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.

January, 2025 Newsletter

January Greetings from St. Peters in Port Royal, Va. on the Rappahannock River.

            Thinking of you all today and found this 1774 map showing the Rappahannock with many names that are familiar to me.  (Cleve Marsh, Skinker, Turner, Buckner etc.)  I grew up looking out of my family’s window at Cleve Marsh & the Rappahannock River.  Turners and Taylors & many more have visited in recent years and I have been proud to show them the town with a visit to St. Peter’s Church(built in 1835) too. 

            Rev. Tom Hughes and his wife Alice will be with us at St. Peters this Sunday (Dec. 5th) “The Feast of Epiphany”.    Coffee Hour will be held following the service at the Heimbach’s lovely home RIVERVIEW next door to the church.  We thank them for their hospitality! 

            Bible Study will begin again this Wed. Jan. 8th at 10 am in the Parish House.  Cleo and Cookie will lead the discussion.  Join us for coffee and study as we learn more from our Bibles.

Larry and Jan Saylor are still on vacation but will return next Wed.  the 15th.

            Johnny and I will be out of town this Sunday because his brother-in-law Herbert Wilkerson will be buried at their home church in New Kent County.  We give thanks for his life, his wife Joanne and their family.

            Our friend, Laura Carey, has also lost a friend this week.  Her friend of 52 years in Chicago died on January 2nd.  She was 102 years old (just 3 months from 103).  An amazing woman,  and many of us loved her when she visited here. They had a special friendship and she will be missed by many.

            Next week on Sat. Jan. 11 at 1pm Rev. Catherine will be at St. Peters to lead a celebration of life service for Boyd Wisdom.  He and his wife Barbara lived at Portobago Bay after retiring from Dahlgren and later moved to Chancellor’s Village in Fredericksburg.  Her email is bwisdom8263@gmail.com  . In lieu of flowers Barbara asks that St. Peters or other charities be remembered. The ladies of the church will host a reception in the Parish House following the service. Please contact Elizabeth or Cookie if you can help.

            The next Vestry meeting will be Thursday Jan. 16th at 2pm at the Parish House.  Vestry elections will be held at the Annual Meeting on January 26 following the service.  Larry Saylor and Robin Monroe have agreed to serve. Talk to the Senior Warden if there are others you wish to nominate.

            THE FOOD BANK goods will arrive by truck on Jan. 21st…join in unloading and setting up about 9:15. Food is distributed to the needy the following day.

Sunday Links, Second Sunday After Christmas

2nd Sunday after Christmas, Jan. 5, 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
  • Sun., Jan 5, 11am, Lessons and Carols
  • Sun., Jan 5, 12pm, First Sunday gathering at the Heimbachs
  • Mon., Jan 6, Feast of the Epiphany (no service)
  • Wed., Jan. 8, 10am, Ecumenical Bible Study in the Parish House reading the Lectionary for Jan 12, First Sunday after the Epiphany
  • Sat., Jan. 11, 1pm, Funeral Boyd Wisdom

  • All articles for Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025
  • Recent Articles, Second Sunday after Christmas, Jan. 5, 2025


    Second Sunday after Christmas
    Second Sunday after Christmas, Jan 5, Commentary
    Visual Lectionary Vanderbilt, Second Sunday after Christmast, Jan 5, 2025
    3 saints after Christmas
    January, 2025 newsletter

    The Epiphany
    The Epiphany is Jan. 6, 2025 The Season after the Epiphany lasts until March 4, Shrove Tuesday.

    Epiphany Content and traditions
    3 Miracles associated with the Epiphany
    Epiphany Readings
    The Epiphany – a perfect start to the new year
    Bursting Forth – An Epiphany Reflection

    Second Sunday after Christmas

    I.Theme –  God/Christ as Redeemer and Revealer 

    Guido of Siena,13th Century Italian

    The lectionary readings are here 

    Jeremiah 31:7-14

    Psalm 84

    Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a

    Luke 2:41-52

    Matthew 2:13-15,19-23

    The details of the Gospel story, the flight into Egypt, makes it easy to forget the intent of it that shows God in control and not Herod or his son, even though it looks that way on the face of it with Joseph’s family side stepping the political moves of the day and winning out. God is leading us and with us even when events do not go our way.  We are not alone.  We have to look at the bigger picture, often difficult to see while we are going through life. 

    This is a realistic story with our current world situation – the numbers of babies killed in Syria and the migrations away from that worn-torn land to Turkey and Lebanon. 

