BY MILES LAYTON

A round-up of faith in our neck of the woods…

Since the mainstream media doesn’t seem to care and at times seems contemptuous of people of faith, I’ll be writing an occasional column to positively promote church happenings in our neck of the woods. If you have news events and such that you’d like to see in the Albemarle Observer, send them to albemarle.observer@gmail.com  

Chancellor visits St. George’s Orthodox Church

“It’s amazing. They’ve got a lot of work ahead of them with new people, young families,” Fr. Burch said. “It’s a lot of work to be faithful in little things over a long time. And that’s really what it takes to grow a community, to grow a parish.” 

The Orthodox Church of America’s Diocese of the South was established in 1979 after years of operating as a missionary diocese of the Orthodox Church in America (which, itself, received its autocephaly—or self-rule—in 1970, after originating with Orthodox missionaries in 1794 to Russian Alaska). Founded upon principles of evangelization and outreach by founding bishop, Archbishop Dmitri, the diocese has grown to more than 80 parishes and missions as well as multiple monasteries. The territory of the diocese stretches from Florida and Virginia in the east all the way to New Mexico in the west. 

More and more people are embracing the Orthodox faith, particularly in the Diocese of the South.  

“All of our churches are seeing some growth in the future. Yeah. There’s definitely, I think, with the pandemic, it caused a lot of people to look maybe more deeply, to question things and embrace their faith,” said Fr. Burch, who also serves for more than 20 years as the Rector of the Church of St John of the Ladder in Greenville, S.C.

Located at 212 E. Church St., Edenton, St. George’s Church’s services include Great Vespers at 5 p.m. each Saturday and, every Sunday, at 9:35 a.m. the Prayers and Psalms and at 10 a.m. either the Typica with homily or else the Divine Liturgy.  Christmas services will be Great Vespers at 4 p.m. on Dec. 24 and, on Dec. 25, at 8:45 a.m. the Prayers and Psalms and at 9 a.m. the Divine Liturgy.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church holds vestry vote; Perdue gives inaugural address

In other church news, four folks were elected to the vestry at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Edenton the congregation held its annual meeting Sunday.  

The incoming vestry members are Hood Ellis, Stephen Willhauck, Chris Ford and Kathryn Nelson. 

A prominent Edenton lawyer, Ellis is a lay reader, a member of the Cook team with prior service on vestry and he is married to Anne – they have four children. 

A former member of the Central Intelligence Agency for 32 years, Willhauck volunteers his time at the Boys and Girls Club and at the Edenton Chowan Food Pantry. He is married to Sue – they have two children and five grandchildren.  

A veterinarian/owner of Chowan Animal Hospital, Ford is outgoing president of the Chowan Community Funds Foundation, has prior vestry service, and he is married to Erica – they have two children.

Active at St. Paul’s, Nelson is a member of the Altar Guild, helps teach Sunday school and she is married to Ethan.  

During the annual meeting, St. Paul’s new rector, Melody Perdue, gave her inaugural address to lay out the church’s mission.  

In an effort to spread the Word and attract more folks to the pews, wherever they decide to worship, here is an excerpt from Perdue’s inspiring speech that lays the groundwork the worship path ahead.  

“St. Paul’s recognizes that this is a pivotal time in the future of The Main Line Church and is preparing for the future first and foremost by holding to the core of the Christian faith and building a strong foundation on the chief cornerstone of the church, Jesus Christ. That is a powerful answer, and I absolutely love it. And for this coming year, we are going to talk about and go about building on that foundation.’

Perdue continued, “What does that look like? How is our foundation? Are there any cracks that we need to address? What does it look like to have Jesus as the foundation of Saint Paul’s? What does it look like to build our lives as a community on that foundation? What does it look like to have Jesus as the foundation of all of our relationship? 

“The foundation of our marriages, the foundation of our families, the foundation of our work and vocation. What does it look to have Jesus as the foundation of how we manage our finances? Jesus said in Matthew 7:24, ‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the wind flew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock.’

Perdue asked, “What does it look like as a church to hear and to act on the words of Jesus Christ, thereby ensuring that we are building this house on the rock?”

Perdue answered, “We’re going to talk a lot about Jesus this year and the words that he says. There’s a lot of anxiety about church decline and the state of the church itself, but my friends, the longest standing miracle of all time is that something called the church still exists. Despite our trying to destroy each other over whether the altar should be against the wall or 6 feet away from it or hurt each other over whether we hear the scriptures in Latin or our native tongues, it’s been over 2,000 years and the church is still here despite us. The Holy Spirit is still moving over the face of the earth, bringing order out of our chaos. And despite the rain and the floods and the winds that have come and will come against St. Paul’s, we’re not going to fall because we will be founded upon that rock. And we will hold fast to that foundation. And we’re gonna let the Lord build this house…Holy God, may we rest securely on that firm foundation that is our faith in Jesus Christ as lord and savior. And may everything that we do and everything that we say in this coming year and the years to come build upon that foundation. ”

Located at 101 W. Gale St., Edenton, St. Paul’s Sunday service schedule:

• 8 a.m. Service, Rite I
• 9 a.m. Breakfast
• 9:45 a.m. Christian Education
• 11 a.m. Service, Rite II
• Nursery Hours 9:30-12:30