We are a small Episcopal Church in the village of Port Royal, Va., united in our love for God, for one another and our neighbor. Check out our welcome.
July 4 – Celebrating Independence
1. Religion in the Declaration
2. The Real Purpose of the Declaration
3. The Signers – by the Numbers
Celebrating Independence in 2019
Read the story and look at the pictures
July 4 – 11:00am, Holy Eucharist. In person in the church or on Zoom. – Join here at 10:45am for gathering – service starts at 11am Meeting ID: 869 9926 3545 Passcode: 889278
July 4 – 12pm. July 4 picnic sponsored by the Episcopal Men.
July 4 – 7:00pm, Compline on Zoom – Join here at 6:30am for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID 834 7356 6532 Password 748475
July 5 – 6:30am – Be Still Meditation group in a 20 minute time of prayer Meeting ID: 879 8071 6417 Passcode: 790929
July 7 – 10:00am-12pm, Bible Study on Wednesday is back – in person!
July 11 – 11:00am, Holy Eucharist
Bring your donations of hand sanitizer to the church for Caroline’s Promise
July 11 – 7:00pm, Compline on Zoom – Join here at 6:30am for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID 834 7356 6532 Password 748475
Looking back to the beginning of Summer, 2016, 5 years ago
Traveling back in time for June and July, 2016 marks the transition from spring to summer. We have a slide show and a description.
Look back to June, July 2016(full size gallery)
Here are some of the events that happened over the 2 month period:
1. Altarpiece center portion and other sections completed so scaffolding could be removed in July
A. July 21, 2016
B. July 13, 2016
C. July 3, 2016
D. June 26, 2016
E. June 11, 2016
F. June 11, 2016
F. June 9, 2016
G. June 6, 2016
2. Church steeple top and parish house painted
3. Vacation Bible school for 4 days, led by Becky Fisher with a program focusing on the resurrection of Jesus
4. Training for acolytes occurred
5. Village Harvest continued with the largest produce distribution in July -We gave out 1277 pounds of produce and 315 pounds of things like peanut butter, canned fruit, tuna, etc. on July 20, 2016. The amount of produce was a record produce distribution in the history of this ministry.
6. Village Harvest Luncheon. We invited a group from the Village Harvest food distribution to meet with parishioners for overall fellowship as well as to see their needs in relationship to the existing Village Harvest program which has been ongoing since Nov. 2014. How well is it going ? Any changes ? We had 11 from the food distribution and 9 from St. Peter’s.
7. Callie completed her service with Godly Play on July 17. She preached and there was a reception. Marilyn provided the communion music on her new harp. It was a plain song that could have been heard at St. Peter’s at the time the altarpiece was created (1853).
8. We received materials from Nepal commemorating our work with that country
9. July 4, 2016. The venue of the program presented by Historic Port Royal was switched to St. Peter’s because of the impending rain.
10. Shrine Mont received matching grant of $50,000—And we can help match this grant.
11. Ken started up Port Royal Tutoring this time with a focus on high school juniors and rising seniors who take the PSAT test, emphasizing math
12. Continuing – the beautiful light in the church, Cookie’s altar flowers
13. Reappearance of our first Godly Play teacher, Amy Turner who was just hired in Florida as a chaplain
Donating Hand Sanitizer to Caroline’s Promise
We have frequently partnered with Caroline’s Promise over the years. This year, we are helping out with the school supply drive to benefit our Caroline County students.
St Peter’s will be donating HAND SANITIZER. Our goal is to contribute 250 bottles to be distributed to students along with other school supplies on Saturday, July 31st. Bring your donation of hand sanitizer to church and place in the back pew no later than Sunday, July 18th.
Caroline’s Promise works to help young people in Caroline County to succeed by providing a healthy start and future, one of their five promises. You can read more about Caroline’s Promise.
Lectionary, July 11 , 7th Sunday after Pentecost, Year B
I. Theme – Participation in Christ’s Ministry and Mission
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Amos 7:7-15
Psalm – Psalm 85:8-13 Page 709, BCP
Epistle –Ephesians 1:3-14
Gospel – Mark 6:14-29
Today’s readings invite us to reflect on our participation in Christ’s mission and ministry. A unifying theme in today’s scriptures is that when we try to be people-pleasers, when we say what others want to hear, we are denying the fullness of God’s intention for us. Rather, when we give ourselves over to God–when we authentically praise God with our words, our actions, our very lives–we find our own fulfillment and satisfaction in participating in God’s reign on earth. However, if we are like Herod, wanting to hear the word of God but wanting to please others, we end up doing things contrary to the Gospel. We talk the talk but don’t walk the walk, so to speak. God’s desire for us is the fullness of life, and in order to achieve that we must give ourselves fully to God’s ways of justice, love and peace.
Sometimes, like Amos, following God’s call is very difficult, even life-threatening. Amos defends his prophetic calling in the face of opposition from Israel’s rulers. In 2 Samuel, David brings the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem with song and dancing. The author of Ephesians reminds us that God has chosen us from the beginning to share in the redemptive work of Christ. Jesus instructs and sends out twelve disciples to share in his ministry.
We might expect a drum roll, or at least a lightning flash, when God chooses human beings to participate in God’s work. Yet in today’s readings we see a more human, humble face of the choice described so beautifully to the Ephesians. God “chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.”
Amos is an example of the lord’s stamp of destiny on responsive people, whom God may call from any modest quarter, fill with the Holy Spirit, and commission to speak God’s word. Amos had no credentials as a prophet, and sounds rather bewildered that he was called away from his sheep and sycamores. Nevertheless, he had no doubt that he had been divinely called to speak God’s word.
