Category: Uncategorized

Christmas Eve, 5:30pm, children will present a Christmas pageant followed by Holy Communion.

Christmas Eve, 9:00pm, celebrate with a candlelight worship and Holy Communion.

Sunday, December 30, 9:30am, continue celebration of the Christmas Season a Lessons and Carols worship service.

Celebrate the first day of autumn and the new church year by helping clean up and “fix up” amazing St. Philip facility and property that enables us to live God’s mission in great ways on Saturday, September 22 from 9am to noon.

In an effort to care for this wonderful blessing, you are invited to help clean up a bit. Spend the morning cleaning, weeding, helping with much needed minor repairs, or landscaping. Many hands make light work for the tasks planned. Even our youngest members can help with small tasks. What a great way to teach them how to be good stewards of the many blessings God gives all of us!

If you would like to participate contact Pastor David or Donna Wright. No experience is necessary.

On the Second Sunday of each month, starting September 9 (10-10:45am), ALL ages will gather between worship services for a short bible story followed by a service project. Just for 45 minutes. Just once per month. One of the best ways for all of us to grow in faith is to do it together. Growing relationship with God takes the whole village!

In September, as harvest time comes, the bible story will focus on Jesus describing God as a grand sower generously tossing seeds everywhere. The service project will be crafting Mason Jars (hope you are getting the harvest theme) to be shared with hospice patients through Carilion Hospice.

I encourage everyone to be part of these gatherings! If you’d like to help with these in any way, please speak with Juli Albertin or Pastor David.

Growing in faith is a lifelong endeavor! For adults the dance of integrating faith with life on a daily basis is one of the most wonderful and challenging experiences. At St. Philip we want to help make those connections with a variety of opportunities each month.

The first Sunday of each month will be a time for reflection and discussion called “God Moments.” Come prepared to have great conversation answering some pretty standard while also thought-provoking questions. For example: “We pray each week in the Lord’s Prayer ‘Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.’  How is that happening?”

The second Sunday of each month is dedicated to coming together with all generations of the congregation in an intergenerational faith formation (see the article above).

On the third and fourth Sundays, guests from both within the congregation and members of the greater community will join the class to discuss how faith shapes their call in life. September guests are Debbie Kanode, St. Philip Blood Drive Coordinator and Virginia Vann, Board chair for Elijah’s Backpack.

And finally, on months when a 5th Sunday happens, Pastor David will host an open “ask the pastor” forum.

Please plan to connect with FIRL starting on September 9. All discussions will be in the library, except Intergenerational Faith Formation, which meets in the fellowship hall.

On Saturday, October 13, Global Missions will sponsor a take-out chicken dinner. Meal includes half a BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, potato salad or cole slaw, and cookies for $10.00 each. You may pick up your dinner between 5:00 and 7:00pm at the church.

Global Missions will also sponsor a yard sale October 13 from 8:00am to noon. Table spaces may be rented for a small fee. Global Ministry will also host a table. and will be looking for donations for it later in the fall. (Please do NOT bring your items to the church for storage).

Gather your no longer needed valuables and watch for more details in the bulletin, newsletter, the St. Philip Lutheran Facebook page, and on signs around the church.

If you are on Facebook, please check out the event pages for these two opportunities to support the Global Mission team. Share these with your friends and families to make these events even more successful.

Proceeds support St. Philip Global Missions Team and the congregation’s sister parish in Monela, Malawi.

Virginia Synod Office

The Virginia Synod is known for its youth and faith formation ministry. We do this year round through our youth events, our Ambassadors Community for Theological Study (ACTS) program, and July’s Power in the Spirit annual gathering. Because of youth and other faith formation events, generations of leaders in the Synod and across the Church have been brought up to know and love God in Jesus Christ. We are a synod declaring faith from generation to generation.

ForwardingFaith is intended to provide permanent funding for these important ministries. As the landscape of being Church in America continues to change, we want to make certain that the work of providing youth ministry and faith formation to our members continues with excellence into the long-term future.

