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Block Print by Mike Newman
Projects
Link to the reports from Jan 15 Annual Meeting
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, June 18 – June 25
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18
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Bernard Mizeki, Catechist and Martyr in Mashonaland, 1896 |
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20
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21
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22
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Alban, First Martyr of Britain, c. 304 |
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23
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24
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The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist |
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25
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[James Weldon Johnson, Poet, 1938] |
June 18 – Pentecost 2
We recognized all varieties of fathers, from top left – newest father, father yet to be and then all in congregation who were fathers.
The Week Ahead…
June 19 – 23, 9:00am- 12:00pm, Vacation Bible School
June 20 – World Refugee Day
June 21 – 10:00am, Ecumenical Bible Study
June 21 – 3:30pm-5pm, Village Harvest Distribution
June 25 – Bishop’s Schedule
June 25 – 8:30am – Prayer Walk through Port Royal – "Beating of the Bounds"
June 25 – 10:00am – Bishop meets with those being received, confirmed.
June 25 – 11:00am, Holy Eucharist, Rite II, Bishop Visitation
June 25 – 12:00pm, Reception for the Bishop and those received, confirmed
Sunday, June 25 Readings and Servers
Welcome, Bishop Shannon!
The Rt. Rev. Shannon S. Johnston will be at St Peter’s on Sunday, June 25th. Bishop Shannon became Bishop Coajutator in 2007 and assumed the Bishop role in 2009 when Bishop Lee retired. Catherine was in the first group of people that Bishop Shannon ordained to the priesthood in 2010. He last visited St. Peter’s on June 13, 2013.
Well known facts about the Bishop
1. He is very musical and did not major in religion in college He graduated Magna cum Laude in 1981 with degrees in both philosophy and music. He was an oboist.
2. He is an avid collector of classical music but still rocks out with Led Zeppelin.
3. The Bishop is a big fan of the Crimson Tide of Alabama and the Green Bay Packers!
At this year’s Annual Convention in January, Bishop Shannon said,” I must be more of a public activist about the values to which I feel called by my faith in Jesus as the Lord of life and by the whole record of the sacred Scriptures. “
“I’ve been calling this awareness ‘faith in the public square,’ and it compels me not only for my ministry and role as a bishop but also simply as an individual Christian person. I shall seek to articulate and bring a concrete witness to our Christian values as declared with unambiguous specificity in the Baptismal Covenant. In my view, this will most often involve our promise to “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself” and to “strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.”
One of Bishop Shannon’s recent initiatives is the Truro Institute, a project with our Anglican brothers and sisters that seeks to find common ground and reconciliation among Christians. He wrote recently, “Several years ago, someone sitting next to me on a plane asked what I did for a living. When I told her, she said, ‘The Episcopal Church – isn’t that the one with the lawsuits?" Soon, I hope such a person would say, ‘Isn’t that the one with the peacemakers?"
All Christians of other denominations who have been baptized with water and in the name of the Trinity, who have as adults made a prior affirmation of their baptismal vows and who wish to be received "into the fellowship of this Communion," shall be presented to the Bishop for reception. Woody and Cherry Everett and Jon and Toni Faibisy will be received by Bishop Shannon.
Those who were baptized as infants and who for the first time wish as mature adults to commit themselves to Christ and to renew their Baptismal Vows will receive the episcopal laying on of hands for confirmation. Felicia Huffman will be confirmed by Bishop Shannon.
The primary intent of confirmation is to provide one the occasion in the presence of the Bishop and the gathered community, to profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and to invoke God’s help through the Holy Spirit to live as a witnessing Christian in the world.
Bishop Shannon’s schedule at St. Peter’s
As this is written, the Bishop is in Kenya and his schedule won’t be confirmed until he returns on Tuesday. Here is what we hope to be doing. Check back as the week goes on.
- "Beating the Bounds" 8:30pm (see next story). The Prayer Walk through Port Royal
- 10:00am- Meeting with those being received and confiremd.
- 11:00am – Holy Eucharist
- 12:00pm – Reception for the Bishop and those received and confirmated
We are also covering this as a Prayer Walk Through Port Royal which will begin at 8:30am.
