Frontpage Aug 13, 2012

Top links

1. Newcomers – ‘Welcome Brochure’

2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Priest-in-Charge

3 .Aug, 2012 Server Schedule

4. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (Aug,2012)

5  Calendar

6. Parish Ministries

7. What’s new on the website (Aug 13, 2012)

8. What’s happening this Sunday (August 19,2012)

9. Transportation in Need List

10. Latest Photo Gallery –  July 4, 2012  

11. Latest Bulletin (Aug. 12, 2012) and Sermon (Aug. 12, 2012)

Bulletin 08-12-2012 front/


  Bible Challenge

Reading the Bible in a year!

Resources 

1. Diocese of Va. page 

2. Video on the program

3. 365 day schedule 

Bishop Shannon with St. Peter's banner


 The Episcopal Lingo, Part 2: The Vestry

Parish Church

The series will explore words used in the Episcopal Church that may seem arcane to visitors and confusing to old timers. This week’s word is basic – the vestry.

The counties in Colonial Virginia were dominated by the court and the church. Courts held both the executive and judicial arm. They both exacted punishments and also controlled fees as an executive issued licenses, set rates to be charged by inkeepers, set value of tobacco in currency

The Churches were dominated by the Vestry. There were two vestries. A vestry then meant a meeting of all members of the parish to take care of the church property. “Select vestries” referred to meetings of several of the leading men who had been elected by the members of a particular parish to care for the parish poor between regularly scheduled full vestry meetings. In time “select vestry” became “vestry.”

An Act of Virginia Assembly 1643 created the role of vestries – 12 members of the “most sufficient and selected men to be chosen” with two wardens. The first act of organizing a new parish was to elect the Vestry. This was one of the first democratic experiences in America along with selection of two burgesses for the House of Burgesses in Williamsburg. However vestrymen (no women!) were generally elected for life and became a self-perpetuating group in that when vacancies occurred they appointed men of their own choice to fill the vacancies. The parishoners chose the Vestry unlike the court system where appointments came from Williamsburg.

The Vestry’s powers were greater than its counterpart in England. The best example is the choice of the minister. However, ministers were in short supplies and sometimes vestries had to depend on lay readers. In England nominations were made to the Bishop who appointed the minister. There no bishops in America prior to the Revolution. The vestry was also generally autonomous except when there were major disputers. When disputes interfered with the Vestry, the Governor could summon a General Court in Williams burg which met twice a year to handle disputes.

Vestry powers were much broader than today’s vestry. Vestries enforced the attendance requirement. Church attendance was legally required at least once a month. With large parishes (40 miles long 5-10 wide with a main church and maybe 2 other chapels that could be difficult. However, it is questionable how well that was enforced


Continued below…

           
St. Peter's Episcopal

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.

Ordinary Time   

August 19 -11:00am Morning Prayer, Rite II  


Sunday Readings and Servers    

  


School Supplies
Help Us Collect School Supplies for Caroline County – ONE MORE WEEK! Ends August 19th. . Details 


Staten Island Mission Team

Spotlight on the Mission Team

12 of you are going (plus one from outside the parish)  That about’s 30% of typical attendance of a Sunday. That’s extraordinary!  

We asked two questions of the team this week Here are the answers in their words:

1. Why did you decide to go on the mission trip ?

 "It’s a way to help people in need using my my own hands instead of sending money for someone else to do it.

" I have always wanted to participate in a mission trip. Jesus asks us to go forth and help others less fortunate than we are. I feel it is a way to say, "Thank you" and that it is a kind of evangelism that I can do.

" I have been to a foreign country to help others, and feel it is important to help those in need in our country too. There are many needs in this world.

" I decided to go on this mission trip because I have always had a heart for outreach work. Being the heart and hands of God in the world gives me the opportunity to use the gifts I have been blessed to receive.

" It is a chance to serve, and it is in this country.  

2. What do you hope to accomplish and/or learn ?

" One thing I’d like to accomplish is a sense of "I can do this". Going away from home, in a strange place, working with people that you don’t know and for people whom you don’t know why they are in need can set you a little uneasy (as in our current trip). This trip due to the fact that we know someone where we are going, will be a great first endeavor because there is a sense of security/safety.

" A side benefit of this particular trip will be learning first hand a little about a different christian denomination (The Moravians)

" I think this will be a good learning experience for us all as we work together. We can bond as a mission group and bond with others of a different faith, all doing the work of the Lord. We can see the contrasts between their "city" world and our rural one. We can learn how another church reaches out to the community. I believe we will definitely gain more than we could ever give. Helping others is the best way to help yourself

" I hope to touch peoples’ lives but I also find in giving, I receive so much.

"I want to see how such a huge undertaking is organized and carried out. I also hope to learn at least a little about the Moravian church"

Several links about the trip:

About the Moravian Clothing Distribution – a powerpoint presentation about 12 minutes.   

