Email, August 3, 2014

Last Sunday (Pentecost 7, Year A, July 27, 2014)   

August 3 – 11:00am, Holy Eucharist , Rite II,  Pentecost 8

August 3 – 12:00pm, Coffee Hour  (in honor of Justin and Karen to be married this month at St. Peter’s!) 

Calendar  

This Sunday at St. Peter’s – Servers, Readings   


 This week with the Gospel story of the Feeding of 5,000 we are looking at feeding ministries. Feeding is a complicated issue that involves getting more food out there (distribution), getting better food out there (fresh vegetables) at the same time not contributing to the obesity problem while promoting better nutrition. Now, that’s a challenge! We look at our own food history as well as some "food facts" and the trends of Caroline County.   We also consider how some Europeans are curbing another issue, food waste issue on their own.  We review Vacation Bible School this week which helped feed the soul  for 8+ children and their adult mentors. Thanks to those adults who conceived it, implemented it, parents who brought their children and of course for the children who made it a success. 


Vacation Bible School Day 4, July 31

We welcomed two new children to the group today—Mia and Brock.

Everyone heard the story from I Samuel about Nabal, Abigail and David. Nabal and Abigail were rich, and David cared for their sheep. When David went to ask Nabal for some food to share with the other shepherds who worked for him, Nabal said no. David was so angry that he wanted to fight. Abigail decided to seek a different way, and so she prepared a meal and took it to David and the other shepherds, with apologies for Nabal’s behavior. David forgave Nabal and was grateful to Abigail for finding a different way for the two men to resolve their differences.

We heard the story, talked about how we gather around God’s table and as we share the bread, we become friends with one another.

Games included some review games for the week, and for snacks, we made and baked pretzels and had brownies.

Photo Gallery inside…


Vacation Bible School Day 3, July 30

We continued with our theme this year of Welcome! Give and Receive God’s Great Love.

Zacchaeus climbed a tree to be above the crowds to see Jesus. Jesus stopped under the tree and called Zacchaeus by name, and then invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house for supper. Zacchaeus is forever changed.

We heard the story, got to act it out (Tucker was the tree), then took turns climbing a tree and sharing friendship bubbles.  

See the photos…


Vacation Bible School Day 2, July 29

We continued with our theme of Give and Receive God’s Great Love.

We entered into the Good Samaritan parable by hearing it and then acting it out, several times. Everyone got a chance to be different characters in the story, and the children were very creative as they acted out this drama.

We shared a snack, made beautiful goblets to share with one another and found a secret message (just as the parables have secret messages for us all) by painting, and our game today was a form of tag. The person who got tagged got bandaged, and then the bandaged person tagged someone else and bandaged that person. This game helps us to remember to be good neighbors and to care for those among us who need our help.

Continue for a photo gallery…


Vacation Bible School Day 1, July 28

Our theme this year is Welcome! Give and Receive God’s Great Love.

Today we heard the story about Abraham and Sarah welcoming three strangers and offering them hospitality—Abraham offered the strangers a place to rest, some water, some food, and he offered to wash their feet. Sarah and Abraham fixed the three visitors a delicious meal. And then the strangers had a surprise for them! They told Abraham that Sarah was going to have a baby, although she was far too old. And so Sarah laughed and said “Is anything too wonderful for God!”

Continue for a photo gallery and video…


Coffee Hour, Aug 3 at Noon in honor of Justin Long’s and Karen Ellrod’s upcoming marriage

Join us in welcoming Karen to our Church family!

Hosted by:

Bill and Nancy Wick,

Virginia and Perry Bowen


To start the couple off we thought it would be fun to do something special. If you want to take part bring a little something i.e. favorite recipe, kitchen gadget, a tool, paper towels, etc. We’ll put everything into a laundry basket and present it to Karen and Justin.

Hope you can join us!