    In Ephesians God has revealed his will in the sending of Christ, and he seeks to "gather up all things" in both heaven and earth in Christ. Christ is therefore both the Redeemer and the Revealer through the Holy Spirit. God’s accomplishing all things according to his will in Christ’s resurrection and reign. 

    The idea of redeemer and revealer is present in the Old Testament reading of Jeremiah. The people deported from Jerusalem in Babylonia will return. There are images of redemption – God’s love and faithfulness to promises made remain intact through Israel’s infidelity and consequent judgment. God rescues this and builds a new life out of the rubble. There are images of revelation and promise – those who lived on the outside of society will not live that way. The hope is those who have suffered.

    This psalm praises God as the longed-for goal of the pilgrim. The “dwelling” of God is the Temple (and perhaps also the land of Israel). To live in the Temple is greatly to be desired: those who live there have security and happiness, even the birds (v. 3) who nest in the Temple area. Making a pilgrimage to the Temple offers these hopes. 

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    The Epiphany, 2025

    Epiphany occurs January 6!

    Adoration of the Magi by Zietblom

    Adoration of the Magi – Bartholomäus Zeitblom (c. 1450 – c. 1519)

    The English word "Epiphany" comes from the Greek word epiphaneia, which means "appearing" or "revealing." Epiphany focuses on God’s self-revelation in Christ.  

    Epiphany celebrates the twelfth day of Christmas, the coming of the Magi to give homage to God’s Beloved Child.

    The Epiphany celebration remembers the three miracles that manifest the divinity of Christ. The celebration originated in the Eastern Church in AD 361, beginning as a commemoration of the birth of Christ. Later, additional meanings were added – the visit of the three Magi, Christ’s baptism in the Jordan River with the voice from heaven that identifies Jesus as God’s son, and his first miracle at the wedding in Cana. These three events are central to the definition of Epiphany, and its meaning is drawn from these occurrences. 

    In either case, the emphasis is upon God making himself known to the world through Jesus, the divine Son. During Epiphany, the divine words at Jesus’ baptism—"You are my child, my Beloved"—are spoken to every child of God.

    The theological essence of Epiphany is found in 2 Timothy 1:10: "And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News." If you were reading this verse in Greek, you’d find the word epiphaneia where we have "appearing." God has made "all of this" plain to us through the epiphany of Christ.

    1.  Epiphany is the season of the Church year from January 6 to the beginning of Lent  which we experience the unfolding of the identity of Jesus as the Son of God through scripture and song.

    2. Epiphany is the season of wonder. Epiphany invites us to take the long view of her or his vocation and God’s ministry in the world. The season of Epiphany joins, like Christmas, mysticism and mission in revealing God’s vision for all creation and humankind.

    3. Epiphany is about the unexpected: unexpected joys and synchronicities and unexpected challenges and tragedies. Epiphany is filled with unexpected revelations that change our minds and ways.

    Some examples In Epiphany, the magi take another road home; Peter discovers that God’s grace is wider than he ever imagined; and the disciples experience Jesus as transfigured, like Moses, on the mountaintop and then, to their chagrin, realize that beyond the transfiguration stands a cross on the horizon.

    Let’s take the magi. The magi left the land they knew, following a light to a place of uncertainty, and discovered the savior of the world, and it changed, literally, the direction of their lives.

    As Matthew puts it, "They returned home by another way." The old way of traveling would no longer work. They needed to follow a different path.

    At a critical moment in their journey, they realized what the lyrics of that song say: "

    Today is where your book begins. The rest is still unwritten."  Changing direction

    Eventually, all of us take routes that we had never expected to travel, whether these involve changes in employment, health, relational, or economic status. When life forces us from the familiar highway onto an uncharted path, we are challenged to experience holiness as we travel on another road. The path is seldom easy, but within the real limitations of life, we may discover unexpected possibilities for vocation, mission, and transformation.

    4. But, a spirituality of Epiphany reminds us that God is a fellow adventurer on every road we travel. Awakened to divine companionship, every path can become a holy adventure with surprises and epiphanies around every corner

    While Christian wisdom has affirmed that God is omnipresent, most of us have never fully explored what it means to assert that God is everywhere. At the very least, the doctrine of divine omnipresence means that God is present as our companion on every pathway—in certainty and uncertainty, and in celebration and grief. It means that as we face the call of new horizons, whether by desire or necessity, often as pilgrims without a map, there is a divine wisdom moving through our lives, giving us insight, providing synchronous encounters, and awakening us to unexpected energies.