St. Philip has a strong history of participation in synod sponsored events and participated in the campaign in February. With joy and thanksgiving, we celebrate the results of ForwardingFaith at St. Philip. Our campaign chair Sarah Parker shared the following quotation with the Virginia Synod:

“We were fortunate to have two large donations that helped us hit our mark, but we also had an incredible engagement across our congregation with monthly donations ranging from $3 to $100. Amazing….We actually almost doubled our goal. Our original goal was $25,000 and our final number was $43,452.00″

Synod Assembly is our annual opportunity for the 150 congregations of the Virginia Synod to come together and be reminded what it means to be a part of the wider church. Our theme during our June 8-10, 2018 gathering was “Only by Grace Can We Stand”.

During the weekend, Bishop Humphrey, helped explore the theme for the Assembly based off of Ephesians 2:19-21, with three keynote presentations that led into small group time. During small groups participants at Assembly were encouraged to get to know Lutherans and congregations from around the state and to share their experiences as church together. They also discussed and shared their opinions on the current format for the Assembly, and shared ideas for how future Assemblies could take shape.

The Rev. Ron Glusenkamp, the director of Always Being Made New: The Campaign for the ELCA, was present at this year’s Assembly to represent the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, bringing good news from the wider church.

The Rev. John Wertz Jr. was joined by The Rev. Stephen Bohannon, acting as the Roving Reporter to deliver a report for the ongoing ForwardingFaith campaign. It was announced that to date we have reached our $2.5 million goal which was set not by the need, but rather what the synod could raise. We are continuing to encourage more congregations join in holding their own appeals as part of the campaign, seeking to stretch our total as high as $4 million. Future campaign training events are being planned now. Thank you to all the congregations and members who have helped us exceed our basic goal for ForwardingFaith.

Elections also took place over the weekend with Dan Kahill, of Christ in Roanoke was elected as the Virginia Synod Council Treasurer.  The Rev. Lauren Miller of Peace in Charlottesville was elected to serve as clergy member following her appointment to the Synod Council earlier this year. Tyler Wertman of Grace in Waynesboro, The Rev. Jonathan Boynton of Grace in Winchester, and The Rev. Leslie Scanlon of Grace in Chesapeake are the newly elected members joining Synod Council.

Elections for the 2019 Churchwide Assembly also took place with The Rev. Kathryn Pocalyko of Our Saviour in Richmond, The Rev. Phyllis Milton of Gloria Dei in Hampton, Hunter Simpkins of Grace in Chesapeake, Mycha McNett of Muhlenberg in Harrisonburg, Deacon Christine Van O’Linda Huffman of St. Michael in Virginia Beach, Megan Crummitt of St. Paul’s in Hampton, Todd Recupero of Trinity in Newport News, The Rev. Martha Miller Sims of Grace in Winchester, and The Rev. Tim Crummitt St. Paul’s in Hampton all being elected to serve.

One resolution was passed over the weekend, memorializing the 50^th anniversary of women’s ordination in the Lutheran Church.

Lutheran Family Services of Virginia Hearts & Hands award winners were recognized during this year’s Synod Assembly. Kim Begnaud of Trinity in Stephens City received the silver award, Jane Perry of Zion in Edinburg received the Gold award, and Karen Murphy of Bethlehem in Lynchburg was presented with the Diamond award.

The Rev. Kelly Bayer Derrick, Assistant to the Bishop, and Deacon Lisa Geiger, Candidacy Process Administrator, were installed into their new positions in the Synod Office during the Friday afternoon worship service.

Isaac Wilson of Christ in Fredericksburg, president of the Lutheran Youth Organization, presented the Youth Assembly report, centered on the Youth Assembly theme of “Who Stands by Me?”. He shared a summary of this year’s Youth Assembly, and raised up aspects of the current Assembly format the youth feel are important as the format is reviewed for future assemblies. The incoming LYO Board president will be Turner Barger of Epiphany in Richmond.

Pastor David will accompany St. Philip youth to the ELCA National Youth Gathering June 26 through July 2. Pastor David will be on vacation July 5 through July 20. Pastor Ken Lane will be responding to pastoral emergencies and can be contacted at 366-9481 or 312-6984.