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2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector 5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (May, 2018) 6. Calendar 8. What’s new on the website 10. Latest Easter 5 Sunday Bulletin (May 6, 2018 11:00am), and Sermon (April 29, 2018) |
Block Print by Mike Newman
Projects
| White | Gold | Easter | Apr 1-22 |
| White | Gold | Eastertide | Apr 23-May 24 |
| White | Gold | Ascension Day | May 10-12 [Sun May 13] |
| White | Gold | Eastertide | May 13-May 19 |
| Red | Pentecost Sunday | May 20-26 | |
| White | Gold | Trinity Sunday | Jun 27-Jun 2 |
3-Minute Retreats invite you to take a short prayer break right at your computer. Spend some quiet time reflecting on a Scripture passage.
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.
Daily meditations in words and music.
Your daily prayer online, since 1999
"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, April 29-May 6
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29
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Catherine of Siena, 1380? |
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30
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[Sarah Josepha Buell Hale, Editor and Prophetic Witness, 1879] |
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1
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Saint Philip and Saint James, Apostles |
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2
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Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, 373 |
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3
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4
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Monnica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo, 387 |
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5
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6
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Videos
The Week Ahead…
May 2 – 10:00am, Ecumenical Bible Study
May 2 – 4:30pm – 5:30pm – Shred-it
May 2 – 5:00pm – 6:30pm – Village Dinner
May 4 – 6 Shrine Mont Parish Retreat
May 6 – 10:00am, Children with Becky
May 6 – 11:00am, Rogation Sunday, Morning Prayer, Rite II
May 6 – 12:00pm, Coffee Hour – potluck
Readings and Servers for May 6
Read the Book of Acts over Eastertide
These were organized by Forward Movement for a combined Luke and Acts study These are just the Acts portion.
There are many commentaries on the book. Here is an easy one to get started.
Shred-it 2018 raises $100 for Outreach ministries
Shred-it collected $325 or approximately 65 boxes between 4:30pm and 5:30pm on May 2 and after paying Shred-it $225 for the truck we made $100 for St. Peter’s Outreach ministries. Thanks to Andrea Pogue for organizing it, advertising and setting it up on May 2 for the 7th year. Pictured above are some who supported it. Thanks to our contributors. More story and pictures.
Why support Shred-It?
1. For You – You are able to dispose of sensitive documents safely and securely freeing up needed space at home or work. Check your old folders and envelopes containing pay stubs, tax records, bank statements and receipts that have amassed over time. An eye sore is eliminated!
2. For the Environment – one less document in a landfill. A majority of the US still sends their trash to the dump. Harmful chemicals and greenhouse gases are released from rubbish in landfill sites. Recycling helps to reduce the pollution caused by waste.
3. For the Church – Suggested donation $5 a box. The funds we earn less the cost of the Shred-it truck helps our outreach ministries, such as the Village Harvest food distribution, which plows funds back into the Port Royal community. Last year we donated over 100 boxes with monetary donations of $560. After paying for the truck, we made $335 for St. Peter’s outreach ministries.
And we have a good time doing it! It’s fun to watch the Shred-It truck do its job. It’s a great fellowship event visiting with neighbors
Shrine Mont Retreat – a History
St. Peter’s will be at Shrine Mont for the first weekend in May, May 4-6. This is our fifth year partnering with Christ Episcopal and the first without their long time rector Jeff Packard who has moved to Pennsylvania.
This year the program is entitled "The Spitfire Grill" based on the 1996 film of the same name.
The story centers on a young woman named Percy (Alison Elliott) who was recently released from prison. She arrives in a small town in Maine with hopes of beginning a new life. She lands a job as a waitress in the Spitfire Grill, owned by Hannah (Ellen Burstyn), whose gruff exterior conceals a kind heart and little tolerance for the grill’s regular customers who are suspicious of Percy’s mysterious past.
Here is a retrospective of past years:
2017 – Celtic Christianity
The theme was Celtic Christianity which was presented by Catherine on a very rainy weekend. 10 came from St. Peter’s (They couldn’t worship in the Shrine but did manage to hike to the cross. This prayer was prayed both congregations in Port Royal and Shrine Mont
2016 – Lars and the Real Girl
19 from St. Peter’s(9) and Christ Episcopal (10) joined up for the 3rd year in a Shrine Mont retreat which typically has been the last weekend in April or first in May . It was a rainy weekend/ Catherine designed the program around the 2007 movie Lars and the Real Girl, the story of a shy young man in search for a real relationship and staring Ryan Gosling.
2015 – Resurrection Stories
At our Shrine Mont retreat with Christ Church, Spotsylvania, we sought our Resurrected Lord as we went with the disciples to find our Risen Lord in the garden, by the sea, along the road, in the breaking of the bread, and in the gift of the Holy Spirit. In order to do this, we re-created the following stories and found ourselves in the stories; with Mary in the garden on Easter morning; with the disciples having breakfast with Jesus by the Sea of Galilee; with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and at the commissioning of the disciples on the mountain.
