St. Peter's Episcopal Church

WELCOME TO SAINT PETER'S

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Serve Bennington

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Plan Your Visit Online Giving Sunday Worship Zoom

You Are Invited

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church is a parish with a proud history in the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont since 1834, and we look forward to you joining us for worship! St. Peter’s is an open and affirming church, welcoming all of God’s people. We are a non-profit, religious organization providing outreach and resources to people and families.


When arriving at St. Peter’s either by the front door or by the ramp, you will be greeted and then an usher will assist you to a seat. If you have any questions about the service just ask and usher, or your neighbor sitting near you, and they will be happy to help you.


Following the service there are coffee, juice and treats in the Parish Hall. The usher, greeter or the person next to you will show you the way.


Holy Week & Easter 2024

The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the pinnacle of the Christian faith. Join us as we pray through Christ's last physical days on earth and his resurrection.

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Experience St. Peter's


Upcoming Events

  • Sun. Mar 10 - 8 & 10 AM - Holy Communion

    8 AM in the Lady Chapel

    10 AM in the Parish Hall



    Coffee hour will follow the 10 AM service.  All are Welcome!

  • Sun. Mar 17 - 8 & 10 AM - Morning Prayer

    8 AM in the Lady Chapel

    10 AM in the Parish Hall



    Coffee hour will follow the 10 AM service.  All are Welcome!

  • Sun. Mar 24 - 9 AM - Palm Sunday

    We will begin at 9 AM in the Parish Hall and process together into the Sanctuary. 



    Coffee hour will follow the service.  All are Welcome!



    If you are joining via zoom, the service will pick up in the Sactuary after the processional has arrived (between 9:05-9:10)

  • Holy Week & Easter Schedule 2024

    Join us for Holy Week & Easter at St. Peter's

    Holy Week & Easter 2024

Weekly Service Schedule


Our Sunday Worship Routine

1st and 3rd Sundays of the month:

8:00 am - Morning Prayer (Rite I)

10:00 am - Morning Prayer (Rite II) - also available via Zoom

2nd and 4th Sundays of the month:

8:00 am - Holy Eucharist (Rite I)

10:00 am - Holy Eucharist (Rite II) - also available via Zoom

5th Sundays, Holy Days, and Special Occasions:

9:00 am - Holy Eucharist (Rite II) - also available via Zoom


Daily Prayer on Zoom

Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday Mornings @ 8:30 am - Daily Morning Prayer through Zoom [click here to join]


Contemplative Evening Prayer

Wednesdays @ 5:00 pm - Contemplative Prayer followed by Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina


Mid-Week Mass with Healing

Thursdays @ 11:30 am - Healing Mass with Holy  Eucharist followed by a brown bag lunch in the Parish Hall

WATCH PREVIOUS SERVICES

Join us every Sunday for worship in person or via zoom.

Online


In Person


An Episcopal Constellation in the Shires of Vermont

What is a Constellation?

In 2022 the parish communities of Saint Peter's Episcopal Church in Bennington, and Saint James Episcopal Church in Arlington discerned a new formal partnership: Constellation. 


In this constellation both parishes retain their individual identities but also forge strong collaborations.


Guided by a shared full-time clergy, each parish retains their separate governance and committees; they continue to provide Episcopal worship in their sanctuaries; they continue to invest in their local communities; but now they also intentionally collaborate to better enrich their collective whole.


The Bishop of Vermont, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Shannon MacVean-Brown says, “the Holy Spirit is calling us to a time of courage and risk-taking, and she is calling us to a time of collaboration – to unlearn some of our ‘reliance on self-reliance."


Read More About the Diocese of Vermont and Constellations here.


