frontpages – Page 21 – St. Peter's Episcopal

The Week Ahead…

Sept. 10 – 4pm, Vestry

Sept. 12 – 10am-12pm, Ecumenical Bible Study

Sept. 14 – 7:30am, ECM at Horne’s

Sept. 14 – Holy Cross Day

Sept. 16 – 10:00am, Living the Good News Christian Ed

Sept. 16 – 10:00am, Season of Creation Christian Ed – Adults

Sept. 16 – 11:00am, Season of Creation 3, Holy Eucharist II

Please bring bread that will be suitable for distribution at Village Harvest on Wednesday. We rarely have the opportunity to offer bread for the distribution.

Sept. 16 – Stewardship pledge cards distributed

Sunday, Sept 16 Readings and Servers

Holy Cross Day, Sept 14

See Our Collection of Crosses

"O BLESSED Saviour, who by thy cross and passion hast given life unto the world: Grant that we thy servants may be given grace to take up the cross and follow thee through life and death; whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit we worship and glorify, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

Holy Cross Day is Sept. 14 in honor of Christ’s self-offering on the cross for our salvation. The collect for Holy Cross Day recalls that Christ "was lifted high upon the cross that he might draw the whole world unto himself," and prays that "we, who glory in the mystery of our redemption, may have grace to take up our cross and follow him" (BCP, p. 192). The themes of Holy Cross Day are powerfully expressed by the hymn "Lift high the cross" (Hymn 473).

This day has been a part of the Eastern Church. The feast entered the Western calendar in the seventh century after Emperor Heraclius recovered the cross from the Persians, who had carried it off in 614, 15 years earlier. According to the story, the emperor intended to carry the cross back into Jerusalem himself, but was unable to move forward until he took off his imperial garb and became a barefoot pilgrim. It only has been celebrated in the Episcopal Church with the current prayer book

Christian Ed for Children – Living the Good News

In 2011-2012 we emphasized the lectionary for both Adult Ed and Children using “Living the Good News”. We are returning to it in the fall of 2018 for children of all ages. It has a supporting introduction on Youtube.

From their website Living the Good News is:

Lectionary-Based
With Living the Good News, your church’s education program focuses on the same cycle of weekly readings used in your worship services; it also provides an opportunity for everyone in your education program, from Nursery to Adult, to center on the same theme, providing a "whole community" approach.

At the youngest levels, the curriculum almost always (but not exclusively) focuses on the gospel reading. The Adult level always includes ALL the readings. As you go down in age level, fewer of the readings are included, until, at Primary and below, it is almost always the gospel.

Lectionary, Season of Creation 3, Year B

I. Theme – Remembering the source of our resources

God led the Israelites out of slavery, provided manna for them in the wilderness, and at last brings them to the promised land. Now, it’s up to them, with the resources that God provides for them, to provide for themselves, but not to forget God’s generosity in the process. We, the wealthy of the world, when we have all we need and then some, may be tempted to do exactly what the passage in Deuteronomy warns against. “My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth,” forgetting that God provided all we need to make our wealth possible, and that all we have ultimately belongs to God. Because we’re human, we will experience times when all is not well, when we lack what we need, when all seems lost. And then, as faithful Christians, we have patience and trust that God’s generosity will not fail. After three days in the desert, listening to Jesus, the crowds were famished. Jesus fed them, just as God had fed the Israelites in the wilderness. And then, he sends them away. But what they’ve been fed hopefully allows them to go back and use the resources they’ve been given more fruitfully and faithfully.

Christian Ed for Adults – Season of Creation for Adults, 10am Parish House

During this four week series starting Sept 9, we’ll consider and discuss scriptures that illustrate the theme of the week, spend some time in prayer based on the theme, and leave with some ideas to consider during the week that follows.

Week 1 – Theme 1—September 9 Finding God in Creation

“God is present in and through creation. We can better understand the character of God by seeing how God interacts with all of creation. The more we know of God, the more we grow in our love for and connection to God and what God has created.”

Lectionary, Season of Creation 3, Year B

I. Theme – Remembering the source of our resources

Focus on 5 areas of the Environment in the Season of Creation

We have taken the five Sundays’ readings in the Season of Creation and highlighted a specific environmental area each week. (This week, food, last week earth.) How is this area affecting us ? What can we do at St. Peter’s and individually to improve our use of them ?

1. Water – Sept 2

Isaiah 55:9-10
“8 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater.”

2. Earth – Sept 9

Collect
“O God, creator of heaven and earth, you have filled the world with beauty and abundance. Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works; that rejoicing with your whole creation, we may learn to serve you with gladness; for the sake of him through whom all things were made, your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. ”

3. Food – Sept 16

James 5:7-8
“Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. ”

4. Climate – Sept 23

Romans 8:18-21
“18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ”

5. Energy – Sept 30
Isaiah 40:28-31
“The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless.
30 Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted;
31 but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.”

Focus on Food

1. Article The latest Food Insecurity Figures released in 2018 (based on 2016)

2. Video on Food Insecurity

3. Video on Dealing with Food Waste

Events in the Season of Creation

The Sierra Club issued a challenge last year, asking mayors around the U.S. to commit to supporting 100 percent clean energy by 2035/2050.

The Global Climate Action Summit is scheduled in San Francisco, Wed., Sept 12 to Fri, Sept. 14

“As the wraths of human-caused climate change are increasingly felt across our shared planet, the moral case for climate action has never been clearer. Recent climate catastrophes — the fires in California and Greece, deadly heat waves from East Asia to India and Pakistan to Europe, devastating floods in Thailand and Laos — could paralyze us with fear. But what right have we to call ourselves people of faith if we stand by and watch as others suffer, or if we stand idle instead of preventing our own suffering? We cannot wait to practice what we preach” – Rt. Rev. Marc Handley Andrus, Episcopal Bishop of California

You can virtually attend the Summit by streaming it live on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

From their website – “The Global Climate Action Summit will bring leaders and people together from around the world to “Take Ambition to the Next Level.” It will be a moment to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of states, regions, cities, companies, investors and citizens with respect to climate action.

“It will also be a launchpad for deeper worldwide commitments and accelerated action from countries—supported by all sectors of society—that can put the globe on track to prevent dangerous climate change and realize the historic Paris Agreement.

“The decarbonization of the global economy is in sight. Transformational changes are happening across the world and across all sectors as a result of technological innovation, new and creative policies and political will at all levels.

Links:

1 Website

2 Interfaith service Wed. Sept 12 7pm online from Grace Cathedral – Signup for the Livestream

From the site -“The Global Climate Action Summit gets underway in San Francisco on September 12, 2018, members of diverse spiritual and religious communities from around the world will join with global climate leaders for a multi-faith service of connection, reflection, and commitment to climate action. At the heart of the service at Grace Cathedral will be an invitation for participants and livestream viewers to not only reflect on and be inspired by the wonders of our sacred Earth, but also to make bold new commitments to protecting our planet and its inhabitants from the ravages of climate change.”

From the site -“The service includes a multi-faith procession; music and spoken word drawn from a variety of faith and spiritual traditions; and video greetings and words of encouragement from global faith leaders including His Holiness the Dalai Lama (via video); His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople (via a representative); the Most Reverend Michael B. Curry, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church (via video); and members of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastic community. During the service, climate action commitments from a variety of religious and spiritual leaders and communities will be announced.”

Stewardship – Sept 16, Distribution of Pledge Cards

Stewardship is … “Using the gifts that God gives us to do the work God calls us to do.” No gift is too large for God’s work. We give back as we are given by God –

Pledging should be about growing your faith. As your faith grow so should your giving.

Make your pledge for 2019 and return it Sunday, Oct. 7

The Commitment

A better word than pledge card is commitment card. We commit so we can give:>

Commit to help us reduce hunger in this area, through the Village Harvest Distribution
Commit to us to bring hope to our community,
Commit to help us bring comfort to those suffering in sickness or loneliness,
Commit to help us in Christian education and encourage fellowship.
Commit so we can make a difference.

What should be our commitment to what God has given us ?

God calls us to share in God’s mission of caring for the world, using all the gifts God has given us. Our gifts includes those of treasure Over 80% of the funds used to support and plan for ministry in a year come from pledges.

Got Questions ?

Is my stewardship defined only by the money I give to the church?

Why should I pledge ?

How much should I give ?

See our Faq

Why Give to St. Peter’s

Giving is an act of worship along with prayers, sermons and music. Get your money’s worth of the service and give—it is a blessing to be able to do so. Moreover, give till it feels good!
Giving allows our ministries to expand. As Scott Gunn writes at Forward Movement, “Jesus was always taking his followers to new places, literally and metaphorically… As followers of Jesus, I think we’re called to go to new places.”
Giving acknowledges the reality is that all we have was given by God anyway. All that we are is a gift . From Deuteronomy – The Lord “gives you power to get wealth” which includes labor, influence, finances and expertise.
Giving is part of our responsibilities in the baptismal covenant (look in the Prayer Book, pgs. 304-305). We commit our lives to reconcile ourselves to God and to one another. Lives are transformed with our gifts to change and repair a broken world as we reconcile ourselves to God. As Bishop Curry likes to say -“change the world from the nightmare it often is into the dream that God intends.”
We freely receive from God so we should freely give back. We mess up in so many ways in our lives but grace is never held back by God so don’t withhold your gifts from God.

Connecting our Stewardship Campaign to the Season of Giving

Language from the Bible supports both the Season of Creation and our pledge campaign using the language of – planting, growth, production of fruit, and feeding.

Here’s some of our language and imagery, linking these practices, both ancient and continuing, with our common life at St. Peter’s:

Plant: We begin with the seeds: Worship and prayer, baptism, evangelism, welcoming, pastoral care
And the seeds soon grow: Education, communications, upkeep of buildings and grounds
And produce fruit: Fellowship, belonging, new members, confirmation, marriages
To feed people who are hungry in body and spirit: Village Harvest, Village Dinner, Christmas and Thanksgiving Season of Giving -welcoming community groups to our Church
And our roots are deep: Tradition, reconciliation…
Settled into the ground of our being: Jesus Christ
Watered by the vows of the Baptismal Covenant – to continue in worship, repent and return, respect the dignity of others.
Jesus said, “I am the vine, You are the branches…bear much fruit.”
All of this depends on your gifts, regular income that provides the rector and staff; that lights, heats, and cools our buildings, that provides materials for worship, for service, for outreach.

