On All Saints Sunday, we celebrated with music, fellowship, and Holy Baptism. We blessed our United Thank Offering ingathering as well as the pledges received for our 2019 Stewardship Campaign – An Invitation to Share. You can listen to Father Joe’s sermon here.
Thank you to all who helped prepare for this Holy Feast Day.
Thank you to everyone who attended our Chamber Series Concert – Music at St. George’s!
This concert was extra special since it featured musicians from all of our music groups. The concert featured performances by: chamber musicians, Choir of St. George’s Jazz choir, Jazz ensemble, Celtic ensemble, Handbell Choir, and the St. George Voices.
It’s a blessing to have so many talented musicians worship with us every Sunday. Thank to all of our musicians for your ministry!
Want to get involved in our music ministry? Contact us!
This year’s Scary Music for Organ didn’t disappoint. Our organists performed spooky pieces of music that left our audience spellbound. We even had an appearance from Darth Vicar!
Trystan Bennett, Director of St. George’s Compline Choir and Director of Music at Aquia Episcopal Church, opened the concert. He played Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Prélude sur le Dies Irae by Dethier, and music from “Der Vampyr” by Marschner.
Brooks Kuykendall, parishioner at St. George’s and chair of the Music Department at the University of Mary Washington, performed next. His program included Sonata in D minor, Op. 42 by Guilmant, Ich steh mit einem Fuss im Grabe by Bach, and an original work – the Main Title March for Captain Vegetarian. Kuykendall wrote this piece in honor of his son’s superhero identity – Captain Vegetarian.
St. George’s Assistant Director of Music, Achim Loch, continued the concert with Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C Minor. He then closed with his own arrangement of themes from The Lord of the Rings, with Cadence Moneyhon accompanying on flute.
John Vreelance, the Director of Music Ministries at St. George’s, closed the program with a truly bombastic piece – Max Reger’s Symphonic Fantasy, Op. 57 – The Inferno.
On Wednesday, our parishioners over 80 years of age gathered with clergy and staff. We shared a wonderful time of worship and fellowship together. The day started early with our team of kitchen volunteers preparing our feast. They simmered squash soup and sliced vegetables for salads.
Our fellowship time began with noon prayer and included healing prayer and the Holy Eucharist. Additionally, Joe shared a story of a young man who practiced aikido. An older man intervened in a stressful, potentially dangerous situation. This taught the young man what the peaceful, unifying nature of aikido truly meant in practice.
We had lively conversations over lunch and a good amount of laughter too. It was a good day.
Thank you to everyone who volunteered to cook, set up, and serve. And thank you to our over 80’s parishioners for coming. We enjoyed listening and getting to know you better.
Today is National Unity Day, but you’d never know it by looking at the headlines and news. Everyday at The Table at St. George’s is National Unity Day – Kindness/Acceptance/Inclusion. Yesterday the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank came in to do their annual inspection of our food pantry. One of the questions concerned who we allow to shop. Our answer was anyone who walks in the door and asks for food. We invite them to come back weekly as long as they have a need. Another question was about the area we serve. We have people come from Manassas, Triangle, King George, Caroline, Orange, Stafford, Spotsylvania, as well as Fredericksburg. We even serve people passing thru Virginia who have been told to go to The Table.
One of our regulars told us that when she wakes up on Tuesday, she is happy because she knows she will be welcomed at The Table where she’ll find community and veggies! How lovely is that!! The fields and orchards are almost done for the year. A volunteer commented last night that he is seeing more people on the street, and we definitely experienced an upturn in numbers last night. The woolly worms are supposedly predicting a rough winter. Someone handed me a bag of potatoes for The Table & said it was a Buy One/Get One deal at her store, but she could only use one. Every grocery store seems to have an abundance of offers like that & if you can’t use the extra box, can or bag yourself, please think of The Table. We can definitely use it.
The Table and our Community Dinner ministries are in need of volunteers. Our produce team needs adult and teen volunteers on Sunday afternoons from 2:30 – 4 p.m. to meet and unload the fresh produce from the farm truck. Crates can weigh up to 40 lbs., so a little muscle helps. 3rd Monday of the month Community Dinners need to update their list of volunteers. If you are able to come serve, clean up, wash dishes between 4:30 to 7 p.m., please let us know. For both – Contact Grace in Action to get involved.