2014 – Road to Emmaus
12 from St Peter’s ventured to Shrine Mont with Christ Episcopal in the first combined retreat. They hiked to the Cross, walked the labyrinth and had a campfire on Saturday night. Catherine preached this year to the combined churches.
Thy Kingdom Come – Prayers from Ascension (May 10) to Pentecost (May 20)
Thy Kingdom Come is a global prayer movement started by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in 2016. The Archbishop invites Christians around the world to pray between Ascension and Pentecost for more people to come to know Jesus.
Join the worldwide prayer movement by going to https://www.thykingdomcome.global/ and signing up to spend time in prayer for these eleven days. Last year, 700,000 people around the world participated. When you sign up, the light on the map for our area of Virginia gets bigger and brighter. Right now, the Port Royal area has the brightest light in the state! The website has some wonderful prayer resources that you can use for just for yourself, for your family, or for whole groups of people. Check it out!
Justin Welby says that “Prayer rests on the conviction that the strongest power in the world is unseen. Thy Kingdom Come is built upon this conviction given by Jesus. Often when we pray we don’t see immediate results. But we know we should trust and believe that God hears our prayers. The testimony of many people is that God has used the prayers and witness of others to bring the reality of the good news to their lives…When we pray God is at work. In prayer God invites us to be His partners in the transformation of the world through transformed lives.”
Welby has written – "The hope is that people will commit to pray with God’s world-wide family – as a church, individually or as a family. Churches will hold prayer events, such as 24-7 prayer, prayer stations and prayer walks, across the UK and in other parts of the world;people will be empowered through prayer by the Holy Spirit, finding new confidence to be witnesses for Jesus Christ."
Resources:
The above video was used in Catherine’s sermon on April 29
Here’s what we’ll be doing at St Peter’s to participate as a church in Thy Kingdom Come. Please join in! PRAYER CHANGES THINGS!!!!!!!!
Praying Between Ascension and Pentecost at St Peter’s
Thy Kingdom Come Prayers – PDF
Thursday, May 10th—Ascension Day service with St Asaph’s at St Peter’s, 7PM. This service will begin our eleven days of prayer together as we focus on Jesus, ascended into heaven, available to all people, in all places, at all times. In his life on earth, Jesus ushered in the reign of God, but God’s reign has not yet been fully realized. Opening our hearts to God’s will in our own lives and praying for God’s kingdom to be fully realized and complete on earth is our job as Christians. So let’s get started.
Friday, May 11th—Pray for five people who need to know Jesus in their lives. Pray for them every day during Thy Kingdom Come, and then keep praying for them.
Saturday, May 12th—Pray for Port Royal, for all the families and children and churches in our town, for those who lead, for those who work, and worship in Port Royal, for those who visit. Ask God about how you can make help God’s kingdom to become a reality in Port Royal.
Sunday, May 13th—Mother’s Day. Pray for your family. Pray that Jesus may be more fully known in your own family.
Monday, May 14th—Pray for St Peter’s. The Vestry will be meeting on Monday, May 14th. Pray for our church, for the Vestry, for all who serve, that we may fully welcome in the reign of God and to discern how God is asking us how best to carry God’s love out into the world.
Tuesday, May 15th—Pray for the Fredericksburg Region, and for The Diocese of Virginia, that this network of Christians may come together in powerful witness to God’s love out in the world.
Wednesday, May 16th—Pray for all who come to the Village Harvest Food Distribution for food, and for all who make the food distribution possible, including The Healthy Harvest Food Bank (formerly known as the Northern Neck Food Bank).
Thursday, May 17th—Pray for our nation. Study the news, and pray that God will enter into the situations you read about and making healing possible.
Friday, May 18th—Pray for the Church around the world, that it will experience a revival and that the Holy Spirit may bring new life into its mission and ministry.
Saturday, May 19th—Take an hour to pray The Lord’s Prayer. See the resource for this prayer included in this newsletter.
Sunday, May 20th—Pentecost and Port Royal Prayer Walk. Come to church at 9:45AM and meet out front. From 10AM-10:45, we’ll walk through our town and pray for The Holy Spirit to come and to transform this community. And then, at 11AM, we’ll celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Four Great Feasts in May
Four Sundays of May – commemorating agriculture, the Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday – are four feasts of great importance in the life of the Church. They are distinctively "named" Sundays.
Rogation Sunday goes back to prayer and fasting in early Christian times for protection for crops from disease. It was also a reflection of the Roman holiday of Robigalia at which a dog was sacrificed to propitiate Robigus, the god of agricultural disease. In Christian years it involved fasting and abstinence in preparation for celebrating the Ascension
The Ascension is usually described as marking the completion of Jesus’ ministry on earth as he returned to Heaven. But it is far more than that. It marks the exact moment when Jesus, Son of God, commissioned his disciples to begin the gigantic task of converting the whole world. As recorded in St Mark’s Gospel, Jesus said: "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned."
Luke tells us that Pentecost occurred a short time after the Ascension, and marked the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise, at his Ascension, to send the Holy Spirit on the disciples.