Prayers for the Earth

Based on the Fifth Mark of Mission

To Strive

God, creator of the universe,
Fill us with your love for the creation,
for the natural world around us,
for the earth from which we come
and to which we will return.
Awake in us energy to work for your world;
let us never fall into complacency, ignorance,
or being overwhelmed by the task before us.
Help us to restore, remake, renew. Amen

To Safeguard

Jesus, Redeemer of the World,
Remind us to consider the lost lilies,
the disappearing sparrows;
teach us not to squander precious resources;
help us value habitats: seas, deserts, forests
and seek to preserve this world in its diversity.
Alert us to the cause of all living creatures
destroyed wantonly for human greed or pleasure;
Help us to value what we have left
and to learn to live without taking more than we give. Amen

Integrity of Creation

Spirit of the Living God
At the beginning you moved over the face of the waters.
You brought life into being, the teeming life
that finds its way through earth and sea and air
that makes its home around us, everywhere.
You know how living things flourish and grow
How they co-exist; how they feed and breed and change
Help us to understand those delicate relationships,
value them, and keep them from destruction. Amen

To Sustain

God, of the living earth
You have called people to care for your world –
you asked Noah to save creatures from destruction.
May we now understand how to sustain your world –
Not over-fishing, not over-hunting,
Not destroying trees, precious rainforest
Not farming soil into useless dust.
Help us to find ways to use resources wisely
to find a path to good, sustainable living
in peace and harmony with creatures around us. Amen

To Renew

Jesus, who raised the dead to life
Help us to find ways to renew
what we have broken, damaged and destroyed:
Where we have taken too much water,
polluted the air, poured plastic into the sea,
cut down the forests and soured fertile soils.
Help all those who work to find solutions to
damage and decay; give hope to those
who are today working for a greener future. Amen

Anne Richards, Mission Theology Advisory Group, Resources available on www.ctbi.org.uk The Dispossession Project: Eco-House

Top links

1. Newcomers – Welcome Page

2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector

3. St. Peter’s Sunday News

4. Sept., 2018 Server Schedule

5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (Sept, 2018)

6. Calendar

7. Parish Ministries

8. This past Sunday

9. Latest Sunday Bulletin (Sept. 16, 2018 11:00am), and Sermon (Sept. 9, 2018)

11. Recent Services:

Aug. 19

Photos from August 19

Aug 26

Photos from August 26

Sept. 2

Photos from Sept. 2

Mike Newmans Block print of St. Peter's Christmas

Block Print by Mike Newman

Projects

Colors for Year B, 2017-18

Green

Ordinary Time

Jun 3-Oct 31

Daily "Day by Day"

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.

Follow the Star

Daily meditations in words and music.

Sacred Space

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."

Daily C. S. Lewis thoughts

Saints of the Week, Sept. 9 – Sept. 16

9	Constance and her Companions, Martyrs, 1878
10	Alexander Crummel, 1898
11	Harry Thacker Burleigh, Composer, 1949
12	John Henry Hobart, Bishop of New York, 1830
13
14 14	Holy Cross Day Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr of Carthage, 258
15	James Chisholm, Priest, 1855
16	Ninian, Bishop, c. 430

Frontpage Sept. 23, 2018

September 23, 2018, Season of Creation 4B

Butterflies for the altar covering and prominent in the sermon, Fall begins with rain, flowers for new baby boy, Helping a parishioner without an umbrella, blessings for mother and child, Ron Okrasinski assisting with communion.

Pictures and text from this Sunday, Sept. 23

The Week Ahead…

Sept. 26 – 10am-12pm, Ecumenical Bible Study

Sept. 29 – 5pm- Gospel on the River at the Heimbach home

Sept. 30 – 9:00am, Season of Creation 5, Eucharist, Rite I

Sept. 30 – 10:00am, Creating Nature Mandalas with Karen Richardson, Parish House

Sept. 30 – 11:00am, Season of Creation 5, Eucharist, Rite II

Sunday, Sept 30 Readings and Servers

Looking Ahead …

ECW Fall Meeting – Thurs.,Oct 11. 8:30am registration The meeting will be at Epiphany Episcopal church in Oak Hill, VA. The registration is due Oct. 1. Registration Form

Ecclesiastes in Music from September 23

The Old Testament reading for Sept. 23, 2018 is the famous passages from Eccleasiastes 3:1-8 used in weddings, funerals and many events. It is best known in its transformation into song.

Pete Seeger, an American Folk Singer, wrote "Turn, Turn, Turn" in the late 1950’s. It was based on the King James version of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. The song was originally released in 1962 as "To Everything There Is a Season" on the folk group the Limeliters’ "Folk Matinee" and then some months later on Seeger’s own "The Bitter and the Sweet."

The folk rock group the Byrds made it into an international hit in 1965. The idea of reviving the song came to lead guitarist McGuinn during the Byrds’ July 1965 tour of the American Midwest, when his future wife, Dolores, requested the tune on the Byrds’ tour bus. McGuinn added harmonies and the Byrd’s trade mark 12-string Rickenbacker guitar.

Village Harvest, Sept 19

The Village Harvest in Sept. 2018 fed 112 people. Except for Aug this is a typical number from May onward. For 2018, it is about 19% less than last year at this time though 8% above a similar period for 2016. It is down from 140 last month. The average served for 2018 is 122 compared to 147 in 107 and 111 for 2016.

On the other hand food sources of 1,492 pounds were close to the the average for 2018 (1,500). Relating it to the number of shoppers, 13.3 pounds were available per person, one of the highest values of the year. The value per shopper was close to $80. Food provided is 16% higher than last year and 41% higher than 2016.

There was a wide variety of foods from the food bank – fresh cabbage, cucumbers, apples, onions, tangerines, eggplant, loaves of bread, saltines. There were three choices of meat along with cooked chicken bites. Hash browns with meat Finally, a small amount of cereal for children or large families.

Visualizing Revelation

The Epistle reading on Sept. 30 is from Revelation 21:1-7. "The top portion of the window is the City of Jerusalem is from our reading – Revelation 21:1-7. From the passage – Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Tiffany created for St. George’s church in 1912 a window entitled “Angels with Trumpet and Incense”. While it featured these two angels on the bottom, it also featured a vision of the New City of Jerusalem on top.

How did Tiffany produce this work – The upper window shows the city of Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, emerging from a backdrop of opalescent glass, milky hues of blues, browns, and greens. The Jerusalem image fades into the background. The city shows buildings with columns and onion skin domes.

The city was painted onto a sheet of colored glass with enamel. A sheet of spotted glass was then laid or plated on top, creating a sense of sunlit distance. Spotted glass was made by adding fluorine during the firing process— the fluorine crystallized and caused the spots. Drapery glass is used to produce ripples of varying hues and tints in the angels’ gowns. This type of glass has been bent and folded to produce ripples that create an illusion of depth.

The solemn pose of the angels contrasts with the iridescent glimmer of the city that hovers above, instilling the design with surreal grandeur and a sense of what is to come.

Louis Tiffany’s genius was using paint and many different types of glass techniques to create his art. Just in this window you opalescent class, drapery glass and spotted glass and well as hand painted enamel.

Top links

1. Newcomers – Welcome Page

2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector

3. St. Peter’s Sunday News

4. Sept., 2018 Server Schedule

5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (Oct., 2018)

6. Calendar

7. Parish Ministries

8. This past Sunday

9. Latest Sunday Bulletin (Sept. 30, 2018 11:00am), and Sermon (Sept. 23, 2018)

Sept. 2
11. Recent Services:

Sept. 2

Photos from Sept. 2

Sept. 9

Photos from August 19

Sept. 16

Photos from Sept. 16

Block Print by Mike Newman

Projects

Colors for Year B, 2017-18

Green

Ordinary Time

Jun 3-Oct 31

Daily "Day by Day"

3-Minute Retreats invite you to take a short prayer break right at your computer. Spend some quiet time reflecting on a Scripture passage.

Follow the Star

Daily meditations in words and music.

Sacred Space

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."

Daily C. S. Lewis thoughts

Saints of the Week, Sept. 23 – Sept. 30

23	Thecla of Iconium, Proto-Martyr among Women, c.70
24	Anna Ellison Butler Alexander, Deaconness, 1947
25	Sergius, Abbot, 1392
26	Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop, 1626
27	Thomas Traherne, Priest, 1674
28	Paula & Eustochium of Rome, Monastics & Scholars, 404
29	Saint Michael and All Angels
30	Jerome, Priest, and Scholar, 420

Frontpage, August 12, 2018

August 12, 2018 Pentecost 12, Proper 14

Jackie Collins last Sunday Aug. 12 before departing to Vanderbilt, studying for an MA.

Pictures and text from this Sunday, August 12

The Week Ahead…

August 15 – 3pm-5pm, Village Harvest food distribution

Help needed: 9:30, help needed to unload the truck. Many hands make light work. help 1PM, help needed to set up. 3-5PM help needed for the distribution itself. Thank you for your contributions of both food and time. By working together, we can keep this important St Peter’s ministry going.

August 19 – 11:00am, Morning Prayer, Rite II

Sunday, August 19 Readings and Servers

August 22 – 3:30pm Funeral Service for Marsha Dobson. Covenant Funeral Home, 4801 Jefferson Davis Highway, Fredericksburg.

Village Harvest expands coverage for 3rd straight month.

After reaching a high number served of 153 in April and dropping in May to 112, we have been steadily increasing the numbers served over the last quarter. June fed 100, July 119 and this month in August rose to 140. We have served 860 people this year which is below 2017 (1,039) but above 2016 (763).

We again had school supplies for recent school opening and a wide variety of vegetables and fruits (corn, cucumbers, broccoli, oranges), grocery items and meats.

The numbers of pounds served was 801 which was low compared to earlier months. Food served on average has increased in contrast to numbers served. We have averaged 1,501 in 2018 which is above 1,254 in 2017 and 1,058 in 2016. The increase for 2018 is 120%. The value per shopper was consequently lower in August at $34.33 compared to an average of $76.92 for 2018.

Read more and see Andrea Pogue’s pictures..

Catherine in Guatemala, Aug. 15, 2018

"In a few minutes I’ll be walking down a beautiful cobblestone road lined on one side with flowers and coffee plants interspersed with orange trees on a cool clear morning. The the road curves left, and the street becomes lined with huge trees on one side, and coffee growing under shade trees on the other.

"Vivero y Cafe La Escalonia is past the trees and on the left. When I step inside the gates, I have a perfect view of two volcanoes. To the right is the cafe, with its tables nestled within a lush garden. The nursery stretches out behind the cafe, full of lush plants and also clever plantings in recycled containers.

"And another delight, in which I plan to indulge this morning, Guatemalan hot chocolate! The Cafe La Escalonia has a dark sweet brew that makes me want to sing.

"Here, Marleny, my teacher, and I will spend time working on verbs. I hope all the verbs didn’t spill out of my head as I walked here! We usually study in my house, with another beautiful garden surrounding us.

"I’m blessed. I wish all of you could be here to enjoy Antigua with me."

Catherine in Guatemala, Aug. 10, 2018

“I am learning a lot, having an amazing time!

