Weekly Parish Newsletter
|
Discover the vibrant community at St. George's Anglican Church! Join us for Holy Communion on Sunday mornings or participate in one of our educational opportunities: Youth Group on Wednesday Evenings, Women's Bible Study on Tuesday Morning or Men's Bible Study on ever other Saturday Morning. click on image to the left to read the newsletter |
The Rector's Corner for the week of August 16, 2026
Resource of the Week:
The Cradle of Prayer (website/Spotify/Apple podcasts)
The Cradle of Prayer offers recordings for morning and evening prayers and free daily downloads, read directly from the pages of 1928 Book of Common Prayer. May these readings and songs refresh your mind, heart, and soul as we walk in the path of our Lord together.
For every morning and night there is a service meant for your heart and mind to enjoy and follow. Each reading includes a psalm, an old testament scripture, a new testament scripture, and prayers for the order of the day.
During each service you will hear psalms, canticles sung simply and acapella, as well as prayers for you to recite along with our priest. Services last anywhere from 12 to 18 minutes and can be enjoyed from your own home, car, or wherever you may be. The Litany is offered at the end of each Friday morning service.
https://cradleofprayer.org/
For every morning and night there is a service meant for your heart and mind to enjoy and follow. Each reading includes a psalm, an old testament scripture, a new testament scripture, and prayers for the order of the day.
During each service you will hear psalms, canticles sung simply and acapella, as well as prayers for you to recite along with our priest. Services last anywhere from 12 to 18 minutes and can be enjoyed from your own home, car, or wherever you may be. The Litany is offered at the end of each Friday morning service.
https://cradleofprayer.org/
Saint of the Week:
|
King Stephen I of HungaryKing Stephen I of Hungary (Hungarian: Szent István király; c. 975 – 15 August 1038), born Vajk, was the last Grand Prince of the Hungarians (997–1000/1001) and the first King of Hungary (1000/1001–1038). He is regarded as the founder of the Hungarian Christian state and one of the most consequential figures in Hungarian history.
Life
Born in Esztergom to Grand Prince Géza of the Árpád dynasty and his wife Sarolt, Stephen was baptized as a youth and raised a Christian, becoming the first devout Christian ruler of his line. In 996 he married Gisela of Bavaria, sister of the future Holy Roman Emperor Henry II, thereby linking the Hungarian dynasty to the Ottonian house. Upon Géza’s death in 997, Stephen secured the succession by defeating his pagan cousin Koppány, who claimed the throne under traditional seniority rules. He was crowned king on 25 December 1000 or 1 January 1001 with a crown sent by Pope Sylvester II, marking Hungary’s formal entry into the community of Christian European kingdoms. |
Accomplishments
Stephen unified the Carpathian Basin through campaigns against semi-independent tribal leaders, including the Black Hungarians and his uncle Gyula the Younger. He organized the kingdom on Western (primarily German) administrative models, established a standing army, promoted agriculture, and enacted laws protecting private property.
Ecclesiastically, he founded at least one archbishopric, six bishoprics, and several Benedictine monasteries, including the important abbey at Pannonhalma (Martinsberg). He mandated church construction, introduced tithing, dispatched missionaries, and suppressed pagan practices, thereby creating an independent Hungarian ecclesiastical hierarchy free from direct imperial control. His reign was largely peaceful after the initial consolidations, with the notable exception of an invasion by Emperor Conrad II in 1030, which he successfully repelled.
Legacy
Stephen’s primary achievement was the transformation of the Magyar tribal confederation into a stable Christian kingdom capable of enduring in the Carpathian Basin—unlike the Huns and Avars who had preceded them. He is venerated as a saint (canonized in 1083, together with his son Emeric). His feast is observed on 16 August in the Roman calendar and on 20 August in Hungary, where it is celebrated as a national holiday commemorating the foundation of the state. The Holy Crown of Hungary, traditionally associated with his coronation, remains a central symbol of Hungarian sovereignty. On his deathbed he is said to have dedicated the kingdom to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Stephen is remembered as both a capable military and political consolidator and a zealous Christian ruler who anchored Hungary firmly within Western Christendom.
