St. George's Episcopal Church

Give Online
You are here: Home / Archives for Home Page / We Grow

We Grow

Scary Music for Organ Concert

by Leave a Comment

St. George’s Episcopal Church will offer a free concert of Scary Music for Organ on Saturday, October 26 at 7:30 pm, featuring The Organists of St. George’s (Trystan Bennett, Achim Loch, and John Vreeland).

Our most popular annual concert includes haunting renditions of works by J.S. Bach, Buxtehude, Pachelbel, Goldsmith, Glass, Bélier, and Reger. The evening will be sure to be terrifyingly delightful and monstrously entertaining. Feel free to come in costume! The concert is free with donations to the organ fund accepted at the door.

Located at 905 Princess Anne Street in historic downtown Fredericksburg, Virginia, St. George’s Episcopal Church offers a wide range of concerts throughout the year featuring local and out of town musicians. The nave’s lush acoustics provide the perfect backdrop for “beautiful music in a beautiful space”.

For more information, contact (540) 373-4133 or music@stgeorgesepiscopal.net. To learn more about St. George’s concert series, visit www.stgeorgesepiscopal.net/music/concerts.

You are welcome at St. George’s, an historic Episcopal Church in downtown Fredericksburg, Virginia. No matter who you are, whom you love, or where you’ve been, there’s a place for you here. St. George’s offers services with diverse music and styles of worship based in sacred story and traditions. We have hearts for service and advocate for justice and peace in our local and global communities. We work to help the entire family of God thrive by giving of our time, talent, and treasure. We invite you to join us or to come for a visit.

St. George’s Chamber Musicians in Concert

by Leave a Comment

Chamber ConcertSt. George’s Episcopal Church will offer a free concert on Sunday, October 20 at 3 pm, featuring the St. George’s Chamber Musicians. The concert includes works for piano, winds, and string quartet for an afternoon of music you won’t want to miss. The concert is free with donations accepted at the door.

Located at 905 Princess Anne Street in historic downtown Fredericksburg, Virginia, St. George’s Episcopal Church offers a wide range of concerts throughout the year featuring local and out of town musicians. The nave’s lush acoustics provide the perfect backdrop for “beautiful music in a beautiful space”.

For more information, contact (540) 373-4133 or music@stgeorgesepiscopal.net. To learn more about St. George’s concert series, visit www.stgeorgesepiscopal.net/music/concerts.

You are welcome at St. George’s, an historic Episcopal Church in downtown Fredericksburg, Virginia. No matter who you are, whom you love, or where you’ve been, there’s a place for you here. St. George’s offers services with diverse music and styles of worship based in sacred story and traditions. We have hearts for service and advocate for justice and peace in our local and global communities. We work to help the entire family of God thrive by giving of our time, talent, and treasure. We invite you to join us or to come for a visit.

Register for 2024 – 2025 Children and Youth Formation

by Leave a Comment

We resume regular Sunday School and Youth Group on Sunday, September 15, when we shift back to our program year worship schedule as well. We ask that parents / guardians register children and youth each year so we have current contact information on file.

If you have any questions, please contact the church office.

Children’s Formation

Children from Preschool to 2nd grade will be participating in Godly Play (a Montessori based program focused on play and wondering) while children grades 3rd – 5th will be participating in our SPLASH program (Spirit, Play Love All Spoken Here). Please register here, to help us to plan for class size, materials and lesson plans.

Youth Formation

This year, we are planning to resume the “Youth Cafe” on Sunday mornings following the 9 am service. Instead of going off-site, we will host a youth coffee hour in the upstairs Youth Room, where there will be discussion, socializing, and sharing.Youth Cafe is open to all youth in 6th grade and above. Youth Group will be meeting every other Sunday evening in the Youth Room. Details on times, dates and leaders will be communicated later on. You can register here.

Update on Our Search for an Associate Rector

by Leave a Comment

As you have heard, we are now in the process of searching for our next Associate Rector. Fr. Will’s last Sunday will be August 25 before his wedding on August 31. We look forward to celebrating his ministry with us over the past four years and wishing him well in the next chapter of his life and ministry.

I want to share an update on where we are with the search process. As of last week, we posted a position description through the Diocese of Virginia and will be sharing in other places around the Episcopal Church. You can see that description here. Feel free to share this with people you know around the Church. Note that we have included in the posting that we are looking for someone who has been a priest in a parish for a few years. We are also open to someone coming to serve for a few months as an interim in order to give us more time for a search.

