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.
Pentecost is… extinguishing of the Paschal Candle, time of prayer, vibrant music, “tongues of fire” descending, 1st hour Coffee hour
June 5 – 11:00am, Pentecost – Join here at 10:45am for gathering – service starts at 11am Meeting ID: 869 9926 3545 Passcode: 889278
It’s Pentecost, Sunday June 5- the 50th day since Easter, the birthday of the church as well as the arrival of the Holy Spirit in dramatic fashion
Pentecost is a time of action. God sends the Holy Spirit to empower the Church to continue the work begun by Jesus, reaching down to transform human hearts amid life’s turmoil. Through the Spirit’s ministry, Christ continues to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, heal the blind, free the oppressed, and proclaim God’s favor (Luke 4.18-19).
The video below shows several of our ministries and the people that make them happen to continue Jesus ministry. God’s energizing power is evident here: vivifying, knitting together, upholding and transforming all life. Our diversity with multiple talents and backgrounds helps to make ministry happen. All of us have a role to play in different way – we all have the potential to be filled. Pentecost is a “Day of Radiant Gladness.”
We invite you to come visit us in person in Port Royal or online (Sundays, 11am) to see if you would like to lend your hand to our work and add your gifts to our work. Everyone is welcome
In person 823 Water Street, Port Royal, VA 22535
Online https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86999263545?pwd=WHpNa1JrU0JOOGdMV3NMRlhmWUVCZz09
June 8 – Bible Study 10am-12pm
June 8 – Village Dinner, 4:30pm-6pm
June 12 – 11:00am, Trinity Sunday – Join here at 10:45am for gathering – service starts at 11am Meeting ID: 869 9926 3545 Passcode: 889278
Trinity Sunday, June 12, 2022
Trinity Sunday, the first Sunday after Pentecost, honors the Holy Trinity—the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Although the word “trinity” does not appear in Scripture, it is taught in Matthew 28:18-20 and 2 Corinthians 13:14 (and many other biblical passages). It lasts only one day, which is symbolic of the unity of the Trinity.
Trinity Sunday is one of the few feasts of the Christian Year that celebrates a reality and doctrine rather than an event or person. The Eastern Churches have no tradition of Trinity Sunday, arguing that they celebrate the Trinity every Sunday.
Understanding of all scriptural doctrine is by faith which comes through the work of the Holy Spirit; therefore, it is appropriate that this mystery is celebrated the first Sunday after the Pentecost, when the outpouring of the Holy Spirit first occurred.
The Trinity is best described in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, commonly called the Nicene Creed. Essentially the Trinity is the belief that God is one in essence (Greek ousia), but distinct in person (Greek hypostasis). The Greek word for person means "that which stands on its own," or "individual reality," but does not mean the persons of the Trinity are three human persons. Therefore we believe that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are somehow distinct from one another (not divided though), yet completely united in will and essence.
Introduction to the Trinity – what it is and what it is not
The core belief
The doctrine of the Trinity is the Christian belief that there is One God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Other ways of referring to the Trinity are the Triune God and the Three-in-One.
The Trinity is a controversial doctrine; many Christians admit they don’t understand it, while many more Christians don’t understand it but think they do.
In fact, although they’d be horrified to hear it, many Christians sometimes behave as if they believe in three Gods and at other times as if they believe in one.
Trinity Sunday, which falls on the first Sunday after Pentecost, is one of the few feasts in the Christian calendar that celebrate a doctrine rather than an event.
Visualizing the Trinity
The Trinity is most commonly seen in Christian art with the Spirit represented by a dove, as specified in the Gospel accounts of the Baptism of Christ; he is nearly always shown with wings outspread. However depictions using three human figures appear occasionally in most periods of art.
The Father and the Son are usually differentiated by age, and later by dress, but this too is not always the case. The usual depiction of the Father as an older man with a white beard may derive from the biblical Ancient of Days, which is often cited in defense of this sometimes controversial representation.
The Son is often shown at the Father’s right hand.[Acts 7:56 ] He may be represented by a symbol—typically the Lamb or a cross—or on a crucifix, so that the Father is the only human figure shown at full size. In early medieval art, the Father may be represented by a hand appearing from a cloud in a blessing gesture, for example in scenes of the Baptism of Christ.
The Apple pie as a symbol of the Trinity.
From a sermon on Trinity Sunday, 2011
"This pie is Trinitarian for several reasons. First of all, it has three parts. It has a crust, it has a filling, and it has a topping. Second, each of the three parts has three ingredients.
"The crust is made of flour with a little salt thrown in, some shortening, and some ice water. The filling contains apples, sugar, and cinnamon. The topping is made of a trinity of flour, butter and sugar.
"When all of these ingredients are subjected to the heat of the oven over a period of time, they merge together into one delicious pie, which would not be complete if any of the ingredients were lacking.
"This apple pie is a great symbol for God as Trinity. In order to understand most fully who God is, we Christians know God as the transcendent God, so mysterious that we will never ever know God fully in this life. We know God as Jesus, who lived and died as one of us—not some far off distant deity, but God who experienced the joys and sorrows of being human. We know God as that voice that whispers to us, bringing us inspiration, understanding, and guidance. The ways in which we know God are incomplete until we embrace all of these ways of knowing God, knowing that even then God remains a mystery. This pie would be incomplete without its three parts."
Hymn of the Week – Holy! Holy! Holy!