 

Donate School Supplies for Caroline County students

Needed—yellow #2 pencils, erasers, wide ruled notebook paper, glue sticks, Marble black and white composition books, boxes of 24 crayons, small index cards, tissues, Lysol wipes, hand sanitizer, dry erase markers, fiskar scissors, spiral bound notebooks, yellow highlighters, pocket folders with and without prongs.  Please leave on the back row of the church. Thanks!

Note, this weekend, Aug. 1-3 is a great weekend to get school supplies as there is a tax-free holiday in place. Here is a list of supplies that count.

 

Lectionary, Pentecost 8, August 3, 2014

I.Theme –   God cares for his creation

 "Christ Feeding the 5000" – Eric Feather

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

Old Testament – Isaiah 55:1-5
Psalm – Psalm 145: 8-9, 15-22 Page 801, BCP
Epistle –Romans 9:1-5
Gospel – Matthew 14:13-21 

Our readings this week continue to show how much God cares for His creation. We read about lives changed forever. We hear about the innocent people suffering but also that God understands. God even shows His love for those who disobey Him and turn away from Him. We see that God wants to bless His people and we see that come about with miracles taking place and people being blessed.

We are an open church – we welcome everyone to share in our community:

– even the Babylonians and Persians in Isaiah.

– Jews who question the falling away of the Christ movement in Paul.

– Those who wanted to cast away the people in the Gospel for a lack of food.

The Psalm demonstrates the actions of the Lord – the Lord “raises,” “gives,” “fulfills,” “hears,” and “watches.”  

This week has the only parable contained in all four Gospels – the feeding of the 5,000. Ironically the emphasis of the event is not so much upon the miraculous nature of the feeding, for the usual reference to the astonishment of the disciples and crowd (12:23, 14:33) is absent, as it is upon the implied revelation of who Jesus is.  

At the beginning of the passage, Jesus had retreated on news of John the Baptist death.

"This passage shows so beautifully the humanity and divinity of Jesus." writes Rick Morley. "He could have sent them away. He could have told them all what had happened to John. He could have just cried and yelled and screamed. He could have gotten into the boat, conjured up a good storm and been done with them all. 

"But, he was moved with compassion. He always is. He was able to see beyond his own pain, and feel the pain they were bringing."

For the early Church, the eucharistic significance of the feeding of the 5,000 made it a central experience in the narratives of Jesus’ ministry.

The key acts are all there :

1. Jesus takes the food which is an offering – we give what we have.  

2. Jesus blesses the food by giving thanks. Our liturgy thanks God on behalf of creation, humanity, and the Church. In our lives we struggle to relearn the natural prayer of our childhood, when we woke each morning with wonder and gratitude in our heart. 

3. Jesus breaks the bread. In church, the breaking of the eucharistic bread may help us recall Christ’s sacrifice and death. In our lives, it is our very selves we are challenged to break—our limits of prejudices, fears, and old attitudes. God calls us to break through to a new awareness of the power of God’s love and of the needs of our brothers and sisters. 

4. He shares with all as we extend his ministry to the world.

This is the truth in which Paul exults when he proclaims that nothing, not our fears, not our sins, not the crushing powers of this world or any other can keep us apart from the love of God shown us in Jesus our lord. Our lives are broken, but we are loved forever. 

Read more about the Lectionary…


From the Society of St. John the Evangelist

Kindness:

"I suspect that the seemingly small, ordinary kindnesses of our lives are magnified greatly in God’s design. We remember the story of the widow’s mite and the stories of the loaves and fishes. What seems like little to us may amount to a great deal in God’s economy." – Br. Mark Brown


Food Facts

The information presented here is excerpted from the above book. Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University and author of several food related books

1. Food is an enormous business that generates well over $1 trillion in annual sales in the United States alone. Food must be produced, processed, distributed, and prepared before it is eaten, each of these steps conducted by companies with special interests in what the government and nutritionists say about food choice

The food industry is vast. It encompasses everyone who owns or works in agriculture (animal and plant), product manufacture, restaurants, institutional food service, retail stores, and factories that make farm machines and fertilizers, as well as people engaged in the transportation, storage, and insurance businesses that support such enterprises.

