All are welcome to join us in-person or online on Sunday, December 5 at 5:00 p.m., as the St. Paul’s Choir presents a service of Advent Lessons and Carols. The Service of Lessons and Carols for Advent was originally celebrated at King’s College, Cambridge, which has been popular worldwide since World War II through annual radio broadcasts on Christmas Eve. The order of service includes old liturgical forms that vividly express the Church’s preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus both in the festival of Christmas and in the consummation of the ages. The service alternates lessons from the Old and the New Testaments with anthems and carols, finally climaxing in St. Luke’s Gospel, in which the angel brings the news that Mary will bring forth a son, “and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” The St. Paul’s choir will be presenting works by Philip Ledger, Jessica Nelson, Mark Sirett, Philip Stopford, Howard Helvey, and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

Advent Lessons & Carols | Sunday, December 5 @ 5:00 p.m. | Click for Service Leaflet

Join us for a virtual Friendsgiving!

Friendsgiving is a time to share a meal with one another, and this year, in particular, a time to meet new folks and share how you are doing. Since we will be meeting over Zoom, we will be sharing our meal virtually and St. Paul’s would like to help pay for your meal ($20/ person). You can order delivery, pick up your favorite local meal or grab something delicious from your fridge.

Please REGISTER HERE and let Keli Shipley Cooper know if you have any questions.

**A “youngish adult” is loosely defined as someone in their 20s-40s.

THIS WORKSHOP IS POSTPONED UNTIL FEBRUARY.

Sharing of our gifts is not just financial, but time, skill and interest as well. This virtual workshop is an opportunity to identify your Spirit-given gifts for living faithfully and finding the best fit for your unique gifts to seek and serve Christ through your professional vocation, your community, and the ministries at St. Paul’s. This is the same workshop offered twice and will last 3.5 hours.  E-mail the Rev. Gwynn Crichton if you are interested in attending one of the workshops.

Join us every second Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom for our new Faith and Culture conversation series.

Parishioners David Coogan and Christine Luckritz Marquis will start off our first Faith and Culture Conversation on Wednesday, October 13th. Just a few days after Indigenous Peoples’ Day, they will be speaking with Stephen R. Adkins, Chief of the Chickahominy Tribe.

Chief Stephen R. Adkins has served as Chief of the Chickahominy tribe since 2001. As the leader of one of the “first contact” tribes in Virginia, his voice and representation of his community are crucial to larger discussions around faith in VA. In recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, he will be sharing his own understanding of faith and culture, including how he understands his faith and has experienced it in light of new experiences. As a long-time advocate for his people, Chief Adkins will share how federal recognition of the Chickahominy and neighboring VA tribes in 2018 has shifted his relationship to surrounding culture and what new is on the horizon for the Chickahominy in relation to other peoples of VA.

Registration is required. Register with this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_eeqWfsDZSJiOyxQ5-2HH6Q

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

More details about this series:

In the Bible, faith “is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Culture, by contrast, is known in what we can see: the customs, arts, institutions and other achievements of a particular group, nation, or people. Clearly, faith and culture intersect. But how? Toward what end? Can multiple faiths and cultures exist side by side in a public life in which everyone can flourish?

These sessions will be in a Zoom webinar format.

Some of our guiding questions are:

• Can you describe for us what you know about faith and how you came to know it?
• Have you ever struggled to reconcile your faith with new experiences unfolding?
• If culture is known in the values, traditions, and achievements of a group, what best characterizes the culture of the Chickahominy tribe? Are there other aspects of culture that you want to highlight in your leadership of the Chickahominy tribe?
• Can you think of moments in which the culture of the Chickahominy tribe came into tension with other cultures? How did this tension get addressed?
• What facets of faith, as you define it, have proven indispensable in understanding culture, forming culture, and guiding culture in ways that are sustainable and inclusive for all? Are there any aspects of faith that you find problematic or limiting in sustaining a diversity of cultures?

