January 17, 2016 (full size gallery)
The first snow of the year occurred today. It was a wet snow and stuck sparingly but was beautiful. By early afternoon it was all over.
By the numbers there were 4 for Godly Play, 8 for "Weaving God’s Promises" and 45 in the service. "Weaving" featured a lesson on the parts of the communion on the altar – patten, chalice, veill, burse and purificator.
Brad contributed the wine ("sangria") for today’s service. It was made from 5-10 fruits brought back by a friend from Florida. He also made donations for our Village Harvest food distribution on Wednesday. Thanks! Also of note were two visitors from King George, Patricia and Victoria and two of Catherine’s friends from Fredericksburg (now living in Northern Virginia), Brian and Rebecca.
The Sunday was the Parish Meeting, Congregational Meeting, Annual Meeting – it can go by many names. The reports from leadership and groups are here. Over the last few years this online format has been used as opposed to reading them during the meeting. There were some "read" from the Senior Warden and Treasurer with the Junior Warden ("Endowment Fund") but most were provided online.
The meeting has been held separately from the service, integrated in the middle or was the case this year at the end prior to the last hymn. In 2013, there was an alternate service, a 2nd/3rd century Christian experience blended with the congregation meeting. Ths year the Wedding at Cana was the central part of the sermon and themes from 2015 were blended in to the sermon as well as connections to us today.
Today’s readings speak of the revelation of hidden glory breaking through and inviting celebration. The Gospel is the story of the wedding feast at Cana, relates the first “sign” of Jesus’ identity and ministry that “revealed his glory.” The passage from John’s gospel speaks of huge stone jars holding 20–30 gallons of water. Jesus makes use of them for his first miracle, teaching that our journey to the sacred comes through the ordinary.
The sermon used part of this scripture relating to the "third day" to relate God coming then and with us in 2015 and to come in 2016.
“On the third day, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee…”Today’s gospel reading from John begins with these four words—“On the third day,” a phrase that carries us back into history, and also points us forward to the end of time itself.
"In the earliest history of the people of God, the writer of Exodus tells us about a dramatic appearance of God to the people who God has brought out of Egypt and who are now wondering around in the wilderness near Mt Sinai.
"So the early Christians, on hearing this story from John’s gospel about the wedding at Cana, which happened “on the third day” would immediately be alerted to the fact that God might make an appearance in the story. And they would also be alerted to the fact that the event described in this story would point to an event in the future of Jesus himself, his own resurrection.
"This day of our congregational meeting is a “third day” here at St Peter’s—a day to look back and to see how God was present with us 2015, as well as a day to look forward to what God has in store for us in 2016.
"God was present with us in 2015 in so many ways—in our worship and fellowship, and certainly in the strength God gave us to carry out our Village Harvest ministry"
Ministries mentioned in the sermon not only included the Village Harvest but the $15,000 UTO grant, the discretionary fund contrbiutions, the restoration of the altarpiece, Christian education (continuance of Godly Play and the new Christian education class "Weaving God’s Promises"
Back to Cana -"We are like those large stone jars. God fills us with the gifts that God has seen fit to give to each one of us, and these gifts vary from person to person. You might say that the gifts within us are like the water in those stone jars…We are offering up to God the gifts that God has already given us in our stone jars.We offer up ourselves to God each week believing with all our hearts that God will change our water into wine through filling us with the Holy Spirit, and will transform the simple and ordinary gifts we have been given into gifts that we can use for the common good."
"Like Mary’s faith that Jesus would provide what was needed at the wedding, we can enter this year with the faith that we, too, have already been given all we need to do whatever it is that God is will call us to do, that when we offer up what we already have, God will infuse us with the energy and richness and the power of the Holy Spirit, so that we find ourselves drinking from God’s river of delights, and we become the life and light, the signs of God’s miraculous work here in our midst that we carry out from here into the world."
"So may every day of our lives be spent in Cana, on “the third day,” the day of miracles. Wait in faith. Expect God to show up. Expect some resurrection in the dead places of your lives. And know that the miracle of God’s power will enter in and will work in us, and will do infinitely more in us than we could ever ask or imagine, on this “third day” and every day to come."
The Congregational meeting was held after Communion and the blessing but before the last hymn. During the Congregational meeting, Helmut Linne von Berg and Boyd Wisdom were elected to the Vestry. Gifts for outgoing members Fred Pennell and Laura Carey included braided bread.
Roger opened the meeting with a review of the Vestry’s actions during 2015. Clarence followed with a review of the factors that led to the creation of a deficit budget for 2016. 2015 in the end showed a small profit. Johnny concluded with a review of the revised Endowment Fund encourating people to donate to support capital expenditures and outreach, the prime focus of this long term fund.