Stephen unified the Carpathian Basin through campaigns against semi-independent tribal leaders, including the Black Hungarians and his uncle Gyula the Younger. He organized the kingdom on Western (primarily German) administrative models, established a standing army, promoted agriculture, and enacted laws protecting private property.
Ecclesiastically, he founded at least one archbishopric, six bishoprics, and several Benedictine monasteries, including the important abbey at Pannonhalma (Martinsberg). He mandated church construction, introduced tithing, dispatched missionaries, and suppressed pagan practices, thereby creating an independent Hungarian ecclesiastical hierarchy free from direct imperial control. His reign was largely peaceful after the initial consolidations, with the notable exception of an invasion by Emperor Conrad II in 1030, which he successfully repelled.
Legacy
Stephen’s primary achievement was the transformation of the Magyar tribal confederation into a stable Christian kingdom capable of enduring in the Carpathian Basin—unlike the Huns and Avars who had preceded them. He is venerated as a saint (canonized in 1083, together with his son Emeric). His feast is observed on 16 August in the Roman calendar and on 20 August in Hungary, where it is celebrated as a national holiday commemorating the foundation of the state. The Holy Crown of Hungary, traditionally associated with his coronation, remains a central symbol of Hungarian sovereignty. On his deathbed he is said to have dedicated the kingdom to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Stephen is remembered as both a capable military and political consolidator and a zealous Christian ruler who anchored Hungary firmly within Western Christendom.
The Rector's Corner for the week of August 9, 2026
Resource of the Week:
Article - Thomas Aquinas and Human Law, in The North American Anglican
To understand how Christians should interact with the civil laws they live under (immigration or otherwise), it would be prudent to look at law itself under three key elements: i) the end (i.e. goal) of law, ii) whether the law applies to all people or just some, and iii) whether Christians have a right or duty to obey or disobey certain laws or law in general. To do this, Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, provides a robust and admirable framework from which the faithful can work. This article will explain and expound, where appropriate, on his framework to educate and edify Christians in their considerations of immigration, abortion, wage law, theft, etc.
https://northamanglican.com/thomas-aquinas-and-human-law/
https://northamanglican.com/thomas-aquinas-and-human-law/
Saint of the Week:
|
St. Lawrence of RomeSaint Lawrence of Rome (Latin: Laurentius), born c. 225 in Huesca, Hispania (modern Spain), and martyred on 10 August 258 in Rome, stands as one of the most venerated deacons and martyrs of the early Church.
Life and Ministry Tradition holds that Lawrence was of Spanish origin and came to Rome, where Pope Sixtus II ordained him deacon and later appointed him Archdeacon of Rome—the senior of the seven deacons of the Roman Church. In this office he held responsibility for the Church’s material goods and the distribution of alms to the poor, widows, orphans, and the sick. His ministry was marked by practical charity and administrative fidelity during a period of intensifying imperial hostility toward Christians. Persecution under Valerian In 258 Emperor Valerian issued an edict ordering the execution of bishops, priests, and deacons. On 6 August Pope Sixtus II was seized while celebrating the liturgy and beheaded, together with several other deacons. Lawrence, following the Pope, is said to have asked, “Father, where are you going without your deacon?” Sixtus replied that Lawrence would follow him in three days. |
Anticipating his own arrest, Lawrence distributed the remaining Church funds and sold sacred vessels to give further alms to the poor. When the Roman prefect demanded that he surrender the “treasures of the Church,” Lawrence gathered the destitute and infirm supported by the Church and presented them, declaring, “These are the treasures of the Church.”
Martyrdom Enraged, the prefect ordered Lawrence to be slowly roasted alive on a gridiron. Tradition records that the saint endured the torment with remarkable composure and even humor, reportedly saying near the end, “I am done on this side; turn me over.” He died praying for the conversion of Rome and the spread of the faith. His feast is kept on 10 August throughout the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Anglican Communion.
