Communications Grants available

Communications Grants from the Diocese of Southern Virginia provide congregations within the diocese with funding for development of their communications efforts. Grant funds are intended to assist churches that do not currently make use of digital communications methods to create and implement a new digital communication program. Funds may also be used to assist churches with an existing digital communication program that have discovered needs within their congregation or community that can be addressed with a new digital communication initiative. Click here for more information and application.

Clergy Transitions

The Rev. Julia Messer began as Priest Associate at Eastern Shore Chapel, Virginia Beach, 2/1/2015

The Rev. Marguerite Alley, Deacon, left Emmanuel, Virginia Beach, 3/26/2015

The Rev. Alan Meade, Interim Rector, left Ascension, Norfolk 4/15/2015  

The Rev. Stewart Tabb will begin as Rector of Ascension, Norfolk 5/1/2015  

Praying for the churches of Southern Virginia

As part of our liturgy at Annual Council 2015, each delegation wrote a prayer for their parish. We are sharing these prayers each week in the eNews so that we all can support one another in the upcoming year.

St. Augustine's, Newport News

Almighty God, Creator of all that abide in the heavens and inhabit the earth, we the work of your hand praise you and adore you. You have revealed thorough Jesus Christ your son, our mission in the East End of Newport News and you call us to a ministry of love and care of your sheep. We thank you God for the benevolence you show to our community of faith; your grace allows us to open our doors to the least and the lonely, sharing your blessings with those whom you call, "my beloved children." Dear God, we ask that you support the congregation of St. Augustine's to do all that you ask us to do: proclaim your word, feed the hungry, visit the sick and those imprisoned, and to welcome the outcast and the lonely. We also prayerfully ask that you instill within our congregation the desire to become leaders within our church, for our community and the diocese of Sothern Virginia so that we may offer all that we are to your service. May we secure these blessings for all your children in the name of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Epiphany, Danville

Gracious and merciful God, We give you thanks for our abundant blessings and for the many gifts we receive daily, especially for those we neglect to acknowledge. We now bring before you our church, Epiphany Episcopal in Danville.  We ask forgiveness for our failure in this time of trial. Lead us out of our darkness. We ask for healing in each of our hearts.  Draw us closer together. We are very grateful that you have sent Becky to assist us in this difficult time. Continue to guide and direct her in the decisions to set us a right. And grant us the wisdom and courage to be one body so that we may truly and devoutly serve you. Hear our prayer for this parish family, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Learning to Live: An American Story

By The Rev. James W.H. Sell

"Learning to Live: An American Story" is the story of my journey through the ordained ministry of the Episcopal Church. Much to my surprise, it was a life that suited my values and personality like no other. It began when the American culture was fueled by the norms and standards of institutional religion in the late 1950's and early 1960's.  

But from the time of my ordination in 1969 up until the present moment, we have watched international and American church worship life decline year after year. Today, almost all denominations and faiths are retracting into an uncertain future. It can be argued that at the current rate of decline, the entire religious enterprise in America has less than one hundred years of life remaining.  

Somehow, my life has run counter to the trends and demographic realities by which we have been surrounded. I discovered solid spiritual values that gave my life a sense of abundance. At the same time, every church I was a part of grew and flourished. So, contrary to the cries of the legions of naysayers, I am nothing if not hopeful. To be a Christian is to live with a sense that resurrections are at the very core of every history.  

I believe that, in very real ways, we are just getting ready to return to our most ancient roots, where, once again, on the fragile edge of society, we will become a steady pathway to an abundant life and, ultimately, the driving force for liberation and justice.

Learn more about the book at www.jameswhsell.com.  

Spring 4th Day Gathering at Chanco

The Cursillo Spring 4th Day Gathering will be May 9 at Chanco. Please join us in welcoming our new cursillistas with lunch, a witness talk, group reunion and more. Please bring your favorite spring dish to share. Get more information about Cursillo at www.cursillodsv.org.  