I also had an initial meeting last week with the group that I have asked to serve as an ad-hoc advisory committee. This group includes Michele Prout Alston (Senior Warden), John Graham (Junior Warden), Mac Smith (Grounds Warden), Jennifer Vaughan (vestry), Vicki Harrison, and Joseph Lyttle. When she returns from sabbatical in early July, Laurel Loch (Chief of Staff), will also be part of this group. I chose a group that would not be too large and would include our lay leadership as well as people who represent much of the variety within our congregation. We talked about the importance of keeping you informed along the way and inviting your feedback. Although the hiring decision is mine as Rector, I am listening carefully to the input of others and praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Here is a brief outline of the process:
I will receive the initial inquiries and have introductory conversations with candidates that seem promising. From there, I will invite members of the advisory committee to participate in Zoom conference calls with some candidates. Then we will invite a finalist or perhaps two finalists to visit St. George’s before I make a decision. The Diocese of Virginia staff advisor to these searches, the Rev. Shirley Smith-Graham, is helping us find candidates and will also help us do background checks and other vetting before the agreement is finalized and announced. We will accept candidates as long as we need to until a hire is made (and only God knows how long it will take).

Our committee is working on a survey. We want you to share some thoughts about your hopes for St. George’s, generally, and your hopes for our next Associate Rector. We hope to have that out in the next couple of weeks. I will also hold a parish-wide forum on Sunday, June 16, after the 10 am service in Sydnor Hall. We can talk about this process, and I will also have an update on the capital campaign this Fall and where we stand on those plans (more on that separately).

Above all, please pray for this process. I trust that God is guiding us and candidates. At its best, a search process is an opportunity to clarify who we are and who we hope to become, with God’s help. May all we do be pleasing and delightful in God’s sight and in service of sharing the love of Christ.

 

Your rector and brother in Christ,
Joe+

YogaVoice Workshop with Mark Moliterno

by Leave a Comment

April is YogaVoice Month!

Your voice is your unique tool for connection, communication, and service in the world. Your voice provides the means by which something specific is expressed, represented, or revealed. Your voice, as a reflection of your Self, is both vulnerable and powerful.

YogaVoice® is a personal transformation technology founded by opera singer and yoga teacher Mark Moliterno that helps you to find your deep, inner purpose and its clear expression. Time-honored yoga practices, yoga therapy techniques, and a wellness-based voice training method help you remove the obstacles that might be impeding your authentic voice. YogaVoice® training provides essential tools for cultivating an empowered voice in singing, public speaking, teaching, and entrepreneurship.

During the month of April, St. George’s is offering the YogaVoice wellness program to the St. George’s community as a way to grow the voices of our congregation, lectors, singers, and leaders. No experience in Yoga is required, and all techniques are adaptable to insure individual comfort and success.

There will be three 1-hour introductory sessions led by Director of Music Ministries John Vreeland to provide basic information and practice in breathing, body awareness, and phonation. They will be held on the following Mondays April 8th, 15th, and 22nd at 7 pm in the choir room.

The YogaVoice workshop, led by founder Mark Moliterno, will take place on:
Friday, April 26, 7 pm – 9 pm: Introductory Lecture
Saturday, April 27, 9 am – 4 pm: Yoga practice and YogaVoice techniques
Sunday, April 28,  1:30 pm – 4 pm: Yoga review and individual phonation practice with Mark

All sessions are free, thanks to funding provided by the Elizabeth Howard Fund.
For more information about YogaVoice, visit their website.
To sign up, click here.

About Mark:
Mark Moliterno, MM, E-RYT500, C-IAYT, YACEP, POLY, is an award-winning professional opera singer, voice teacher, yoga teacher/educator, IAYT-certified Yoga Therapist, workshop leader, and author. He is considered a thought-leader in the area of 21st Century vocal technology, a master teacher of both singing and classical yoga, and a specialist in helping people understand and connect to their authentic voices.

Mark holds the BM and MM degrees in Voice and Opera from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where his teacher and mentor was the famous vocal pedagogue, Richard Miller. His extensive performing career has taken him to many countries in a variety of leading operatic roles and as a concert soloist and recitalist.

Since 2009, Mark has also refined his gifts and skills as a yoga teacher and yoga therapist. He is the Creator and Founding Partner of YogaVoice®, a unique personal transformation technology that combines several traditions of Yoga with Systematic Voice Technique, to develop authenticity and wellness in the art of singing and personal communication. A sought-after clinician, he presents YogaVoice® workshops internationally at professional conferences and gatherings.

Mark has published articles in YogaLiving Magazine and The Journal of Singing. He is a co-author of The Musician’s Being and The Musician’s Breath, and is the author and featured instructor of The Musician’s Breath Yoga DVD. He will be a featured author in an Oxford University Press book on 21st Century Vocal Pedagogy, due in early 2025.

Mark Moliterno was the recipient of the prestigious Patrick D Kenan Award for Vocal Health and Wellness from the Duke Voice Care Center (2019). He is a member of the Part-Time Faculty at The New School College of Performing Arts in New York City and maintains private voice and yoga therapy studios in New Jersey, New York City, eastern Pennsylvania, and remotely.