“It’s great to have a kitchen in this apt because I don’t have to eat out every meal. I really like going to the market and just getting a few things, and then at supper, getting back here before dark and eating whatever is on hand. Last night I had some string beans I bought in the market for nothing (at home Guatemalan string beans are so expensive!) and an avocado with lime juice (from a lime from the tree right outside my door) and some bread I got at the bakery. Food is so inexpensive here. The other night I had an early supper at the bakery–a pizza, personal size, total cost, $5.

Top links

1. Newcomers – Welcome Page

2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector

3. St. Peter’s Sunday News

4. August, 2018 Server Schedule

5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (August, 2018)

6. Calendar

7. Parish Ministries

8. What’s new on the website

9. This past Sunday

10. Latest Sunday Bulletin (Aug. 12, 2018 11:00am), and Sermon (July 8, 2018)

July 22, 2018
11. Recent Services:

Block Print by Mike Newman

Projects

Colors for Year B, 2017-18

Green

Ordinary Time

Jun 3-Oct 31

Daily "Day by Day"

3-Minute Retreats invite you to take a short prayer break right at your computer. Spend some quiet time reflecting on a Scripture passage.

Follow the Star

Daily meditations in words and music.

Sacred Space

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."

Daily C. S. Lewis thoughts

Saints of the Week, Aug. 12 – Aug. 19

12	Florence Nightingale, Nurse, Social Reformer, 1910
13	Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down, Connor, and Dromore, 1667
14	Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Seminarian and Martyr, 1965
15	Saint Mary the Virgin, Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ
16
17	[Samuel Johnson, 1772, Timothy Cutler, 1765, and Thomas Bradbury Chandler, 1790, Priests]; also [Baptisms of Manteo & Virginia Dare]
18	William Porcher DuBose, Priest, 1918; also [Artemisia Bowden, Educator, 1969]
19

Frontpage, August 5, 2018

August 5, 2018 Pentecost 11, Proper 13

Pictures and text from this Sunday, August 5

The Week Ahead…

Purchase school supplies at a discount while the Virginia state holiday continues August 5 for the Village Harvest on August 15.

August 6 – The Feast of the Transfiguration

Voices of the Transfiguration

August 10 – 7:30am, ECM at Horne’s

August 12 – 11:00am, Morning Prayer, Rite II, Morning Prayer

Sunday, August 12 Readings and Servers

Butterflies on Transfiguration

Butterflies are some of the best metaphors of transformation and transfiguration. They are transformed from eggs to caterpillars to chrysalis and finally the adult butterfly emerges. The day was mild, full of sunshine and the butterflies liked the phlox bush.

Catherine in Guatemala, Aug 9, 2018

Studying away!

“Spent most of today working with my teacher, and we only briefly left the house after lunch because it rained. Whew! Verbos, verbos, verbos!!!!

“Being in one place for a while is just wonderful. I’m getting to know the neighborhood and some of the people. I saw a woman in the restaurant where I ate lunch today with the cutest young dog–then this afternoon, I saw her on my street–sure enough, she’s my neighbor. The dog, Bango, is a rescue dog from the volcano explosion a few months ago. Paula and her husband have moved to Guatemala for good. They are from Nevada.

“I’m addicted to the bakery, San Marten, I go there almost every day! Tonight I had a pizza there.

“Also, late yesterday afternoon as I was walking home, near dusk, I saw the volcano that exploded recently! It’s only 12 miles away. I could see it smoking.

More pictures from Guatemala

Catherine in Guatemala, Aug 8, 2018

"Today Marleny, my teacher, and I worked on verbs all morning. Tomorrow we will start with the irregular verbs. We took a lunch break, and then after lunch we worked on prepositions and more verbs. We spend a lot of time speaking in Spanish. I’m slowly catching on.

"Today was beautiful, sunny and the butterflies (they are transparent with colored trim–they look like little pieces of light flying from flower to flower!) flew in and out of my apartment all day as I studied Spanish with my teacher. I had lunch at the most tranquil place, in a garden. After lunch, I had the famous chocolate drink–felt that I had died and gone to heaven!

"After studies were over in the afternoon, I walked into town, went to several historic sites and then to the grocery store. I walked downtown to the Arco de Santa Catalina. Quoting from the guidebook, it’s all that’s left of a convent dating to 1613. As the convent grew, it expanded to include a structure across the street. The arch then was built to allow the nuns to cross to the other side while avoiding contact with the general populace in accordance with strict rules governing seclusion. Its current version with a clock tower is a reconstruction dating to the 19th century, as the original was destroyed in the 1773 earthquakes.

A Recently Discovered Leonardo Painting, "Salvador Mundi"

The painting fits our Gospel reading this week. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." – John 6:51

The fact that its "Salvador Mundi" by Leonardo da Vinci makes it even the more special. The discovering of a new Leonardo painting shook the art world in 2011. There were only some fourteen surviving Leonardo paintings in the world and the last one to be discovered was the "Benois Madonna" more than 100 years ago. This one was thought to exist only in copies.

This painting is small, 2×1.5 feet with cracked wooden frame and had suffered from centuries of neglect and poor restorations.The panel had also been subjected — unsuccessfully — to a forced flattening, and then glued to another backing. The worst offenses were crude areas of overpainting, in an attempt to hide the botched panel repair. And then there was plain old dirt and grime.

It shows Christ facing facing forwards with two fingers of his right hand raised in blessing and a crystal globe in his left hand. "Salvator Mundi" (Savior of the World) painted in 1500 is known to have been owned by English king, Charles I before moving around various private collections until 2005, when the current owner brought it to Robert Simon of Robert Simon Fine Art to study.

There were three immediate clues of the true painter:

1 One was a so-called "pentimento," an alteration in the painting showing traces of previous work

2 The other was the painting of Christ’s curls. Leonardo’s St. John the Baptist at the Louvre had the same curls.

3 The fingers were especially significant because, as Oxford Leonardo expert Martin Kemp put it, "All the versions of the ‘Salvator Mundi’ have rather tubular fingers. What Leonardo had done, and the copyists and imitators didn’t pick up, was to get just how the knuckle sort of sits underneath the skin."

It was compared to two preparatory drawings, housed in the Royal Library at Windsor, that Leonardo made for it. It was also compared to some 20 known copies and found to be superior to all of them. The new owners desired to build a consensus for this conclusion that it was a Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo provided an original treatment of this subject. Look at the orb or world resting in Christ’s left palm. Normally this orb was painted as brass or gold, may have had vague landforms mapped on it, and was topped by a crucifix. We know that Leonardo was a Roman Catholic, as were all of his patrons. However, he creates what appears to be a sphere of rock crystal. It reflects Leonardos studies what later became optics. Looking through it shows the natural distortion of looking through glass or crystal. Fundamentally, Leonardo was always trying to connect the natural and spiritual worlds together. No one had created a world like this which was very realistic!

The Ugly Duckling and John’s Gospel

By Rev Anne S Paton, Minister of East Kilbride

Do you remember the Hans Christian Andersen story The Ugly Duckling ? Here is the outline:

"When the tale begins, a mother duck’s eggs hatch. One of the little birds is perceived by the other birds and animals on the farm as a homely little creature and suffers much verbal and physical abuse from them. He wanders sadly from the barnyard and lives with wild ducks and geese until hunters slaughter the flocks. He finds a home with an old woman but her cat and hen tease him mercilessly and again he sets off on his own. He sees a flock of migrating wild swans; he is delighted and excited but he cannot join them for he is too young and cannot fly. Winter arrives. A farmer finds and carries the freezing little bird home, but the foundling is frightened by the farmer’s noisy children and flees the house. He spends a miserable winter alone in the outdoors, mostly hiding in a cave on the lake that partly freezes over. When spring arrives a flock of swans descends on the now thawing lake. The ugly duckling, now having fully grown and matured, unable to endure a life of solitude and hardship anymore and decides to throw himself at the flock of swans deciding that it is better to be killed by such beautiful birds than to live a life of ugliness and misery. He is shocked when the swans welcome and accept him, only to realise by looking at his reflection in the water that he has grown into one of them. The flock takes to the air and the ugly duckling spreads his beautiful large wings and takes flight with the rest of his new family.

"The important bit that ties in with today’s reading is in the paragraph where the ugly duck realises who he really is. "He saw below him his own image, but he was no longer a clumsy dark grey bird, ugly and ungainly, he was himself a swan! It does not matter in the least having been born in a duck yard, if only you come out of a swan’s egg!" Jesus was explaining to the gathered people that it was the same with them. It does not matter in the least having been from Nazareth and born in Bethlehem, if only you are born of God."

Thoughts by C.S.Lewis, Watchman of his generation

Psalm 130 – "My soul waits for the Lord, more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning."

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1965), commonly referred to as C. S. was a British novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist.According to his memoir Surprised by Joy, Lewis had been baptised in the Church of Ireland at birth, but fell away from his faith during his adolescence. Owing to the influence of friend J. R. Tolkien and others, at the age of 32 Lewis returned to Christianity, becoming "a very ordinary layman of the Church of England". His conversion had a profound effect on his work, and his wartime radio broadcasts on the subject of Christianity brought him wide acclaim. Biography

“Love, in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will…The rule for all of us is perfectly simple. Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love your neighbor; act as if you did."

– C. S. Lewis

"Look for yourself & you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, & decay… …look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in

– C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity

“Remember He is the artist and you are only the picture. You can’t see it. So quietly submit to be painted"

– C. S. Lewis

“There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him & bad when it turns from Him.”

– C. S. Lewis The Great Divorce

"We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito

– C. S. Lewis

"Don’t let your happiness depend on something you may lose."

– C. S. Lewis

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."

– C. S. Lewis

“Nothing you have not given away will ever really be yours.”

– C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity

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Saints of the Week, Aug. 5 – Aug. 12

5	[Albrecht Dürer, 1528, Matthias Grünewald, 1529, and Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1553, Artists]
6	The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ
7	John Mason Neale, Priest, 1866; also [Catherine Winkworth, Poet, 1878]
8	Dominic, Priest and Friar, 1221
9	[Herman of Alaska, Missionary to the Aleut, 1837]
10	Lawrence, Deacon, and Martyr at Rome, 258
11	Clare, Abbess at Assisi, 1253
12	Florence Nightingale, Nurse, Social Reformer, 1910

Frontpage, July 29, 2018

July 29, 2018 Pentecost 10, Proper 11

Pictures and text from this Sunday, July 29

The Week Ahead…

August 1, Village Dinner, 5pm-6:30pm. Serving Barbecue, Baked Beans, Corn on the Cobb, Cole slaw , Kahlua ice cream and cake

August 4 – 6 Virginia Sales Tax Holiday

Buy School supplies for the Village Harvest, Aug 15

Some of the items needed for school—paper, pencils, crayons, glue sticks, index cards, hand sanitizer, Kleenex, composition books, blunt tipped scissors, folders, and erasers. Complete list is here

August 5 – 11:00am, Holy Eucharist, Rite II

August 5 – 12pm Pot luck Coffee Hour

After church, join Shiloh Baptist Church for Friends and Family Day—food, games for children and adults, and fellowship.