Listen to Past Sermons

Thoughts from Fr. Jeremy

By Rev. Jeremy Means-Koss 17 Mar, 2024
I think at one point or another, each of us feels like we live on a NASCAR racetrack. I live near a Stewarts and can hear cars peeling down 7A. I’m sure the same can be said for those who live on the border of Shaftsbury and Bennington, or on Main St. in Bennington, or on routes 30 and 11 up north. It’s so bothersome that I wish I could just go out there and build my own speed bump out of gravel and tar and whatever else you build a speed bump out of. Sadly, I remember that snowplows would destroy them, and my Select Board would have a heart attack. A deep frustration with the world’s current issues—whether they be neighborhood focused or globally focused can get under our skin and eat away at the one thing prevalent in all human psyches: the need to feel like we are in control. Note, I didn’t say the need to be in control only to feel like we are in control. It’s hard not to think about how much we wish things would change and wonder if we could just fix them on our own or if they’ll ever change at all. Therapists and spiritual counselors alike will attest that one of the biggest challenges to emotional well-being is an instinctive fear that the big hungry animal is going to jump out of the forest and eat us alive—in other words that we will not be able to control and thus stop harm from coming towards us. While humans have evolved beyond that specific fear, that need to control the circumstances that surround us shows up in all our lives. When we feel out of control it raises our blood pressure, our anxieties, and our defense mechanisms. Sure, I totally wish I could build a speed bump and stop those speed-racers peeling down my street but what I wish more is that I knew how best to handle such challenges without trying to control everything. I’m not advocating acceptance of the circumstances life gives us. A car careening down the road is a danger and needs to be addressed. Particularly as we live in a world plagued by struggles and uncertainties both local and global, how do you find the strength to approach them with hope, courage, and resolve? Whether you’re spiritual but not religious, tied to a specific faith tradition, or religiously tied to secular life we all need to feel like we can trust the world around us to not jump out of the forest and eat us alive.  The reality is that I don’t even have the skills to build a speed bump if I wanted to, but in an age of news cycles that won’t stop and relentless internet opinions, I need my body to normalize a confidence to handle whatever life may throw my way. For me, that’s my faith and God. For you it may be something else. Whatever it is, may it allow you to practice trusting in and giving control over because when you can do that, then you really are in control of your life.
By Rev. Jeremy Means-Koss 14 Jan, 2024
Christmas is a holiday celebrated by more than just the average churchgoer. From music to decorations, the desire to participate in the festive spirit inspired by Christmas is palpable. For some of us, it’s a deeply religious time; for others, it still signifies a time of great joy and festive affection even without the more religious ideology. But as I gazed around post-New Years Day, admiring all the decorations still up I began to wonder: if Christmas isn’t fully connected to the Christian holiday for everyone then how do you know when to take down all those decorations? The tentative rule is that once the three kings/wise men visit the baby Jesus on the festival of Epiphany, then Christmas is officially over and the decorations come down. But over the years I’ve seen houses take them down immediately after Christmas and I’ve seen houses wait almost until Easter. One former neighbor of mine still had their roof lights up all through summer – I think they just didn’t want to bring them down. That doesn’t even begin to factor in when all the municipalities decide the holiday décor has lost its appeal and they need to make way for the next banners and festive decorations. My point is that even though there may be a logic to the deconstruction, it seems functionally disconnected from a spiritual practice. Or is it? All of us, spiritual and secular alike, are bound by the same realities of the universe: creation and mortality, birth and death. Even if you believe in the assumptions of Elijah and Mary, no one has the brazen arrogance to think they will escape the cycle of life like they did. Although it may not be something we always talk about, want to talk about, or want to even consider, the realities of our human existence always exist beneath the surface of our conscious mind. And yet, even when the conscious mind evades such realities, we can find nudges even in the most mundane tasks, reminders that creation and destruction, birth and death, are all around us. I’ve read a number of poems and articles that talk about Spring and Winter as metaphoric times of mortal contemplation but as I take down my own decorations I began to see birth and death play out in the most cyclical and normative way. I began to notice that even the act of decorating and un-decorating is a way that we experience birth to and death to an entire visage of the season. The acts are both wondrous and mundane in what they are and what they unconsciously symbolize. Beyond their aesthetic properties, we often forget how psychological it is to control the forces of life and death in our own lives – even in such small ways as putting up lights and taking them back down again. Birth and death are things we encounter over and over again, sometimes within our control and other times without. Whether you’re spiritual but not religious, tied to a specific faith tradition, or religiously tied to secular life, we all participate in acts that figuratively play out the notions of creation and destruction in our lives. They help reinforce for us how limited our human experiences are on earth. As we finish taking down all the decorations this season, I wonder if we might begin to recognize the enumerable ways we all encounter birth and loss, and if that might fill us with more empathy for each other. This article was originally published on Jan 10, 2024 in the Bennington Banner
By Rev. Jeremy Means-Koss 17 Nov, 2023
When I was younger, Thanksgiving was the most important holiday to me. For me and my friends, religious holidays were always occupied by familial obligations. Thanksgiving was different. It was just secular enough for people to have more freedom with their time off. It was during these precious times when my friends-who-were-like-family could all gather and share in fellowship and love. We gathered together solely by choice and not obligation, to cherish each other without drama or baggage, and our Thanksgiving gratitudes were always for each other. For me, the secular holiday was a holy day. I’m not saying the traditional history of Thanksgiving isn’t deeply problematic—we should still strive to make America better for our indigenous brothers and sisters—but my friends and I never celebrated the holiday’s history. We repurposed that national holiday, steeping it in gratitude and love. Human beings are a social people. We rely so heavily on our social positioning that most, if not all, of our identities are formulated in-relation to other people. The U.S. Supreme Court, in their rulings about gender politics acknowledge that all genders exist in direct relationship with each other. How we experience ourselves is directly related to the way we interact and engage with others. For me, if religious holidays are about the love for the Divine, then days like Thanksgiving are meant to be about the love for Neighbor. But as I am inundated with Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, I am left wondering, whatever happened to Thanksgiving? Whatever happened to the holiday that for me was a holy day? Holidays can be a tricky time for everyone regardless of their cultural or religious traditions. It is a time when those who lack can feel that lacking even more intensely. It is a time for those who commemorate a faithful event to share in jubilee and piety. It’s a time for big families to reconvene and small families to share cozy time together. It can also be a time when our loneliness breaches the barriers of our emotional fortitude and breaks down our wellbeing. But bleaching those moments through retail therapy doesn’t really cure the malaise that these holidays can produce. If human behavior is the solidifying of habits, then our deeply broken world is a product of continuously selfish and harmful individual habits and behaviors that create societal norms. Allowing special times of fellowship to be edged out by material gratification and monetization will only fortify our global descent into the abyss. But whether we seek to change destructive habits through faith filled acts like prayer, or through practices like behavioral therapy, change is always possible. Whether you’re spiritual but not religious, tied to a specific faith tradition, or religiously tied to secular life, we all yearn for connection to a family and we are all gifted with the ability to produce familial love with those around us—whether they be families by blood or by choice. This Thanksgiving Day, I encourage you to take a pause from all the retail hype that may try to sweep over you and take inventory of the people who cherish you and whom you cherish. And remember to find and cultivate those precious moments to share that love. This article was originally published on November 17, 2023 in the Bennington Banner
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