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 painted to completion. From an earthly perspective, the trip was a resounding success. It is, however, the spiritual blessings that each team member received that will remain with us forever. ...
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 that I love. I was not disappointed. Listening to Dr. Dickson of Sydney deliver his carefully concise message, his humor woven throughout with his Strayan accent and lingo, I was delightfully entertained. He discussed what exactly the basis of our Christian faith is and proceeded to clarify and dissect the Apostle’s Creed. Now, although I’ve been reciting the Creed since my youth, he explained some things I had never realized about the three fundamental beliefs in the Apostle’s Creed that unify all Christians....
On Wednesday, September 25, Jill Settle and I rode with Amey Warder to Tricounty Family Ministries in North Charleston to take a wonderful tour with the executive director, Sue Hanshaw. They are doing such great work there by giving hope to people in crisis. I have known about Tricounty Family Ministries for years, but I didn’t realize all the services they offered fo...
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"My House shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." Isaiah 56:7 Do you wish to learn to pray or would you like someone to pray with you or for you? Come join some of the following opportunities in helping St. Philip's continue to fulfill the call of being a house of prayer. Thursdays Centering Prayer led by Pringle Franklin 8:00 a.m. in the Prayer Ro...
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The annual parish retreat at Kanuga, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Hendersonville, NC, is a time of spiritual enrichment and nourishment for parishioners of all ages. There are daily opportunities for worship and fellowship, and there’s also time for you to explore the grounds and the Hendersonville area on your own if you’d like. This year’s speaker is th...
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We’ve been hearing a great deal about Honduras in the news these days. Over 200,000 Hondurans have fled to the US just in the last nine months. With 67% of the Honduran people living in poverty, major gang activity affecting the everyday life of most people, crimes committed with few prosecutions, and corruption in the government even to the highest levels, you can under...
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September 15 was a joyous day at St. Philip’s: the anthems were glorious, the sermon was rousing, the bouncy house was hopping, and the BBQ was delicious and plentiful. Rally Sunday is a day that St. Philippians look forward to every year because it marks the return of Sunday School and the Rector’s Forum after what always seems like an endless summer. But Rally Sunday...
Keep ReadingFood and fellowship with old and new friends Looking for a great way to get to know others in the St. Philip's family? Consider joining a Foyer Group! "Foyer" is a French word meaning "hearthside" implying the warmth of a close, small group of friends sharing a common friendship. Whether you are longtime St. Philippian or a relative newcomer, we encourage you to particip...
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This summer when Grace stayed with me the first two weeks in July, I was looking for something for her to do at St. Philip’s, knowing that most children’s activities were in recess, a well deserved rest for the teachers and leaders. I was surprised, then, to see an announcement in the eSPIRE about a Tuesday evening program led by David Gilbert. Before his program, at 5...
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Because of the mandatory evacuation order and the possibility that many of our families might not be back in time for the originally scheduled Rally Sunday, we haved moved Rally Sunday to September 15....
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The Home Missions Committee would like to thank all who participated in donating backpacks and school supplies for Tricounty Family Ministries. We also appreciate the volunteers who helped organize and sort the backpacks and supplies last Monday, as well as those who handed out the filled backpacks to the children on Friday. The following supplies were collected, sorted, a...
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During the 10:30 a.m. service on Sunday, the Rev. Andrew O’Dell invited all students and teachers to come forward for a blessing before the start of the new school year....
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