August 5 Readings and Servers

Bishop Curry in Washington state

A wonderful series of pictures, text and videos of Presiding Bishop Curry’s trek through Washington state, June 14-17. The Diocese of Olympia in the western part of the state created an amazing presentation.

We extend our prayers to the Bishop this week as he undergoes prostrate surgery.

"I’m an optimist. I see a hunger and desire to be more than what we’ve been. I’m feeling a sense in the church that there’s a desire to be more than we’ve been. This church isn’t done yet. We’re at a blessed moment. We’ve got a window. We’ve got time. That’s what I’m seeing, even in dioceses where it’s really tough." – Bishop Curry

Lectionary, Pentecost 11, Proper 13 Year B

I. Theme – Living for God includes living for the welfare of others

"The Bread of Life" – Hermel Alejandre

The lectionary readings are here or individually:

Old Testament – Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15
Psalm – Psalm 78:23-29
Epistle –Ephesians 4:1-16
Gospel – John 6:24-35

Today’s readings portray God as our ultimate provider and sustainer of both our physical and spiritual lives. In Exodus God feeds the people of Israel with quail and manna. Paul reminds his community that they must put away their old way of life and be renewed in Christ. In anticipation of his eucharistic gift of himself, Jesus declares that he is the bread of life.

We’ve interrupted our Liturgical Year B trek through Mark’s gospel for a five-week sojourn in the gospel of John, Chapter 6, the extended teaching about Jesus as the Bread of Life. In today’s gospel passage, John 6:24-35, Jesus cites the people’s history, an incident in which Moses gave their ancestors "bread from heaven to eat." As you would expect, Jesus will reinterpret that event and show (or hint) how God’s gift to the world in Jesus himself excels what God gave through Moses.

A unifying theme in today’s passages is the reminder that living for God includes living for the welfare of others, and not putting our own desires first, for our own desires lead to giving into temptations and lead us away from God. And our response to those in need must be to meet the needs first, not to judge or complain. We are called to help and heal, not blame and condemn. We are called to live out the life of Christ in our own lives, to seek to be last and servant of all rather than first and right. We are called to put aside our own desire to be right to do what is right.

Read more about the lectionary…

Voices, Pentecost 11

The Gathering of Manna, Bernardino Luini, c 1520, Detail

"One early, cloudy morning when I was forty-six, I walked into a church, ate a piece of bread, took a sip of wine. … This was my first communion. It changed everything.

"Eating Jesus, as I did that day to my great astonishment, led me against all my expectations to a faith I’d scorned and work I’d never imagined. The mysterious sacrament turned out to be not a symbolic wafer at all but actual food – indeed, the bread of life. In that shocking moment of communion, filled with a deep desire to reach for and become part of a body, I realized that what I’d been doing with my life all along was what I was meant to do: feed people."

-Sara Miles, Take This Bread

The God of Surprises

"This, you see, is the sacraments. Communion and baptism are God’s external and objective words of love and forgiveness, given in a form which we can receive, for, as we said last week, the sacraments are God’s physical, visible words for God’s physical, visible people…

"But God, you see, our God rarely does what God is supposed to do. For our God is a God of surprises, of upheavals, of reversals. And so rather than do what God is supposed to do, God does the unexpected: instead of pronouncing judgment in the face of our sin and selfishness, God offers mercy; instead of justice, love; instead of condemnation, forgiveness; instead of coming in power, God came in weakness; and instead of giving us a miracle, God gives us God’s own self. For as Martin Luther would remind us, the whole of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are summed up both succinctly and eloquently in the two words we hear when coming to the Table: “for you.” This is Christ’s body, given for you. This is Christ’s blood, shed for you."

– David Lose. President of Luther Seminary

"What is manna? Is it a Hebrew pun on mah hu, or as Everett Fox suggests, “Whaddayacallit”: What is this stuff? Is manna mountains of sweet insect excrement, as proposed by some scholars, or the stuff of legend, of a tale told over the generations about how, in some mysterious way, God gives us life? The New Testament’s version of this question is “Who is he?” – and Christians have told one another, over the generations, that in some mysterious way he is the life that God gives. Our manna is Christ."

–Gail Ramshaw, Christian Century, July 28, 2009

At the table

"Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life."

– from the Roman Eucharistic Liturgy

"Whatever gets you through the Night"…Prayers at the close of day

From the New Zealand Prayer Book:
"Holiness; make us pure in heart to see you; make us merciful to receive your kindness and to share our love with all your human family; then will your name be hallowed on earth as in heaven.

It is night after a long day. What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done; let it be.

"Support us, Lord, all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over, and our work done; then Lord, in your mercy, give us safe lodging, a holy rest and peace at the last. God our judge and our companion, we thank you for the good we did this day and for all that has given us joy. Everything we offer as our humble service. Bless those with whom we have worked, and those who are our concern. Amen"

From the Book of Common Prayer (1979)

"O God, your unfailing providence sustains the world we live in and the life we live: Watch over those, both night and day, who work while others sleep, and grant that we may never forget that our common life depends upon each other’s toil; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

"Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen."

Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.

Lord, you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised; for these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, whom you have prepared for all the world to see: a Light to enlighten the nations and the glory of your people Israel. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.

From Scripture:

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July 29, 2018
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Daily C. S. Lewis thoughts

Saints of the Week, July 29 – August 5

29	Mary, Martha, [and Lazarus] of Bethany; also [First Ordination of Women to the Priesthood in The Episcopal Church, 1974]
30	William Wilberforce, 1833, [and Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Shaftesbury, 1885, Prophetic Witnesses]
31	Ignatius of Loyola, Priest and Monastic, 1556
1	Joseph of Arimathaea
2	[Samuel Ferguson, Bishop for West Africa, 1916]
3	[George Freeman Bragg, Jr., Priest, 1940]; also [William Edward Burghardt DuBois, Sociologist, 1963]
4
5	[Albrecht Dürer, 1528, Matthias Grünewald, 1529, and Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1553, Artists]

Frontpage, July 22, 2018

Top links

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2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector

3. St. Peter’s Sunday News

4. July, 2018 Server Schedule

5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (July, 2018)

6. Calendar

7. Parish Ministries

8. What’s new on the website

9. This past Sunday

10. Latest Sunday Bulletin (July 22, 2018 11:00am), and Sermon (July 8, 2018)

July 22, 2018
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Block Print by Mike Newman

Projects

Colors for Year B, 2017-18

Green

Ordinary Time

Jun 3-Oct 31

Daily "Day by Day"

3-Minute Retreats invite you to take a short prayer break right at your computer. Spend some quiet time reflecting on a Scripture passage.

Follow the Star

Daily meditations in words and music.

Sacred Space

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."

Daily C. S. Lewis thoughts

Saints of the Week, July 22 – July 29

22	Saint Mary Magdalene
23
24	Thomas a Kempis, Priest, 1471
25	Saint James the Apostle
26	[Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary]; also [Charles Raymond Barnes, Priest, 1939]
27	William Reed Huntington, Priest, 1909
28	[Johann Sebastian Bach, 1750, George Frederick Handel, 1759, and Henry Purcell, 1695, Composers]
29	Mary, Martha, [and Lazarus] of Bethany; also [First Ordination of Women to the Priesthood in The Episcopal Church, 1974]

July 22, 2018 Pentecost 9, Proper 11

Pictures and text from this Sunday, July 22

The Week Ahead…

July 25 – 10:00am, Ecumenical Bible Study

July 29 – 11:00am, Pentecost 10, Morning Prayer, Rite II

Sunday, July 29 Readings and Servers

Lectionary, Pentecost 10, Proper 12 Year B

I. Theme – Providing for each other out of our abundance

"Feeding of teh 5,000

"Feeding of the 5,000" – Daniel Bonnell

The lectionary readings are here or individually:

Old Testament – 2 Kings 4:42-44
Psalm – Psalm 145:10-19 Page 802, BCP
Epistle –Ephesians 3:14-21
Gospel – John 6:1-21

How do we provide out of our abundance ? What is hunger ? In this week’s lectionary, multiplication of food given to Elisha demonstrates God’s power to provide abundantly in the Old Testament. Paul exhorts the Ephesians to use their spiritual gifts to build up the Body of Christ. Jesus multiplies five loaves and two fish to feed the hungry crowd. The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle of Jesus’ ministry recorded in all four gospels. As so often emphasized in John, Jesus takes the initiative, even before the people arrive.

Hunger is multidimensional. People are hungry not only for bread but also for dignity, meaning, and happiness. Thus, we might ask the same question Jesus did: “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”

It’s a tricky question, as John implies with his parenthetical comment. The things which most satisfy our deepest hungers can’t be purchased. Still on the literal plane, Philip despairs: no amount of money could assuage the vast crowd’s hunger. (While they may well be physically hungry, remember that they followed him initially because of his compassion toward the sick.) Jesus’ silence directs us to look toward our own resources.

Faith is what helps us to understand the incomprehensible. Faith is what holds us to the path of God, the way of Christ. We are faced with temptations every day to live for ourselves, to satisfy our own greed and desires, and we forget the needs of others and God’s desire to live for others. In living for others, we find that we have life. In living for Christ, we find that we have lived for others. In thinking of the needs of others, we are reminded that we can be overwhelmed, as Elisha’s servant and Jesus’ disciples felt, or we can have faith, as Elisha and Jesus did, that the needs will be met when we serve and give out of what we have. It is not easy, but it is what we are called to do—and God always provides enough. We may not be able to solve the world’s hunger problems, but we can do our part to help those around us—and we may be surprised at what God can do with the little we have.

The child’s lunch box and the mother who probably packed it are a delightful reminder that “those who would be a blessing for others must bring what they possess to Jesus.” Without a scoff, a snicker or a doubt, Jesus takes the bread and fish into his hands with all confidence. Ignoring Andrew’s concern about scarcity, he provides an abundance. His action reassures those of us who deem our efforts too meager or skimpy to ever count as ministry, or to have any significant effect within God’s design. Instead we can count it, as did St. Ignatius of Loyola, “a toweringly wonderful thing that you might call me to follow you and stand with you.”

The miracle adds a new dimension to the picture of God given in Psalm 145. There, the people look hopefully to God as the source of their food. The opening of God’s hand satisfies their desires. In light of John’s gospel, we enter more directly into that process. No longer does God stand on one side of an abyss and we on the other. Now, Jesus takes our barley loaves into his hands and blesses them. In a co-creative act, we bring the food, share it with Jesus and each other, then gather the left-overs.

