Reading the Bible in a year!
Resources
Block Print by Mike Newman
Continuing Projects
Don’t see your pet ? Upload a picture
2. Prayer requests – Add a name to the prayer list here.
3. St. Peter’s Directory
We are trying to complete the picture taking in February Sundays, Feb. 18, after Church for the 2013 Directory. You can "schedule yourself" by just appearing on the second floor of the Parish House in Catherine’s study for the photo.
4. Box Tops for Education for local schools
This is a project of the children of the church.Take one of the colorful collection cans from back of church and fill them up with box tops from participating products. By the end of February, bring them back to the church and give them to Tierra.
Here is a list of participating products.
Box Tops for Education has helped America’s schools earn over $475 million since 1996. You can earn cash for your child’s school by clipping Box Tops coupons from hundreds of participating products. Box Tops also offers easy ways to earn even more cash for your school online.
Here is a video introduction
5. Region One Notes from the Meeting, Feb 6 
"Notes" are a new way to get the results of the meeting quicker to you. We had a great meeting on Feb. 6, allocating $4,000 to worthy causes. Read more here
5 Epiphany , February 10, 2013
Christ centered, Biblically based, spirit filled and a place of simple hospitality, we have shared our communal life with our church,our community, and those in need. Your presence enriches us.
Feb. 17 -9:45am – "Forgiveness" in Adult Education
Feb. 17 -11:00am- Holy Eucharist Rite I
Lent Begins This Week!
Lent is a 40 day Christian festival beginning Ash Wednesday and concluding on Easter (Sundays are not counted). The word "Lent" comes from the old Anglo-Saxon word lengten, which means "springtime," named so for the time of the year in which it occurs. What we now call Lent was originally a period of fasting and study for catechumens who were to be baptized on the Saturday before Easter. The 40 day fast was said by Athanasius in 339 AD to be celebrated the world over. The 40 day fast of Jesus in the wilderness was responsible for the number 40 being chosen.The purpose of this extended fast was to practice self-denial and humility. This was to prepare oneself for receiving God’s grace and forgiveness in baptism, given on Easter Saturday or Easter Sunday.
We have a dedicated Lenten part of the website – Lent at St. Peter’s 2013 which has the events listed. Highlights include:
- Introduction to Lent
- Our own Lenten Calendar
- Pre-Lent festival – Shrove Tuesday, Feb 12 – 5:30pm-7pm
- Ash Wednesday– Feb 13, 7pm
- From Repentance to Hope: A Service of Remembrance, Celebration and Witness – Service at St. George’s Feb 16, 10am St. George’s
- Christian Ed on Forgiveness – 9:45 Sundays, beginning Feb 17
- Lent 1 -11am with Chalice dedication, Feb. 17. Here is a link to last year’s Lent 1
- Feasting with Jesus – Food of the early Christians, Thursday nights beginning Feb 21, 6pm (5:30pm Feb. 21) for the next 5 weeks
- Lenten Quiet Day , ECW at Roslyn March 21
- Holy Week, March 25-30
If this is not enough, we have other links to various Lenten resources
Yes, we had a Shrove Tuesday supper Feb. 12
We had a small crowd at 16 for Shrove Tuesday with several families traveling. But Dave’s pancakes and Nancy’s sausage were yummy. The intimacy actually helped the conversation in being able to gather in one room. We all ate more than we should but we did what we should in remembering the medieval custom of using up all of the eggs, cream and fat in the house before the Lenten fast began the following day. The day was lovely in the afternoon which was captured on film. Thanks for all who attended. Hope we see more of you for Ash Wednesday, Feb 13, at 7pm.
Our Ash Wednesday service Feb. 13 – a recap
Ash Wednesday came with a cold steady rain that seemed to fit the mood of the day. "Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Savior." The bulletin for the service is here as well as the sermon .
For such as night we had a good crowd at 21. People appreciated being there. Certainly one highlight was Nancy’s solo on "The Glory of These Forty Days. " The words are attributed to Pope Gregory in the 6th century. "The glory of these forty days We celebrate with songs of praise; For Christ, by Whom all things were made, Himself has fasted and has prayed." While we remember our sins and misdoings, the mood is not dwelling on the past but on improving the future. Ash Wednesday sets us on our course during Lent. Read more
From Repentance to Hope: A Service of Remembrance, Celebration and Witness, Feb. 16 St. George’s Fredericksburg
This was collaboration between the Diocese of Virginia, St. George’s and the City of Fredericksburg to formally apologize for the sin of slavery and how as Episcopalians we benefited and then to instill a sense of hope for the future. Bishop Shannon led this part of the service
The event coincided with the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation in early 2013 which was read. The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in America, Katharine Jefferts Schori, led the Celebration of hope and preached. Her sermon started in Zanzibar with a cathedral built over a former slave trading establishment and by the end felt there was a "fresh breeze" to rid the effects of slavery. After the service, current Mayor Greenlaw and former Mayor Davies led the crowd of about 600 on a walk to the slave block and then to a site where there was a sculpture commissioned by St. George’s which was dedicated. The sculpture is Ayokunle Odeleye, a student of long time teacher Johnny Johnson. Both were present.
Here is a refresher article on the importance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.
Forgiveness on Feb. 17, 9:45am
During the Sundays of Lent during the adult education hour, we will take a look at forgiveness, using the work of Father Frank Desiderio, a Catholic priest whose current ministry is helping people to seek forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiveness is good for your body, mind and spirit. You probably know that intuitively. There is plenty of research to prove that forgiveness helps heal the body and works in the brain to counteract the negative effects of anger.
For the Christian, forgiveness is a non-negotiable. Jesus insisted on it “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions” (Matthew 6:14-15). Jesus forgave unconditionally from the cross, “Father forgive them they know not what they do” (Luke 23:24). We are called to be like Christ and forgive generously and sincerely. The question is often how to forgive. Join Catherine for this important Adult Ed.
Larry Duffee – Why "Tools for the Sudan" is important !
Larry has offered to write this week why this project is important – an exclusive for Region One.
" The genesis of the project was the relocation of hundreds of thousands of people from Sudan to South Sudan around the time of the referendum and independence in 2011. An estimated one and a half-million people with historic familial ties to the South were living in Sudan. Most had moved there during the decades of war to escape the violence in the South. Some people were second and third generation living in the north. But the government of Sudan promised to revoke all the rights of citizenship of southerners living in the north after independence and so most people who could return south did so.
"The people who returned to the South were often simply dumped on vacant ground with all of their belongings and told to make a new life. In Unity State, one of the states of South Sudan, over seventy-thousand returnees arrived in the early months of 2011. Most were resettled where possible near to where their families came from originally. But these were people who had lived mainly in and around Khartoum, a huge metropolitan city. The returnees were now expected to make their own shelter and grow their own food. Imagine being ripped from your life, transported hundreds of miles away to a strange country and told you were now responsible for your own survival!
- The overall project is described here.
- You can donate funds to help new refugees coming into Sudan through this shopping cart. Print it out and send your card and check to the address listed.
- OR you can pay online saving printing and a stamp.
Either way we thank you for your gift of a new beginning for those coming to our newest world country.