Bishop Hollerith's Easter Message 2015

Dear Friends in Christ,

In just a few days the sounds and sights of Easter will burst forth across the diocese. Churches from Jenkins Bridge on the Eastern Shore, to inner city Norfolk, to Danville in the West will celebrate the day that defines all the other days of our faith. Lilies will fill our sanctuaries with spring fragrance. The people of God will don their "Sunday finest" clothes. Bright colors will replace the darkened shades of Lent. Choirs will sing with particular exuberance. Clergy will once again say, "Alleluia" in the liturgy! Children will scatter across the green grass of our church yards in search of brightly colored eggs. Plates of chicken and brisket, country ham, corn pudding and green-leaf salad will cover picnic tables or parish kitchen counters. The young and the old, the regular attendee, and the rarely seen will gather to celebrate Easter. And it will all be special, it will all be good.

And behind it all will be the hope that keeps us coming back year after year, the belief that this ancient feast we celebrate is more than some mere observance of an unexplainable empty tomb. Behind it all is the hope that "Yes, it is true - He has risen indeed."

The story of the empty tomb is a strange story. It was a strange experience for Mary and the other women. It was and very much still is a story without precedent, something that stuns and astonishes.

In other words, neither I, nor any other teacher of the Gospels can explain Easter in a way that makes it reasonable or rational or easy to comprehend. It doesn't work like part of the Krebs cycle. It isn't from an Eastern wisdom teaching or a category of special literary devices. It just is what it is - an empty tomb.

The resurrection is shocking because it means ultimately that God accomplishes redemption in and through material reality, in and through the stuff that we are made of, in and through flesh and blood, in and through human life and human death. Resurrection in all its mystery suggests that at the most fundamental level of existence, from the quantum level to the biological level, to the level of the stars themselves, God is actively involved in his creation, that God is behind everything that we see, creating, nurturing and redeeming - as the Mystery of all mysteries.

If in my life I have come to understand the mystery of Easter at all, it isn't because of what I have come to know intellectually about it. My understanding of Easter comes from being a child of God, from being one who has been redeemed again and again from my own "Good Friday" experiences. Likewise, my understanding comes from witnessing the same miracle of redemption at work in the lives of others around me whom I love, care for and to whom I am privileged to minister. In fact, perhaps what I experience is not "understanding" in the classic sense of what that term means at all, but more of a kind of "knowing". After being gently and lovingly clobbered over the head time and time again by the grace of God, how could one not "know" about the resurrection?!

And something else I know is the promise that accompanies the empty tomb - that Jesus is not there, that he has gone to Galilee to meet his disciples. We are told that Galilee is "where the action is". In my experience, "the action" is where the Eucharist is being served. It's where children laugh and run wild through the grass while adults sit at tables enjoying ham biscuits, barbequed chicken wings and three types of iced tea.

This Easter I will think about all of you as you celebrate the mystery of the resurrection. And my heart will be warmed from knowing that the Lord has risen indeed because he has risen in parishes and places and faces across our diocese. And I will give thanks for you and for God's Church in the world, and for the power that binds us together in our love for the Lord Jesus Christ. And, above all, with great anticipation, I will be listening to hear - from every corner of Southern Virginia - your "Alleluias"!

+Holly

Memorial stone to be placed on the grave of ex-slave Paulina Ruffin Eps

Paulina Ruffin Eps was born into slavery under the household of Richard Eppes on Eppes Island to James Madison Ruffin and Harriet Ruffin.  Paulina’s father Madison was bought in 1847 by Richard Eppes from a Dr. Lockwood and her mother Harriet was born on the Eppes Plantation in 1816 serving as personal house servant to Mrs. Mary Eppes Cocke.  Before the Civil War, Madison would be a most trusted servant to Dr. Eppes and would serve as Sexton to St. John’s Protestant Episcopal Church. Mr. Eppes would require Madison to clean and make ready the church for worship on Sunday mornings or any other time the congregation might gather.

Richard Eppes wrote in his diary dated Sunday, December 21, 1856, “Quite surprised this morning to find the ground quite white with snow the first fall this season wind N. E. very cold. Madison made no fire in the church this morning, thinking it was the 4^th Sunday in the month, consequently service did not commence until after 12 o. c. there being very few persons present had no sermon but only the service.” Mr. Murray [Rector at St. John’s] returned and dined with us & spent the night.” Richard Eppes relied heavily on Madison and trusted him as much as any of his acquaintances. The Vestry would give him a small cash gift for his services from time to time. In the diary, dated May 2^, 1858 (Richard Eppes’ 34^th birthday) the Vestry met after church, Richard Eppes writes “Mr. Batte moved that a collection be requested of the congregation by Mr. Zimmer [St. John’s Rector] next Sunday to be taken up Sunday after next Sunday for the benefit of the Sexton Madison.”