Lawrence is patron of deacons, the poor, cooks, and firefighters. Constantine later erected a basilica in his honor, and his cult spread rapidly across the Christian world.
Martyrdom Enraged, the prefect ordered Lawrence to be slowly roasted alive on a gridiron. Tradition records that the saint endured the torment with remarkable composure and even humor, reportedly saying near the end, “I am done on this side; turn me over.” He died praying for the conversion of Rome and the spread of the faith. His feast is kept on 10 August throughout the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Anglican Communion.
Lawrence is patron of deacons, the poor, cooks, and firefighters. Constantine later erected a basilica in his honor, and his cult spread rapidly across the Christian world.
The Rector's Corner for August 2, 2026
Resource of the Week:
The Sin of Empathy: Compassion and Its Counterfeits, by Joe Rigney
|
Meet Empathy, the greatest rhetorical tool of manipulation in the 21st century. Because love is a real virtue, empathy’s power is in posing as selfless care for victims.
A sad polar bear paces as David Attenborough informs you that the family suburban is melting the ice caps. “Jesus was an asylum seeker!” the sign reads at an Open Borders Rally. A forlorn Bruno wishes he too could change in the women’s locker room, a place he’s always known he belonged. “My mom said if we don’t go she’ll be just devastated.” When you reject the sin of empathy, you reject the manipulation of the media, the manipulation of family and friends, and most importantly, the manipulation of your own heart. Based largely upon Rabbi Edwin Friedman and Murray Bowen's Family Systems Theory, Rigney drives home the manipulation wreaked upon regular people who are seeking to do what's right by those using pathogenic empathy tactics. Readers will be armed to make solid decisions and reject the attempts of the hysterical, the agitated, and the anxious. https://canonpress.com/collections/all-books/products/the-sin-of-empathy |
Saint of the Week:
|
Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380–1471)Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380–1471) was a German-Dutch Augustinian canon regular and a leading voice of the Devotio Moderna. His life and writing emphasize interior piety, humility, and the practical imitation of Christ.
Life Born Thomas Hemerken in Kempen (Rhineland) around 1379/1380, he studied under the Brethren of the Common Life in Deventer. In 1406 he entered the Augustinian monastery of Mount St. Agnes near Zwolle, where his brother was prior. He took vows shortly thereafter, was ordained in 1413, and remained there for over sixty years as copyist, novice master, and occasional subprior. He died at the monastery in 1471, aged about ninety. His life was one of stability, manual labor, prayer, and quiet spiritual direction—without public office or travel. |
Works
Thomas wrote primarily in Latin. His principal work is De Imitatione Christi (The Imitation of Christ), composed in the 1420s and arranged in four books: counsels for the spiritual life, the interior life, interior consolation, and the Blessed Sacrament. Its simple, pastoral style stresses detachment from the world, humility, self-denial, distrust of worldly ambition, and constant recourse to Christ, especially in the Eucharist. Authorship is traditionally and firmly attributed to him.
He also produced sermons, spiritual treatises, and biographies of early Devotio Moderna figures.
Ministry and Influence
Thomas’s direct ministry was intramural: forming novices in the Devotio Moderna ideal of lived, interior Christianity. His wider influence comes through The Imitation of Christ, one of the most widely read Christian books after the Bible. It shaped Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican spirituality and continues to call readers to the humble, costly following of Christ.
Thomas wrote primarily in Latin. His principal work is De Imitatione Christi (The Imitation of Christ), composed in the 1420s and arranged in four books: counsels for the spiritual life, the interior life, interior consolation, and the Blessed Sacrament. Its simple, pastoral style stresses detachment from the world, humility, self-denial, distrust of worldly ambition, and constant recourse to Christ, especially in the Eucharist. Authorship is traditionally and firmly attributed to him.
He also produced sermons, spiritual treatises, and biographies of early Devotio Moderna figures.
