St. George's Episcopal Church

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St. George’s Open for Prayer on Election Day

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Election Day PrayerSt. George’s Episcopal Church in downtown Fredericksburg will be open for prayer 8 am – 6 pm on Election Day, Tuesday, November 5, 2024, with brief public prayer services at 8.00 am, 12 pm, and 5.30 pm.

Located at 905 Princess Anne Street, St. George’s recognizes the responsibility each of us has, to vote and to pray. “St. George’s is a house of prayer for all people. We hope that having the church open to all in love on Election Day is a chance not only to pray about this important time of decision for our nation, but also to abide in the presence of the Divine with a sense of wonder,” explained the Rev. Joseph H. Hensley, Jr., rector of St. George’s.

On Election Day, St. George’s invites everyone to join together in prayer. The nave (worship area of the church) will be open for silent prayer, with printed prayers and other resources available. Clergy and lay prayer ministers will be present throughout the day for conversation or prayer. Musicians will offer music as prayer at certain times. Additionally, there will be brief public prayer services at 8 am, 12 pm, and 5.30 pm led by clergy and laity. These non-partisan services will prayerfully ask for peace, wisdom, and compassion for one another, our community, our nation, and for Election Day.

Throughout the nation, the election has been a source of countless emotions. “There’s so much anxiety right now. Prayer can be a time to lay that burden down so that we can, with grace, take up the continuing work of loving our neighbors and pursuing healing together, no matter who wins,” added Hensley.

For more information on St. George’s Episcopal Church or on Election Day Prayer, please visit: StGeorgesEpiscopal.net or call 540.373.4133.

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. For more information, visit StGeorgesEpiscopal.net

Scary Music for Organ Concert

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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.

Register for 2024 – 2025 Children and Youth Formation

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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.

John Bullard in Concert

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St. George’s Episcopal Church will offer the first concert of the 2024-2025 Concert Season on Sunday, September 15 at 3 pm. The concert features John Bullard, playing classical banjo with piano accompaniment by Markus Compton.

As a classically trained musician and the first graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Music to earn a degree in performance with the banjo, Bullard’s concert repertoire includes solo, duet, and quartet performances of works from Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Schumann, and others. More recently, Bullard has begun featuring new work by contemporary American composers, including a Caprice in D minor in the Romantic style, from composer Frank Mullen, and a set of 24 Preludes for Solo Banjo, commissioned from Adam Larrabee.

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 our website.

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. For more information, visit StGeorgesEpiscopal.net.

Update on Our Search for an Associate Rector

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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+