Message from Catherine. We are going to process from St Peter’s through town, stopping at various spots in town for prayers concerning our town of Port Royal. This is a great opportunity for us to witness to the community as a whole, to be out praying for the well-being of our town and the people of Port Royal. All are welcome! The walk will cover exactly one mile, and will probably take about an hour. If you’d like to join in at any point, that is also fine. For more information, please call me.
"Beating the Bounds" is an old British tradition going back to the Anglo Saxon period when the priest of the parish with the churchwardens and the parochial officials headed a crowd of boys who, armed with green boughs, usually birch or willow, "beat" the parish boundary markers with them. It could even involve "whipping" the boys so they would remember! It was usually done on Rogation week or Ascension Day.
At Turnworth in Dorset the parish register records the process in 1747. The word "perambulation" associated with this process of walking the perimeter of the property to determine its bounds:
1747. On Ascension Day after morning prayer at Turnworth Church, was made a public Perambulation of the bounds of the parish of Turnworth by me Richd. Cobbe, Vicar, Wm. Northover, Churchwarden, Henry Sillers and Richard Mullen, Overseers and others with 4 boys; beginning at the Church Hatch and cutting a great T on the most principal parts of the bounds. Whipping the boys by way of remembrance, and stopping their cry with some half-pence; we returned to church again, which Perambulation and Processioning had not been made for five years last past.
In a time when maps were not universal, the knowledge of the extent of Parish boundaries was important to designate the area the church was responsible for repairs, for graves to be maintained as well as to prevent any encroachment. "Beating the Bounds" was a way to be able to transmit this knowledge to the next generation.
Although not needed today, it is still performed in many communities periodically to build community and to maintain the tradition. Priests would pray for its protection in the forthcoming year and often Psalms 103 and 104 were recited.
Best of VBS, 2017 
Cookie and Johnny off on a mission to the Dominican Republic, June 21
Jesus sent out his disciples in today’s gospel and so today we are sending out Johnny and Cookie Davis as missioners to the Dominican Republic for a week trip beginning June 21. They have been helping a young student Luis Garcia for a decade. Cookie met him while on the ECW Board. Her first mission trip to the there was in 2005 with Bishop Frank Gray.
He visited St Peter’s in Christmas, 2011 where we had two readings of Luke 2, one in Spanish from Luis and one in English from Catherine. His visit led to this this story. His passion was to be a priest and he entered seminary. His story has been a mixture of success in becoming a priest and also a set of challenges…
Summer Village Harvest, June 21, 2017
World Refugee Day, June 20
World Refugee Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000 to honor the contributions of refugees throughout the world and to raise awareness about the growing refugee crisis in places like Syria and Central Africa,
What is a refugee ? Refugee” is a legal term used to define an individual who:
“…owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.” (1951 Geneva Refugee Convention.
An unprecedented 65.3 million people around the world have been forced from home. Among them are nearly 21.3 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18.
There are also 10 million stateless people who have been denied a nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement.
34,000 people are forcibly displaced each day.
84,955 were resettled in the US during 2016. The highest number of refugees from any nation came from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Congo accounted for 16,370 refugees followed by Syria (12,587), Burma (aka Myanmar, with 12,347), Iraq (9,880) and Somalia (9,020).
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry on World Refugee Day
"In the late 1930s, as the world was on the verge of being plunged into an apocalyptic Second World War, Episcopalians and the Episcopal Church gathered together and began work to resettle those who were refugees fleeing terror in Europe, helping to resettle families, helping to resettle young people, helping to resettle people in this country in safety and security.
"Since the 1930s, Episcopalians have been involved in the work of resettling families and people who are refugees, some 80,000.
"At that time, in the 1930s there was a poster that depicted Mary, the baby Jesus, and Joseph. Mary was on the donkey. They were clearly on a journey. They were fleeing Palestine. They were seeking to find safety in Egypt. They were refugees. The poster from the 1930s read, “In the name of these refugees, aid all refugees.”
