YouTube Channel

Our Parish now has a YouTube channel.  Inspired by Fr. Bragg's excellent presentations on the Gospel of Saint Mark in the World of Saint Mark, we wanted to share this content for folks who don't have Facebook. A YouTube channel is a dedicated space on the YouTube platform where users can create, upload, and share videos with a global audience. It serves as a personalized hub for content creators to showcase their videos, connect with subscribers, and build a community around their content.
 
Our channel name and link is:  Parish YouTube Channel  You can access our channel by going to our website homepage and clicking on the YouTube Channel button, or by going to the YouTube website and searching for "St Andrew and St Margaret of Scotland."  Once at the channel home, you can click on the "subscribe" button. When viewers subscribe to our channel they can receive updates when new content is posted. Subscribers form the channel's audience and are an essential part of its community.
 
While we are not yet set up for Live Streaming, that is a feature we are developing.  If all goes well, we may replace Facebook Live Streaming with YouTube to widen our real-time audience to a growing number of users without Facebook accounts.
 
The Power of the Litany

If you attended one of our services on Ash Wednesday, you heard and participated in the reciting of the Litany.  It was a powerful and poignant moment partly for what we are praying, and partly because we so rarely pray the Litany in modern times.

The Litany has a long history in the Church. A litany, also called rogation, (both meaning “supplication” or “prayer”), is a series of prayer petitions and congregational responses. One of the earliest examples of a litany is one sponsored by St. John Chrysostom circa 400 A.D., which was used during processions through Constantinople. These litany processions grew in usage and became especially popular in times of war, disaster, and great strife.  

In the 1540s King Henry VIII, during times of conflict with Scotland and France, ordered litany processions throughout England to pray for the Kingdom. Shortly before the first Book of Common Prayer was published in 1549, Archbishop Cranmer released The Exhortation and Litany in English. This liturgy become extremely popular being the first of its kind written in the vernacular. Anglican Divine Richard Hooker described the Litany as "absolute perfection", referred to its "principal excellence", and asserted that it was of "permanent use" in the Church's life.

The use of the Litany has changed much since the 16th Century.  The practice in most churches up until the 20th Century was for the Litany to be prayed according to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer instructions “after Morning Prayer upon Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays” – not just in times of strife. In our 1928 American Prayer Book (p. 54), the Litany is “to be used after the Third Collect at Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer; or before the Holy Communion; or separately.”  With its placement in the 1928 BCP immediately before the Penitential Office for Ash Wednesday, it has become a common practice to mark the beginning of Lent by reciting the Litany as we do in our Parish.

The Litany has four major sections: 

1)      The Invocation. The Litany begins with a petition to the Persons of the Trinity to have mercy upon us.

2)      The Suffrages, or pleas, to the Lord. Here we ask for deliverance from evil; deliverance by the power of Christ; intercessions for others and for ourselves.

3)      The Kyrie and Lord’s Prayer.

4)      The Supplication, or Second Litany, which is apropos for times of war or great anxiety.

The Litany concludes with a Collect that Massey Shepherd called “one of the finest expressions… of our utter dependence upon God if we are to escape the evils… that justly overtake us when we sin by trusting in our own frail nature rather than in His mercy and strength.”  With this in mind, it makes sense that we focus on the Litany during times of penitence such as Lent, and when we are experiencing personal strife in our lives.

If you are seeking a Lenten discipline, I recommend you add the Litany to your private devotions, either part of the Daily Office or as a stand-alone personal supplication.  Reciting the Litany on a regular basis will allow you to walk in the footsteps of our Anglican forefathers, and it will bring you closer to God – which of course is one of the major reasons we observe Lent.

“In all time of our tribulation; in all time of our prosperity; in the hour of our death, and in the day of judgment, Good Lord, deliver us.”

--Fr. Deacon Chris

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

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SERVICES & EVENTS.

This evening and every Friday evening at 7:00PM  -- Stations of the Cross and Lenten Supper. – If you can provide a soup and bread supper on one of these Friday evenings, please so indicate on the sign-up sheet on the bulletin board in the undercroft

Saturday, February 24, MEN'S GROUP, 8:30 AM, breakfast by Chef Extraordinaire Claude Crump, Grits by Fr. Roddy, Bible study by Fr. Bragg.  Great food, Bible study and fellowship.  

Sunday Services, 7:45 AM, 9:00 AM, & 11:15 AM (for online participation for the services go to: https://www.facebook.com/saintsofscotland/ )

Wednesday, 12 noon, Holy Communion and anointing for healing

Wednesday, 7:30 PM, Bible study with Father Bragg, church undercroft, "The Gospel of Saint Mark in the World of Saint Mark"

Monday February 26, 7:30 PM, Vestry meeting, members of the parish are always welcome

The 2024 Tithing Envelopes are available in the undercroft.  Please sign up and take a box.  PLEASE DO NOT CONTINUE TO USE THE ENVELOPES FROM 2023!
The 2024 Altar Flower Chart has been posted on the bulletin board in the undercroft.  Please consider signing up for a Sunday!
 
Updated List of Needs for MaRIH Center (crisis pregnancy center)

MaRIH Center with its all volunteer staff provides help to mothers-to-be and mothers in need.  If you can provide some of the items that are needed, please do so. (You can leave the donations where the food for the food bank is collected on the pew in the undercorft.)

Especially Needed
 In Bold and  * are a critical need.

Diapers (sizes newborn, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5*, & 6*)
Lovies
Baby wipes*
Diaper rash ointment
Spring/Summer Clothing: 0-3 month*, 3-6 month*, 2T
Winter Clothing:0-3 months*, 3-6 month*, 12-18 month*, 2T*
Baby shampoo
Baby blankets*
Bibs
Formula: Simulac Advance Formula*
Formula: other but not recalled
Wash clothes
Hooded towels
Grocery gift cards*

Food Donations 
Please help this month with a food donation if you are able. Christ House is very thankful for the food we provide to them each month. Please also buy low sugar cereals (and not the kid's types that have lots of sugar).  Current needs include the following:
• canned meats (chicken, corned beef, spam)
• peanut butter
• jelly
• tuna
• canned vegetables (corn, green beans - (regular and low sodium)
• individual fruit cups (low sugar)
• canned fruit (low sugar)
• cereal (low sugar)
• pasta (regular and gluten-free)
• instant potatoes
• Macaroni & cheese kits
• Coffee, cooking oil, flour, sugar
 
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Our mailing address is:
St. Andrew & St. Margaret of Scotland
1607 Dewitt Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22301-1625