Parish Post, August, 2010

ST. PETER’S PARISH POST      AUGUST 2010

Grace and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

From your Deacon-in-Charge

Worshipping Together

Our first Sunday together is quickly approaching.   I am excited about having the opportunity to worship with you on a regular basis.   I’ve kept the following purposes of worship in mind as I’ve thought through the shape of our Sunday worship.

Worship is the work we do together in order to open ourselves to God’s presence in our lives. Worship helps us to deepen our relationships with God and with one another.  Worship helps us to long for and to seek to understand what on earth God has in mind for us as individuals and as a church. 

In order to open ourselves to God’s presence, the opening of the service will begin with a brief welcome from me and some general comments about the theme of the service.   Immediately following this welcome, our beautiful bell will ring out and call us into a short period of silence.  This silence will provide a chance for us to open our hearts in to God in prayer, and to ask God to be present with us in our time together.   The service will then continue as usual with the opening hymn and our proclamation of God’s word as we seek God’s presence through the hearing of scripture and through prayer. We will be returning to Rite II, Prayer A, until Advent. 

The Peace brings with it the closing of the liturgy of the Word of God and serves as the bridge into Holy Communion. The Peace is a ritual that reminds us that the people we greet are the people with whom we will become united in the celebration of the Eucharist that follows.  

We will continue to follow the Peace with a time for brief announcements before we move into the celebration of the Eucharist. 

Our celebration of the Eucharist is made up of four specific actions.

The first part of the Eucharist is the Offertory.  During the Offertory we offer our money, our bread, and our wine, all of which are the results of our labor.   Most importantly, we are offering our very lives as individuals, and as the church, to be transformed into God’s representatives, God’s body in the world.

The second part of the Eucharist is the Great Thanksgiving.   The priest acts in the name of all of us in the Church as we offer praise and thanksgiving to God through Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, through the power of the Holy Spirit.   Although the priest is praying the words, this action of being lifted up into God’s presence through Jesus, our great High Priest, is the work of the entire congregation, and we give our assent with our AMEN at the end of the Eucharistic prayer.  This AMEN is followed by the Lord’s Prayer, which we pray together to prepare us to receive the bread and wine. 

The third part of the Eucharist is the breaking of the bread (known as the Fraction) so that it can be shared among us.  As the priest breaks the bread, we are united with Jesus Christ through his own sacrifice of himself on our behalf.  As we are reminded that Christ has been broken for us, our own hearts break open and create space within us so that we have room to love and serve one another. 

Finally, we share the gifts of God and become united with Christ in his saving acts for us.  Receiving the bread and wine gives us the power then, to go out into the world and be witnesses to the power of our risen Lord in the way in which we live in God’s presence and with one another in our daily lives. 

A logistical note----

For the past several years, the congregation has been singing the Doxology and the fourth stanza of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” between the Offertory and the Great Thanksgiving. Both the doxology and the petition expressed in “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” occur in other parts of the service and will no longer continue to be duplicated at this particular point in the service.

The Great Thanksgiving itself ends, rather than begins, with the Doxology. See page 363 in the Book of Common Prayer—“All this we ask through your Son Jesus Christ.  By him, and with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and forever.  AMEN.”   Because the Doxology occurs here, we don’t need it at the Offertory.

When we sing the fourth stanza of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” we are praying to God that we may live in freedom and that our country will have the protection of God, through God’s might.    This petition was written by Samuel Francis Smith in the 1800’s, but we would all agree that this prayer could have been written to address our current needs as a country.  We certainly want to continue to ask specifically that we can live in freedom under the protection of God. We will be continuing to pray this prayer as part of the Prayers of the People in the Liturgy of the Word, by using the following prayer every Sunday.  I’m including it in this article so that you can become familiar with the wording and pray it fervently during the Prayers of the People, beginning on our first Sunday together.  This prayer will be printed in the bulletin each Sunday with the Prayers of the People.  

“Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations yet unborn:  Grant that we and all the people of this land, and especially those serving in our armed forces,  may have the grace to maintain these liberties, being protected under God’s great might and guidance, in order that our land will continue to be blessed by the light of freedom, and  in order that each of us can strive to serve you in righteousness and ultimately in peace and in safety,  through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.  Amen.”    