Ministry and Influence
Thomas’s direct ministry was intramural: forming novices in the Devotio Moderna ideal of lived, interior Christianity. His wider influence comes through The Imitation of Christ, one of the most widely read Christian books after the Bible. It shaped Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican spirituality and continues to call readers to the humble, costly following of Christ.
The Rector's Corner for the week of July 26, 2026
Resource of the Week:
"Duty, Honor, Country" by General Douglas MacArthur
""Duty, Honor, Country" — those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.
Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean.
The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker, and, I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule.
But these are some of the things they do: They build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation's defense. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid.
They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for action; not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm, but to have compassion on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future, yet never neglect the past; to be serious, yet never take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.
They give you a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, an appetite for adventure over love of ease.
They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman."
Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean.
The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker, and, I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule.
But these are some of the things they do: They build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation's defense. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid.
They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for action; not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm, but to have compassion on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future, yet never neglect the past; to be serious, yet never take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.
They give you a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, an appetite for adventure over love of ease.
They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman."
Full Speech Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/track/6i0XmAm5sETNCVggmKUD1w?si=b01897a9aae548e9
YouTube Video of excerpts from the speech set to hisotrical photos and videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lafPwwmRvf0
YouTube Video of excerpts from the speech set to hisotrical photos and videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lafPwwmRvf0
Saint of the Week:
The Righteous Gentiles - Beacons of Moral Courage Amidst the Holocaust
During the darkest chapter of the 20th century, when Nazi terror sought to eradicate the Jewish people, thousands of ordinary men and women—non-Jews known as the Righteous Among the Nations, or Righteous Gentiles—chose to risk everything to protect their Jewish neighbors. Acting from compassion, faith, and an unyielding sense of humanity, they hid families in attics and cellars, forged identity papers, smuggled children to safety, and provided food and shelter under constant threat of discovery, torture, or death. Their acts of quiet defiance saved countless lives and stand as an enduring testament to the power of individual conscience against systematic evil.
These heroes came from all walks of life and more than 50 countries. Many were simple farmers, laborers, or clerks who opened their homes despite the mortal danger. Others leveraged professional positions to issue false documents or create safe havens. Their collective courage is commemorated at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem through the Avenue and Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations, where trees and walls of honor bear witness to the efforts and sacrifices of over 28,700 individuals from more than 50 countries and all walks of life.
Two lesser-known examples illustrate the profound impact of such bravery:
These heroes came from all walks of life and more than 50 countries. Many were simple farmers, laborers, or clerks who opened their homes despite the mortal danger. Others leveraged professional positions to issue false documents or create safe havens. Their collective courage is commemorated at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem through the Avenue and Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations, where trees and walls of honor bear witness to the efforts and sacrifices of over 28,700 individuals from more than 50 countries and all walks of life.
Two lesser-known examples illustrate the profound impact of such bravery:
|
Leopold and Magdalena Socha of Lwów (now Lviv), Poland, worked as sewer workers. When the Jewish ghetto was liquidated, they sheltered a group of 21 Jews in the labyrinthine city sewers for over a year. Facing darkness, rats, flooding, and the ever-present risk of German inspections, the Sochas brought food, medicine, and hope daily. Tragically, Leopold died in a traffic accident shortly after liberation, but his family’s legacy of selflessness endures. Ara Jeretzian, an Armenian living in Budapest, Hungary, used his authority as commander of civilian defense in 1944 to establish a makeshift hospital. There, he hid approximately 40 Jewish doctors and their families, supplying them with forged documents and medical cover. Through ingenuity and daring, he ultimately saved more than 400 Jews from the Arrow Cross fascists. His story highlights the solidarity that can arise even among communities that had themselves endured genocide.
|
The stories of the Righteous Gentiles remind us that even in the face of overwhelming evil, light can prevail through ordinary people who refuse to look away. Their example calls each of us to uphold justice, mercy, and human dignity in our own time.