Those who are, as Ephesians calls us, one in body and spirit, cannot blame God for world hunger, neglected children and all our other social ills. For God has called us to partnership, graced our efforts, and made us abundant blessings for each other.

Read more about the lectionary…

Daniel Bonnell on his painting "Feeding of the 5,000"

"Feeding of the 5,000

"This is an important divine moment here that perhaps we miss. The scripture says that Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed the loaves and the fishes. All eyes are on Him as the crowd is instructed to sit down in the grass. He then gave thanks. In this painting all the focus is upon Jesus, the viewer looks up as if he or she were one of the crowd. Jesus raises a basket with two small fish in it to the sky. He gives thanks and before he finishes speaking the basket is filled to overflowing. Jesus is called the bread of life. We see Him performing many miracles that have symbolic meanings to those — that have eyes to see. He is victory over death. We see Him raising the dead in more than one instance. He is the water of life, as he tells thewoman at the well. He is the Prophet who knew of her five husbands. Look closer and you will see Jesus not just raising a basket of bread to the sky but you will see him upon the cross. The band of white sky forms a perpendicular bar with his arms and hands, which are pierced."

On the Sacraments

David Lose, President of Luther Seminary . David extracts the central concept of providing bread in the Feeding of the 5,000 providing thoughts on the Eucharist

"So the sacraments hold this unusual place in the Church, in that they are both central to our life of faith and yet also can be so very confusing. In an attempt to clarify the connect between the sacraments and our daily lives, I’ll start with a phrase from St. Augustine: “visible words.” I find this phrase attractive because it helps me appreciate Baptism and Communion as the visible, physical counterpoint to the preaching and teaching of the church. That is, the sacraments are the embodiment of the proclaimed and heard gospel in physical form, the gospel given shape in water, bread, and wine. They serve us, then, as physical reminders of what we have heard and believe simply because we are physical creatures and remembering and believing can be so hard. And so we have the gospel preached to us so that we may hear it, and we have the same gospel given to us so that we may taste and touch and feel it with our hands and mouths and bodies.

"Visible, physical words for visible, physical people. Now, if this is true, then the sacraments will share the same character as the proclaimed gospel. That is, the sacramental word, as with the preached word, will be primarily about one thing: telling the truth. And perhaps this is where our difficulty with the sacraments begins, because to do this — to tell unflinchingly the honest-to-goodness truth — is rarely easy and almost never welcome.

" Frederick Buechner, in his book Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale, describes why this truth telling can be so hard: Before the gospel is good news, he writes, it’s just news. Let us say that it is the evening news, the television news, but with the sound turned off. Picture that, then, the video without the audio, the news with, for a moment, no words to explain it or explain it away, no words to cushion or sharpen the shock of it, no definition given to dispose of it with such as a fire, a battle, a strike, a treaty, a beauty, an accident. Just the thing itself, life itself, or as much of it as the screen can hold, flickering away in the dark of the room (14).

" News, news describing the way things really are. And from such news, as Buechner goes on to explain, there is no escape, as we are confronted with who we really are, forced to look honestly at ourselves with no illusions, excuses, or hiding places.

" This is the gospel; this is the sacraments: the telling of the truth. And, as Buechner also writes, such truth is “bad news before it is good news. It is the news that man is a sinner, to use the old word, that he is evil in the imagination of his heart…. That is the tragedy. But it is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished, forgiven, bleeding, to be sure, but also bled for. That is the comedy,” the good news .

" This news, tragedy before it is comedy, bad before it is good, law before it is gospel. It’s not what we want to hear, really, but there it is all the same. The sacraments tell us first the difficult truth about ourselves, and only then tell us the glorious truth about God’s loving response to us and abiding concern for us.

" And of all the truths the sacraments tell us about ourselves, the first is that we are not in control. Now, I know that you don’t need to be told this. After all, any illness, or job loss, or tragedy great or small reminds of just how precarious life is. And yet…and yet it is so tempting to believe otherwise, to try to arrange our life just so and in this way delude ourselves into believing that we really can be masters of our own destiny, captains of our fate. And so the gospel first reveals to us the difficult news that we are not in control.

Frontpage, July 15, 2018

July 15, 2018 Pentecost 8, Proper 10

Pictures and text from this Sunday, July 15

The Week Ahead…

July 18 – 10:00am, Ecumenical Bible Study

July 18 – 3:00pm-5:00pm, Village Harvest food distribution

July 22 – 11:00am, Pentecost 9, Holy Eucharist, Rite II

Sunday, July 22 Readings and Servers

Village Harvest July 18, 2018 – midsummer abundance

Thanks to Andrea Pogue for these pictures

Mid-summer at St. Peter’s, July 18, 2018, the monthly food distribution with the Village Harvest. The weather was much better than the rain from the previous two months. The weather was temperate with temperatures in the mid 80’s under brilliant sunshine. We had a variety of help transporting and organizing the food including visiting priest Luis Garcia and his family from the Dominican Republic. He is our celebrant this Sunday

1,490 pounds of food were distributed which included a wide variety – 588 pounds of fresh produce, 463 pound of grocery items, 322 pounds of meat and 40 pounds of bakery items. While a significant number, it is under average this year’s average of 1,617 pounds. Still it is 121% greater than the same period a year ago. Parishioners are contributing school supplies this month and next.

Food went to 119 families, the largest number since April. The average food received was 12.52 pounds of food with a value of $75. For year we have served on average 120 people a month under last year’s 142. We have been down in numbers about 15%. One difference besides weather earlier in the year is that people are not being contacted directly this year to remind them of the Harvest.

General Convention in Austin wraps up – 10 things to know

Major support in this summary came from the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.

The General Convention is the primary governing and legislative body of the Episcopal Church and meets every 3 years. It wrapped up a 9 day session in Austin, Texas on July 13. Here are 10 things that came out of the meetings:

1 . Continued use of the 1979 Prayer Book together with a look toward eventual revision

The 1979 BCP has been memorialized. It may continue to be used with no end in sight.

Work is authorized to proceed on liturgical and prayer book revision. An important goal is to have inclusive and expansive language and imagery, and expression of care of God’s creation. Translations will be provided.

There will be a more dynamic process for discerning common worship. A new 30-member task force on liturgical and prayer book revision with diverse voices will be formed. Bishops are to engage worshiping communities in experimentation and creation of alternative texts to offer the wider church. There will be churchwide engagement on liturgical development.

2. New Rite II options with Expansive Language will be available

It provides expansive language option for Prayers A, B, D expansive for trial use; Prayer C is referred back to committee for possible revision for trial use.

3. New translations for the BCP will be made

The Episcopal church recognized the need for translations and is moving quickly to provide professional dynamic equivalence translation in Spanish, French, and Haitian Creole for any new liturgies materials

Lectionary, Pentecost 9, Proper 11 Year B

I. Theme – God’s care for us all

"Sheep in Paradise" from Basilica of Sant' Apollinare in Classe

"Sheep in Paradise" from Basilica of Sant’ Apollinare in Classe, 549, Ravenna, Italy

The lectionary readings are here or individually:

Old Testament – Jeremiah 23:1-6
Psalm – Psalm 23, Page 612, BCP
Epistle –Ephesians 2:11-22
Gospel – Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Today’s readings remind us of the care that God constantly exerts on our behalf. Jeremiah uses the image of God as a shepherd to describe how God will gather the people. Paul explains the reconciling work of Christ, who is the peace between Gentiles and Jews. Jesus has compassion on the crowds of people, who remind him of sheep without a shepherd.With compassion, Jesus saw the multitude “like sheep without a shepherd,” and he bade them to sit down in that green pasture to be rested and fed. The story leads up to the feeding of the 5,000 at the end of the month. The event on the hillside is a prefiguration of the messianic banquet to which all people may come to eat the bread of life. This bread, broken for us, is enough for all at present, with much left over for future throngs.

The scripture implies that a great spiritual hunger had brought the crowd to Jesus, for “he began to teach them many things,” until it grew late. He had very likely told this people that God loved each of them and that the gates of the kingdom were open to all. Whatever human condition was their own, they were not beyond God’s care and acceptance.

These were the crowds of people who may have been poor and sick, people who suffered and had no leadership to speak for them, to bring them hope and healing, and Jesus has seen them for who they are. Jesus and the disciples had hoped to escape the crowds and have a time of rest but Jesus saw the needs of the people were greater than the needs of himself and his disciples, for the people were sick, lonely, hopeless and hungry.

The miracle of the loaves points to the greatest miracle of all, which is described later in Ephesians. There were no “dividing walls” at the feeding–no barriers of legal, social or religious foundation. The multitude sat at Jesus’ feet, looking to him to fill their need. Jesus was a son and teacher of Israel, the first people to whom God was revealed, the first people entrusted with God’s oracles and ordinances. We, the Gentiles, know ourselves to be those who were far off, “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel,” and “separated from Christ” in the beginning. But his peace has come for all. He is the one who unites all the families of the nations. Through him both Jews and Gentiles have access to the Father.

Read more about the lectionary…

The relationship between Psalm 23 and Mark’s Gospel

From Disclosing New Worlds – Lawrence Moore

"I find it striking that Mark groups three events that belong together (the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus walking on water and the healing of the sick at Gennesaret) in ways which carry unmistakeable echoes of Psalm 23… it is merely to point out that the movement of Psalm 23 is a useful picture of the movement of the gospel passage.

"Let’s look at the parallels. To start with, having Yahweh as Shepherd means that the flock will ‘not want’. Yahweh is the Shepherd-provider, who ‘makes the sheep lie down in green pastures’. Jesus, similarly, elects to be shepherd to the people in the wilderness (v34). Not only does Jesus begin to teach them (ie give them the ‘leading’ or direction they are lacking) but, in preparation for feeding them, orders the people to sit down on the green grass (v39). It is interesting that Mark mentions the green grass specifically: they are in the wilderness, but Jesus has led them to ‘green grass’ within that hostile environment. This is a place of peace, safety and provision: it is here that the desperate ‘sheep’ will be fed.

"Psalm 23 goes on to celebrate Yahweh’s protection, even in ‘the valley of the shadow of death’. Having been fed, the disciples in the story find themselves in life-threatening circumstances. They are trying to row across the lake to Bethsaida, but unable to make any headway because they are rowing into the wind. Mark, of course, attaches narrative symbolic significance to the lake crossings. Importantly, too, storms at sea evoke the primeval chaos of Genesis 1:2, and symbolise the power of the Strong Man. That they are ‘natural’ powers is Mark emphasising symbolically that the world (which ought to be the Kingdom of God) is in the grip of powers over which human beings have no control. This is the ‘valley of the shadow of death’.