Fall 2021 Schedule

Wednesday, October 13th: Stephen R. Adkins, Chief of the Chickahominy Tribe

Wednesday, November 10th: The Reverend Jess Cook, Program and Communications Manager at More Light Presbyterians

Wednesday, December 8th: The Reverend Caitlyn Bailey, M.Div., M.S., BCC, Clinical Pastoral Education Manager for VCU Health

Learn more about the co-facilitators:

David Coogan is an associate professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University specializing in rhetoric, the teaching of writing, and prison literature. He is the author of Writing Our Way Out: Memoirs from Jail, and The Public Work of Rhetoric: Citizen-Scholars and Civic Engagement. And he is the founder and co-director of Open Minds, a program that brings service-learning classes into the Richmond City Justice Center, and the director of Write Your Way Out: A Criminal Justice Diversion Program, which enables low-level offenders in Richmond to avoid incarceration by coming to VCU to write their ways out of the narratives that lead to incarceration. Coogan hosts a podcast, Writing Our Way Out, based on the book by the same name and featuring the co-authors he met in the Richmond City Jail. You can learn more at www.writingourwayout.com.

Dr. Christine Luckritz Marquis, Associate Professor of Church History and Master of Theology Program Director at Union Presbyterian Seminary. She received her M.A.R. from Yale Divinity School, Luckritz Marquis earned her Ph.D. in Early Christian Studies from Duke University. She has been teaching at Union since 2013. Her teaching and research expertise explore early Christian communities and their practices, especially late ancient communities in Egypt, Syria, Ethiopia, and the Arabian Peninsula. Her interests include memory and spatial practices, the role of violence in identity formation, material culture, and Christian interactions with neighboring Christians as well as non-Christians, especially Jews and Muslims. Her first book, Death of the Desert, explores how memory and spatial practices were transformed by acts of violence among Egyptian ascetics (UPenn Press, 2022). When she’s not teaching or writing, she enjoys baking, gardening, and spending time with her family.

Join parishioners David Coogan and Christine Luckritz Marquis every second Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom for our new Faith and Culture conversation series.

This Wednesday, November 10th, we will hear from Reverend Jess Cook discussing faith and the LGBTQ+ Community.

Rev. Jess Cook is the first openly non-binary person ordained as a minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). They are currently in the process of starting a new worshipping community in Richmond, VA. They have over a decade of experience working with LGBTQIA+ youth and in the church. Jess loves people, liturgy that means something, and spaces that invite us to bring our whole selves. Jess lives in Richmond, VA with their partner, kiddo, two dogs, one cat, and a bearded dragon named Stubbs.

Registration is required. Register with this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_eeqWfsDZSJiOyxQ5-2HH6Q

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. Registration is available through the end of the webinar.

More details about this series:

In the Bible, faith “is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Culture, by contrast, is known in what we can see: the customs, arts, institutions and other achievements of a particular group, nation, or people. Clearly, faith and culture intersect. But how? Toward what end? Can multiple faiths and cultures exist side by side in a public life in which everyone can flourish?

These sessions will be in a Zoom webinar format.

Fall 2021 Schedule

Wednesday, October 13th: Stephen R. Adkins, Chief of the Chickahominy Tribe

Wednesday, November 10th: The Reverend Jess Cook

Wednesday, December 8th: The Reverend Caitlyn Bailey, M.Div., M.S., BCC, Clinical Pastoral Education Manager for VCU Health

Learn more about the co-facilitators:

David Coogan is an associate professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University specializing in rhetoric, the teaching of writing, and prison literature. He is the author of Writing Our Way Out: Memoirs from Jail, and The Public Work of Rhetoric: Citizen-Scholars and Civic Engagement. And he is the founder and co-director of Open Minds, a program that brings service-learning classes into the Richmond City Justice Center, and the director of Write Your Way Out: A Criminal Justice Diversion Program, which enables low-level offenders in Richmond to avoid incarceration by coming to VCU to write their ways out of the narratives that lead to incarceration. Coogan hosts a podcast, Writing Our Way Out, based on the book by the same name and featuring the co-authors he met in the Richmond City Jail. You can learn more at www.writingourwayout.com.

Dr. Christine Luckritz Marquis, Associate Professor of Church History and Master of Theology Program Director at Union Presbyterian Seminary. She received her M.A.R. from Yale Divinity School, Luckritz Marquis earned her Ph.D. in Early Christian Studies from Duke University. She has been teaching at Union since 2013. Her teaching and research expertise explore early Christian communities and their practices, especially late ancient communities in Egypt, Syria, Ethiopia, and the Arabian Peninsula. Her interests include memory and spatial practices, the role of violence in identity formation, material culture, and Christian interactions with neighboring Christians as well as non-Christians, especially Jews and Muslims. Her first book, Death of the Desert, explores how memory and spatial practices were transformed by acts of violence among Egyptian ascetics (UPenn Press, 2022). When she’s not teaching or writing, she enjoys baking, gardening, and spending time with her family.