Reading the Bible in a year!
Resources
Block Print by Mike Newman
Continuing Projects
Don’t see your pet ? Upload a picture
2. Prayer requests – Add a name to the prayer list here.
3. St. Peter’s Directory
We are trying to complete the picture taking in February Sundays, Feb. 11 and 18, after Church for the 2013 Directory. You can "schedule yourself" by just appearing on the second floor of the Parish House in Catherine’s study for the photo.
3.What is this Epiphany thing all about ? Here is an explanation.
3 Epiphany , January 27, 2013 – 9am, 11am 2013
Christ centered, Biblically based, spirit filled and a place of simple hospitality, we have shared our communal life with our church,our community, and those in need. Your presence enriches us.
Feb. 3 -9:45am – "Emergence Christianity" in Adult Education
Feb. 3 -11:00am- Holy Eucharist Rite II
Next Sunday Readings
Focus this week on Outreach – here (Souper Bowl, Box Tops for Education) and abroad (Tools for the Sudan, Stoles for Chaplains)
A Real Souper Bowl, Feb 3, 2013
"Souper Bowl of Caring" is an annual fundraising drive organized in partnership with the NFL. It focuses attention on the issues of hunger and poverty in our community and throughout the world. It began over 20 years ago with a simple prayer : “Lord as we enjoy the Super Bowl, help us to be mindful of those without a bowl of soup to eat.” During "Souper Bowl of Caring 2012", schools, faith-based organizations and service clubs throughout the United States raised over $9.9 million that was donated to local charities.
St. Peter’s will participate this year, one of over 14,000 groups. The money we collect be distributed to to Glory Outreach which serves Caroline County. (Food will go to Social Service) . Last year, our first effort, we collected $286 and 50 food items. Let’s see if we can top that!
On Sunday Feb 3, 2013, please make a separate donation at the offertory (with “Souperbowl” in the memo line) or bring in some food for this worthy cause. The youth will also be collecting dollars in our pail at the conclusion of the service. For every $1 donated, the Fredericksburg Area Food Bank, for example, is able to distribute 4 meals to those in need.
Box Tops for Education, fundraiser for local schools
This is a project of the children of the church.Take one of the colorful collection cans from back of church and fill them up with box tops from participating products. By the end of February, bring them back to the church and give them to Tierra.
Here is a list of participating products.
Box Tops for Education has helped America’s schools earn over $475 million since 1996. You can earn cash for your child’s school by clipping Box Tops coupons from hundreds of participating products. Box Tops also offers easy ways to earn even more cash for your school online.
Here is a video introduction
Stoles for Chaplains in Afghanistan
We will be blessing this stole for one of 40+ chaplains in Afghanistan next Sunday, Feb. 3.
We will have a card you can sign and you can also send a personal message. This stole came from a friend of Catherine’s in West Virginia, the Rev. Amy Turner’s mother, Barbara Porterfield.
From the sermon on 1/27 – "The stole is part of the Stoles for Chaplains Project. This project began when Sergeant Stower, serving in Afghanistan, requested a stole made out of camouflage material for his chaplain. Soon, forty-one other chaplains in Afghanistan also wanted a stole. And so, women in several states have been busy at work making these forty-one stoles. Barbara Porterfield made this stole."
"When a chaplain receives this stole with our notes and our blessing, this stole will be a visible reminder of God’s reign on earth——I hope the chaplain who receives our stole will find the joy of the Lord in our gift and blessing. For all of those whose lives will be touched by our blessing of this stole, I hope that Ezra’s words will become a reality. ‘Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!’"
Larry Duffee – A growing mission in South Sudan
Larry has offered to write this week about his mission in the Sudan – an exclusive for Region One.
"I felt called by God to use the skills and experiences I had been blessed to receive from my education and work in the service of helping God’s Church. In particular, I was looking for someplace where my knowledge of finance and administration would be of greatest benefit. I prayed to God to send me where He needed me.
"When I contacted the Mission and Outreach office of the Diocese of Virginia, rather than being offered a posting in Haiti like I expected (this was in early 2010, not long after the devastating earthquake) instead it was suggested that I go to Sudan. I knew nothing about the challenges facing the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS). But when it was explained that the ECS had a desperate need for someone to come and help get their finances in order, to create systems of administration and to help re-establish trust with their international partners, it seemed like the perfect fit and the answer to my prayers. And what was even more amazing, when I arrived in Sudan in May, 2010, the people here told me that I was the answer to their prayers. So we were all of us praying for God to guide us and that is how it all came about…
- You can donate funds to help new refugees coming into Sudan through this shopping cart. Print it out and send your card and check to the address listed.
- OR you can pay online saving printing and a stamp.
Either way we thank you for your gift of a new beginning for those coming to our newest world country.
Emergence Christianity in Adult Ed, features Brian McLaren on Feb. 3, 9:45am
Brian McLaren, M.A., is a nationally known author, speaker, activist, and networker among innovative Christian leaders. He has an M.A. in English literature from the University of Maryland, left teaching and founded a “transdenominational church” in the Baltimore-Washington area where he remained pastor until 2006. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Carey Theological Seminary in Vancouver.
McLaren has been compared to Luther in formulating strong positions of belief. This is evident in A New Kind of Christianity. which we will discuss. This book contains 10 questions that need to be asked when considering a new kind of Christianity. In doing so he is bold – constructing a new narrative line of the Bible, a different method to read the Bible, discussing Jesus "outside the lines", considering whether God is violent and asking key questions about the kingdom. Come be prepared to be challenged by his thoughts!
Celebrating Genevieve’s birthday, Jan 28
Genevieve is 91 this year and is spry as ever. She made history in 1973 by becoming the first woman trustee to serve. In many churches women did not start to serve on vestries until that decade much less become trustees.
Genevieve’s husband Conway was the treasurer of St. Peter’s for 25 years as was active in the community as businessman (Davis Motor Co. in Port Royal) as director (Union Bank) and as Caroline County School Board member.
Together they gave a significant donation to the St. Peter’s Building Fund as well as Bible for the lecturn. We salute Genevieve on her birthday and celebrate her presense among us.
Annual Council, Jan 24-26, 2013
Annual Council is like a great medieval fair. There are vendors, contests, parades and events but like a fair a meeting place among those who assemble once a year. It is a cacophony of sights, sounds and talk I went as a future president of Region One.
There is the business of council the morning session each morning on Friday and Sat and the workshops in the morning and various breakfast before the Sat. session. Just enough.
There is the networking. Seminarians looking for job, others selling the various ministries of the Diocese (Shrine Mont, Outreach and Missions, Youth, Stewardship of Creation) but mostly others catching on the news of friends, clergy and lay from other churches. Many vendors selling clergy clothes, books, retirement homes, crafts. etc
I found the human story compulsive. The diversity was overwhelming. I met members of St. Francis Korean Episcopal Church, heard about a Latino church in Northern Virginia with 1500 in attendance in a Sunday (Santa Maria). Several of the hymns in the afternoon Eucharist were Spanish. The gospel was read in Korean, English, Spanish, etc. So many languages. There were babies, PYM teenagers, future clergy in Seminary, young clergy who have not been active for 5 years, many seasoned clergy. One man talked about being in Annual Council for 38 years
It is Big!! I am going to provide key points of a few topics. This is a not a comprehensive summary by any means.