2.  The problem is not production but distribution

The world produces an abundance of food, more than enough to meet the needs of its more than six billion people. But food is distributed unequally. Not everyone has enough resources to obtain adequate food on a reliable basis. In public health terms, such people lack “food security.”

In the 1960s, the discovery of widespread malnutrition in rural areas of the South shocked the nation and led President Lyndon Johnson to declare war on poverty. Congress enacted food assistance programs such as food stamps. These helped. The prevalence of malnutrition declined.

Beginning in the 1980s, however, reductions in government expenditures, rising inflation, and losses in higher paying jobs widened the income gap. Government agencies began to document increasing levels of food insecurity.

Today, USDA economists say that nearly 15 percent of US households are food insecure, with 5 percent seriously so. The least secure segments of the population are households with children headed by single women, especially those black or Hispanic. Economists estimate that 22 percent of American children live in homes with incomes below the poverty line. Hunger, they conclude, still exists in America.

For many out-of-work and out-of-luck Americans, some formerly in the middle class, having to balance food purchases against other necessities has become a normal part of daily existence.

When Congress enacted food stamp legislation, it made the program an entitlement. Anyone who met income limitations could obtain benefits. The program is now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in recognition that participants use Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards rather than stamps to purchase food.

In 2012, the declining economy and increasing rates of unemployment drove a record-setting 46.6 million Americans—many of them working for low wages and half of them children—to obtain SNAP benefits. Although the average benefit was only about $135 per month, the total cost to taxpayers was $75 billion that year

The critics of federal food assistance complain that the programs cost too much, are beset by fraud, and mostly encourage dependency.

Continue…


Feeding Ministry at St. Peter’s  – "They need not go away"

The issue in the Gospel is sending people away to the village so they can buy food vs. feeding them where they are, free.  As Jesus says "They need not go away; you give them something to eat."   

The issue of hunger is wrapped up in the concept of Food insecurity. Food insecurity is the most broadly-used measure of food deprivation in the United States. The USDA defines food insecurity as meaning “consistent access to adequate food is limited by a lack of money and other resources at times during the year. Food insecurity is not “the government’s definition of hunger." It is based on the household and not the individual and measured over a year. It only refers to lack of food access based on financial and other material resources not the availability of grocery stores or other markets. 

In Caroline County the percentages affected by Food Insecurity have improved from 2009 to 2012 (2014 will be out later) from 13.2% of the population to 11.6% while the average cost of a meal is up. We would expect some improvement with the gradual improvement of the economy:

Feeding is done through the common efforts of many others. Note that Jesus, when feeding the five thousand, passed out the food in the hands of the disciples. 

At St. Peter’s besides donations to Caroline Services, we have fed them where they are and with help of many through the Community Dinner program.  

In 2011, St. Peter’s was the recipient of a $900 Mustard Seed Grant from the Diocese of Virginia. It was intended to cover half of the anticipated cost of 6 community dinners for the town of Port Royal to further God’s presence in the community. At the same time we have provided hospitality and friendship for those looking for more than food.

Our average attendance for the first five dinners was around twenty-five guests.  Could we work with other groups to expand this number ? We held the last of these dinners in conjunction with Caroline County Parks and Recreation and the Town of Port Royal. This joint effort that included games for the children, an appearance by Santa Claus, and the Christmas tree lighting brought over 100 people to the fire station for food and fellowship. 

In 2013 , we received a gift from the Diocese for $250 to continue our community dinners in Port Royal. For our Easter and Christmas Community Dinners, we partnered again with Caroline County Parks and Recreation as well as with Caroline’s Promise.   