    It is about what happens to those who are searching, and who encounter Christ.

    It is, whether we realize it or not, about a kind of conversion; about finding another way of walking the journey of life, a way that has been transformed by a star. By a light. By Jesus Christ himself.

    5. Fundamentally, the story of the Epiphany is about discovery—following a star to the source of salvation. The readings are overflowing with references to the light: "Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem," Isaiah cries out. "Your light has come. The glory of the Lord shines upon you."

    There is a sense of redemption and relief, of deliverance and hope. Indeed, once the magi arrive in Bethlehem, they cannot contain themselves. As the gospel puts it: "They were overjoyed at seeing the star." They had arrived at the source of all their yearning, and all the searching. They had found what they were looking for.

    People claim in our lives of "having an epiphany." In this case, an epiphany has come to mean a sudden insight into the truth or reality of an event or situation. Here, the word "epiphany" means seeing more than meets the eye; discovering the sacred embedded in ordinary events; and seeing our context as if for the first time, bathed in God’s presence. The reality of divine wisdom invites us to awaken to holiness in the quotidian.

    6. Epiphany is the season of light and transfiguration. On Epiphany, the Church is drenched in light. It begins with a star guiding the magi and ends with dazzling light illuminating Jesus and his followers. For those who live in the spirit of Epiphany, all things dazzle with divine light. Even darkness reveals divinity in the hidden movements of growing things, whether in the womb or in the good earth.


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    Epiphany Readings

    The Epiphany readings are about travel, journey and ultimately sharing Christ’s light. But it is not easy as the opponents of Christ are present. Link to the readings:

    Epiphany means “appearance of the Lord.” In the East, where it started, this feast was instituted not to recall the Magi, but the birth of Jesus, the Christmas, the appearance of the light. In the West—where Christmas was celebrated on December 25—it was received in the fourth century and became the feast of the “manifestation of the light of the Lord” to the Gentiles and the universal call to all people to salvation in Christ. Magi reveal the truth of John 1:9 – the true of God, coming into the world, enlightens all creation and every person. Every child is an incarnation of our beloved Savior.

    The light image is significant. The word used for the “East” in the Gospel , "anatolai (plural)/anatole (singular)", really means “the rising,” that is, the rising of the sun (our word “orient” comes from a Latin word with the same meaning: oriens). The word "anatole" would have had a number of resonances for the first Greek-speaking, Jewish-Christian hearers of Matthew’s story.

    First, the rising of the sun in the East readily suggests the imagery of light, which is often associated with salvation in the Bible. The Old Testament reading for the day (Isaiah 60:1-6), to which the magi story clearly alludes (see especially verses 5-6), begins with the words, “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”

    Isaiah’s vision of salvation, the light of the Lord shined, includes a pilgrimage of the nations, who will come to Israel’s light, to worship the God of Israel, bringing their gifts. With the story of the Magi, Matthew is telling us that this prophecy is fulfilled: guided by the light of the Messiah, the Gentiles (represented by the Magi) make their way to Jerusalem, to bring gold, frankincense and myrrh. The popular piety applied to each of these gifts a symbolic meaning: gold indicates the recognition of Jesus as king, incense represents the adoration in front of his divinity, myrrh recalls his humanity—this fragrant resin will be remembered during the passion (Mk 15:23; Jn 19:39).

    Even the story of the mounts was not invented for nothing. It is still the first reading today that speaks to us of “a troop of camels and dromedaries” that come from the East (Is 60:6). Unlike the shepherds who contemplated and rejoiced in front of the salvation that the Lord had revealed to them, the magi prostrated themselves in worship (v. 11). Their gesture recalls the court’s ceremony—the prostration and kissing of the feet of the king—or kissing the ground before the image of the deity. The pagans have therefore recognized as their king and their God, the child of Bethlehem and offered him their gifts.

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    The 3 Miracles associated with the Epiphany

    Epiphany is Jan 6 and is one of the essential feasts in the Christian year. The essence of Epiphany is found in 2 Timothy 1:10: “And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior.”

    The English word “Epiphany” comes from the Greek word epiphaneia, which means “appearing” or “revealing.” Epiphany focuses on God’s self-revelation in Christ, the divinity of Christ.

    The Epiphany celebration remembers the three miracles that manifest the divinity of Christ. The celebration originated in the Eastern Church in AD 361, beginning as a commemoration of the birth of Christ. Later, additional meanings were added – the visit of the three Magi, Christ’s baptism in the Jordan River with the voice from heaven that identifies Jesus as God’s son, and his first miracle at the wedding in Cana.

