Join us on Sunday, January 19, following the 9:00 AM service, when we will celebrate the Feast of the Confession of St. Peter. There will be ONE service today, so that we can meet as a whole parish family.
All are welcome to come to St. Peter’s on Christmas Day for a community dinner sponsored by Adas Yoshuran Synagogue. Appetizers will be served at noon and dinner at 1:00 PM. Come for turkey with all the fixings along with music and carol-singing. The dinner is free and open to all.
The season of Advent begins on Sunday, December 1. See what’s going on at St. Peter’s during this season and on into Christmas.
December 1, 9:00 am, 5:30 pm, First Sunday of Advent
December 8, 9:00 am, 5:30 pm, Second Sunday of Advent
December 15, 9:00 am, 5:30 pm, Third Sunday of Advent
December 21, 9:00 am – 1:00 p.m. Advent Quiet Day
December 22, 9:00 am, Fourth Sunday of Advent
10:00 am, Greening of the Church
5:30 pm, Festival Service of Lessons and Carols
December 24, 8:00 pm, Christmas Eve, Festive Candlelight Eucharist with Choir
December 25,10:30 am, Christmas Day, Festive Eucharist for the Nativity of our Lord
12:30 pm Community Christmas Meal
December 29, 9:00 am, Christmas I, Holy Eucharist
January 5, 9:00 am, Christmas II, Holy Eucharist
In his daily meditations, Richard Rohr mines the depths of his Christian tradition through his Franciscan and contemplative lens. You can receive these meditations in your inbox each day. Each week builds on previous topics, but you can join at any time. Sign up here. You can discontinue these emails at any time.
From his website:
One of Richard’s foundational convictions is that God—who is Love—is with and in us and all of creation. But we’ve been conditioned or taught to see ourselves as separate from God and each other. Contemplation opens our hearts to experience this union and become an embodied presence of healing and creativity in our world. As Quaker author and elder Parker Palmer suggests, ask these important questions: “What do we want to let go of? What do we desire to give ourselves to?”
Whether or not you identify as a Christian, Richard invites you to see the Christ—the unifying principle of wholeness at the core of the universe—in everything and everyone. What does it mean to be the Body of Christ, the cosmic and coming Christ, now and for the future?
Richard dives deep into this theme with 1-2-week segments over a full year. Every Saturday includes a summary of the previous week’s meditations and an invitation to contemplative practice. “Gateway to Presence” (at the bottom of each meditation) is an invitation to deepen your experience of reading that day’s reflection.
Please join our growing community of people finding support from these meditations in their daily lives. We offer them with our hearts full of hope that they will meet you where you are and provide a contemplative experience. Learn about contemplative prayer and other forms of meditation.
The Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, The Rt. Rev. Thomas J. Brown, will preside at St. Peter’s at a service of Holy Confirmation and Holy Eucharist on Sunday, October 13.
On this day we gather as one parish family so there will be ONE service only at 9:00 AM. All are welcome to join us on this joyous occasion.
Creation Care Month at St. Peter’s coming in September – For the five Sundays between September 8 and October 6, we will focus our Sunday liturgies, our readings and sermons, and hear invited guests talk with us on the topic of Creation Care. What does the Bible say about how faithful people are to understand this earth and the universe around us? What does right relationship with all of God’s creatures look like? In what ways does our tradition support and challenge us to live more faithfully in the world regarding this planet and its ecological systems? Please stay tuned for this exciting phase in our parish life of worship and ministry.
AIO by the Numbers
St. Peter’s representative on the AIO Board, writes that the Area Interfaith Outreach (AIO) served 301 families, representing 773 people in June. This is down from May and is normal — as the weather becomes warmer, assistance with heating and electricity bills decline.
The AIO food pantry, though, always needs soups (Progresso is great), pasta, pasta sauce, and cereals. Keep forgetting to bring your cans? Money is actually the single most useful donation. With money the AIO is able to purchase milk, yogurt, and butter, and provides emergency vouchers for utilities. You can find out how to donate by visiting the AIO Website HERE and following the “Donate” tabs. You can read Ron’s full report by clicking HERE. He also wants to direct your attention to a recent and powerful Story on Maine Public Radio, whose picture we have used above. You can read and listen to that by clicking HERE
You are invited to join other pilgrims from the Episcopal Church in Maine and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Brookline, MA as we walk in the footsteps of Jesus. The pilgrimage will be under the direction of the Rev. Thomas Mousin, spouse of Bishop-elect Thomas Brown, and the Rev. Jeffrey Mello, rector of St. Paul’s Church. Together, we will visit the places of Jesus’ birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection. Our experienced personal guide Iyad Qumri, will lead us in exploring ancient places, vibrant markets, and modern museums in a land that is suspended between East and West, past and present. Detailed information will be available soon. If you are interested or have questions, please contact Tom at: tmousin@gmail.com or 802-380-8913.
Sunday Morning Service Music – This summer our service music comes from Jonathan Dimmock’s Missa Appalachia. Missa (Latin “mass”) refers not only to the act of sacramental worship, known by such names as Holy Communion, Holy Eucharist, or the Lord ’s Supper but also conjures up numerous musical settings, musical forms, and the composers who wrote them.
Dimmock is a contemporary church musician. His works appear in both Wonder, Love, and Praise and Enriching Our Worship, supplements to our The Hymnal 1982. A native of Staunton, Virginia, which is beautifully nestled in the very heart of the Appalachian Mountains, Jonathan, like many from that region, claims an ancestry that is at least 40% Celtic (Scots/Irish).
Celtic and Appalachian music both employ pentatonic scales (the black keys on a piano), melodies shaped with gentle rises and falls, and harmonies that are basic and unencumbered. To me such music speaks of the ease of summer. I hope you enjoy learning these settings of the Gloria, Sanctus, and Fraction anthem.
June 23, 2019 10;30 TEMPLE PARK, OLD ORCHARD BEACH You are invited to join us for a special worship service at the Ocean Park Temple with guest preacher, the Most Rev. Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church. Bishop Curry is excited to be in Maine with us to share the good news of Jesus Christ with everyone not just Episcopalians but people of all faiths and even those who are “just looking”. The Temple at Ocean Park is a historic, interdenominational space open only during the summer months. We are thrilled that Bishop Curry is the first preacher for the 2019 season.
Remember how Bishop Curry captivated the world with his words at the Royal Wedding last year? Well, this will be an extraordinary opportunity to hear Bishop Curry preach in his inimitable style. Bishop Curry is quick to say it is not about him. Rather, it is the message itself. “The God who loves us into being and redeems us envisions more for us than we can imagine. Our call, in faith and hope, is to live in to that dream by following in the footsteps of Jesus – not just in our heads, but with our hearts and with our feet.”
If you cannot join us, you will be able to see the sermon via live stream or a recorded version on the Diocese of Maine website. And, in case you don’t already know, Bishop Curry will be back with us in Bangor, Maine on May 2, 2020 to help us celebrate the Bicentennial (200th) Anniversary of the Episcopal Diocese in Maine.