Here is the history through numbers from 2011-2013. That program was funded by Mustard Seed grant during most of the period:

Food donations to the Caroline Department of Social Services food pantry are a also year round project at St Peter’s 

So where are we now ? The Parish Post for July 2014 provides some thoughts :

"The number one focus for many people is on how we can better provide food to people in the Port Royal area. Our hope is coordinate with other churches and groups in the area as we develop a plan. 

"With the lack of a local grocery store, food and especially fresh produce is not always readily available or affordable for many in this area.  

"In addition to continuing periodic Community Dinners, we are looking into ways of broadening our food ministry in this area. Some ideas include developing a local food pantry, gleaning and distributing produce that is gleaned, and developing a program that would specifically help feed children whose families can’t afford to buy extra food during the summer months when school is out. 

"Meanwhile, we are continuing to collect food for the Caroline Department of Social Services food pantry and your donations are needed and welcome."

We have a group at St. Peter’s reviewing this issue.  How much food could be:

1. Gleaned from local farms ?

2. Collected from restaurants in this area that would normally be wasted to feed?

3. Purchased from the Food Bank ?

4. Gathered from other local non-profits ?

All to feed our residents.

How do we educate our residents on what and how to eat better to promote better health ?


A Food related issue – handling waste

Feeding the 5,000 is a European organization that is tackling hunger in a specific way – using food that would normally be wastes. They work to glean crops from farms that would be wasted also but host public events to bring awareness to this issue

"Feeding the 5000 is a campaign that aims to empower and inspire the global community to enact positive solutions to the global issue of food waste. We work with governments, businesses and civil society at the international level to catalyse change in social attitudes and innovative solutions necessary to tackle food waste at the global scale."  

Their most public event is where "5000 members of the public are given a delicious free lunch using only ingredients that otherwise would have been wasted." Held twice in Trafalgar Square (2009 and 2011), replica events have since been held internationally – including in Paris, Amsterdam and Dublin – and will be rolled out worldwide."

See how it went in Brussels in April of this year

Two facts on food waste:

1. There are nearly one billion malnourished people in the world, but the approximately 40 million tons of food wasted by US households, retailers and food services each year would be enough to satisfy the hunger of every one of them .  

2. The irrigation water used globally to grow food that is wasted would be enough for the domestic needs (at 200 litres per person per day) of 9 billion people – the number expected on the planet by 2050.


The Physics behind Feeding of the 5,000

Those of you who are scientific minded probably get tired reading all these words. What about numbers ? Quick now, using Einstein’s mass/energy conversion equation how much energy did Jesus have to muster to feed the 5,000 ?

Christian Gaffney answers that for you


The Feeding of the 5000 and the Graham cracker

 

In the mid-1800s there was a group of people in America known as the Millerites–a Christian sect firmly convinced that Jesus would return sometime late in the year 1843. He didn’t, setting off what was called "the Great Disappointment."

At least some of these folks, however, made the best of the situation by declaring that as a matter of fact Jesus had returned but that it had turned out to be an invisible, spiritual advent. Believing themselves to be living in an already-present millennial kingdom, these Adventists decided that as part of this new identity they should invent alternative foods as a sign of their not being fully in this world.

One preacher named Sylvester Graham invented a new kind of cracker for his congregation to eat. Sylvester Graham (1794-1851) believed physical lust was harmful to the body and caused such dire maladies in the sexually overheated as pulmonary consumption, spinal diseases, epilepsy, and insanity, as well as such lesser ailments as headaches and indigestion.  Graham believed a strict vegetarian diet would aid in suppressing carnal urges; to this end, he advocated a regimen devoid of meat and rich in fiber as a way of combating rampant desire.

His famed "Graham bread" was fashioned from the coarsely ground wheat flour he espoused and which came to bear his name. Convinced that eating meat and fat leads to sinful sexual excess, the good reverend urged total vegetarianism. He also warned that mustard and ketchup cause insanity, urged followers to drink only water, and recommended sleeping with one’s windows open regardless of the weather. More reasonably, he touted the merits of a high-fiber diet and promoted the use of homemade unsifted wheat flour instead of refined white flour.

