I love this time of year. Fall approaches, sweater weather nears, kids go back to school (!), and our ministries renew their energy. The continuing global pandemic may have us down, but we are a resilient people with many blessings in our community. It is time to celebrate and give thanks.
Read MoreLast year, a friend sent me a Christmas card with a very simple message, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.”
It’s a quote attributed to Meister Eckhart, a German theologian, philosopher and mystic in the late 13th century. And thank you is what I want to say to you, the people of St. George’s church.
Read MoreAs we approach the July 4th holiday, we are mindful of the ideals that our country was founded upon, justice, freedom and equality. And we are also aware that we have a long way to go in realizing our aspirations. This past year has been such an ordeal in so many ways and the collapse of the condo in Florida last week, was yet another blow to our national psyche.
Read MoreWe are excited to announce a new partnership between Saint George’s and 9th Street Chamber Music, a new venture by musicians we know well. Having played for us individually and together over the past years, we welcome the four musicians of the 9th Street String Quartet, Matthew Richardson, Jennifer Wade, Elizabeth O’Hara Stahr, and Andrew Rammon as our Artists in Residence and look forward to their participation in our worship services.
Read MoreLast Sunday was such a joy! We baptized three young adults at the 8:00 service and celebrated Youth Sunday at the 10:30 service. We also had our outdoor service at 9:15. It was such a blessing to have 120 people between the 3 services.
Read MoreSeminary students have many teachers. Although I am probably biased, the teachers at Virginia Theological Seminary are among the best. Seminary education is just one part of the training to become an Episcopal priest, another involves practical field education. All Master of Divinity students are required to spend two semesters interning at a parish. The Diocese of Virginia also requires a third semester, plus 8 weeks at a different parish during the summer. I’m grateful I’ll be spending my 8-week summer internship at St. George’s where I’ll learn from many teachers, ordained and lay!
Read MoreWe rejoice in the good news that beginning on Sunday we can return to congregational singing (masked) in all of our worship services – 8 am, 9:15 am, and 10:30 am. What a wonderful thing! Important research completed this past year by the University of Colorado and University of Maryland found that we can sing together in a manner that is very safe by following a few simple mitigations such as wearing a mask. I have missed hearing you sing and look forward to Sunday when once again our voices will raised together in song. So, do sing out and rejoice! There will be good hymns. Afterall, we have to make up for lost time.
Read MoreI’ve always loved this hymn. As a young child, I liked it because it talked about nature and the refrain was one I could sing easily. As I got older, I was much more interested in the tune. I didn’t appreciate it for the well-crafted hymn tune that it is with its balanced phrases and flowing lines. I simply thought it was a rockin’ tune and my mother really rocked it at the organ.
Read MoreBeginning this Sunday you will notice our online worship looks somewhat different than it has the past year. Over the next few weeks we will be transitioning to a true live-stream of our service. Instead of collecting individual service parts in preceding weeks and creating a “worship video” in my basement, our complete worship service will take place in our nave at the same time and we will have limited live music rendered in accordance with the most recent guidance for doing so safely.
Read MoreThe great variety of hymn texts and tunes we have available to us today bring a great variety of insight and expression to our worship. From the time before the birth of Christ up until the contemporary moment, women and men have written hymn texts expressing their insights and stories of their contemporary faith.
Read MoreI hope you are doing well on this beautiful day. The bright sunshine and the wild wind remind me of the majesty of God and the fierceness of God’s love for each of us. Our psalm for this Sunday really captures that idea.
Read MoreI hope you are doing well on this beautiful day. The bright sunshine and the wild wind remind me of the majesty of God and the fierceness of God’s love for each of us. Our psalm for this Sunday really captures that idea.
Read MoreThis Sunday is the Last Sunday after the Epiphany. Every year on this Sunday, we hear the story of Jesus’ transfiguration when he ascends a mountain with his closest disciples and they have a mystical experience where Jesus’ divine nature is revealed to them. The transfiguration is often understood as a foretaste of the Resurrection.
Read MoreI know you join with me in offering a prayer of profound thanksgiving that we had a peaceful transfer of power during this past Wednesday’s presidential inauguration. This is something that we no longer take for granted. It was wonderful to see that the steps of the U.S. Capitol, that two weeks before had been a scene of destruction, violence, and desecration, became a place of unity, peace and a hopeful new beginning for our country. There are many miles to walk as we rebuild and tend to our nations wounds, and we pray God’s continued blessings upon President Biden and Vice-President Harris as we begin the work of reconciliation.
Read MoreThe great variety of hymn texts and tunes we have available to us today bring a great variety of insight and expression to our worship. From the time before the birth of Christ up until the contemporary moment, women and men have written hymn texts expressing their insights and stories of their contemporary faith.
Read MoreOn Wednesday, we saw before our very eyes what many thought impossible, the storming of our U.S. Capitol by an angry mob, called to action by President Trump. It was quite an irony that this dark event happened on the Feast of the Epiphany, when we celebrate the arrival of the wise men in Bethlehem who followed a star from a distant land to find the Christchild, laying their gifts before him.
Read MoreChristmas draweth nigh! And as one of the catalogs that came to me in the mail announced on its cover, “If there was ever a year that needed Christmas, it's 2020.” This has been a year like no other. There has been so much suffering, turmoil and dis-ease, so this year we welcome Christmas with a very particular joy, a joy that comes into the darkness and gladens our hearts with the light of Christ.
Read MoreThe Rt. Rev. Susan Goff has directed that all churches in the Diocese of Virginia cease all outdoor gatherings immediately, so we will not be having our outdoor Sunday service for the foreseeable future.
Read MoreIn each generation throughout history God has raised up poets and musicians who have given us hymns reflective of our time and place. From the many wonderful treasures in our hymnal to our very own Saint George’s Hymn that was created just a few years ago by contemporary poet, Susan Palo Cherwien. Hymnody throughout the ages helps us sing our whole faith.
Read MoreThis Sunday is the Last After Pentecost: Christ the King. Christ the King Sunday crowns the church year and fills us with wonder, love and praise for our Lord who reigns in glory, and yet became “one of the least of these” for our sake.
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