If there was ever a time to pray, it's NOW. There are so many things that need prayer coverage that it's hard to know where to start. First of all, it's vital that you start by enriching your own prayer life. During this time when we are quarantined at home, perhaps you can increase your dedicated time with Him in prayer....
In the midst of this time of uncertainty, I hope you are well. May you find safe shelter not only in “social distancing,” but especially in drawing close to Him who is our true Dwelling Place...
St. Philippians and Friends, Even though we "broke the Internet" last Sunday when we, along with members of other churches across the country, went online in droves to worship, we are going to give the same streaming platform another shot this Sunday, the Fifth Sunday in Lent! Here is a link to the stream, which will begin a few minutes before 10:30 a.m. with the prelude....
Click the link below to read the St. Philip's eSPIRE, the email version of our weekly inSPIRE newsletter, which is packed with information about all that's going on in the life of our parish....
Dear Saint Philippians, Many of you have written and emailed to thank us for last Sunday’s online service; we are delighted that it was a blessing. As we move forward, still uncertain as to how long we will be prevented from worshipping together in the church, I want to provide you with some sense of what you may expect in the weeks to come. Because the situation is fluid, these plans are subject to change, but for now they represent the thinking of the clergy and lay leadership. ...
St. Philip’s is assembling a response team for our church members while we are all experiencing the challenges of COVID-19. This is a united effort of the Compassion Committee, the Home Missions Team, the Disaster Relief Committee, and our clergy. We are here to help each other!...
Dear St. Philip’s family, This past week of social distancing has been a surreal and difficult experience for the majority of Americans. Many are beginning to think that if the coronavirus doesn’t get them, “Cabin Fever” will. Not since World War II or the polio epidemic of the 1940s and 50s have the American people been so inconvenienced or threatened with long-term confinement and financial ruin. It reminds me of the following story shared by the Very Reverend Laurie Thompson, Dean of Trinity Seminary. ...
We celebrated Mission Sunday last week and had the opportunity to highlight the many ways that we as a congregation at St. Philip's are “doing mission,” or reaching out to others with the love of God in the name of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. Mission is an integral part of what God calls us to do as Christ-followers. While the Great Commission is commonly thought to be the Bible’s one mandate to mission, if we read scripture carefully, we will hear God’s heart for the world woven powerfully throughout all of the Bible. Jesus’ command that we take the Gospel to those who have not yet heard it was not simply an afterthought at the end of his earthly ministry. It was a continuation of the message we find consistently throughout Scripture: God loves us. Despite our rebellion, He went to unfathomable lengths to make it possible for us to know Him and His great love for us and for us to be with Him for all eternity. ...
We dotted all our I's and crossed all our T's; we had every hair in place and all our ducks in a row, but we weren't prepared ... for breaking the Internet! Thanks to everyone who joined us for worship on Sunday! Even though the service didn't come to your living room in quite the mode we were expecting, you were unfazed, and most of us were able to worship together just as we'd planned. Praise God!! Here's a note we received from our streaming platform on Sunday afternoon: Church Online Platform When the Church broke the Internet. This is an unprecedented time for the global Church and for online ministry. For most churches running the Church Online Platform, services went smoothly, and we praise Jesus for the lives that were forever changed! For some churches, though, services went out around 9:15 a.m. CDT/10:15 EDT. In anticipation of the highest-traffic weekend in history, the team had done in-depth load testing and purchased additional server and database capacity to meet the projected demand. But, with today’s traffic, an unanticipated variable arose that caused some issues with chat and with pages loading....
St. Philippians, we are pleased to announce that we are all set for online worship on Sunday, March 22, at 10:30 a.m.! Here are a few things to note: 1. The service will remain available online after the stream is over. This means that should you miss the service for any reason, you will still be able to watch later. 2. A service bulletin is available for you to view or print now. We have reformatted our traditional bulletin so that you may print it at home. There is a complete version which looks just like what you're used to, and there's an abbreviated version that you may print using a single sheet of paper (front and back). ...
Last Thursday, March 12, the jet landed in Charleston carrying our returning members of the St. Philip’s––St. Michael’s mission team to LAMB in Honduras. What a fantastic week! Mission accomplished: ninety dental patients treated––mostly children and some adult support staff––at the LAMB Children’s Home in San Buenaventura, and two buildings on site paint...
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I wasn’t quite sure what to expect of this talk on a Wednesday evening at St. Philip’s, except that it would be relatively short and sweet. Really, the word “doubters” in the title caught my attention. I have many people in my life who question the Christian faith and some who claim to be atheists, so I attended hoping to pick up a few tools in defense of the faith...
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Dear St. Philip’s Family, Yesterday afternoon, Bishop Lawrence ordered the closure of all churches in the Diocese for the next two weeks in an effort to comply with the government’s call for social distancing to combat the spread of the Coronavirus. In compliance with that directive, ALL activities at St. Philip’s Church are cancelled, effective immediately, throu...
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Hello, Tricounty Family Ministries supporters. Due to the new information about the spreading virus, we have made the decision to suspend our normal services through the end of the month. All regular volunteer duties are suspended through March 31. We would like to be able to pass out emergency grocery supplies on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and we can set up a sa...
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Dear St. Philip’s Family, We all share a justifiable anxiety about the threat posed by the spread of the novel coronavirus, and as your Rector, I want to assure you that we are monitoring the situation closely and saying our prayers daily. We are also taking some precautionary measures to ensure the safety and health of our parishioners in worship. We believe that Go...
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“There is no way I could relate to or be effective with clients here.” That was my initial reaction when I finally agreed to go in to volunteer at the Lowcountry Pregnancy Center. After years of supporting them in other ways and then being encouraged to actually volunteer by a friend who had served on the board, I decided to answer that call with the idea that I co...
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Last Thursday, March 5, our St. David Choir, which is composed of mixed voices 7th-grade and above, sang the Welsh national anthem and other Welsh pieces at a banquet for the St. David Society at the Carolina Yacht Club for the 21st consecutive year, the 13th with director Jolene Hethcox. Along with the rest of St. Philip’s children’s choirs, this dedicated group will ...
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The annual St. Philip’s Tea Room is an opportunity for the entire parish to come together as one to help raise money for our important ministries. Volunteer forms were mailed last week, and online sign-up is also available! Whether you crave customer interaction or you prefer working behind the scenes, there are plenty of jobs that will be right up your alley. If you’r...
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Several hundred men from St. Philip’s, churches across the state, and as far away as Kenya attended the Christian Men’s Conference at Camp St. Christopher February 21-23. I was blessed to be among them. The theme of this year’s conference was “The Father’s Blessing,” and the goal was for the weekend to be “a time of blessing for all men, young and old, in ord...
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Last Thursday night at the Country Club of Charleston, over 150 people gathered together in fellowship to celebrate 25 years of mission and ministry service on the island of La Gonâve in Haiti. Our “Friends of Haiti” sponsors and guests, who so graciously supported the event, viewed photos, heard stories and testimonials, sang songs, and celebrated the many blessings ...
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