksburg. In North America, plant species are generally described as native if they occurred here prior to European settlement. This distinction is made because of the large-scale changes that have occurred since the arrival of the European settlers. These plants form the primary structure of the living landscape and provide food and shelter for native animal species, including migratory birds and pollinators. (Switch to presentation mode on the toolbar for larger text.)

Caring for God’s Creation – Virginia Creeper, a Native Plant

Part of caring for God’s creation is to be intentional about what you choose to plant on your property.  Native plants are best, for they provide food and shelter for the birds and animals that are native to Virginia.  These plants and animals have evolved together and so need one another to thrive. 

Virginia Creeper is an easy to cultivate as a ground cover, even though it has a climbing habit and will use trees as its trellis if left to its own devices.    Its compound leaf has five leaflets, which helps to distinguish it from poison ivy, which has a compound leaf with three leaflets.  A carefree vine that needs little attention other than occasional pruning, Virginia Creeper foliage turns a dramatic red color in the fall and produces  highly nutritious dark purple berries that thirty-five species of birds enjoy eating, including woodpeckers, titmice, chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, thrushes, robins, catbirds, bluebirds, cedar waxwings and sparrows. Birds also use Virginia Creeper bark as nesting material.  Virginia Creeper leaves also serve as food for several types of moth caterpillars, which means that birds also have access to caterpillars, which they need in order to successfully raise their young. Read more..

Introducing – The Obedient Native Plant

The Obedient Plant is a native flower of North America that grows 4′ tall in full sun with moist to medium soil.

Obedient plant gets it’s common name from the fact that one can bend a flower to the side, and it will stay put.

It attracts bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. It blooms tall spikes of pink tubular flowers for six weeks in late Summer.

The native range of Obedient Plant is North America, East of the Rocky Mountains, with the exceptions of Florida, Connecticut and Massachusetts. So it should grow in variety of climates.

Here is a video describing how the Obedient Plant is obedient.

The Episcopal Lingo, Part 4: The Ministers

Parish Church

The series will explore words used in the Episcopal Church  that are arcane, unusual or have changed over time. This week’s word is basic – the minister.

The Colonial Minister was a man in the middle. As a branch of Church of England, the Virginia church was governed from London. The church required that all priests be educated and ordained in England. However in practice they were hired by colonial vestries unlike their English counterpart. The parish vestries defied the governor in two primary ways — through control of the recruitment or selection of clergy and through refusal to present for induction

Even so clerical appointments were part of extensive clientage or patronage relationships. Local landowners and gentry by mid-century possessed over half of the “advowsons” (legal right to appoint) in the church since in many cases they owned the land where the church was built. Ministers were also challenged by the increasing of dissenters and those caught up in the Great Awakening by 1740.

Colonial ministers are easily distinguished from their current counterparts. They were all male. There was no Diocese or support from an church agency. There was no staff aside from the churchwarden. The minister was also automatically a farmer. He was assigned the income from a "glebe," or parcel of land that they could farm. In counties with good soil for growing tobacco, the income from the glebe was relatively high – and those parishes were able to attract the best-quality ministers. 

Early on, there was a severe shortage of priests in Virginia early on—only 28 priests served a population of 140,000 in 1724. Virginia parishes almost doubled in number between 1725 and 1775 (from fifty-one to ninety-five). Even so, in no single year during the period were fewer that 76 percent of the parishes supplied with a minister. However by the Revolution that percentage had improved to 100% Diversity in ethnic origins and birthplace characterizes Virginia’s eighteenth-century parsons

What accounts for the change ? As time went on more priests came not from England but were home grown in the colonies. In Virginia as in the British Isles, the ministry functioned also as a path of upward mobility for young men from society’s middling. Another path was coming from abroad before deciding to go in the ministry They made decisions for ordination in the context of their Virginia experiences. Others came from other counties such as Scotland

Christ Church Lancaster Baptismal Fond

Mastery of classical languages was at the heart of education for priests. Indeed the reason for setting up a college in Virginia "want of able & faithfull ministers" While the majority of Virginia’s parsons attended college, some did not. Presumably they satisfied the loophole in the requirements for ordination ("he is able to yield an account of his faith in Latin, according to the Articles of Religion"). There were no seminaries as we have now . The minimum age to be a priest was 24.

Once they achieved position it was not bad job. Vestries did not subject their ministers to annual reviews. They did not renegotiate contracts with parsons. Apart from stipulating in some cases an initial probationary term for clergy not known to them previously, vestries behaved as if the parson they hired was theirs for life This tenure record is all the more noteworthy when considered in the light of clergy mortality. The mean age at death for parsons was fifty-seven years. Over a third were dead before they reached age fifty.

Socially it was a was of moving up in life. All Anglican parsons were gentlemen by profession. Some were gentlemen by birth. Many augmented their gentle status through marriage. Many were of modest background so it was a way of climbing the social ladder.

What was their call ? In their ordination vows, Anglican clergy pledged to teach nothing but what is proven by scripture; to preach and administer the sacraments faithfully; to combat error and heresy; to be diligent in study and prayer; to foster quietness, peace, and love among the people in their charge; "to frame and fashion your own selves, and your families, according to the doctrine of Christ; and to make both your selves and them, as much as in you lieth, wholesom examples and Patterns to the flock of Christ."

The clergy dressed the part with more rigid dress codes than today. The priest had to dress the role as the "model" or "pattern" of the Christian life. For clergy holding academic degrees, the usual "decent and comely Ap¬parel" were "Gowns with standing Collars and Sleeves strait at the Hands, or wide sleeves, as is used m the Universities, with Hoods or Tippets [scarves] of Silk or Sarcenet [a fine soft silk or cotton fabric], and square Caps.