As we worship together each Sunday, I hope that we will truly find ourselves in God’s presence and that our relationships with God and with one another will grow richer and deeper as our time together goes on. 

                                                         Peace,

                                                         Catherine Hicks

Catherine’s update on Celebrants for August

You may be wondering why we still have priests coming to St Peter’s each Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist now that the parish has hired a Deacon-in-Charge.    I was ordained to the Transitional Diaconate on June 5 of this year and will be ordained into the priesthood in early December. 

As your Deacon-in-Charge, I will be carrying out the following responsibilities of those who serve as deacons in the church.  I will be studying scripture and striving to make Christ and his redemptive love known.  I will be interpreting to the church the needs, concerns, and hopes of the world.  I will be assisting the priest in public worship.  At all times, my life and teaching are “to show Christ’s people that in serving the helpless that they are serving Christ himself.” 

“But wait,” you may be asking, “don’t priests do these things as well?”  In fact, as baptized members of the church, we ALL make up the priesthood of all believers.  As committed Christians, we all strive to do these things that deacons do—to study scripture, to make Christ’s love known in the world, and to serve the helpless.   I hope that we are all continually mulling over the needs, concerns and hopes of the world.  Along with the rest of us, ordained priests do all of these things.  In addition, people who are ordained into the priesthood empower all of us to serve God and one another.  One visible way in which they empower us is to declare God’s forgiveness to us, to pronounce God’s blessing, and to share in the administration of Holy Baptism and in the celebrations of the Eucharist.  Until I am ordained into the priesthood, we will have priests continuing to join us to carry out these specific responsibilities.

On August 1, the Very Rev. Jeffrey Packard will be our celebrant.  He is the “Very Reverend” right now because he is serving a three year term as the Dean of Region 1 in the Diocese of Virginia.  Fr. Jeff is the rector at Christ Church, Spotsylvania, and he was my field supervisor for two years.  He is actually taking one of his vacation Sundays to join us at St Peter’s !   (He wants to see for himself if I really learned anything or not in my time at Christ Church J.  )  On August 1 we will also have several visitors from Christ Church who were instrumental in my journey toward ordination.  Please make them welcome. 

On August 8 and August 22, the Rev. Charles R. Sydnor, Jr, will be joining us.  Fr.  Charles has been with you several times in the past, so he will not be a stranger to you.  Charles was my family’s rector for over twenty years at St George’s in Fredericksburg and I am honored that he can be with us several times this fall. 

On August 15, the Rev.Canon Susan Goff will be joining us.  Until recently, Susan was the rector of St Christopher’s Church in Springfield, VA.  Now she is “the Rev. Canon” because she works for Bishop Shannon Johnston, our diocesan bishop, and she has a whole host of responsibilities at the diocesan level.  “Canon” appears in her title to indicate that she works for the Bishop.   We are very fortunate to have Susan with us to bring greetings from the Diocese.  Susan led the postulant retreat that I attended with the other postulants from the Diocese of Virginia before we began seminary. 

Please welcome these celebrants and make them feel at home. 

On the last Sunday of August I will be leading Morning Prayer. 

Message From the Junior Warden

Reception /Celebration

We are blest to have Rev. Catherine D. Hicks commence as our new rector on Sunday, August 1, 2010.  A reception in her honor will follow the church service to welcome Catherine as our new spiritual leader. Please plan to join together for this wonderful celebration in the parish house!  A variety of summer salads and other treats will be shared and enjoyed.

Note: She prefers to be called “Catherine”. (Children may call her “Ms. Catherine”.)

Peace, Linda

Churchsp.org – A new look for St. Peter’s website

            In July, the Vestry approved a redesign and content. Come visit at http://www.churchsp.org. The new website captures much of the older site, reorganizes it and provides some new content and functionality.   