"Psalm 23 ends with a celebration of Yahweh’s goodness and mercy. To be part of Yahweh’s flock is to live a life that is truly blessed. It is to have Yahweh’s constant presence. Yahweh is the God-who-saves. The gospel passage closes with Jesus and the disciples landing at Gennesaret; the people’s response is to rush around and bring the sick people to him for healing. ‘Goodness and mercy will trail around after me all my life’, says the psalmist. In the gospel story, those who touch the trailing fringe of Jesus’ cloak are healed. Jesus is God’s goodness and mercy incarnate.

"Why does Mark make a point of recording Jesus’ reaction to the crowds in terms of being like sheep without a shepherd? Note that his reaction is driven by compassion (Mark 6:34). ‘Compassion’ is an Exodus word. Compassion is the foundation of Yahweh’s ‘goodness and mercy’; Yahweh’s liberating salvation. The story of the Exodus itself starts with Yahweh ‘hearing the groans of the Hebrew slaves’; Yahweh’s compassion is engaged, so that Yahweh ‘looked upon the Israelites, and Yahweh took notice of them’ (Exodus 2:24). Yahweh saves because Yahweh is touched by suffering. Yahweh provides bread in the wilderness because Yahweh has ‘compassion’.

"It is difficult to miss the echoes of the Exodus story here. Mark’s Jesus is the Son of God – the one whose person and actions mirror and portray God. Jesus is presented as God’s compassion and liberating power in action. His mission of the Kingdom is a mission of liberation from all that enslaves. The subsequent feeding story – the miraculous feeding of 5,000 Jewish men in the wilderness – echoes the story of Yahweh’s provision of manna in the wilderness. Jesus is present among the needy of Israel: it’s Exodus time!"

Psalm 23 – Not just for funerals

By Emily Heath, enior Pastor of The Congregational Church in Exeter, New Hampshire.

"Almost every time I plan a funeral, the reading of Psalm 23 is requested. It’s probably the one Psalm we all know more than any of the others, and there is something comforting about reading it while we mourn: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…"

"But that Psalm 23 has been relegated mostly to funerals is a tragedy. Because, to me, this Psalm isn’t about death; it’s about living fearlessly and in abundance.

"The shepherd of the Psalm, God, is described as someone who can lead us through the scariest of places, all the while casting aside our fear. And God fills our cups, not just until there is enough, but until they overflow with so much goodness that we can’t help but share it.

"I think churches could learn from this. Because in a time when so many churches are drawing inward, afraid of an unknown future, and clinging to the "hope" of austerity measures, the Psalm offers us a radical alternative. Don’t live in fear. Live in faith. And follow the one who can lead you through the darkest valleys and make them seem like they were well-lit sidewalks."

Turning Lost Sheep into Shepherds

Article from Faith and Leadership. The story of Tierra Nueva

"An ecumenical ministry in rural Washington state helps Latin American immigrants, migrant workers, gang members, addicts, jail inmates and people who have been incarcerated become leaders in their own community."

"Tierra Nueva is headquartered in a 100-year-old former bank building in rural Burlington, Washington. The first floor, repurposed into a simple worship space and family support center, is a mishmash of sleeper couches, desks, bookshelves and cardboard boxes. On one wall, a mural depicts Jesus as a brown-skinned man channeling healing waters, which swirl around a scene filled with people — imprisoned behind bars, entangled in ropes and chains, toiling in green fields, embracing one another, kneeling in prayer. The painting symbolizes the mission of this ecumenical ministry, which serves people on the margins of society — Latin American immigrants, migrant workers, gang members, addicts, jail inmates and people who have been incarcerated, as well as people in the mainstream.

"Originally focused on jail ministry and immigrant assistance, Tierra Nueva’s mission has grown to encompass gang ministry, drug and alcohol recovery, job creation and theological education as well. Farming and a coffee-roasting social enterprise provide meaningful work and income for people the ministry serves.

"Founder Bob Ekblad’s hope is to see more people empowered as leaders to help liberate those in need within their very own communities.

“To me, that involves bringing together Scripture, Holy Spirit and social justice advocacy in a missional community model,” he said.

The Gospel Setting – Mark 6:30-34

By Debie S Thomas for Journey with Jesus

Icon of Christ the healer

"Mark 6:30-34 describes the return of the disciples from their first ministry tour — their inauguration into apostleship. Exhilarated and exhausted, they have stories to tell Jesus — thrilling stories of healings, exorcisms, and effective evangelistic campaigns. Perhaps there are darker stories in the mix as well — stories of failure and rejection. Hard stories they need to process privately with their Teacher.

"Whatever the case, Jesus senses that the disciples need a break. They’re tired, overstimulated, underfed, and in significant need of solitude.

"Jesus, meanwhile, is not in top form himself. He has just lost John the Baptist, his beloved cousin and prophet, the one who baptized him and spent a lifetime in the wilderness preparing his way. Worse, Jesus has lost him to murder, a terrifying reminder that God’s beloved are not immune to violent, senseless deaths. Maybe Jesus’ own end feels closer. In any case, he’s heartbroken.

"Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile," he says to his disciples as the crowds throng around them at the edge of the Sea of Galilee. "Come away with me," is how another translation puts it, and I hear both tenderness and longing in those words. Yes, Jesus wants to provide a time of rest and recuperation for his friends. But he’s weary, himself; the hunger he articulates here is his own.

"…He’s also like us in that sometimes, his best-laid plans go awry. According to St. Mark, Jesus’ retreat-by-boat idea fails. The crowds anticipate his plan, and follow on foot. By the time he and his disciples reach their longed-for destination, the crowds are waiting, and the quiet sanctuary Jesus seeks is nowhere to be found. Maybe what he faces isn’t quite the urban onslaught of Calcutta, but it’s definitely a first-century wilderness equivalent.

"Does Jesus run? Does he turn the boat around and sail away? No. As Mark puts it, "Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things."

"But once again, according to Mark 6:53-56, the crowds anticipate Jesus’ plan, and word spreads. As soon as the boat lands at Gennesaret, the crowds go wild, pushing and jostling to get close to Jesus. They carry their sick to him on mats. In every village and city Jesus approaches, swarms of people needing healing line the marketplaces. They press against him. They plead. They beg to touch the fringe of his robe and receive healing.

"Jesus’ response? Once again, his response is compassion. "All who touched him were healed.

"Lesson One for me? Pay more attention to the "throwaway" passages in the Gospels, those little transition verses which often precede or follow the "main events" of Jesus’ life story. Passages like Luke 5:16: "But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." Or Mark 11:12: "The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry." Or Matthew 8:24: "Jesus was sleeping." Or Mark 7:24: "He didn’t want anyone to know which house he was staying in."

"In these "minor" verses, I see essential glimpses of Jesus’ human life — the life I can relate to most readily. His need to withdraw, his desire for solitary prayer, his physical hunger, his sleepiness, his inclination to hide.

"These glimpses take nothing away from Jesus’ divinity; they enhance it, making it richer and all the more mysterious. They remind me that the doctrine of the Incarnation truly is Christianity’s best gift to the world. God — the God of the whole universe — hungers, sleeps, eats, rests, withdraws, and grieves. In all of these mundane but crucial ways, our God is like us."

Err on the Side of Compassion

By Debie S. Thomas "Come Away with Me" for Journey with Jesus

Debie relates a recent visit to Calcutta, India to the Gospel reading this week

"One of the visits my family made in Calcutta is to "Mother House," the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity, and the home where Mother Teresa lived, served, died, and is now laid to rest. We saw the tiny bedroom where she slept from the 1950s until her death in 1997. We saw her tomb, now a place of pilgrimage and silent meditation for people of all faiths. We saw countless photographs of Mother Teresa out among the poor she spent her days and nights serving. Jostling crowds. Outstretched hands. Noisy and desperate petitions. An endless cacophony of need.

"Ten years after her death, Mother’s Teresa’s private letters to her spiritual advisors were published in a volume entitled, Come Be My Light, and the struggle those letters revealed shocked both admirers and critics of Calcutta’s 20th-century saint. Contrary to popular belief, Mother Teresa did not enjoy perpetual — or even frequent — spiritual bliss as she went about doing the "Lord’s work." Instead, she experienced despair, doubt, loneliness, and the seeming abandonment of God. Her "dark night of the soul" lasted for decades.

" Often in her letters, she berated herself for this "darkness," until finally, she came to believe that God was allowing her to identify intimately with the suffering of those he had called her to serve. For Mother Teresa, compassion was neither straightforward nor comfortable. It was birthed in her at great cost. Wrenched from her through darkness and pain.

" My own in-laws have served as missionaries in Calcutta for close to five decades. My father-in-law’s efforts to share Christ’s love with his adopted city have been tireless. As a preacher, a mentor, a Bible School principal, and an evangelist, he has blessed more people than any of us in the family can count. Meanwhile, the needy strangers my mother-in-law has welcomed, fed, sheltered, and mothered over the years number in the thousands. Growing up, my husband often called his home, "Grand Central Station." It was perpetually full of guests.

Top links

1. Newcomers – Welcome Page

2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector

3. St. Peter’s Sunday News

4. July, 2018 Server Schedule

5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (July, 2018)

August, 2018 Newsletter

6. Calendar

7. Parish Ministries

8. What’s new on the website

9. This past Sunday

10. Latest Sunday Bulletin (July 22, 2018 11:00am), and Sermon (July 8, 2018)

July 15, 2018
11. Recent Services:

Block Print by Mike Newman

Projects

Colors for Year B, 2017-18

Green

Ordinary Time

Jun 3-Oct 31

Daily "Day by Day"

3-Minute Retreats invite you to take a short prayer break right at your computer. Spend some quiet time reflecting on a Scripture passage.

Follow the Star

Daily meditations in words and music.

Sacred Space

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."

Daily C. S. Lewis thoughts

Saints of the Week, July 15 – July 22

15
16	[“The Righteous Gentiles”]
17	William White, Bishop of Pennsylvania, 1836
18	[Bartolomé de las Casas, Friar and Missionary to the Indies, 1566]
19	Macrina, Monastic and Teacher, 379; also [Adelaide Teague Case, Teacher, 1948]
20	Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Ross Tubman
21	[Albert John Luthuli, Prophetic Witness in South Africa, 1967]
22	Saint Mary Magdalene

Frontpage, July 8, 2018

July 8, 2018 Pentecost 7, Proper 9

From Left to Right: Bishop Curry leads the Austin revival service on July 7 an ecumenical gathering, the pigeon that mysteriously floated around during the House of Deputies meetings, BCP revision passed House of Deputies and onto the Bishops, Liturgy of Listening session on July 4 how the church had failed individuals, First of 3 in depth conversations – this one on racial reconciliation, July 6. See the Bishop’s "Way of Love" text, below

Pictures and text from this Sunday, July 8

The Week Ahead…

July 9 – 11:30am, Lunch to the trailer court

July 9 – 4:00pm, Vestry

July 10- Maymount Trip

July 11 – 10:00am, Ecumenical Bible Study

July 13 – 7:30am, ECM at Horne’s

July 15 – 11:00am, Pentecost 8, Holy Eucharist, Rite II

Sunday, July 15 Readings and Servers

Sabbatical Information

Catherine will be on sabbatical from Sunday, July 15 through Monday, August 20th. She will return to St Peter’s on Wednesday, August 22nd. Check out the details.

