Whether you are returning for Holy Week and Easter, visiting for the first time, or attend regularly, St. George’s is there to welcome you.
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To find the soul of St. George’s Episcopal Church, move through the portal doors on Princess Anne Street, walk beneath the towering steeple, and step into the sacred space that is the sanctuary, where doors on the pews that were traditionally closed today have a standard open position.
A vestige from earlier days when families paid for their pews, these rows are now available to all who choose to attend, regardless of their station in life.
“All are truly welcome,” says St. George’s rector (executive pastor) Rev. Joseph (Joe) Hensley, “and we really mean ‘all’ are welcome. This church is open to all in love”
Belief Is in the Words We Pray
This desire to greatly expand who is welcomed to become involved with St. George’s comes at a time when faith communities across the United Staves have been in decline for several decades. With challenges, however, come opportunities to explore core values, and experiment with new ways of being.
Discover St. George’s Holy Week and Easter Schedules
St. George’s lives at the nexus of this challenge, and is both creating and innovating a community that allows people to reimagine and re-engage with faith.
“Most of the folks who come here,” says Rev. Hensley, “are searching for a community where they can worship, get involved, and make a difference.” The church believes in giving them the space and the time to do this.
“We let people decide how fast they want to move in their arriving,” says Hensley.
Like other churches, St. George’s makes a point to welcome people when they arrive, but they are acting in a manner that allows the visitor to explore at their own pace. “Many tell us they weren’t sure what to expect when they arrived,” Hensley continued, “and were pleasantly surprised to find that people genuinely are glad that they’re here. That’s what we’re striving for.”
The church’s patience and care with those newly arrived is ground in a tradition that values people’s questions.
“We are part of a tradition that comes out of a love of liturgy and ritual,” says Hensley, but the community carries out this tradition in light of “our own thinking and reasoning. We welcome questions, as well as curiosity about the faith, even as we hold things dear that are the tenets of our faith.”
If the balancing of tradition, faith, questioning, and exploration seems a lot to wrestle with, Hensley puts a fine point on what the church is about:
“If you want to know what we believe, listen to the words that we pray.”
Those prayers, increasingly, are prayers of love. “The stuff we live by,” says Hensley, “is loving our neighbor as ourselves, and striving for justice and peace among all people, and respecting the dignity of all people.”
Past, Present, Innovation
St. George’s may be the oldest church in Fredericksburg – a city rich in churches with deep roots in our nation’s past – but Rev. Hensley wants the community to understand that it’s holding the church’s tradition and history in tension with innovation and new expressions of worship.
There are, of course, traditional services based in the Episcopal liturgy that go back centuries. However, there are “services that are adapted and based in and rooted in tradition, but with language and ways of praying and musical expressions that are more contemporary and focused on people who are seeking church rather than those who have been to church,” says Rev. Hensley.
This innovation in worship includes a service with a jazz band and music that is highly spirited but is not the rock-driven sound of modern contemporary Christian music.
St. George’s also offers a Celtic service featuring a small ensemble of musicians who employ music that grounds worshipers in seeing God all around them.
The church also brings music to the city.
Shining a light on the musical talent in the region is also a central piece of what makes St. George what it is. “We have a lot of fun with music,” Hensley says.
That fun includes a concert series that runs each month between September and May featuring local talent, and artists from afar. A Celtic group, for example, will be performing on St. Patrick’s Day.
Finding God in the City
The red doors that open at the end of the church’s services to send those who draw nourishment from their spiritual community back out into the world are as important as the open pews welcoming spaces for seekers re-engaging with church anew, or for the first time. For recessing through these doors, the people of St. George’s find God at work.
“We ask ourselves,” says Hensley, “not how we get people to come to church, but how we get church to go out and meet our neighbors.”
“We believe that’s where the Holy Spirit is,” Hensley continues, “blowing out in that community. We want to go discover what God is already up to and be a part of that.”
Among the places St. George’s is showing up include Juneteenth and PRIDE FXBG. “St. George’s is also well-known for their free farmer’s market-style fresh produce pantry,” called “The Table,” says Hensley, “which is available every Tuesday at noon in Market Square.”
This reaching beyond St. George’s walls includes working with other faith traditions and organizations.
“We play well with others,” Hensley said. The church enjoys great connections with other Episcopal churches in our region, other Christians through Micah Ministries, and other faith traditions through local interfaith work.
“We’ve been a church connected to people across many lines of different traditions,” says Hensley. “We love being connected.”
Connect with St. George’s for Holy Week and Easter
Palm Sunday – March 24
7:45 am, 9:45 Procession with Palms begins at Hurkamp Park and at 10 am Procession arrives and service begins in the Church (service livestreamed on YouTube Live), 5:30 pm Celtic, and 8 pm Compline
Note Special Worship Schedule and Procession!
Monday – March 25, 5:30 pm
Holy Eucharist, Rite II in the Nave
Sung Taize Worship – Tuesday, March 26 at 7 pm
Sung service featuring the music of Taize, an international worshipping community.
Wednesday – March 27 at 12 pm
Noon Eucharist with Healing Prayer and Anointing
Maundy Thursday – March 28 at 7 pm
With optional footwashing and stripping of the altar.
Contact church office for more information.
Good Friday – March 29 at 12 pm and 7 pm
12 pm: Service with sermon (also livestreamed on YouTube Live).
2 pm: Micah Ministries’ Ecumenical Stations of the Cross
7 pm: Service with sung passion composed by John H. Vreeland, Director of Music Ministries at St. George’s.
Holy Saturday – March 30
8:30 am: Morning Prayer in our Nave
5 pm: Liturgy of the Light in Sydnor Hall – for children and their families
8 pm: The Great Easter Vigil in the Nave
Easter Sunday, March 31
6:30 am: Micah Sunrise Service – on the Green of Fredericksburg United Methodist
7:45 am, 9 am (also on YouTube Live), 11:15 am, and 5:30 pm: Joyful Easter Eucharist
10:15 am: Our Easter Egg Hunt returns! Locations TBA.