Key Points:

1. The main focus of the site is the front page.  Parishioners will likely spend most of their time on this page.  You can get a head start on Sunday by viewing the left sidebar, “This Sunday at St. Peter’s”. The content is changed weekly to reflect the particular Sunday in the liturgical year, links to the lectionary readings, art depicting the readings, a link to the bulletin, and a list of those serving.  The right side of the page has two important columns - one of current news of the Church with links to the content and updated Calendar items, reflecting the last ten items.

Note this icon  , a RSS Feed icon at the top of the page and at the bottom of each column.  <Right Click> and select “Copy link address” and paste it as a subscription in a RSS Reader, such as Google Reader. You will see updates as they occur within the Reader.

In the menu at the top of the front page,   an item for "Newcomers" introduces the reader to the Episcopal traditions. Newcomers can fill in a newcomer card online which is sent to the Deacon-in-Charge's email.  There are information sections on the liturgical year, the sacraments and worshiping with us. 

2. The "About Us", "Worship", "Personal Faith", and "Parish Life" sections are taken from the existing website.  The Personal Faith section contains a "Prayer of the Week". The Deacon-in-Charge's sermons will appear in the Worship section as well as current and past bulletins from services.  The "Locations" item under "About Us" has driving directions to the Church. 

3. The Calendar and News sections provide a complete listing of items summarized on the front page. You can view the calendar by year, month, week or day.  The Newsletter tab is simply a list of all the monthly newsletters to which I have had access. 

4. The last item is a Photo Gallery.  This is actually made up of many separate photo galleries in a table. You can sort the list by title and date (the default). Clicking on any one gallery name will bring you a list of thumbnails with six pictures on a page.  "Next" and "Previous" links advance you through each gallery. "<Double Clicking> on each picture will give you a much large view of a single image. You can also move through each gallery only by using the larger pictures. Photos are an important reminder of events at St Peter's that we have enjoyed.  They can also serve as an attraction for newcomers to St. Peter’s.

We want your continual input for this website, including parish news and pictures.  For instance, under Photos, check out Gallery 2 on the July 3rd celebration Port Royal and the Heimbach wedding – these photos were submitted to me, and these photos are a great addition to the website.   If you have other suggestions for the website, please let me know.   You can contact me through the email link   at the top right hand corner of the website, or simply email me at  webmaster@churchsp.org.

Thanks,   Ben Hicks

SING TO THE LORD A NEW SONG        Denise Symonds

It was with mixed emotions that I announce my leaving St. Peter’s.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with you as Organist/Choir Director.  It has been a blessing to work with the choir, the children, the congregation, and to play the historic George Stevens tracker organ.  It has been a wonderful, loving place for me to grow and develop as a musician.

During my years at St. Peter’s we have been through many wonderful times together: beautiful candle-lit evening services, Ladies Night Out, Gospel on the Rivah, Christmas pageants, Christmas Lessons & Carols, Benefit Concerts, and all those memorable choir anthems, solos, duets and instrumentals.  I have played for many weddings and baptisms, including that of my own grandson!  We have also weathered through some difficult times together as we lost people special to us.  Those especially close to me are Milt Carey, Ron Woodruff, Beverly Pratt, Tom Mahoney, Barbara Wheeler, and Jim Patton.  We have been tested with the Leave-Taking of The Reverend Karen Woodruff and The Reverend John Wall and the Search for a Priest that follows.  But gladness comes again in the morning as we welcome The Reverend Catherine Hicks!  A welcome time of renewal and growth for all of us is in store! 

My growth as a musician has led me to accept the position of Director of Christian Music at St. James Episcopal Church, Mount Vernon.  It is located just outside the gates of Fort Belvoir and close to Mount Vernon in Alexandria.  They have an Adult Choir, a Tone Chime Choir, and a Youth Choir that I will be planning for and directing.  I will also be playing their 6-rank Wicks pipe organ for their 10:15am Rite II Eucharist services, as well as occasional playing for their 8am Rite I Eucharist service.  I am excited about the possibilities of this new direction that God has placed before me.  You are always welcome to see what I’m doing on the church’s website, www.stjamesmv.org, or send me a message at organist@stjamesmv.org.

