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, who are still here, and we honor with gratitude the land itself and the life of the Rappahannock Tribe. Our mission statement is to do God’s Will in all that we do. We welcome all people to our church.
March 20 – 11:00am, Holy Eucharist, Lent 3 – Join here at 10:45am for gathering – service starts at 11am Meeting ID: 869 9926 3545 Passcode: 889278
March 23 – Bible Study, 10am-12pm
March 24 – Sacred Ground, 7pm
The Sacred Ground Scholarship.A scholarship fund has been established which will help minority students pay for education after high school. Contribute by donating to St Peter’s and put “Sacred Ground Scholarship” on the memo line. We have collected $6,100 towards that scholarship.
Easter Gifts – Lily and donation to the Endowment Fund
Here’s the form. Easter Lilies are due April 3 $10 a lily.
Please send the form and the funds to St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, P. O. Box 399, Port Royal, VA 22535.
Quarter 1, 2022 Village Harvest – Holding our own
Putting together a Village Harvest involves a team to transport the food from Montross and then bag it using both plastic and paper bags
This quarter we served 296 clients providing 14.20 pounds average per person. We served 91 in March, 2022 compared to 90 last month.
The positive trend is that we reversed a decline in the numbers of clients going back to 2019. Over 3 years, 2019-2021 we lost over 90 clients. This year we actually increased our clients. It was only by 1 but was a positive trend nevertheless.
Total pounds provided this quarter were 4,196 but which was 146 less than first quarter 2021. Much of it is in March where pounds declined from 1,635 to 1,480. Quarter one’s food was the first decline since Q1, 2020. The value per shopper was just under $88 down just under $91 last year maintaining a positive experience.
Information about Lent, 7 Lenten Practices, Events, Christian Ed in 2022 and 2021 during Lent, Special topic including web resources, family activities in Lent, Lenten Prayers and music as well as giving to the Endowment Fund during Lent.
So How’s Your Lent Going ?
We are halfway through Lent with Lent 4, 5 and Palm Sunday to go before getting to Holy Week.
So what are you doing for Lent and how it is going? What should you be doing? Lent is a journey – part of it is looking inside, removing things and taking on new things – building up. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby suggested the following in 2015- "At the individual level it draws us to see what we have been saved from, and what we are being saved for."
"A good Lent makes space for hope by leading us afresh into encounter with the holiness of God." A good Lent starts with us.
"A good Lent begins with paying attention, with beginning to make straight the way of the Lord by listening… We cannot listen while we fill our ears with our own self-confidence and our own self-worth.
"So, how do we listen? Read Luke’s gospel, taking a small chunk each day, and ask yourself as you read it three simple questions: What does it say? What does it mean? What am I going to do about it? Very simple.
"And what do I do about it? Ask yourself: “How do I make my life more open to Christ because of what this is saying to me?”
"For myself, such reading is part of my own daily discipline of prayer, which includes a lot of other things as well. Time is spent and at the end of jotting down whatever banal or very occasionally less banal thoughts I have, I always put in a couple of lines of what I can do about it.
"Sometimes it is very practical writing to someone or speaking to someone who I may have offended. It may be very simple, merely saying a prayer of sorry, or thank you, or petition for something of which I need reminding.
"A good Lent must overflow in generosity. How do we live a good Lent with those whom we live with? The bumps in the road we need to smooth out for the Lord to come? Relationships that have been neglected and therefore are full of clutter that needs removing?
"They can be very difficult: broken relationships may be easily mendable, little irritations – or it may be that we need, in a good Lent, to take the first step to clearing away a major landslide.
"How do you do it in practice? Openness, transparency, and also go back and use the same approach to scripture as I suggested a few moments ago. One has to treat each person and situation different
"Let me suggest one other. As individuals, even short periods of complete silence during Lent, fasting from noise and conversation and distraction, will be of great value. How little we do of it.
"I’ve had to learn, and I’m still very much learning, that I do not need to do anything in that time. I need only to be willing to listen. It is a time of meditation and reflection, of discovering the God who – all the time – is saying: “Here I am.”
"The discipline of a good Lent is to find again how we welcome the stranger, how we practice hospitality, how we listen.
"A good Lent starts within us. It moves through those most closely around us. It comes into the church and it must be so generously experienced that it overflows into society. We will not really have a Good Lent until that chain is complete, and for that, we pray, may your Kingdom come."
Lectionary, March 27, 2022, Lent 4
I. Theme – Our individual and collective reconciliation with God
“Return of the Prodigal Son" – Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1667-1670)
"He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’"
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Joshua 5:9-12
Psalm – Psalm 32
Epistle – 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Gospel – Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Today’s readings invite us into the welcoming, forgiving arms of our loving God. In Joshua, the people of Israel celebrate their home-coming in the promised land, eating, for the first time, of the produce of Canaan. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul describes our reconciliation to God in and through Christ. The gospel story tells of a father’s prodigal love for his lost sons.