Reginald Heber (1783 – 1826) was an English clergyman, traveller, man of letters and hymn-writer who, after working as a country parson for 16 years, served as the Anglican Bishop of Calcutta until his sudden death at the age of 42.
Reginald Heber wrote "Holy, Holy, Holy" while serving as vicar of Hodnet, Shropshire, England. He was the first to compile a hymnal ordering hymns around the church calendar. Wanting to celebrate a triune God, Heber wrote "Holy, Holy, Holy" for Trinity Sunday–a day that reaffirmed the doctrine of the Trinity and was observed eight Sundays after Easter. The hymn was first published in 1826.
Years later, John Dykes composed the tune Nicaea especially for Heber’s "Holy, Holy, Holy."
Text and tune were first published together in 1861. Since that time, this popular hymn has appeared in hundreds of hymnals and been translated into many languages.
The Nicene Creed, line by line
We say this creed every Sunday in the Eucharist service. It is the central creed or belief of Christianity and goes back to 325AD. On Trinity Sunday it is good to break it down into its essential meaning.
Walls of Nicea, today in Turkey
"I believe in one God"
The Greek, Latin and proper English translations begin with "I" believe, because reciting the creed is an individual expression of belief.
"the Father Almighty "
God the Father is the first person, within the Godhead. The Father is the "origin" or "source" of the Trinity. From Him, came somehow the other two. God the Father is often called "God Unbegotten" in early Christian thought.
"Maker of heaven and earth, And of all things visible and invisible"
Everything that is was created by God. Some early sects, the Gnostics and Marcionites, believed that God the Father created the spirit world, but that an "evil" god (called the demiurge) created the similarly evil material world.
"And in one Lord Jesus Christ, "
Jesus is Lord and Master of all this creation. No tyrant, Jesus is Lord, teacher, counselor, friend and servant.
"the only-begotten Son of God "
Jesus is in a unique relationship with God the Father, His only Son. While Hebrew kings were sons of God symbolically, Jesus is the only Son of God by nature.
"Begotten of his Father before all worlds "
Begotten has the meaning of born, generated, or produced. God the Son is out of the essence of God the Father. The Son shares the essential nature of God with the Father. Since God is eternal, the Son, being begotten of God, is also eternal. Jesus was begotten of the Father before this world came into being and was present at its creation.
Lectionary, June 16, 2019 – Trinity Sunday
I. Theme – The Trinity points to the mystery of unity and diversity in God’s experience and in the ongoing creative process
Holy Trinity– Anton Rublev (1430)
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
First Reading – Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Psalm – Psalm 8
Epistle –Romans 5:1-5
Gospel – John 16:12-15
The first reading reminds us of the holiness and wisdom of God’s personal mystery. The second reading invites praise for God’s glory, which we hope to share through our cooperation with God’s Spirit at work in us. In today’s gospel, Jesus promises the Spirit, who will convict the world and guide the disciples into truth.
Our language about God springs from our experience of God’s activity and, at best, only points to divine mystery. Though we know that all our language about God is metaphorical and that all our most comprehensive explanations fall short of God’s essential mystery, nevertheless we continue to be lured by God’s holy mystery.
Though we freely admit that God is beyond our rational capacity, we also recognize that God is not beyond our experience. Our metaphors move from what we know best to what we experience as lesser known. Our touchstone to the mystery of the Trinity is first of all the mystery of our own self. Despite our most persistent efforts to "know our self," there is always so much more of our self that escapes our scrutiny.
And the mystery of human selfhood spills over into our encounters with the mysterious others in our lives. Even those closest to us–our parents, children, spouses and friends–remain somehow other and surprising.
How do we know God? The question is not merely academic, but influences our deepest belief and behavior. The Trinity is not a heavenly riddle but an ongoing revelation, filling and blessing us and our days.
The Trinity, along with the Incarnation and the divine presence in history, is one of the great antidotes to the tendency of some Christians to see God as apathetic, a-historical, and unchanging in contrast to the passionate, evolving, and transitory world of time and space.
This lively God has not decided everything in advance without consulting the creaturely world, nor has the living God imaged the whole unfolding of history in one eternal, unchanging vision. The Trinitarian God suggested by today’s passages embodies loving fidelity through intimate and changing relationships with the unfolding world and its inhabitants
God is constantly doing something new, and God is constantly being revealed to us in new ways. God is still speaking through the acts of creation, which Wisdom (which also has at times been interpreted as the Holy Spirit in the New Testament) is part. Maybe even the Trinity falls short in showing us the way God is made known to us, but we have used it throughout Christian history
Make a Gift Today! 2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector 5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (June, 2022) 6. Calendar 9. Latest Sunday Bulletin (June 5, 11:00am), and Sermon (June 5, 2022) 10. Recent Services: Easter 5, May 15 Easter 6, May 22 Easter 7, May 29 |
Block Print by Mike Newman
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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, June 5 – June 12, 2022
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5
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Boniface, Bishop & Missionary, 754 |
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6
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Ini Kopuria, Founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood, 1945 |
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7
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The Pioneers of the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, 1890 |
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8
8 |
[Melania the Elder], Monastic, 410 Roland Allen, Mission Strategist, 1947 |
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9
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Columba, Abbot of Iona, 597 |
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10
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Ephrem of Nisibis, Deacon & Poet, 373 |
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11
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Saint Barnabas the Apostle |
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12
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Enmegahbowh, Priest and Missionary, 1902 |