INTERNATIONAL DIOCESE/ ACNA ST. PETER’S KEY Saint Peter’s Anglican Church September 2019 MONTHLY CALENDAR SEPTEMBER BISHOP WALTERS 1 – 12th Sunday after Pentecost 10 AM TO VISIT THE 2 – Labor Day Holiday TH 5 - Prayer & Praise Gathering 7 AM PARISH SEPT 15 7 - Teen Youth Group 6:30 to 9PM Bishop Trevor Walters, the Anglican th 8 – 13 Sunday after Pentecost 10 AM NetWork in Canada bishop for Western 8 – Sunday Schools begin Canada, Will be celebrating the 10 AM 12 - Prayer & Praise Gathering 7 AM th 13 – 14 – Men’s Fall Retreat communion service on Sunday, September 15 at St Peter’s. 14 - Teen Youth Group 6:30 to 9PM In addition, he Will also perform confirmation, and reception, 15 – 14th Sunday after Pentecost 10 AM for several members of the parish. 19 - Prayer & Praise Gathering 7 AM Bishop Walters Was With this parish on tWo occasions in 20 - Women’s & Men’s Luncheons 2018, and he Was instrumental in guiding the parish through a 21 - Teen Youth Group 6:30 to 9PM rather challenging period. In September of 2018 he also 22 – 15th Sunday after Pentecost 10 AM confirmed and received a number of parishioners. On his 22 – Parish Golf Outing & Potluck 2 PM departure last autumn, he expressed a desire to return to the 26 - Prayer & Praise Gathering 7 AM parish, and so he was invited to be the keynote presenter for 28 - Teen Youth Group 6:30 to 9PM the Men’s Fall Retreat this year. Please join With the entire 29 – 16th Sunday after Pentecost 10 AM congregation on September 15th in again Welcoming Bishop Walters! CONFIRMATION AND TO THOSE DESIRING CONFIRMATION or RECEPTION RECEPTION SUNDAY IS Being received into the church, or being confirmed, are very TH ON SEPTEMBER 15 significant steps for any Anglican. Should you desire to engage WITH BISHOP TREVOR in one or the other during the bishop’s visit, you MUST first WALTERS! contact Father EdWard at least one Week ahead of time to see that you are properly prepared and instructed. Photo Happenings THE BAPTISIM OF THE FIVE ALVARADO CHILDREN TOOK PLACE ON SUNDAY, AUGUST 25TH, WITH FULL IMMERSION BY FR EDWARD AND ASSITED BY DEACON DOYLE AND DR ACKERMAN. ASA AND JACK INSTALLED AS TWO OF STEVE AND MIKE JOIN SOMETIMES EVEN BOYS OUR NEWEST PARISH ACOLYTES. IN WITH PARISH GOLF. CAN BE JUST SILLY. ACOLYTES LEAD SUNDAY PROCESSION. MODERATOR AND VIRGINIA PRODAN AT CHURCH SPONSORED COMMUNITY SESSION. More Photo Happenings MARY ANNE PRESENTS THE GIVING TREE PREPARED BY FR JIM TO RECOGNIZE ALL WHO FINANCIALLY MADE THE PURCHASE OF OUR PARISH CHURCH BUILDING POSSIBLE IN 2017. THE 12TH ANNUAL CHURCH PICNIC HAD PLENTY OF GREAT FOOD AND FINE FELLOWSHIP! THANK YOU JAX STORES AND THE NULANDS FOR PROVIDING HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOANNE! THE SHADE COVERING WITH THE USE OF THEIR EASY-UPS! From the Rector for September Welcome to the month of September 2019. I was meditating on the Scripture, Isaiah 55:8, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD (NIV). I concluded that the truth of this Scripture is demonstrated in many episodes in Scripture. One of them is in the lives of David and Saul. By our human standards and estimate, David was an evil man who was not fit for public office. He made love to a married woman and made her pregnant. The woman’s husband was a gallant soldier and was away with the military fighting for his country and his king, David. When David got the news that the woman was pregnant, by him, he panicked. He played tricks to make it look like the husband was responsible for the pregnancy. He called the man from the battle front and pretended to give a short vacation. He told him to go to his own house and rest. But the man was so into his military career. In his heart he refused the king’s offer. When he left the king’s presence, he didn’t go to his house to be with his family. He stayed all night at the palace with the palace guards. When asked by King Davis the following day why he didn’t go to his house, the man said he couldn’t go to his house to enjoy a comfortable bed while the king’s army was out fighting the enemies of the nation. So, the man was sent back to where the fighting was taking place. Now David was in real trouble. He was stuck with a married woman carrying his baby. If the secret got out to the public that he was responsible for the pregnancy, it would be such a scandal. But his brains were working. He devised