Lunch for the Trailer Court, July 9

Read the story..

Children journey to Maymont, Tues. July 10, 2018

Story, photos and a video are here. 14 youth and adults enjoyed their day there in Richmond.

They concentrated on the animal and nature exhibits. Maymont is home to hundreds of animals including mighty black bears, iconic American bald eagles, playful river otters and friendly goats.

Maymont is a 100 acre Victorian estate in Richmond developed by James and Sallie Dooley, who lived there from 1893 through 1925. The place remains much as they left it since it was donated to the City of Richmond at James Dooley’s death.

Keeping up with General Convention

Logo General Convention 2012
The 79th General Convention of the Episcopal Church is going on Austin, Texas from July 5-July 13, 2018

1. Watch it online – Media Hub

2. Bunch of links

Here is our complete "keeping up" article

Way of Love, Spiritual Practices for the Episcopal Church (full size gallery)

A July 5 sermon by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry to General Convention meeting in Austin, Tx introduced the "Way of Love", spiritual practices to "help our church to go deeper as the Jesus Movement, not just in word, but not just in deed, either, but for real. How do we help our folk to throw themselves into the arms of Jesus."

There are 7 practices – Turn, Learn, Pray, Worship, Bless, Go, Rest.

Lectionary, Pentecost 8, Proper 10 Year B

I. Theme – Participation in Christ’s Ministry and Mission

Duccio - Jesus Commissions the twelve

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 the president of Luther Seminary in Philadelphia

"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.

Top links

1. Newcomers – Welcome Page

2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector

3. St. Peter’s Sunday News

4. July, 2018 Server Schedule

5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (July, 2018)

6. Calendar

7. Parish Ministries

8. What’s new on the website

9. This past Sunday

10. Latest Sunday Bulletin (July 15, 2018 11:00am), and Sermon (July 8, 2018)

July 1, 2018
11. Recent Services:

Block Print by Mike Newman

Projects

Colors for Year B, 2017-18

Green

Ordinary Time

Jun 3-Oct 31

Daily "Day by Day"

3-Minute Retreats invite you to take a short prayer break right at your computer. Spend some quiet time reflecting on a Scripture passage.

Follow the Star

Daily meditations in words and music.

Sacred Space

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."

Daily C. S. Lewis thoughts

Saints of the Week, July 8 – July 15

8
9
10
11	Benedict of Nursia, Abbot of Monte Casino, c. 540
12	[Nathan Söderblom, Archbishop of Uppsala and Ecumenist, 1931]
13	[Conrad Weiser, Witness to Peace and Reconciliation, 1760]
14	[Samson Occum, Witness to the Faith in New England, 1792]
15

Frontpage, July 1, 2018

July 1, 2018 Pentecost 6, Proper 8

Clockwise – Rance Rupp at St. Peter’s to help dedicate the new sign, Mouse tracks on the base of the sign, flowers by Cookie dedicated to John Faibisy’s mother Marion born July 4, Coffee hour, Communion, Back from Shrine Mont summer camp, the Belfry, summer fun with water balloons

Pictures and text from this Sunday, July 1

Check out the videos from July 1

The Week Ahead…

July 4 – 10:00am – 2:00pm, St Peter’s open for the 4th of July

July 8 – 11:00am, Pentecost 7, Holy Eucharist, Rite II

Sunday, July 8 Readings and Servers

July 4 at St. Peter’s

St. Peter’s was open from 10am until 2pm

A grand time at the St. Peter’s Port Royal July 4, 2018 celebration with many parishioners’ participation.

Links

1. Pictures

2. Videos

3. Article

Cleo Coleman’s moving rendition of Harriet Tubman.

Here was the schedule:

10:00 Ringing of the bell at St. Peter’s Church
St. Andrew’s Legion Pipes & Drums Presentation of Colors

The Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem by St. Peter’s Choir

Welcoming Remarks

Special Guest George Mason by David Pondolfino

Rappahannock Colonial Heritage Society Colonial Dance Demonstration
11:00 Delivery of the Declaration of Independence Read by Town Crier Mike Newman. Gun Salute by Civil War Reenactors
Key Note Speaker Dolley Madison By Lynn Uzzell

The men will be selling hotdogs, watermelon, drinks and brownies to benefit St Peter’s
12:00 Special Presentation of Harriet Tubman by Cleo Coleman (inside church) followed by Harpist Recital (Riley Allam, Elizabeth Ciresi)

Patriotic Songs (inside St. Peter’s) from Thom Guthrie and Bill McCoy

Period Music by Evergreen Shade (12-2pm, outside)
2:00 Closing Procession with Pipes & Drums

All About the Declaration:

1. Religion in the Declaration

2. The Real Purpose of the Declaration

3. The Signers – by the Numbers

Keeping up with General Convention

Logo General Convention 2012
The 79th General Convention of the Episcopal Church will be held in Austin, Texas from July 5-July 13, 2018 though there are some addresses on July 4 (Bishop Curry).

1. Watch it online – Media Hub

2. Bunch of links

Here is our complete "keeping up" article

Lunch at the Trailer Park, July 9

We will be taking lunch to the trailer park at 11:30am and invite the families for fun activities. (We got a head start and cooked the hot dogs on July 4 – Thanks, Ken Pogue!)

If you would like to help prepare food, set up what is needed to serve the lunch, or be a server, contact Catherine

Children to take a trip to Maymont, Tues. July 10

You can read about all the activities. The ECW went there in 2015. One activity is to enjoy the animals – Maymont is home to hundreds of animals including mighty black bears, iconic American bald eagles, playful river otters and friendly goats. Contact Catherine to signup or help.

Lectionary, Pentecost 7, Proper 9 Year B

I. Theme – The Struggle of Prophecy – God’s presence turns weakness into strength.

Duccio - Jesus Commissions the twelve

"Appearence on the Mountain in Galilee" – Duccio di Buoninsegna (1308-11)

The lectionary readings are here or individually:

Old Testament – Ezekiel 2:1-5
Psalm – Psalm 123
Epistle –2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Gospel – Mark 6:1-13

The message in today’s scripture readings is that God works through the flesh, all human frailty and weakness notwithstanding. Ours is an incarnational faith, and if we could but grasp the dynamic implications of this reality, each professing Christian could become a powerhouse of God’s activity in the world.

The prophets who became spokespersons for God all felt inadequate to the call and protested their incompetence before God. In one way or another, God stood them on their feet. Ezekiel said, “The spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet.” Paul’s very weakness served the purpose of allowing the Holy Spirit to be the power that made him God’s messenger.

Jesus, in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwelt, emptied himself to become fully human. As faithful people of God, we have also found that as we empty ourselves, the Holy Spirit fills us and dwells in us. Our lives become channels of God’s grace and power. However, self-emptying is neither a popular nor a well-understood idea. The buzzwords of our time are self-fulfillment and self-attainment, and self-seeking impulses often dominate our activities. Few realize that the spiritual world also abhors a vacuum, and that God, bidden to do so, will fill any offered space with the heavenly grace, life and power to work miracles of redemption in our lives.

Even so, we are not to expect all to understand or to be receptive to our incarnational experience. Jesus fared no better than the prophets before him. Their descendants jeered and suspected him. Satan is always present, throwing up barriers to faith. Even in the wilderness, Satan tempted Jesus to doubt his calling: “If you are the Son of God…”

Likewise, the devil sabotages faith in Nazareth. Jesus came to his own home and his own people said, “Who does he think he is?” God’s enemy pulls the same trick on us when we are about to dare something for the lord. Satan whispers in our ears, “Who do you think you are?” After all, people know where we come from too, and our credentials are not all that great. So our adventure for the lord is too often aborted by our lack of trust in God’s sufficiency.

The Nazarene villagers knew Jesus as a working man, a carpenter, and gave no credence to his authority on religious matters. We, on the other hand, are inclined to regard him as a religious teacher, doubting his relevance to the modern world of business, politics and international affairs. When we hesitate to apply his teachings to practical issues, we forfeit the experience of his sufficiency to work wonders through us.

David Lose on the Gospel

David Lose was called as senior pastor of Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis in 2017.

"While there are various elements in what amounts to/a two connected scenes – Jesus’ preaching in his hometown and then sending his disciples out – there is between them a fascinating movement and even transformation in the relationship between Jesus and his disciples. By the end of these scenes, the disciples are no longer observers, they are no longer just followers. Discipleship, as it turns out, is not just about learning from and following another, but also taking on the role and authority of the one you follow.

"What I find fascinating in the first scene is the treatment Jesus receives from his neighbors and hometown friends. Why such disdain? Perhaps it’s just that familiarity does indeed breed contempt. But perhaps it’s also that we have such a hard time receiving grace from unexpected places. Jesus wasn’t what they expected a prophet, let alone a Messiah, to look like. And to accept him as such was to call into question much of what they thought they knew about the world and about people and about themselves.

"I think it’s interesting to notice what does Jesus does in response. First, he cures a few folks but then seems almost unable to do any great work of power because they have no interest in receiving what he offers. And so he then commissions his disciples to go out. This mission to announce the kingdom and share God’s love, as it turns out, will take more than just one miracle worker, it will take a team of people empowered, equipped, and sent to witness to God’s grace, justice, and mercy.

"And notice that when the disciples are sent out, they are sent out to live utterly dependent on the grace and hospitality of others. They are not to take everything they need, but to invite others into their mission…and into their lives. Which is interesting, because while Jesus had just been on the receiving end of an extreme lack of hospitality, yet he knows that the human community he is forming has at its core the interdependence, mutuality, and utter vulnerability that true hospitality simultaneously demands and creates "

The courage to begin

"All serious daring starts from within."

-Harriet Beecher Stowe 1811-1896

"It is very dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities which one has oneself prevented from becoming realities. A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it. In every man there is latent the highest possibility, one must follow it. If God does not wish it then let him prevent it, but one must not hinder oneself. Trusting to God I have dared, but I was not successful; in that is to be found peace, calm and confidence in God. I have not dared: that is a woeful thought, a torment in eternity."

-Soren Kierkegaard, Journals 1813-1855

The courage to continue

"Christians will not be asked how they began but rather how they finished. St. Paul began badly but finished well. Judas’s beginning was praiseworthy but his end was despicable. Many start the climb but few reach the summit."

