We are a small Episcopal Church on the banks of the Rappahannock in Port Royal, Virginia. We acknowledge that we gather on the traditional land of the first people of Port Royal, the Nandtaughtacund, who are still here, and we honor with gratitude the land itself and the life of the Rappahannock Tribe. Our mission statement is to do God’s Will in all that we do. We welcome all people to our church.
The river from Sun., Oct. 24, 2021
Oct. 31 – 11:00am, 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
Oct. 31 – 7:00pm, Compline on Zoom – Join here at 6:30pm for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID: 878 7167 9302 Passcode: 729195
Nov 1 – 6:30am – Be Still Meditation group in a 20 minute time of prayer Meeting ID: 879 8071 6417 Passcode: 790929
Nov. 3 – 10:00am-12pm Bible Study
Nov. 4 – Sacred Ground, 7pm
The group is currently reading All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, A Black Family Keepsake, by Tiya Miles, and will be discussing Chapters 3-5 at the November meeting. As the year draws to a close, we will also be discussing our next tangible steps in working toward the work of racial healing in ourselves, our church, and our community. All are welcome. Please prayerfully consider joining this group and joining in the discussion.
The meeting will be meeting via Zoom. Meeting ID: 869 0445 9075, Passcode: 715981
Nov. 7 – 11:00am, All Saints Sunday
Nov. 7 – 7:00pm, Compline on Zoom – Join here at 6:30am for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID 834 7356 6532 Password 748475
ECW donates $3,000 to outreach in 2021!
How best to donate $3,000? Hold a tea party and invite your friends!
Under the glorious autumn sky of late October (October 27, 2021), the ECW met on Cookie’s patio for tea and conversation This year’s Village Dinner proceeds of $3,000 from the monthly dinners will go to the following groups:
- St Peter’s Discretionary Fund
- St Andrew’s School in Richmond, VA. This Episcopal school provides quality education for children who come from low income families.
- Tunnel to Towers Foundation Supports the families of fallen first responders and the military by providing mortgage free smart homes for the catastrophically injured and their families.
- Wounded Warrior Project provides services and programs and events for wounded veterans.
- Five Talents. Helps the world’s most vulnerable families escape poverty through microfinance, job creation and education.
- Heifer International Provides livestock and training to help people end poverty and hunger in their families and communities.
- Episcopal Relief and Development works to end poverty and to provide immediate disaster relief worldwide through The Episcopal Church.
- The Rev. Luis Garcia, priest in the Dominican Republic, to support his ministry in the several churches that he serves.
- Caroline’s Promise provides resources for the children of Caroline County through partnership with churches, businesses, and the Caroline County Board of Supervisors.
- The Victoria School in Jamaica Providing increased access to technology for the students.
All Saints Remembrances for All Saints Sunday
The All Saint’s Day Service is Nov 7.
Email Catherine by Monday, Nov. 1 with the names of those who have died in the past year that you would like to have remembered.
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Nov. 7, 2021 – 2am – Set your clocks back!
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Events in November
- Village Dinner – Nov. 11, 5pm-6pm takeout – Turkey, Dressing, Mashed Potato, Green Beans, Cranberry Salad, Dessert
- Annual Convention, Diocese of Virginia – Nov 12-13. On Zoom
- ECM Thanksgiving, Christmas collection . Please make a check to St Peter’s with ECM in the memo line. Donations by Nov. 15 will go to Thanksgiving and afterwards through to their Christmas donations (through Dec. 15). The Department of Social Services will be providing families with secure store specific grocery limited gift cards due to the ongoing pandemic.
- UTO – By Nov. 28. Supporting Care of Creation this year
- Giving Tuesday, Nov. 30, Supporting the Village Harvest.
The ECM (Episcopal Church Men) Holiday Challenge (until Dec. 15)!
From Ken Pogue, ECM Chair.
“Each year the Episcopal Church Men help St Peter’s provide support to those in need during the holidays. The men coordinate with the Caroline County Department of Social Services to provide families in the area with Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas gifts.
This year the Department of Social Services will be providing families with secure store specific grocery limited gift cards due to the ongoing pandemic.
Ken Pogue says on behalf of the ECM, “Your donations are greatly appreciated by the ECM and the recipients of the gifts, especially the children. Thank you so very much in advance from a grateful community for your love and your participation” in this worthy holiday project.
If you’d like to donate, please make a check to St Peter’s with ECM in the memo line. For a Thanksgiving donation, please make your donation by November 15th. Donations after the 15th will be used to assist families at Christmas.
In 2020, $1200 was donated to Caroline County Social Services in November for Thanksgiving and Christmas which was more than double the year before.
