Weekly Services

 

~ Sunday ~

1. 8:00am, Morning Prayer & Holy Eucharist           
2. 10:30am, Organ & Choir with Holy Eucharist  
3. 5:30pm,  Sung Vespers & Holy Eucharist

~ Wednesday ~


7:15am Holy Eucharist,

located in the Parish Hall,
 in Fr. Wilkins's Office

Rev. Dr. Christopher I Wilkins,  

Priest-in-Charge

ciwilkins@christepiscopalchaptico.org 

Office: 301-884-0644  

Cell: 301-247-2482

Crystal Spranger, 

Parish Administrator

Office Hours: Tuesday - Friday  

10AM to 2PM

Office Phone: 301-884-3451  

Email: office@christepiscopalchaptico.org  

Vestry Members

Robbie Loker, Sr. Warden

Robert Oppermann, Jr. Warden

Bill Dollins, Treasurer

Betsy Franklin

Julie Burch

Sheila Hiebert

Mike Oliver

Jill Oliver

Donna Gutierrez 

 Hall Activities

and   

Rental Information    

Hall  

Rental Availability - 

http://www.christepiscopalchaptico.org/parishhallevents.html   

~ Wednesday  ~     

Holy Eucharist, 7:15am,   

Priest's Office   

Wine and Bibles, 6:30pm,   

~  Every Thursday ~ 

Yoga 

9 -10:15am  & 10:30am -12:00pm  

Narcotics Anonymous  Mtg, 

7:00-8:00pm  

Historic Churches

We are one, but not the only one. Whereas  all modern churches look the same, each historic church

is historic and intriguing

 in its own way.

Check them out at http://www.daytrippingmetro.com/historicchurches.html

Other St. Mary's County Episcopal Churches   

St. George's Episcopal, Valley Lee, MD

Diocese of Washington   

Bishop Mariann Budde

Bishop's Photo Journal

The Bishop's Blog

Letters & Writings

Sermon

Visitation Schedule

To learn more about the

Episcopal Faith,

Please visit

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/

The Episcopal Church

You can find it online at:

http://www.lectionarypage.net/      

February 6, 2013

The Martyrs of Japan

Sometimes it's all about where we see things, even more than what there is to see and how we see it.

When I walk out of Christ Church of a morning or evening, I'm amazed at just how much sky there is, above and around and behind the building and the trees. The fields rising gently just southwest of the glebe, the wetlands or ice-lands across the road, and the grave-pocked or rolling close itself, give a peace in any and each season and weather. The gnarl on each old tree, and on the branches that fall from them, weigh that peace down with the power of time, which is itself simply the product of change and stability.  

Trees have the ability to change and be stable at once, and must. If they wish to remain where and as they are, they must constantly grow into themselves and stay where they are. They get to know the place well. I wonder if they mind? I wonder, too, but do not know, how old the big oaks out front of the church actually are. I wonder how healthy they are. Since they move each year from bare and bud to pollen and leaf to acorn and drop and then back to bare, my sense is that they're fine. If anything were wrong, I suspect we would know by now.

What would it be like to stay in the same place all your life? Trees and other plants know life this way, unless they are potted or balled and then trucked elsewhere; few animals do. Some of those that do, like mussels and oysters, are delicious. Others, like sponges, monks and landed swimmers, can be quite useful and very good, though none is exactly a food crop. For a person to be what the religious call "stable" can be quite a compelling spiritual call.

We tend to think of being stable as like being sane, or at least on an even keel even if hauling dangerously. The sense I mean is different from that. "Stable" in this religious sense simply means "not moving about." One who takes a vow of stability has not vowed never to go mad - as though inclinations to madness respond to the power of will - but to stay in one place. A stable monk or nun must get permission from the abbot or abbess to leave. It is not always granted, and not always from meanness.

We in North America are not, I suspect, a stable people in this sense (or perhaps in any). When we long for the old home place it is usually because we left our of need, wanderlust, or both. Inventors and perfecters of asphalt roads and the machines that hustle and flow along them, we tend not to settle for long, but crave what's down in that new valley or over that horizon. This can have many virtues, but one of them is not easily grasping the power and presence of any particular situation and its possibilities over time. It is easier for us to imagine ourselves being elsewhere than to change one place into something else, or accept that it should not change at all.

The martyrs of Japan, whose feast we celebrate solemnly today, were stable in an extreme sense: they refused to leave the country when it was clear that their religion (Christianity) was to be banned, and they refused to renounce that religion when it was clear that they would be killed if they didn't. Converted by Jesuits and Franciscans in the 16^th century, these new Christians took upon themselves the mantle of the ancient churches in the Roman Empire. There, the most faithful members accepted certain death in the arena because they wouldn't renounce their faith and worship (or at least pay homage to) the emperor. In this case, the Japanese Christians and surviving western religious did likewise, and were crucified for it. I mean that literally; the shogun's minions nailed them up as tortured, humiliated and quite effective warnings. Irony of ironies, the first crucifixions were at Nagasaki.

Fear, hatred and a lust to control nail people to trees. What else would? As they looked to the sky and realized that their God would receive, but not stop, their sacrifice, did the martyrs of Japan feel regret or remorse? Did they wish they had been born elsewhere or in another time? Did they feel as forsaken as He felt, slowly choking in the afternoon sun, all those years before? Did their faith save their souls, drive them mad, or both? Did they hate and love Japan, or hate and love God and themselves, most of all? Did they perhaps echo the cry, "Forgive them, Father, for they know now what they do?"