The gift of the Holy Spirit electrified these fearful followers – who only weeks before had run away when Jesus was arrested, and were still hiding for fear of those who had been responsible for their Lord’s death – and transformed them into men and women willing to lay down their lives for their faith, as many of them did.
The feast of Holy Trinity, though logically linked with the other two, was established much later. Although its existence was clearly stated in the New Testament, and early recognized as a doctrine of the faith, it was only when the Arian heresy – which denied Jesus was God – was spreading in the fourth century, that the church Fathers prepared an Office with canticles, responses, a preface, and hymns, to be recited at Mass. From these, the feast we now celebrate as Trinity Sunday gradually evolved.
Together, these latter three great feasts mark the promise which Jesus gave to his disciples, and its fulfilment in the Church on earth. As recorded by Matthew, the very last words Jesus said to his Apostles before going up to Heaven, were: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of time."
Rogation Sunday, May 6, 2018
Rogation Sunday, a time of celebration and prayer, is a time set aside to appreciate and recognize our dependence upon the land for our food and most importantly upon our dependence of God for the miracles of sprouting seeds, growing plants, and maturing harvest.
The Rogation Days, the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Ascension Day, originated in Vienne, Francein 470 after a series of natural disasters had caused much suffering among the people. Originally, the Christian observance of Rogation was taken over from Graeco-Roman religion, where an annual procession invoked divine favour to protect crops against mildew. Archbishop Mamertus proclaimed a fast and ordered that special litanies and prayers be said as the population processed around their fields, asking God’s protection and blessing on the crops that were just beginning to sprout.
The Latin word rogare means "to ask", thus these were "rogation" processions. The tradition grew of using processional litanies, often around the parish boundaries, for the blessing of the land. These processions concluded with a mass. The Rogation procession was suppressed at the Reformation, but it was restored in 1559. The poet George Herbert interpreted the procession as a means of asking for God’s blessing on the land, of preserving boundaries, of encouraging fellowship between neighbours with the reconciling of differences, and of charitable giving to the poor. The tradition of ‘beating the bounds’ has been preserved in some communities. In the latter a group of old and young members of the community would walk the boundaries of the parish, usually led by the parish priest and church officials, to share the knowledge of where they lay, and to pray for protection and blessings for the lands. Others maintain the traditional use of the Litany within worship. In more recent times, the scope of Rogation has been widened to include petition for the world of work and for accountable stewardship, and prayer for local communities, whether rural or urban.
The Sunday before the Rogation Days came to be considered a part of Rogationtide (or "Rogantide") and was known as Rogation Sunday. The Gospel formerly appointed for that day was from John 16, where Jesus tells his disciples to ask, and ye shall receive.
Lectionary, May 6, Easter 6
I.Theme – A Community characterized by love
"The Endless Road" – Margret Hofheinz-Doring (1971)
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
First Reading – Acts 10:44-48
Psalm – Psalm 98 Page 727, BCP
Epistle –1 John 5:1-6
Gospel – John 15:9-17
Today’s readings urge believers to come together in a community characterized by love. In his sermon, Peter tells Cornelius of God’s work in Jesus Christ, thus opening the doors of the Church to Gentiles. The author of 1 John describes Jesus as God’s love for us, and calls us to embrace one another in that love. In the gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that they have been chosen to love one another; in this they will find perfect joy.
Acts 10:44-48 This missionary speech in today’s reading marks an important turning point in the outreach of the early Church. Many Jewish Christians feared and resisted the possible inclusion of Gentiles, but Luke makes clear that Peter himself (even before Paul) began the mission to the Gentiles under the direction of the Holy Spirit.
Cornelius was a “God-fearing” Roman, one who worshiped God but had not adopted all of the Jewish religious practices. Cornelius receives the sacrament of baptism, but not before he and his gathered household receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This event marks a new Pentecost. The circle of Christian faith has now broadened to include the inhabitants of “the ends of the earth” (1:8). The Spirit first came to Jews (2:1-4), then to the despised Samaritans (8:14-17), and now to the Gentiles.
Psalm 98 This psalm is closely related to Psalm 96. Its original setting may have been the enthronement festival of Yahweh, celebrated each year at the New Year’s feast of Tabernacles. In later times the psalm was interpreted to herald the lord’s final coming. It presents the lord, in faithfulness to the covenant, acting in history for the salvation of God’s people.
1 John 5:1-6 The writing of 1 John seems to have been occasioned by a schism in the community due to heresy, specifically the denial of Jesus’ humanity. The central theme of 1 John is that “God is love” (4:8). The significance of this statement is explored through repeated meditation that interweaves theology and ethics. Those who make the early baptismal confession, “Jesus is the Christ,” have assented to a pattern for their behavior. As God’s children, Christians are to love God and one another and to obey the commandments. Through trust in Jesus, the Christian may overcome the world.
John 15:9-17 Believers are to love one another with a love characterized by self-sacrifice. Thus while Christians are still "servants" (v. 15, literally “slaves”) of Christ in terms of ministry (see 12:26; 13:14-16), they are "friends" (v. 15) of Christ in terms of intimacy with God. In and through this relationship Christians are appointed to "bear fruit" (v. 16).