-St. Jerome c.347-420

"Whatever you do you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you into believing your critics are right. To map our a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories but it takes brave men and women to win them. "

-Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882

John Wesley’s birthday

John Wesley (1703) lived and died as an Anglican priest but was a founder of the Methodists. Though there’s no evidence that he actually wrote it himself, “John Wesley’s Rule” does a fair job of summing up his life, and provides inspiration for our own:

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as you ever can.

Top links

1. Newcomers – Welcome Page

2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector

3. St. Peter’s Sunday News

4. July, 2018 Server Schedule

5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (July, 2018)

6. Calendar

7. Parish Ministries

8. What’s new on the website

9. This past Sunday

10. Latest Sunday Bulletin (July 8, 2018 11:00am), and Sermon (July 1, 2018)

July 8, 2018
11. Recent Services:

Block Print by Mike Newman

Projects

Colors for Year B, 2017-18

Green

Ordinary Time

Jun 3-Oct 31

Daily "Day by Day"

3-Minute Retreats invite you to take a short prayer break right at your computer. Spend some quiet time reflecting on a Scripture passage.

Follow the Star

Daily meditations in words and music.

Sacred Space

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."

Daily C. S. Lewis thoughts

Saints of the Week, July 1 – July 8

1	[Harriet Beecher Stowe, Writer and Prophetic Witness, 1896]; also [Pauli Murray, Priest]
2	[Walter Rauschenbusch, 1918, Washington Gladden, 1918, and Jacob Riis, 1914, Prophetic Witnesses]
3
4	Independence Day
5
6	[Jan Hus, Prophetic Witness and Martyr, 1415]
7
8
9
10

Frontpage, June 24, 2018

Top links

1. Newcomers – Welcome Page

2. Contact the Rev Catherine Hicks, Rector

3. St. Peter’s Sunday News

4. July, 2018 Server Schedule

5. Latest Newsletter-the Parish Post (July, 2018)

6. Calendar

7. Parish Ministries

8. What’s new on the website

9. This past Sunday

10. Latest Sunday Bulletin (July 1, 2018 11:00am), and Sermon (June 24, 2018)

July 1, 2018
11. Recent Services:

Block Print by Mike Newman

Projects

Colors for Year B, 2017-18

Green

Ordinary Time

Jun 3-Oct 31

Daily "Day by Day"

3-Minute Retreats invite you to take a short prayer break right at your computer. Spend some quiet time reflecting on a Scripture passage.

Follow the Star

Daily meditations in words and music.

Sacred Space

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."

Daily C. S. Lewis thoughts

Saints of the Week, June 24 – July 1

24	The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
25	[James Weldon Johnson, Poet, 1938]
26	[Isabel Florence Hapgood, Ecumenist and Journalist, 1929]
27	[Cornelius Hill, Priest and Chief among the Oneida, 1907]
28	Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, c. 202
29	Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Apostles
30
1	[Harriet Beecher Stowe, Writer and Prophetic Witness, 1896]; also [Pauli Murray, Priest]

June 24, 2018 Pentecost 5, Proper 7

Read the "Nature Hike" story from this past week

Village Harvest – June 20

We have seen a drop in clients – from April (153) to May (112) and June (100). The rainy weather was a factor in May and possibly in June as well.

For the first 6 months in 2018, we have served 600 people compared to 709 in 2017 (Since we canceled March’s due to weather we eliminated March for the comparison with the other years). The 2016 figure is 522. We are thus down about 15% so far in 2018 from 2017 though 15% higher than 2016.
Read the rest of the story

Pictures and text from this Sunday, June 24

The Week Ahead…

June 27 – 10:00am, Ecumenical Bible Study

June 28 – 1pm, ONEDay

July 1 – 11:00am, Pentecost 6, Holy Eucharist, Rite II

Celebrate the return of the church sign and meet and thank artist Rance Rupp, who will join us for worship. The potluck coffee hour will follow. Kid Games—Sunday afternoon after lunch, led by Becky Fisher.

July 1 – 12:00am, Coffee Hour Potluck

Sunday, July 1 Readings and Servers

ONEDay, Pastoral Care together

Have you ever thought to yourself that one day you’ll go visit someone, but you never seem to get around to it? And also, we are all ONE body through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so, ONEDay gives us the opportunity to visit those who are part of our ONE body who can no longer get to church, or who have trouble getting out on a regular basis.

The first ONEDay occurred on June 28, 2018. Andrea Pogue, Susan and Helmut Linne von Berg, Elizabeth Heimbach, Catherine Hicks and Nancy Long gathered at St Peter’s and prepared to visit various members of the congregation. Nancy Long plans to send cards to those we could not visit on this day.

The visitors went out to visit, taking with them the prayers and good will of the congregation. They also carried book marks with helpful prayers from The Book of Common Prayer to leave with those they went to see. After visiting, everyone returned to church, and the group ended in prayer for those who had received a visit.

If you would like to join in this rewarding ministry, ONEDay, either as someone who visits or someone who would like to have a visit, please contact Catherine

June 29 – Feast of Peter and Paul

Feast of Peter and Paul

The Feast of Saints Peter and Paul commemorates the martyrdom in Rome of the apostles St. Peter and Paul of Tarsus, observed on June 29. The celebration is of ancient origin, the date selected being either the anniversary of their martyrdom in 67AD or of the translation of their relics. They had been imprisoned in the famous Mamertine Prison of Rome and both had foreseen their approaching death. Saint Peter was crucified; Saint Paul, a Roman citizen, was slain by the sword. Together they represent two different Christian traditions.

Why do we remember them ? Peter is pictured on the left with the keys – the keys to the kingdom. In Matthew 16, Christ says " And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven." They keys since then have been symbols of Papal power. Peter represents that part of the Church which gives it stability: its traditions handed down in an unbroken way from the very beginnings, the structures which help to preserve and conserve those traditions, the structure which also gives consistency and unity to the Church, spread as it is through so many races, cultures, traditions, and geographical diversity

Paul is pictured with the Bible. He, on the other hand, represents the prophetic and missionary role in the Church. It is that part of the Church which constantly works on the edge, pushing the boundaries of the Church further out, not only in a geographical sense but also pushing the concerns of the Church into neglected areas of social concern and creatively developing new ways of communicating the Christian message. This is the Church which is constantly renewed, a Church which needs to be constantly renewed.

July 4 at St. Peter’s

St. Peter’s will be open until 2pm and will be involved in several ways:

1. Place of rest during the day in the cool of the church. we have a history brochure and the graveyard brochure to read.

2.Cleo Coleman will portray Harriet Tubman as part of the HPR program. Mike Newman, Town Crier, will be reading the Declaration of Independence.

3. Marilyn will be bring two harpists.

4. The men will be selling hotdogs, watermelon, drinks and brownies to benefit St Peter’s.

5. St. Peter’s will provide a hymn sing with organ concert from Thom Guthrie and Bill McCoy.

This is a great event to help promote St. Peter’s! Come help out and come participate.

Here is a photo gallery of 2017 .

Keeping up with General Convention, July 5-13

Logo General Convention 2012
The 79th General Convention of the Episcopal Church will be held in Austin, Texas from July 5-July 13, 2018 though there are some addresses on July 4 (Bishop Curry.

1. Watch it online – Media Hub

2. Bunch of links

Lunch at the Trailer Park, July 9

We will be taking lunch to the trailer park at 11:30ajm and invite the families for fun activities.

If you would like to help prepare food, set up what is needed to serve the lunch, or be a server, contact Catherine

Children to take a trip to Maymont, Tues. July 10

Lectionary, Pentecost 6, Year B, July 1

I. Theme – Compassion and Healing

"Jesus heals the bleeding woman" – From the Catacomb of Sts Marcellinus and Peter

The lectionary readings are here or individually:

Old Testament – Lamentations 3:21-33
Psalm – Psalm 30
Epistle –2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Gospel – Mark 5:21-43

Today’s readings encourage us to remember God’s goodness and act toward others with the same unflinching generosity and compassion. Lamentations reminds those who are suffering that God’s goodness will surely come. Paul encourages the Corinthians to offer their surplus of wealth to other communities who are in need. In the gospel, Jesus brings the daughter of Jairus, a synagogue official, back to life in anticipation of his own resurrection.

We are called to live for others and not for ourselves. We are called to share what we have with others and to be in solidarity with the poor and the marginalized. We are called, most of all, to remember that God’s love endures forever, and that at times we need to wait, and not lose hope. The woman who suffered for many years in Mark’s Gospel did not lose hope, neither did Jairus in the time of crisis for his daughter. We know that God through Jesus Christ gives us new life, a life that transcends death, a life that calls us into solidarity with others and to share what we have, for Christ lived not for himself but for all; we also are called not to live for ourselves but for others.

The Judeo-Christian concern for the poor and needy has become overwhelming in this day when the whole world of nations is at our doorstep. We hardly know how to respond. International economic injustices prevent the distribution of national resources on the basis of simple human need. Welfare and many other social obligations have largely become the responsibility of governmental agencies and institutions. We are not too conscious of the individual injunction to be our brother’s keeper.

Still, those who live under biblical mandates do what they can to relieve human need, as they are able. “For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a man has, not according to what he has not.” Voluntary and secret pledging may be hazardous to the Church, but it is in the spirit of what we are called to do. As Paul says, “…so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have.”

The motivation for such stewardship of our resources is our response to Jesus’ voluntary poverty that we “might become rich.” If our gratitude and love for his life given for us is genuine, we are spontaneous givers. Paul equates liberality with our desire to fulfill the will of God, who has given us all that is necessary for our well-being. What and how we give it is really a matter between ourselves and God and reflects our relationship with God.

The passage from Mark seems incongruous with today’s other readings, but it may be related squarely to our sense of gratitude. There are two open secrets in the Gospel of Mark. One is that Jesus is lord over all life in both the natural and spiritual worlds, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear. The signs of God’s kingdom come in Christ are staked out all over the countryside if we can but read them in his words and deeds. The other secret is that faith alone will enable us to receive the blessings Jesus brings to the world.

For the first time in Mark’s gospel, a respectable member of society “falls at Jesus’ feet.” Whatever mixture of motives he might have, the ruler of the synagogue also has some faith that Jesus can help his dying child. Jesus recognizes the quantum of faith in Jairus and responds to it. Our lord is quick to respond to any budding faith, no matter how it is mixed with self-serving interests.

But the little girl dies before Jesus reaches her. Why trouble him further when death strikes in the midst of hope? We say “where there is life there is hope.” But Jesus, already challenged and victorious over the violence of nature and demonic forces, goes immediately to meet death head-on and calls the daughter of Jairus out of her “sleep.”

God is not the God of the dead but the living. “I am the resurrection and the life…He that believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” So Jesus vanquished death also, demonstrating that he is lord even over the last enemy of life.

Jesus has proved how genuine is his love for us. Our gratitude moves us to find our brothers and sisters in need and carry on his gracious work.