We cannot know for sure. We still want to. By 1630, Christians in Japan were either dead or in hiding. Christians got to St. Mary's County about four years later, not too far from the church we worship in and the land we worship on, and never really had to hide.

"Where" can be as important as "what" and "how."

Blessings,

Fr. Christopher

Liturgical Schedule - February 10, 2013 

Last Sunday after Epiphany   

Propers

1st Lesson - Exodus 34:29-35 

  Psalm - 99

2nd Lesson - 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 

 Gospel - Luke 9:28-43a

                  Holy Eucharist  - 8:00AM                

LEM - Dr. Eugene Guazzo 

Greeters - John and Patti Harhai 

Lector -  Shelby Guazzo 

LEMs - Fred Wyant and Susan McQuilkin 

Greeters - John & Karen Colton 

Lector -  Clare Whitbeck 

Acolytes - Nick Oliver, Gabe Wilkins, and Katherine Wright 

10:30 Refreshments:  The Wright Family   

Please pray for the following parishioners: Clare Whitbeck, Chris & Bonny Moore,  William Mattingly,  Russell Maske, Rayetta McWilliams, Keith Owens,  and Ed Moore.

Please also pray for: Richard Griffith - Colton; James McCarty, Judy Thomas - Rogers, Robert Whitlock - Donahue; Bill Armstrong - Baldwin, Marvin Miller, Carol Stockman, Dee  

Parish Notes & Events   

Ash Wednesday, - February 13, 2013: ashes will be imposed at the 7:15 am Holy Eucharist in Fr. Christopher's office and at 6:30 pm in the Parish Hall prior to Wine and Bibles. Remember: this is the one church service of the year in which believers and nonbelievers alike hear what none can deny: "Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return."

        

http://www.christepiscopalchaptico.org/Our%20Ministries.html 

 

Wine and Bibles - Every Wednesday at 6:30pm. We continue this week an Epiphany study of Early Christian Writings, which you may find at http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/. We will examine selections from these texts, which include those in the New Testament as well as many others from the same time period, to better understand Jesus and his times and the early church, and the difference that Christ made in the first centuries of our era. Whether or not you've been with us in the past, we encourage you to join us. No advance reading or preparation is required.

 

 

Mens Night for the Ladies Fundraiser   Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013

Cocktails start at 5:00pm, dinner starts at 6:00pm. 

Menu: Beef Tenderloin and Crab Imperial, and live entertainment with Jennifer Cooper and the Groovespan duo from 6-9pm. Come out for an evening of elegant dining, fellowship and fun. A $50 donation per couple, and/or $25 per guest. BRING YOUR FRIENDS!  Please RSVP by Wednesday, February 20, to  Robert (301-884-4581) or John Colton (301-807-0777).

Annual Church Rummage Sale & Refreshments

On Saturday, April 6, 2013, 7:00am to 1:00pm, on Christ Church Parish Hall grounds.  Proceeds from table rental and donations to the Christ Church Rummage Table will support ministry programs.  Refreshment proceeds from drinks, breakfast foods, and baked goods will support our Friday Night Youth Program. Bring your own table and rent space - $25, or for space and a table - $30.  Contact Crystal at mailto:office@christepiscopalchaptico.org or 301-884-3451, to rent your space. Mark Your Calendar Now! Rain or Shine!

 

 

CAMP EDOW (Episcopal Diocese of Washington) - Save the date!  For rising 4th-8th graders, at Lions Camp Merrick in Nanjemoy, MD; Sunday, July 28 - Friday, August 2, 2013. Cost is $500, scholarship application will be available.  Get ready for a week of fun, faith, friends, activities, and memories with an Episcopal flair! More information visit www.edow.org/camp.
 

Snow, snow, ice and snow -  It fell. It iced the roads. The sun came out, and the sun won. If this process halfway repeats itself, re-slickening the roads one Sunday morning, act accordingly. Church will be there once the sun wins again. The sun always wins in the end...

On WARM -  If you would like to volunteer at any of the host sites for the WARM program during this season or otherwise support the program, please be in touch with Fr. Christopher or the parish office to learn of the schedule of host sites and their various needs. Under new management, the program has strengthened its ability to safely and efficiently serve, during the chilly months of the year, those in our community who lack permanent housing. All reports indicate that the new, improved program is going quite well this season.

Safeguarding God's Children

Coming to Christ Church, Chaptico  

Saturday, April 13, 2013

9:30am - 12:30pm 

Our Growing and Vibrant Youth Group

Child Abuse Prevention Training for Paid Full-time Staff and

All Who Work With Children & Youth

Safeguarding God's Children provides participants with the information they need to protect the children they know and care for in their personal lives and the ministries in which they serve. The program is based on the philosophy that if every adult can protect just one child, the will forever change one life. If we can all change one life, together we will make a difference in this generation of children.

In the Diocese of Washington, we want each of our parishes to actively protect their children and youth so that we may live into our baptismal covenant and to help them grow stronger in their life in Christ.

Who needs to attend?

• All paid parish staff members who have not completed a child abuse and sexual misconduct prevention of program in the last three years
• Any volunteers working with children and youth (including Christian education leaders) who have not completed a child abuse and sexual misconduct prevention of program in the last three years
• Anyone who wishes to learn more about how their parish can protect children and youth.
•  

Please contact the Crystal Spranger if you are interested in registering, or helping with setup and cleanup. 

Light refreshments will be provided by Christ Church Parish.

For further details visit http://www.edow.org/news-and-events/events/featured-events/safeguarding-god-s-children  

What's Happening In Your Community?