I want to thank all of you for the love and support you have given me over the years!  It has given me the confidence to seek to serve the Lord with all my being!  The choir will always hold a special place in my heart as they have been extremely supportive and faithful in their ministry to both me and St. Peters.  You have all been a tremendous blessing to me!  I pray God’s abundant blessings for all of you at St. Peter’s as you “Sing to the Lord a new song!”

Sister Church Hosts Free Community Suppers   Terri Harrison

St. Asaph's will be hosting three free (donations will be accepted!) community suppers on Wednesday, August 4, August 18 and September 1, from 6:00 - 8:00 at the pavillion.  Joey Hancock has graciously    agreed to organize these simple suppers, which we hope will be a way for us to offer hospitality to others in our community, particularly to those with limited resources.

August 4 - Village Dinner

Hamburger Steak with Onions and Gravy

Mashed potatoes

Garden fresh zuccinni – Johnny’s Sliced tomatoes

Banana split ice cream cake

RED HAT LADIES     Nancy Long

On the 21st of July, 10 members of a Christian based group of RED HAT
LADIES visited Port Royal.  Nancy played Group Tour Guide meeting the
ladies at St. Peters and taking them on a walking tour of Town.  Nancy
Wick, Laura Long and Elizabeth Heimbach opened their houses.

After the tour the Ladies were served lunch;  prepared by Vivian
McDonald with Peggy Roberts and Marilyn Newman acting as serving
hostesses.  The Ladies were pleased with the day and we made some new
friends.  A check for $150.00 was left for the church.

VETERANS CORNER         Joan Poland

I would like to bring your attention back to Germany, to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.  This is the largest American hospital outside of the United States.  The hospital is requesting the following items.  Let's do our part. 

Phone cards, (US domestic only, with no expiration date, 120 minutes)
Black 30 inch duffle bags, no logos
Men's running shoes - size 9 ,9.5, 10, 10.5, 11, 11.5 and 12
Bath towels
Long sleeve t-shirts L, M, S and XL (in that order)
Men's boxers L, xl, M, and S (in that order)
Men's slippers (slip-on, non-slip) sizes 8 - 14
Men's T-shirts L, M, S (not white undershirts)

No used items please.  Please place items in the back pew and I will collect and send on the 1st of October.  These severely injured active duty men are medivaced to the hospital right from the battle fields.  Again, let’s do our part.    Thank you.  jp

175^th Anniversary News About St. Peter’s 

            Did you know that the famous Captain Sally Tompkins of Civil War fame, taught Sunday School at St. Peter’s. The children probably sat in those same little white chairs we use today.  She lived in Port Royal from 1886-1891 at “Riverview” next door to St. Peter’s (currently the home of the Heimbachs).  She bought the house and lot for $500!

            Captain Sally devoted herself to the work of the Episcopal Church after the war.  During conventions she would rent a large house in Richmond and provided housing to those attending.  She gave freely of her resources to those things she held dear.

            While in Port Royal Captain Sally often took care of the sick as she had done during the war.  She saw many of the patients of Dr. John Gravatt who died in September  of 1886, and she often stayed with his widow. 

            In 1905 when the Confederate Home for Women was established in Richmond, Captain Sally was asked to be their “lifetime guest.”  She died there in 1916 at the age of 83.  She was known as the “Florence Nightingale of the South.”

            Information taken from the July 4^th Speech of Dalton W. Mallory

VESTRY ANNOUNCES NEW ASSISTANT TREASURER

Welcome to Jim Heimbach as St Peters Assistant Treasurer. He brings an enthusiasm along with some alternative ways to how the church’s financial records should be maintained. Of course his first efforts are being dedicated to learning how things are being done so he can assist the Treasurer as well as being prepared to take over should the need arise.

I am looking forward to Jim’s help and working with him.

                                                 Clarence Kunstmann, Treasurer

Health Matters: Water Types    by Eunice Key
Bottled water companies offer many types of water, from spring water to distilled water. The differences between these types of water are determined by the source of the water and anything that occurs to the water during processing. The FDA defines bottled water according to the following Standards of Identity. These apply to all bottled water in the U.S.