Some sources assert Graham himself invented the snack in 1829; others claim the graham cracker did not come into being until 1882, 31 years after Graham’s death. Many bakers tried to market the crackers, but it wasn’t until 1898 that the National Biscuit Company (now Nabisco) made any real inroads into the market with their Nabisco Graham Crackers product. Nabisco achieved even greater success with their Honey Maid line, introduced in 1925, which boosted the original graham flavor through the addition of honey. 

Today’s graham crackers are made with bleached white flour, a deviation that would have set Sylvester Graham to spinning in his grave — he regarded refined flour as one of the world’s great dietary evils. 


Another Feeding – Babette’s Feast, Grace in a movie

Summary – In this 1987 film, French War refugee Babette works for 2 sisters & their ascetic sect. When she cooks a feast they reluctantly eat but soon the grace of the meal transforms all, including a former suitor of one of the sisters. 

Babette’s Feast is a high regarded Danish Academy Award winning movie from 1987.

The setting of the film is a barren, windswept coastal village of Denmark in the 19th century. The village is populated by a very conservative and pious community of Protestant believers. It is led by two elderly sisters who struggle to maintain the faithfulness and the spirit of the community, which is aging and growing quarrelsome. When Babette, a political refugee from Paris, turns up in their village, the sisters charitably take her in and make her their housekeeper. They ask Babette to cook their very simple fare, for extravagance of any kind is suspect, and enjoyment of worldly pleasures (including lavish eating and drinking) is sinful. 

For fourteen years the three women live together amicably. Fourteen years pass. The parishioners meet regularly for prayer and a meal at the sisters’ home. But their meals are as filled with grumbling and bickering as they are with prayers and hymns. They harbor resentments and grudges against each other for wrongs committed long ago. Interestingly, their bickering always stops when Babette enters the room to serve their simple meal. A disapproving glance or a clearing of her throat is enough to bring shame and silence. Her mere presence is a rebuke to unworthy words or thoughts. 

Then Babette, quite astonishingly, receives a letter from a friend in Paris saying that she has won the Parisian lottery. She asks the sisters if she can use her winnings to prepare a feast for them, in thanks for all they have given her over the past fourteen years. They reluctantly agree. . 

Continue for links to the trailer and/movie…


Lyra – Coming to St. Peter’s to sing on Sept 16, 7pm 

 

Here are brief biographies of the four individuals coming as Lyra to sing for us in September:

Anna Makarenko – soprano

Ms. Makarenko graduated from St. Petersburg Conservatory as opera singer. She had a large experience in singing Opera being a member of the Academy of the vocal mastership by Mariinsky opera house in St. Petersburg. She performs as a guest soloist in various Opera houses of Russia and Belarus. Ms. Makarenko was a finalist of the International competition of performers of romances in St. Petersburg in 2010.

Olga Turkina – mezzo-soprano

Ms. Turkina is a soloist of St. Petersburg Conservatory Opera house. As a guest soloists she regularly takes a part in various opera and vocal projects in Russia and in other European countries. Ms. Turkina was awarded diplomas of several International competitions of opera singers.

Sergey Tupitsyn – tenor

Though Mr. Tupitsin graduated from St. Petersburg Conservatory as choir conductor in 1994, he has also had postgraduate studies at the St. Petersburg High School of Economy (2000). From 1992 – 2000 he was a singer of the "Konevets" male choral quartet, performing over 1000 concerts in different countries of the world. Now he spends his time as both a singer and a manager of LYRA choir community.

Alexandr Kudriashov – bass

Mr. Kudriashov is postgraduate of St. Petersburg Conservatory. He is a soloist of St. Petersburg Conservatory Opera house. He also regularly takes part in various opera projects in Russia and in Western Europe. Mr. Kudriashov was awarded diplomas of several International competitions of opera singers.


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