Reading the Bible in a year!
Resources
The Episcopal Lingo, Death, Part 1
We have covered rites of passage marked by colonial churches—birth, initiation and marriage. The last one is death and there is more written on it so we will cover half of it this week.
Colonial Virginians encountered death regularly. For people who survived to age 20, life expectancy in Virginia and Maryland was between 23 and 29 additional years, so average age at death was mid-to late 40s which is half our own. Women died at a more frequent rate than men (due to malaria) between the ages of 15-40, which are consequently the typical childbearing years. People died at home and were often buried there in contrast with today.
Epidemic diseases often ran rampant among the settlers. Yellow fever, small pox, measles and even the bubonic plague were diseases feared by the settlers. Infant mortality was high among the colonists and there were few trained doctors for those needing medical attention. All too often, a young wife would die when complications occurred during childbirth.
Due to this trend, the laws allowed people to get an earlier start in creating wills. Any male aged 14 or more, or unmarried females aged 12 or more, could make a will to bequeath personal property. However, only persons over 21 could devise land in a will. Married women could not make wills.
Wills tell us about attitudes toward death in this period. Death was constantly described in theological language. They characteristically opened with a statement like that penned by William Byrd I: "First I bequeath my soul to God that gave it hopeing thro the merits & mediation of my ever blessed saviour & redeemer Jesus Christ to obtain pardon and remission of all my sins and to inherit life everlasting. I bequeath my body to the ground to be decently buryed."
The Anglicans in Va. consciously distinguished her or his "spiritual goods or inward estate" from "the material goods or outward estate," thus enabling "the dutiful to cross the boundary between the everyday material world and the transcendental spiritual world of the Christian afterlife." Death was the great demarcation between the material and spiritual worlds, returning the soul to God. Sermons were preached that preparation for death was a lifelong process.
Continued below…
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.
Oct. 7 -9:45am Christian Education for children and adults
Oct. 7 -11:00am Holy Eucharist Rite II
Oct. 7 -12:00pm Coffee Hour
St. Francis Blessing of the Animals, Thurs, Oct. 4, 5:00pm
Join us for one of the most beloved services of the year, honoring one of the greatest saints in Christian history. Links:
The 2011 event
The 2010 event
Prayer of St. Francis
The service in 2010
Pictures
We hope to make an online directory this year of the "Pets of St. Peter’s" – just for fun!
Here’s a link to a sample if we had used 2011’s animals.
We will start those at the St. Francis service and obtain pictures of the others and publish them online.
You can submit a picture online or send us an email to Catherine. If you do the latter, please include the animal ‘s name, owner, age and breed. You can also include something special about this animal, such as trait, how you obtained him, his favorite meal? You can decide that.
Belfry Celebration Day, Oct. 7, 11:00am
This Sunday we will dedicate a new plaque to the creation of the Belfry during 2009-2010. Here is a set of pictures of the design and raising of the belfry.
This article appeared in the Caroline Progress on the creation of the belfry.
We cannot thank Helmut enough for his leadership on this project.
"History of Christianity", Part 5 this Sunday, October 7, 9:45am – Orthodoxy
This week we move into the second great branch of Christianity – Orthodoxy.
Of the three main branches of Christianity discussed during the fall – Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy, Orthodoxy is the least well known. Partially this goes back to the Communist suppression of the church through most of the 20th century. It also has the least numbers associated with a major Christian branch – 150 million compared to over a billion for Catholicism. Today it is largely centered in Russia and the Balkan states.
This week’s episode traces the development of Orthodoxy from 500 to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Interesingly enough, the history is bracketed by the development of one building, Hagia Sophia in then Constantinople and today Instanbul. Created by the emperor Justinian in 532 as the largest church of its time, it was the scene of the Great Schism between Catholicism and Orthodoxy in 1054. Services were still going on as the Turks battered down the door in 1453 when Constantinople fell. It then became a Mosque.
The distinctive Orthodox worship style is highlighted in this video. It bears an influence from the middle eastern origins of the First Christianity – Syriac Orthodox and Church of the East. The sights and sounds of Orthodoxy are much different than our own with incense and icons. The service is great in high drama and rich in symbolism and ritual.
The video this week goes into depth on the latter journeying to the Sinai to see some of the first icons and then witnessing the backlash against them early on in the 700’s and then the flourishing of icons years later. Icons only exist in Orthodoxy. "This is not just art, it’s a three-way meeting, between artist, worshipper and God. "
Come learn the how Orthodoxy survived over 1500 years this Sunday and next at 9:45am.
Did you miss the earlier sessions ? Here are transcripts.
Acolyte Festival, Washington Cathedral, Oct. 6, 10am
The Fishers, Carters and Eunice will journey to Washington to participate in this festival. It starts out with a combined worship service with a grand procession of the acolytes. Then they will participate in workshops, meet acolytes from across the nation and have a chance to tour the cathedral. This is wonderful opportunity for our acolytes.
Conversation with the Bishop, Wed., Oct. 24 – St. George’s – $10 until Oct 10, $12 at the door
This event has many positives – a marvelous inexpensive meal (Where can you eat for $10? ), an event sponsored by own Region One and a great program (Bishop Johnston). As it says there is no prepared speech or agenda. Just a leisurely conversation moderated by Region president Ed Jones. The meal will be a chicken/green bean/rice/curry casserole served with green salad, rolls and desert. Get your tickets early – send a $10 check to Anna Lou Flynn, P. O. Box 333, Louisa, VA 23093
(death, continued from above)
In statements of death, there was the key notion of divine providence and confident hope about the resurrection which provided solace. The death of her husband Mary Bland Lee told her brother, "is so great an affliction to me, that I han’t words to express it." Nevertheless, she did find words: "I know it is my duty as a christian, to bear patiently whatever happens to me, by the alotment of divine providence, and I humbly beseech Almighty God, to grant me his grace, that I may be enabled to submit patiently, to whatever trialls it may please him to lay on me…but that I may bear them as a good christian, with courage and resolution, with calmness and resignation, and that I may resign this life with joy and comfort, when it pleaseth God to remove me, and may have a well-grounded hope in his mercy through the merits and interseshun of our dear Saviour and merciful Redeemer”
Statements dealing with spouses were also based on a relationship with God. In her account of Mr. Fletcher’s death Mary Fletcher spends almost the entire time speaking about their relationship with each other in respect to God. She shows how great of an impact the church has on life in general (Fletcher). She demonstrated this by writing the following: “For some time before this last illness, his precious Soul (always alive to God) was particularly penetrated with the nearness of eternity; there was scarce an hour in which he was not calling upon me to drop every thought and every care, that we might attend nothing but drinking deeper into God”