    The Roman Catholic Church in Sylva, NC planned to install the above art in their baptisty to celebrate the miracles. From their website:

    “The works selected are high-quality reproductions of frescoes painted by late medieval Italian painter Giotto di Bondone. Giotto was one of the first medieval artists to depict his subjects in a more realistic, natural style, breaking away from the earlier tradition of more stylized figures.”

    “In our display, the Baptism of the Lord is central, being aligned with the baptismal font, to remind us that all those baptized in the sacred waters of this font are baptized into the Lord, to share in his Passion and Resurrection. To the left, the Adoration of the Magi is a reminder for us to give our homage to Christ who is the Lord of all, no matter our ethnicity or nationality. And on the right, the scene from the Wedding at Cana brings to our mind the words of instruction spoken by our Blessed Mother to the servants, which we have emblazoned on our baptistery wall: “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5).”

    “Bursting Forth”-An Epiphany Reflection

    By Cn. J. Davey Gerhard, TENS, Episcopal Network for Stewardship

    “Because of when Easter falls in 2025, we get all eight Sundays of Epiphany this year: Eight opportunities to read and learn how the spirit of the law, the new life that Jesus came to proclaim, spreads throughout the world. This Epiphany is all about the Truth being revealed. It is a Truth that not everyone welcomes the same way – when Jesus reveals the wisdom of the scrolls, or when he tells us we must love those who wish us harm – these are hard truths to accept. It’s not all wedding wine and divine blessings in the Temple – Truth settles on each of us.

    “The thing about the Truth that Jesus brings is that it is so wonderful, so different, so transformative, that it needs to be shared. It can barely be contained. Our hearts, our mouths, our souls cannot hold back. “Tell out my soul,” Mary sang to the Angel. It is as if to say, I have learned something so beautiful that I simply must share it, it is impossible to keep to myself.

    “The Epiphany asks much of us. It asks us to reflect on an internal moment of awareness, of spiritual awakening, and find the words and ways to share it with the world. As Christ is made manifest to the whole world, unbound by social convention, religious authority, or political geography, we too are called to seek the neighbor beyond our immediate vicinity to accompany, to teach, to love.

    “The theological mystery of the Epiphany calls us to have one foot in the spiritual, deeply personal realm of revelation and the other foot in the world, learning how to seek and serve those who most need our help. We learn about the movement of the Spirit through Jesus and are motivated into ministering with him to the outcast, the stranger, and to those who most need to feel the warmth and light of His love.

    Feast of the Holy Name

    The designation of Jan. 1 as the Feast of the Holy Name is new to the 1979 revision of The Book of Common Prayer. Previous Anglican Prayer Books called it the Feast of the Circumcision. January 1 is the eighth day after Christmas Day, and Luke’s Gospel records that eight days after his birth the child was circumcised and given the name Jesus.

    The liturgical commemoration of the circumcision probably originated in France. The Council of Tours in 567 enacted that the day was to be kept as a feast day to counteract pagan festivities connected with the beginning of the New Year.

    The Feast of the Holy Name has been celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church (usually on January 1) since sometime in the 15th century. The Lutheran church also commemorates the Feast of the Holy Name on January 1.

    The early preachers of the Gospel lay stress on the name as showing that Jesus was a man of flesh and blood, though also the son of God, who died a human death and was raised by God from death to be the Savior.

    The name “Jesus” is from the Hebrew Joshua, or Yehoshuah, “Yahweh is salvation” or “Yahweh will save.” Devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus is particularly derived from Phil 2:9-11, which states that God highly exalted Jesus “and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.” This scriptural devotion is paraphrased by the hymn “At the name of Jesus” (Hymn 435) in The Hymnal 1982. Other hymns that express devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus include “To the name of our salvation” (Hymns 248-249) and “Jesus! Name of wondrous love!” (Hymn 252).

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    Epiphany – a perfect start to the year

    A perfect start to the year Epiphany – What a perfect feast to start the year with! The magi’s, story challenges us to begin the year on our feet, already walking the path of righteousness. We are given the gift of a mission, called to look up to God, following His star even when earthly authority stands in our way. We are reminded to carry our gifts faithfully, laying them at the feet of God, allowing Him to make full use of those gifts. Epiphany says to every heart, stank up from your apathy, look up to God, lift up your gifts and follow His path, What better recipe for a year could we find?