The United Thanks Offering Collection
In spite of the pandemic, the United Thank Offering is alive and well. The UTO distributed over two million dollars in the form of grants to breathe love, liberation, and life into communities around the world.
The money that you donate to the UTO this year will be given away to support innovative projects focused on care of creation led by Episcopal/Anglican ministries. Read about the UTO in 2022.
“Jesus says we are to love God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. What if we could see all of creation as our neighbor? How would that change our prayers and our actions? Anytime we use the toil of our hands to bring newness and restoration to the world, cultivating gratitude and love alongside clean water and healthy soil, we become part of God’s healing process in creation. How better to love all our neighbors?- Jerusalem Greer, Staff Officer for Evangelism
You can make a donation by writing a check to St Peter’s and putting UTO in the memo line. The ingathering will begin on Sunday, November 7th and the ingathering will take place on the first Sunday of Advent, Sunday, November 28th. This offering is a great way to express gratitude for the blessings of this life.
The Reformation began Oct. 31, 1517
Reformation Day is a religious holiday celebrated on October 31, alongside All Hallows’ Eve, in remembrance of the Reformation, particularly by Lutheran and some Reformed church communities. It is a civic holiday in some German states.
It celebrates Martin Luther’s posting of the 95 theses on the church door at Wittenberg in Germany on Oct. 31, 1517. The event is seen as sparking the Protestant Reformation.
There are some questions of fact. The event was not publicized until 1546 by Philipp Melanchthon and no contemporaneous evidence exists for Luther’s posting of the theses. At the time, it was common for scholars to post their debate points on the door where people could read them. Copies of Luther’s theses and his fiery follow-up sermons were mass produced on a relatively new invention the printing press.
Luther’s movement began as a criticism of Catholic practices, not to split off from the Catholic church. Sinners could buy God’s forgiveness by purchasing an indulgence. Luther preferred justification by faith. He also wanted people to read the Bible in their own languages and not just in Latin
The Reformation led to the split from one Catholic church to Protestant ones. There are now nearly 45,000 Protestant denominations around the world, including mainline Protestants, Anglicans, Evangelicals, Pentecostals and more.
It has been seen as the most significant event in Western Christian history and mirror in which we measure ourselves today. Many of the differences that promoted the reformation have been solved – indulgences, justification by faith and having the Bible printed in multiple languages. Others such marriage of priests, same sex marriages are still divisive. Will they be able celebrate communion together ? That may take another reformation.
Here is an impromptu performance after the 11am service on Oct. 27, 2019 of part of Luther’s famous hymn. He wrote the words and composed the melody sometime between 1527 and 1529:
Links
2. How Martin Luther Changed the World
4. Transcript from Christianity: First 3000 years
5. The English Reformation extended from this event which created the Church of England, the ancestor of the Episcopal Church. Henry VIII was made Supreme Head of the Church by an Act of Parliament in 1534. The country was still Catholic but the pope’s power had been ended. By the time of his death in 1547, the Lord’s Prayer was said in English in the English Bible (written in English) and the monasteries have been dissolved. The first prayer book was in 1549 in the time of Henry’s successor Edward. Read More
The End of October, Early Nov. – a summary
Halloween originated in Celtic cultures the day before Samhain, the beginning of the Celtic winter. It focused on death blending in the supernatural. The Catholic Church incorporated non-Christian traditions into its holidays to bring people to the church. It scheduled All Saints (Nov 1 ) and All Souls (Nov. 2) after Halloween. All Soul’s focused on those who had died without the supernatural. All Saints celebrated all who believed and were baptized The word saint originally meant “holy”. Later it became a feast day commemorating all martyrs.
All Saints Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021
“Saints are those who by their life and work make it clear and plain that God lives.”––Nathan Söderblom
In our Baptismal Covenant we, along with traditional Christians around the globe, profess in the ancient Baptismal Creed the words: “I believe in… the communion of saints, … the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.” (Book of Common Prayer, page 304)
From its very beginning, the Church understood the Body of Christ to encompass all baptized persons, both the living and the dead. Christ’s kingdom transcends time and space; and not even death can sever the relationship that the faithful have in Christ.
All are united in a mystical communion with Christ by virtue of baptism (1 Corinthians 6:11). The term saint was used by Paul to designate all baptized Christians (Romans 1:7; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Ephesians 1:1), even the unruly ones (1 Corinthians 1:2)!
In the New Testament, all those who believe and were baptized were referred to as saints. The word saint originally meant “holy”.
On All Saints Day, we make celebrate this idea in the here and now by recognizing and celebrating our relationship, not only with those around us today, but also with all those who have gone before us in all times and place. They are connected in one communion.
All Saints is also a time for welcoming new members. Traditionally baptisms are held in the Episcopal Church at the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord, Easter, Pentecost, All Saints and when the Bishop visits.