Information about the Moravians   


How can you keep up with the Mission Team on Staten Island ?

Go to http://www.churchsp.org/statenisland2012

Staten Island Web Site

This is a community site within our own website. The team will have a chance to make posts, add pictures, etc. The team will be pressed for time so we don’t know how it will work.

If you have a login to the site you can post comments and interact.  If you don’t click the create new account button at the top of this page and follow the prompts:

Create New Account

Above all we wish the best for them in this experience. We hope to have them reflect on their experiences and answer questions at a future church event. 


Leonardo’s "Savior of the World" Bulletin art, Sunday, Aug 12

Salvator Mundi - Leonardo daVinci

Leonardo da Vinci created his own "Savior of the World" or “Salvator Mundi” around 1500 that was lost after generations and only restored and exhibited for the first time in London in 2011. It was purchased by a consortium in 2005 from a private collection. The painting shows Christ, in Renaissance garb, giving a benediction with his raised right hand and crossed fingers while holding a crystal sphere in his left hand. It was on the cover of this past Sunday’s bulletin but the its rediscovery and the distinctive nature of this work is its own story.

read more…  


 Coming Aug 15 – The Feast Day of St. Mary the Virgin

St. Mary the Virgin - Assumption  DayOn August 15, the church celebrates the Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin. This is the traditional date of her Assumption, bodily taken up to heaven. Mary, the mother of Christ, has been celebrated since the earliest days of the Christian church though there was no scriptural basis for the assumption and grew upon writings from the 4th century. The iconography of the eastern church (to the right) always showed Mary with Child as the mother of the deity though in the West she is pictured alone.

The Gospel of Luke contains a “Song of Praise” or "Magnificat" that was sung by Mary when her cousin Elizabeth recognized her as the mother of the Lord (Luke 1:43). Elizabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist when her cousin Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus, came to see her.

Read the Song of Praise


Parish vestries had as much autonomy as courts and had equal power to tax. The Court prepared the list of tithables (number of people to assess taxes) by delegating justices to cover every precinct.

Page from Vestry Book Christ Church LancasterIn many years the Vestry met only once a year (late September to end of the year) to determine the levy or tax on parishioners to take care of the needs of the church both religious and civil. This could change when a minister had to be changed or a new church built. For the church, it was the Vestry who decided how much to pay the parish minister who was paid in tobacco and casks to put it in, how much to assess for bread and wine in communion. The vestry provided the priest a glebe of 200 or 300 acres, a house, and perhaps some livestock.

Here is an example. This document is a page from the Vestry Book of Christ Church Parish, 1739-1786. The first line noted the 16,000 pounds of tobacco the Reverend David Currie received annually by law for his services to the parish. Immediately below that was an 8% allowance (4% from each of the two churches in the parish, Christ Church and St. Mary’s White Chapel) given Currie for cask, or packing the tobacco, as well as for loss in the crop from what the Assembly called “shrinkage of the tobacco.” 

Vestry duties also consisted of erecting and maintaining the church buildings and chapels. They engaged and appointed church wardens, parish clerks, sextons, and other church officials and of course the minister. Women only served as sextons and were employed as caregivers.  Note in the document above, these officials were paid in tobacco – two payments of 1,400 lbs. tobacco each to James Newby and Bailey George, who served as clerks of St. Mary’s White Chapel and Christ Church, respectively. 

The levy also had to cover the Vestry’s civil duties due to the role of the church. The church was the source of welfare. With a dispersed and growing population this was a sizable part of the levy. Funds expended on the parish poor often accounted for more than 25 to 30 percent of a parish’s budget The levy was used to reimburse parishioners for burials, doctor fees, costs for nursing the sick and boarding those who needed it. Local vestries had the authority to exempt poor people "from all publique charges except the ministers’ & parish duties."

Vestries also appointed individuals to maintain local roads and provide ferry service over Virginia’s many rivers (although the county courts had largely taken over these tasks by the 1730s); to serve as "tobacco viewers," who ensured that the colonists were not planting too much tobacco; and to serve as churchwardens, who presented moral offenders to the county courts. Parish vestries took special care to relieve parishioners of the expenses associated with raising bastard children, especially those of indentured servants; they held the power to sell female servants to pay for the upkeep of their illegitimate offspring or to force the fathers to put up a bond to cover the expenses of caring for the child.

Vestries were also charged with processioning or "going round … the bounds of every person’s land" in the parish every four years and renewing the landmarks that separated one person’s property from another’s. Lands processioned three times without complaint gained legal status as the formal boundaries of an individual’s property.

Virginia vestries assumed responsibility for many of these duties until the Church of England was disestablished in 1784, existing vestries dissolved, and the counties then became responsible for the church’s civil functions. For example the counties would appoint as overseers of the poor elected to exercise civil powers of the former vestries, especially caring for the poor and for bastard children. The church’s powers became confined to the business of the church as it is today.

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