a really wicked plot to have the woman’s husband killed. He instructed the commander of his troops to put the man where the battle was hottest and then to let the rest of the troops withdraw and leave him there alone surrounded by enemy troops. That’s what happened. The commander staged an attack and then ordered the rest of the troops to withdraw and leave the woman’s husband all alone in the heat of battle. He was killed. As soon as David heard the man was dead, he called for the woman and married her. What a wicked thing to do. And on top of it, he married many other wives. He is our Mr. Dirty, so unfit to hold public office. He should be run out of town. David’s predecessor to the throne was Saul. By human standards and estimate Saul was the right man to hold public office. He was tall, and handsome, and had “no scandals” as per human standards. When he was crowned, some people frowned at him saying how can this man be a king. Then there was a war. Saul led his soldiers and routed the enemy. On return from the battle ground, some among his soldiers wanted to kill those who had frowned at him at his coronation. But Saul said no one was going to be put to death. He pardoned his enemies. What a fine human being. We can picture Saul as the kind of man who dressed nice, had one wife, went to church, and had a great reputation with his neighbors. He would be seen on Sunday and other important days dressed in a three-piece suit, walking hand in hand with his wife, with the other hand holding his little daughter’s hand, with two other bigger kids following close behind him. He did hunt David to kill him when it became apparent that David would be next king. Saul wanted his own son to be the king after him. As humans we understand Saul’s hatred of David. They were members of different political parties and each wanted power. So, despite Saul’s attempt to kill David, Saul remains Mr. Clean going by human estimate and elite etiquette. Now the really alarming thing is that God declared our Mr. Clean, Saul, to be unfit for public office, deposed him, and chose David whom according to us is so filthy and unfit. To exacerbate matters, God calls David “the man after my own heart,” meaning that David was the kind of man God wanted to be his servant. What? Is God’s assessment of human character all so convoluted? But, really, we don’t need to be so flabbergasted at God’s choice. Whereas we can think Saul to be cleaner than David, actually Saul was not so clean by God’s standards. And so was David also not clean at all. But Saul’s uncleanness attacked the very essence of God, while David’s was simply personal failure limited only to himself. That makes Saul’s failures capital crimes as far as God is concerned. felonies far more serious in gravity than our first-degree felonies. First, Saul dared to stretch his hand and offered a sacrifice to God because the man of God, Samuel, delayed in coming. To Saul, what was so important about Samuel. Anyone can offer a sacrifice. No, Saul. You are overthrowing God if you do. Next, Saul went to war with a certain nation, and God gave instructions to take no loot from that nation. Saul disobeyed. When he won victory over the enemy, he and his men brought home cows and bulls and sheep and goats. When Samuel came around, Saul announced that he had obeyed the command of the Lord. When Samuel asked about the animals, he heard mooing, Saul said that some of his soldiers asked to take plunder and he caved in to them. Such disobedience to God undermined the entire plan of God. It was a message to the nation that obedience to God was an option. For that reason, Saul was unfit for public office as far as God was concerned. He would spread the cancer of disobeying God’s Word. On the other hand, David’s sin, heinous as it was, was personal, limited only to himself. It is true his sin affected the woman’s husband. He lost his life. Bu it was not like a general call to rebellion against God. The “decent“ King Saul was disobeying direct commands of God in a way that would easily spread to the general public. And when he was called out about his disobedience, he always came up with some justification. But David, when he was confronted by a man of God about the sin with a man’s wife, orchestrating the man’s death, and then taking the woman as his own wife, David fell on his knees and repented.