Interfaith

St. George’s Christmas Concert

November 22, 2024 by Michael Cooper-Smyth Leave a Comment

St. George’s Episcopal Church will offer a festive, free concert on Sunday, December 15 at 3 pm, featuring the parish’s music ensembles.

Come and celebrate the season with St. George’s organists, choirs, jazz band, Celtic ensemble, and more. All are welcome to join for a musical Christmas feast guaranteed to make all merry and bright.

The concert is free with donations accepted at the door. All donations will benefit St. George’s partnership ministry in Haiti.

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.

Juneteenth – 2023

June 8, 2023 by St. George's Leave a Comment

This year, Juneteenth Celebrations will take place on Saturday, June 17, 2023. St. George’s is joining with our neighbors across the planning district to celebrate the significance and honor the legacy of Juneteenth at the Fredericksburg Nationals stadium. To ensure this is a success we need volunteers to help out!

Volunteers of all ages (under 18, parental permission required) are needed to help with:

Setup
Vendor management
Entertainment and stage management
Volunteer management

There are multiple shifts throughout the day. Please register to volunteer here.

St. George’s Runner-up in Interfaith Power & Light’s Cool Congregations Challenge

March 27, 2023 by St. George's 3 Comments

St. George’s Environmental Stewardship Committee (ESC) has donated their Cool Congregations runner-up award from Interfaith Power and Light (IPL) to Downtown Greens. Left to Right: Stephen Hu (ESC Communications and Engagement), the Rev. Joe Hensley (rector of St. George’s), Sarah Perry (executive director, Downtown Greens), and Shane Riordan (ESC Co-Chair).

St. George’s Episcopal Church has been selected as a runner-up in Interfaith Power & Light’s Cool Congregations Challenge. The annual contest accepts applications from religious congregations around the United States who are doing work to address global warming by reducing their carbon footprint as they create models of sustainability within their communities.

St. George’s won a Sacred Grounds award for hosting The Table (a weekly farm to table food distribution program), composting the organic waste from that program, and creating a large pollinator garden. St. George’s was also recognized for promoting and supporting the non-profit Downtown Greens’ expansion project to purchase the buffer land by Braehead Farm to preserve as green space for public enjoyment and agricultural training. The $500 prize was donated to the Downtown Greens’ project to help pay off their loan for the buffer.

“St. George’s Episcopal and the other national winning congregations are casting a vision for the kind of world in which they want to live, and then carrying out that vision with practical actions that make a real difference in creating lasting solutions to climate change,” said Rev. Susan Hendershot, President of Interfaith Power & Light.

The Cool Congregations Challenge shows that people of faith are united by concerns about climate change and are taking action. The winners provide strong moral role models for their communities, and their activities have a ripple effect with people in their own homes.

Interfaith Power & Light is mobilizing a religious response to global warming in congregations through the promotion of energy conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy.

www.interfaithpowerandlight.org Twitter: #CoolCongregations @interfaithpower Facebook: facebook.com/interfaithpowerandlight

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The Table at St. George’s Receives Generous Grant

February 23, 2022 by St. George's Leave a Comment

The Honeywell Charitable Fund of the Community Foundation awarded The Table at St. George’s a $25,000 grant to support its ministry to provide fresh fruit and vegetables to those challenged with food insecurity in the city of Fredericksburg and surrounding counties.

This generous grant will help provide food and fresh product to The Table, a market-style food pantry and The Table in the World (TITW), an initiative which provides low-contact deliveries of fresh produce, eggs, and cheese directly to community sites and organizations that serve diverse clients in need.

In 2021, The Table and TITW purchased more than 85,000 pounds of food from a local produce distributor and more than 850 creates of produce from a local farmer to distribute to those experiencing food insecurity. Those served include the young and aged, the able-bodied and the physically challenged, the unemployed and many who are working one or two jobs but are unable to earn enough to adequately nourish their families. Food provided by The Table/TITW and other such food operations can make a significant difference in the amount of food available to the people of our community, many of whom receive food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The Table is grateful for the generosity of the Honeywell Charitable Fund of the Community Foundation of the Rappahannock River Region and all who support St. George’s efforts to improve the lives of people living with food insecurity. More than 90% of funding for The Table comes from awards, donations, fundraisers, and grants. In-kind donations are provided by corporations and local businesses.

For more information, contact Laurel Loch at 540.373.4133.

Visit The Table at St. George’s Facebook page at facebook.com/thetableatstg

Our Commitment to Racial Justice and Reconciliation

June 5, 2020 by St. George's Leave a Comment

The events of the past week or so have shaken our entire country as well as our local community. The killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery in recent weeks have showed us, yet again, how African Americans fight daily for their dignity and sometimes for their very lives, because of racial injustice. St. George’s stands by our welcome statement: “You are welcome at St. George’s regardless of race, nationality, sexual orientation, gender expression, or tradition.” Under-girding that welcome is our Baptismal Covenant which asks us: “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” Our response is always, “I will with God’s help.”

In order for our welcome to be genuine we must acknowledge the realities of inequity which are the opposite of welcome. We follow Jesus on the way of love, which means we speak up when our neighbors are unjustly treated and under attack. When one of us suffers, we all suffer. We reject the sin of racism in all its forms as part of our baptismal rejection of the “evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.” We pray for repentance as well. We have often left undone those things we ought to have done to change the systems which unjustly tip the scales in favor of white people in our nation.

A statement came from our Diocesan leaders yesterday. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry issued this word to the church over last weekend: As rector of St. George’s, I wholeheartedly embrace these statements and commend them to you. I also preached an additional sermon this past weekend. These are all summaries of where I stand and where I hope we as a parish can stand together in all our diversity of opinions and backgrounds.

There are young people leading peaceful protests in our community, and I call us to lament with them, listen to them, and ask how we can help. I applaud our city police yesterday for marching with them and pray for police who are also traumatized by the actions of their counterparts elsewhere. Largely in response to these young people, our city council yesterday adopted a resolution condemning racism and affirming that black lives matter. I was present at a march last Saturday and have tried to be a non-anxious and supportive presence at protest events in Market Square this week. They are literally in our backyard, and if we say we are welcoming, we need to be attentive. This is a moment for evangelism, to proclaim to our neighbors, by word, but mostly by example, the good news, through our actions of love.

I am asking some members of our racial reconciliation book group, which has been meeting for over a year, to share some of what they have learned about how we might continue our work. I will open up a space where parishioners can speak and hear each other without judgment. We will pray together for the whole human family. We will not try to fix each other or assume there is one right way.

Our conversation follows many previous ones. It will not be the last one, and there will be more to say. This is long, hard work. Lord, have mercy upon us and help us.

Your rector and brother in Christ,
Joe+