Although the focus shifts just a little bit, to themes of forgiveness and reconciliation. . This week’s readings, however, bring together the individual and the communal. Our reconciliation with God leads us into the “ministry of reconciliation.” Our forgiveness brings wholeness, not just to ourselves, but to others through us. This connection between the “me” and the “we” is such an important theme of the Gospel, and a good place to linger in this week’s worship, while also looking at the implications of the practice of forgiveness for justice in our world.
The theme this week stands out very clearly in these readings – God removes disgrace; God forgives and restores; the prodigal is welcomed home and reconciled to his family; God reconciles us to God’s Self, and to each other, and we are called to do the same. Forgiveness flows from God’s infinite and unconditional grace, and is received through honest confession and repentance. But reconciliation with God, as much as it brings personal healing and restoration, is not only personal. It is also social, drawing us back into reconciliation with others, and into passing on to others the healing and grace we have received
Focusing in on Luke’s Prodigal Son parable (Lent 4)
Luke 15 , the Gospel reading for March 27, starts out with 3 parables, the Prodigal son the third.
First, he imagines a shepherd who leaves his flock in order to find one errant sheep ("Lost Sheep"). Second, he describes a woman who loses a coin ("Lost Coin"). These parables are about being lost and now found. The first two have three common threads running through each. 1) Something or someone is lost. 2) The lost is sought for. 3) Great joy is shared at the recovery of the thing (person) found. The third parable, the Prodigal son, is slightly different. In it, the one who is lost returns to where he came from.
The prodigal son is Luke’s best known parable and also the longest. It is one with an ending that seems not fair. The word "prodigal" basic meaning is "wasteful"–particularly with regard to money.
There are many levels of the story. It is a story of the consequences of sin both in terms of what happens to us but also the promise of the return from separation from God. It is a story of welcome and reconciliation. This story is found only in the Gospel of Luke
We see a progression through the three parables from the relationship of one in a hundred (Luke 15:1-7), to one in ten (Luke 15:8-10), to one in one (Luke 15:11-32), demonstrating God’s love for each individual and his personal attentiveness towards all humanity.
The parable is Jesus response to the Pharisees and Scribes since they believe his behavior is an affront to the community. Jesus is associating with the’ wrong people." He is welcoming those who have been cast out; and honoring those who have been shamed by sharing a meal . To invite a person to a meal was an honor that implied acceptance, trust and peace. Jesus response is not to rebuke the Pharisees and scribes but to teach through parables.
The parable has 3 scenes with the first part focusing on the younger son and the last two parts on the father
(1) the negotiations of the younger son with his father and his subsequent departure to a foreign country where he is wasteful and becomes impoverished (15:11-19);
(2) the homecoming of that son and the welcome by his father (15:20-24); and
(3) the interchange between the father and his older son (15:25-32).
The Prodigal Son in Art- Rembrandt
One of the most famous depictions of the Prodigal son was by Rembrandt toward the end of his life.
Rembrandt’s painting was done in 1669 and features his characteristic dark with light shining on the main characters of the father and prodical son. It is a striking painting that brings the emotional return of the son’s return to life
From a site on Rembrandt’s painting-
Make a Gift Today! 2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector 4. Server Schedule March, 2022 5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (March, 2022) 6. Calendar 9. Latest Sunday Bulletin (March 20, 11:00am), and Sermon (March 20, 2022) 10. Recent Services: The Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Feb. 27, Lent 1, March 6, Lent 2, March 13 |
Block Print by Mike Newman
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Knowing that not everyone prays at the same pace, you have control over the pace of the retreat. After each screen, a Continue button will appear. Click it when you are ready to move on. If you are new to online prayer, the basic timing of the screens will guide you through the experience.
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“We invite you to make a ‘Sacred Space’ in your day, praying here and now, as you visit our website, with the help of scripture chosen every day and on-screen guidance.”
Saints of the Week, March 20 – March 27, 2022
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20
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Cuthbert, Bishop, 687 |
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21
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Thomas Ken, Bishop, 1711 |
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22
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James De Koven, Priest, 1879 |
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23
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Gregory the Illuminator, Bishop and Missionary of Armenia, c. 332 |
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24
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Oscar Romero, Archbishop & Martyr, 1980, and the Martyrs of El Salvador |
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25
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The Annunciation of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Blessed Virgin Mary |
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26
26 |
[Harriet Monsell], Monastic, 1883 Richard Allen, Bishop, 1831 |
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27
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Charles Henry Brent, Bishop, 1929 |