Harriet had a number of children by other fathers, Robert Moody (born 1835), George Gilliam (born 1838), Richard Gilliam (born 1840), and Patty Rud (born 1845).  Madison and Harriet had a number of children of their own. They are Paulina Ruffin (b. 1848), James Ruffin Jr. (b. 1850), Agnes Ruffin (b. Dec. 21, 1851), John Williams Ruffin (b. 1853), Samuel Welsh Ruffin (b. 1855), and Indianna Ruffin ( b. 1858).  James Madison Ruffin died on 19^th of February, 1876 of pneumonia and was buried on the 21^st Feb. 1876 by the Rev. Edward Valentine Jones.

Paulina (called Pau – lī ´-nə) most likely left with her family May 20, 1862, ending up in Hampton and Norfolk throughout the remainder of the Civil War. Paulina married James Henry Eps who was a sailor in the United States Navy.  Their children were Mary Elizabeth (born abt. 1871).  Harriett (Hattie) Ruffin (born abt. 1873), Robert Henry (born abt. 1875) & William Henry. Mary, Hattie, and Robert were baptized at St. John’s on 17 June, 1877 by the Rev. Edwin Valentine Jones. Paulina was baptized and confirmed at St. John’s in June of 1879 at age 31 by the Rt. Rev. F. M. Whittle, thus becoming a member of St. John’s.

Mary Nelson Neblett (now living in Chester) recalls that she and the other children called her “Aunt Paulina.” Paulina came to church every Sunday sitting on the back row near the entrance to the church. If it were a Sunday when the Holy Communion was served, Paulina would wait until everyone had taken communion and then she would proceed to go to the altar rail to receive the sacrament. Mrs. Mary Catherine Pruden (St. John’s Organist Emeritus) recalled that Paulina would come to church every Sunday until she could not walk to church anymore. Paulina is also remembered and described to have been a very kind and lovable person. Paulina and her husband lived in a small house on the top of the hill leading to the waterfront (now extinct) to the right of the house at the end of Prince Henry Street.

Paulina’s husband Henry became the church sexton after Paulina’s father Madison Ruffin died in 1876. When Henry died at the end of September 1889, Paulina appealed to the Eppes family to have him buried next to her father in the St. John’s cemetery. Richard Eppes writes in his Diary Tuesday, Oct: 1^st 1889, “Henry  Eps, husband of Paulina Eps sexton of our church (P.E. St. Johns City Point) a seaman employed on the United States ironclad fleet, stationed a few miles below Richmond Va died yesterday

and his wife applied to my wife + self for permission to bury him in the churchyard of the P.E. church by the side of her father Madison the old sexton though neither my wife or my wife have any personal objection we have been forced to refuse, as the race feeling between the whites + negroes is so strong that the church would be seriously injured thereby moreover as he was a seaman in the employ of the U.S. Government his family have a right to bury him in the National Cemetery located near here, where several seaman, who died, when the fleet was stationed here, were buried…...The funeral will take place in St John's church + from there transported to the negro burying ground + there interred with Masonic honors, he being a Mason.”  After Henry’s death Paulina continued to work as a domestic servant at Appomattox Manor until her death on 5 January 1946 at age 98. She was buried on Jan 8, 1946 by the Rev. J. R. Walker. Paulina being a faithful member of St. John’s for many years was allowed to be buried next to her father in the church graveyard, but a permanent memorial was never placed.

The congregation wants to honor Paulina and to express their remorse to the African American community for the actions of earlier members of the congregation who did not see fit to bury Paulina’s husband in the St. John’s Cemetery because of racial prejudice, as indicated in Dr. Eppes diary. On behalf of the congregation, the vestry has ordered and will lay a permanent granite marker similar to that of her father Madison, on Paulina’s grave Wednesday, April 15^th, 2015 beginning at 5:30 PM in a program and service dedicated to remembering Madison, Paulina, and all the saints who have passed through St. John’s, adding richly to its history and its mission. The service will also include the consecration of the new columbarium in the graveyard.