Frontpage, Jan. 2, 2022

Christmas 2

Jan. 2 – 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

• Bulletin Jan. 2, 2022
• Sermon Jan. 2, 2022
• Prayers of the People Jan. 2, 2022
• Commentary Jan. 2, 2022

Jan. 2 – 7:00pm, Compline on Zoom – Join here at 6:30pm for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID 834 7356 6532 Password 748475

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Jan 3 – 6:30am – Be Still Meditation group in a 20 minute time of prayer Meeting ID: 879 8071 6417 Passcode: 790929

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Bible Study 10am-12pm on Wed. Jan. 5

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Jan. 6 – 12:00pm, National Epiphany Service

Join Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, Washington Bishop Mariann Budde, the Rev. Glenna Huber, and other local and national leaders for a livestreamed celebration of Epiphany, the season of light, from the Church of the Epiphany in Washington, D.C. More details, here

This Epiphany, we will proclaim that we recognize Christ alive and moving wherever people are looking, acting, and loving like Jesus. Bishop Curry will invite Episcopalians to commit afresh to becoming vibrant, loving, healing, truth-telling embodiments of Jesus and his light—in our communities and in our nation.

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Jan. 9 – 11:00am, Morning Prayer, Jesus Baptism

Jan. 9 – 7:00pm, Compline on Zoom – Join here at 6:30am for gathering – service starts at 7pm Meeting ID 834 7356 6532 Password 748475

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An End of Year Wrap-up: 2021 at St. Peter’s

We have text, pictures and videos with an introduction at the beginning.

Two major trends- 1 how we gradually got back in the church after worshiping only online and restarted ministries 2. Increasing outreach and mission activities, major steps for a small church .

In the course of both trends, dealing with the effects of the pandemic in organizing ministry and finding a smaller congregation were challenges. But new talent invigorated us all and older talent took on new roles over the year that made the difference. Thanks to all who contributed to St. Peter’s ministries during 2021.

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January 2022 Newsletter is out!

In Jan we are both looking back and looking forward in our newsletter

Link

Highlights

• Rector’s review of the year, 2021 Page 1 -2
• Initiatives for 2022 Page 2
• Page 4-5 All about Epiphany and the Gospel readings in Jan
• Reading the book of Exodus in the Good Book Club, Page 5. Sign up now
• Page 7 – Series on Preparing your Legacy begins Tues Jan 18 on Zoom
• Thank yous from some of our ministry work, Page 8
• -Page 9 – St. Peter our patron saint

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Epiphany –  Jan 6 until Lent  begins March 2, 2022

Adoration of the Magi – Bartholomäus Zeitblom (c. 1450 – c. 1519)

The English word “Epiphany” comes from the Greek word epiphaneia, which means “appearing” or “revealing.” Epiphany focuses on God’s self-revelation in Christ.  

Epiphany celebrates the twelfth day of Christmas, the coming of the Magi to give homage to God’s Beloved Child. 

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The Epiphany celebration remembers the three miracles that manifest the divinity of Christ. The celebration originated in the Eastern Church in AD 361, beginning as a commemoration of the birth of Christ. Later, additional meanings were added – the visit of the three Magi, Christ’s baptism in the Jordan River with the voice from heaven that identifies Jesus as God’s son, and his first miracle at the wedding in Cana. These three events are central to the definition of Epiphany, and its meaning is drawn from these occurrences.

More about Epiphany

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The Setting for Sunday, Jan 9

We have just celebrated the birth of Christ and will experience his death and resurrection on April 21. However, one key event we should put in the same category is Jesus’ baptism.  This Sunday is one of the weeks set aside for baptisms since we remember the baptism of Jesus early in Epiphany.  We usually include the section in the prayer book for the renewal of the Baptismal Covenant in the service. In the past we have also "sprinkled" people.

We have many of our baptism articles one page, the Baptism Page.

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Baptism in the Episcopal Church

From the Episcopal Library "This is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Body, the church. God establishes an indissoluble bond with each person in baptism. God adopts us, making us members of the church and inheritors of the Kingdom of God (BCP, pp. 298, 858). In baptism we are made sharers in the new life of the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of sins. Baptism is the foundation for all future church participation and ministry."