Like the people in Nazareth who turned a deaf ear to Jesus, so Amos’s listeners rejected his unpopular message. In less than fifty years, however, his prediction came true.
When Jesus sent out twelve disciples, they were ill-equipped by our standards—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, no extra clothes. Only sandals on their feet—to carry them to the receptive and away from the unreceptive; and a staff—a support for walking and perhaps a symbol of the shepherd’s profession. Neither were they prepared for their mission by understanding fully what it was all about. Jesus sent them out with a message that had made him offensive even to his own family. Yet something about him must have impelled them to go forth with the same message.
How then do we follow their model? Perhaps they show us that we needn’t have our own houses perfectly in order before we minister to others. Nor do we need to spruce up our credentials: apparently none of the disciples took theology courses in the seminary. Jesus calls them in their ordinary clothes, pursuing their usual routines. To do his work, it seems more important to have a companion than a new wardrobe.
Their willingness enables them to drive out demons and cure the sick. They discover powers they didn’t know they had. And people knew there had been followers of Jesus among them. These disciples had been chosen for an astonishing destiny.
Read more about the lectionary…
David Lose on Mark’s Death of John the Baptist story
David Lose is a Lutheran minister
"Close reader’s of Mark’s story have noticed several things about this scene over the years that make it stand out: it’s one of the longest sustained narrative scenes in the Gospel, Jesus does not appear in it at all, it seems to interrupt the flow of the rest of the story, and it’s told in flashback, the only time that Mark employs such a device. Because of these features, the scene is not only as suspenseful and ultimately grisly as anything on television, but it is unlike anything else in Mark’s account and seems almost out of place, even misplaced as a story looking for another narrative home.
" Which has occasioned the question over the years as to why Mark reports it at all. Later evangelists must have asked the same question, as Matthew shortens it markedly and Luke omits it altogether. The majority opinion is that it serves two key purposes in Mark: it foreshadows Jesus’ own grisly death and it serves as an interlude between Jesus’ sending of the disciples and their return some unknown number of days or weeks later.
" But while these are undoubtedly plausible explanations, I think there’s another reason altogether, and that’s simply to draw a contrast between the two kinds of kingdoms available to Jesus disciples, both then and ever since. Consider: Mark, tells this story as a flashback, out of its narrative sequence, which means he could have put this scene anywhere. But he puts it here, not simply between the sending and receiving of the disciples but, more specifically, just after Jesus has commissioned his disciples to take up the work of the kingdom of God and when he then joins them in making that kingdom three-dimensional, tangible, and in these ways seriously imaginable.
"Herod’s Kingdom – the kingdom of the world and, for that matter, Game of Thrones and all the other dramas we watch because they mirror and amplify the values of our world – is dominated by the will to power, the will to gain influence over others. This is the world where competition, fear and envy are the coins of the realm, the world of not just late night dramas and reality television but also the evening news, where we have paraded before us the triumphs and tragedies of the day as if they are simply givens, as if there is no other way of being in the world and relating to each other.
Amos or Amaziah?
By Dan Clendenin for Journey with Jesus
Amos, Cologne Cathedral, 12th century
"It’s hard to read Mark 6 about the beheading of John the Baptist and not think about the grotesque images of ISIS. Whatever else ISIS is doing, it’s pimping religion for a political cause.
"And that’s exactly what this week’s reading from Amos is about.
"Amos wrote 2,800 years ago, but his prophecy reads like today’s newspaper. He lived under king Jeroboam II, who reigned for forty-one years (786–746 BC). Jeroboam’s kingdom was characterized by territorial expansion, aggressive militarism, and unprecedented economic prosperity.
"Times were good. Or so people thought.
"The people of the day interpreted their good fortune as God’s favor. Amos says that the people were intensely and sincerely religious.
"But theirs was a privatized religion of personal benefit. They ignored the poor, the widow, the alien, and the orphan. Their form of religion degraded faith to culturally acceptable rituals.
"Making things worse, Israel’s religious leaders sanctioned the political and economic status quo. They pimped their religion for Jeroboam’s empire.
"Enter Amos. Amos preached from the pessimistic and unpatriotic fringe. He was blue collar rather than blue blooded. He admits that he was neither a prophet nor even the son of a prophet in the professional sense of the term.
"Amos was a shepherd, a farmer, and a tender of fig trees. He was a small town boy who grew up in Tekoa, about twelve miles southeast of Jerusalem and five miles south of Bethlehem. The cultured elites despised him as a redneck.
"Furthermore, he was an unwelcome outsider. Born in the southern kingdom of Judah, God called him to thunder a prophetic word to the northern kingdom of Israel.
Make a Gift Today! 2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector 4. Server Schedule July, 2021 5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (July, 2021) 6. Calendar 9. Latest Sunday Bulletin (July 4, 2021 11:00am), and Sermon (July 4, 2021) 10. Recent Services: Readings and Prayers, Pentecost 3, June 13, 2021 Readings and Prayers, Pentecost 4, June 20, 2021 Readings and Prayers, Pentecost 5, June 27, 2021 |
Block Print by Mike Newman
Projects
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, July 4, 2021 – July 11, 2021
|
4
|
Independence Day |
|
5
|
|
|
6
6 |
[Eva Lee Matthews], Monastic, 1928 Jan Hus, Prophetic Witness and Martyr, 1415 |
|
7
|
|
|
8
|
[Priscilla & Aquila], Coworkers of the Apostle Paul |
|
9
|
|
|
10
|
|
|
11
|
Benedict of Nursia, Monastic, c. 540 |