It wasn’t until round about the third century that the church began using the word saint to refer to those who had been martyred for the faith. The early Church especially honored martyrs, those who had died for their faith. Praying for the dead is actually borrowed from Judaism, as recorded in 2 Maccabees 12:41-45 of the Apocrypha.
Local churches kept a record of their own martyrs and each year celebrated their “birthdays,” the dates of death when they were “born” into eternal life.
By the fourth century many parts of the Church had set a day of observance for their martyrs, their confessors (those who had been punished for their faith but did not die), and their virgins, all of those known by name and unknown.
The celebration of All Saints’ Day on November 1 began as a feast day commemorating all martyrs, confessors and virgin, including those whose names were not known. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV officially established All Saints’ Day in order to honor all the saints at one time.
“The Saints Song”
Here’s a fun romp through history, with a little inspiration from Gilbert & Sullivan.
How many of these saints are you familiar with?
All Saints (Nov 1.) and All Souls (Nov 2)
All Souls began with the emphasis on remembering those who had died, broader than just the martyrs. In addition it was cast wide into Catholic theology. In that tradition , the church commemorated all of those who have died and now are in Purgatory, being cleansed of their venial (forgiven) sins and the temporal punishments for the mortal sins that they had confessed and atoning before entering fully into Heaven.
Read more about the connection
Check out the link above for a “Soul Cake” recipe and a song by “Sting” about it.
All Souls (Nov. 2) and Halloween (Oct. 31)
Halloween originated in Celtic cultures and spread to Christian.
The word Halloween is a contracted form for All Hallows’ (holy persons or saints) Evening- the day before All Saints.
Halloween has been on Oct 31 because of the Celtic traditions. Halloween also not only focused on death but on the concept of death blending in the supernatural. The Church scheduled All Saints and All Souls after Halloween. The emphasis on All Soul’s focused on those who had died only and did not dwell on stories surrounding death.
All Saints Sunday – A Time of Baptism
- McKenna Long – Jan. 2, 2011
- Alexander Long VI – Nov. 4, 2012
- Owen Long – Aug. 4, 2013
Baptism of Scarlett Joy Long is on Nov. 1, 2015. Congratulations! Baptism is one of the sacraments of the Episcopal Church and is one of the times of the year appointed for baptism.
Here are the 3 Whys of Baptism
Lectionary, November 4, All Saints.
I. Theme – The contributions of the saints
“Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”” – John 11:40-44
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9
Old Testament – Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm – Psalm 24 Page 613, BCP
Epistle – Revelation 21:1-6a
Gospel – John 11:32-44
Today’s readings acknowledge the life and witness of the saints of God, including you and all of St. Peter’s.
Isaiah imagines the final, celebratory feast that will be the reward of the faithful. The author of Wisdom affirms that the dead, though gone from our sight, are at peace with God. The author of Revelation similarly depicts the jubilant end of suffering and oppression, replaced with victory and feasting. The gospel reading—the raising of Lazarus—points forward to the final resurrection of all God’s people.
Part of the Church’s genius is its chorus of saints. From the drama of Thomas More saying, “A man can lose his head and still come to no harm!” to the humor of St. Teresa of Avila dancing and singing about the nuisance of fleas in a wool habit, it is a rich mixture. Add to that the variety of the uncanonized-but-nevertheless-still-surely-saints, and we have little excuse to say they are a distant company.
Perhaps they are one way God shows us the multiple faces of the divine. From unassuming parents, who secure and launch a child, to leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and César Chavez, who fought for human rights, these people inspire and challenge us. As one pastor said, “In some ways, the saints were so ordinary. And yet they made it. So maybe I can, too.”
If you read today’s readings as personally addressed to you, and if you read them often enough, you may rise to the expectation. And your smallest attempts will be part of that extraordinary effort to bring, little by little, more light and life to a dark world.
…Read more about the lectionary…
Make a Gift Today! 2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector 5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (Nov., 2021) 6. Calendar 9. Latest Sunday Bulletin (October 31, 2021 11:00am), and Sermon (Oct. 31, 2021) 10. Recent Services: Readings and Prayers, Pentecost 19, Oct. 3, Readings and Prayers, Pentecost 20, Oct. 10, Readings and Prayers, Pentecost 21, Oct. 17, |
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, Oct. 31, 2021 – Nov. 7, 2021
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Paul Shinji Sasaki & Philip Lindel Tsen, Bishops, 1946 & 1954 |
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All Saints |
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All Souls / All Faithful Departed |
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Richard Hooker, Priest & Theologian, 1600 |
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William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1944 |
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7
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Willibrord, Bishop & Missionary, 739 |