"In the name of Mary, Joseph and the Lord Jesus, aid all refugees today, for most of the refugees like the Holy Family themselves, are families, and most are children. I invite you to observe June 20 as World Refugee Day to learn more about the crisis and to find ways that you can both pray and help in other ways. God bless you, God keep you, and you keep the faith.
Why We Should Welcome Refugees?
Business Insider has written.."Immigrants can strengthen nations. A UK study found migrants boosted the British economy, deepened its labor force, raised wages of native workers, and boosted tax revenues.
"An influx of refugees into Denmark in the 1980s created increased competition for jobs, which encouraged native Danish workers to boost their skill sets. A German economist said immigration would quickly boost economic output in the EU (Euractiv).
"Many thriving entrepreneurs are also immigrants, such as Elon Musk of Tesla, Google’s Sergey Brin, and WhatsApp’s Jan Koum. Oh, and Steve Jobs’ dad was a Syrian immigrant." Enterpreneur Magazine has said the same thing. Plus refugees bring their own skillset – "By bringing their unique perspectives and skill sets to a new country, refugees are more than capable of finding new ways of doing business." Many are not trying to take jobs but create jobs.
Moreover throughout the Bible there are numerous statements from the Old to the New Testament on welcoming the stranger."Deuteronomy 10: "You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." The in Hebrews 13: "Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it."
June 24th – Nativity of John the Baptist
June 24 is the day that the church observes for birth of John the Baptist, the prophet who foretold the coming of the Messiah and who baptized Jesus.
John the Baptist came from a family of priests and has been associated with the Essenes. The Essenes were a Jewish mystical sect somewhat resembling the Pharisees. They have been identified as living at Qumran, a plateau in the Judean Desert along the Dead Sea. Some have linked them to the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Despite the remarkable similarities in their teachings, John was never identified as an Essene, was not a member of any community, and cannot be placed definitively at Qumran. He proclaimed his message publicly rather than seeking the shelter of a monastic setting like that of Qumran.
The Birth of John the Baptist, or Nativity of the Forerunner) is a Christian feast day celebrating the birth of John the Baptist, a prophet who foretold the coming of the Messiah in the person of Jesus and who baptized Jesus. The day of a Saint’s death is usually celebrated as his or her feast day, but Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist, while not being exceptions to this rule also have feast days that celebrate their earthly birth. The reason is that St. John (Luke 1:15), like the Blessed Virgin, was purified from original sin before his very birth (in Catholic doctrine), though not in the instant of conception as in the latter case.
Lectionary, June 25, 2017, Pentecost 3, year A
I.Theme – Living in a new way
"Calling of the Disciples" – Domenico Ghirlandaio (1481)
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Jeremiah 20:7-13
Psalm – Psalm 69: 8-11, (12-17), 18-20
Epistle –Romans 6:1b-11
Gospel – Matthew 10:24-39
Today’s readings help us to recognize that God’s strength will always help us as we witness to our faith. In the face of terror, the prophet Jeremiah remembers God’s promises. Paul reminds the Roman community that God’s great gift of salvation overflows freely. In the gospel, Jesus reassures his disciples of their great worth to God.
Anything but Ordinary! Ordinary Time
Basically, Ordinary Time encompasses that part of the Christian year that does not fall within the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, or Easter.
Ordinary Time is anything but ordinary. According to The General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, the days of Ordinary Time, especially the Sundays, "are devoted to the mystery of Christ in all its aspects." We continue our trek through the both the Gospels of Luke and John- through parables challenges, healings – some great stories and teachings.
Lent is about preparing people to live as disciples of Jesus. Easter Season is about giving especially the newly baptized or confirmed time to focus deeply on the doctrinal foundations of the faith and on discerning the Spirit’s calling and gifts for ministry, culminating in a celebration and commissioning for these ministries at Pentecost. The Season after Pentecost is about seeking the Spirit’s guidance and supporting one another as we undertake these ministries in Christ’s name.
While there are parts of Ordinary Time through the year, we think of Trinity Sunday until Christ the King Sunday or up to Advent as the Sundays of Ordinary Time.