 

From the Diocese of New York

We owe much to the Apostle Paul who, through his writings, left a record of how the early Christian community understood Baptism. 

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by Baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3-4). 

Baptism was, for the early Christian community, a sacramental action to convey that one was experiencing spiritual conversion and renewal–the end of one life and the beginning of another in Christ. By using the metaphorical language and imagery of death, burial, and resurrection, the early community ceremonially expressed, that in Baptism, we die to our destructive and distorted ways of being, relating, and acting, and that by the goodness and faithfulness of God, we are raised from death to a new life, guided by and filled with the Spirit of God. It was an outward and visible sign of the spiritual transformation God was doing in one’s life. It was a symbolic action performed to depict what was happening within the life of one on a spiritual journey towards communion with God, the people of God, and all God’s creation. 

Although the metaphor of being raised from death to new life is the dominant image of Christian Baptism in the New Testament, no single image or metaphor can exhaust the rich meaning of one’s conversion and experience of spiritual renewal. Consequently, there developed other images and metaphors in Scripture that express how the early Chrisitan community spoke of their conversion of life and experience of renewal in the Holy Spirit. Among them are: 

Spiritual Rebirth (John 3:3-10)
Spiritual Awakening (Romans 8:37-39)
Initiation into the Body of Christ (I Corinthians 12:12-13)
Transformation of the whole person (Romans 12:1-2)
Made a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17)
To turn from darkness to light (Ephesians 5:8, Colossians 1:11-14)
To be saved (Titus 3:3-7)

One 0f the questions in baptism is whether infants or children should be baptized automatically or there is a specific age ?

Read more about baptism…

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Lectionary, Jan. 9, 2022

I. Theme – Participating in Jesus’ Baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit

Baptism of Christ – Fra Angelico (1400-1455)

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

Old Testament – Isaiah 43:1-7
Psalm – Psalm 29
Epistle – Acts 8:14-17
Gospel – Luke 3:15-17, 21-22    

The first Sunday in Epiphany is traditionally about Jesus’ baptism. However, this year, the focus is less on Jesus, and more on how God’s people are invited to participate in the baptism and to receive God’s Spirit.

Isaiah suggests that God chooses and gathers us to bring compassion and justice to a suffering world. In the Psalm, God’s voice is celebrated, which shakes the earth, but which also – by implication in the Psalm – strengthens and brings peace to God’s people, even as God’s voice affirmed Jesus. In Acts, we witness Peter and John spreading the good news of Jesus Christ beyond their comfortable social and ethnic borders. In today’s gospel, Jesus is baptized, and we are invited to acknowledge him as God’s “Son, the Beloved.” It is significant that Jesus begins his public life with baptism. Not only is he baptized, he also hears the assurance of the Holy Spirit. A voice proclaims him God’s beloved, empowering him and sending him to the blind, the lame and the prisoners awaiting his good news.

We read about baptism year after year because God is still at work in the world, and still invites us to participate in God’s saving and liberating work. But, to do this, we, like Jesus, will need to be strengthened and empowered. We will need to be baptised in the Holy Spirit. We surrender our usual sense of control, because we must sacrifice what we are for what we might become.

Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell writes of the symbolism of the waters in the passages

" The waters were a symbol of trial and tribulation, a boundary to be crossed, perhaps the Red Sea or the Jordan River in ancient times. For the people who had been exiled, the waters may have symbolized the entire time of exile—a turbulent time in which all they knew had been taken from them. For Christians, we seem the waters of baptism as a symbol of those trials and troubles, a symbol of death itself, and we come out on the other side, with the gift of new life, the hope of resurrection, everlasting life in Christ. We commemorate the baptism of Jesus today, reminded that we all have the gift of new life, of starting again with God, of renewing our commitments and reorienting our lives to God. The same God whose voice called out over the waters, who called down from above over the waters of Jesus’ baptism, is the same voice that calls us Beloved, and calls us into the promise of new life"

Read more..

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