Blessings this Ash Wednesday!

We have a 7:30 Eucharist and Imposition of Ashes service this morning (without music) and a 7 pm service with music. If you cannot make it to either of those, there will be Imposition of Ashes at Ashland Town Center across from Casa Herradura from 7:30-9:30 am and 11:30am-1 pm. Hope you will be able to join us.

At our Annual Meeting, we received the slate of Vestry candidates by acclimation. At the following service we announced the outcome of our warden election, and Jim Allen is our Senior Warden for the coming year and George Field is our Junior Warden. I am excited for all of these leaders and the year to come.

This Sunday we move into the penitential season of Lent, and the tone of our Sundays will match that. We begin this Sunday with the Great Litany, and the following Sundays looking at the 10 Commandments. The altar is stripped down to the bare wood. Simple. Sparse. It draws our mind to focus on what is most essential. We choose to go into a time of intentional fasting. We deprive ourselves of something we hold dear, or maybe we take on a discipline that draws our attention to higher things. However you choose to follow this most holy Lent, blessings. May our disciplines draw us closer to Christ and to one another. In the services today, I beckon you to with these words...

Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith. I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.

Next week on Tuesday, we begin our Lenten study on the Anglican Communions' Marks of Mission. I hope you will join us in the library at 7 p.m. for the 5 Tuesdays of Lent.

Lenten blessings, Rock+ 

March Calendar:

• 3/5- Ash Wednesday 7:30am Eucharist and 7pm Ash Wednesday Service
• 3/9-Daylight Saving Time, End of Life Program at 11am, Youth Group 6pm
• 3/11-4/8- Lenten Evening Program, Tuesdays 7pm
• 3/23- Spring Lunch and Learn
• 3/23- Youth Group 6pm

April Calendar:

•   4/5- Property Work Day
•   4/13-  Blood Drive
• 4/9- Egg Stuffing Night 6pm
•   4/13-  Youth Group 6 pm
•    4/17-  Maundy Thursday Service 7pm
•    4/18-  Good Friday Service 7pm
•    4/19-  Noon-Holy Saturday Service; 7:45pm Easter Vigil
•    4/20-  Easter Service 8 AM (Pavilion) & 10 AM(Cherub Choir sings)
•    4/21-  Office Closed day after Easter
• 4/27- Youth Group 6pm

2025 Book Club

We will be reading Jesus a Pilgrimage, by James Martin, SJ in our next Book Club. HERE is a link to purchase . It will be on Tuesdays at 10am through 4/8 in 2025. We hope you will join us in person for our next Book Club! All are welcome!

2025 Altar Flowers

Sign up sheets are up for the 2025 Altar Flowers. Our Altar guild does an incredible job honoring the lives of the ones we remember. The cost is $35. There are still some Sundays available.

Fall Line Farms Volunteer Opportunity

Do you have time once a month to help distribute food orders for church and fellow members of the Ashland area? We would love to add a person or two to our small team of staff. Requirements are about 3.5 hours of a Thursday once a month from 2:30pm -6pm. Foods are delivered, you divided it into orders for clients and then greet people with a friendly face. (I read or catch up on podcasts while waiting.) Can you join us? Please contact Heather Grande with your availability and join her and the Sehlhorsts for an easy, but wonderful chance to help.

Youth Group Meals

Youth Group is finally back into full swing for the year!! We had a wonderful first session and are looking forward to many more. One of the ways we need help is through meals. Below is a sign up genius for meals for our meetings. Please help us to fill the gaps and show the youth how important they are to our community! Click HERE to sign up. Thank you!

• Sign up to bring meals for the Clinic Volunteers HERE
• Help stock our Emergency Food Pantry (outside the clinic)
• Send in your Pop Tops for McDonald House
• Bring in Hygiene or laundry items for Peter Paul
• Donate to ACES- Click HERE for current needs (we have a box in our hallway)
• Donate to Peter Paul Development Center. (box in our hallway)

Lord, we lift up this nation struggling with itself these days. Encourage us to faithfulness, righteousness, and compassion for all God’s Children. We lift up Sean, our Presiding Bishop, Mark, Gail & Bud, our Bishops, Rock+, our priest. We pray for Bart, our Seminarian, in his formation. May they be strengthened and encouraged as the work with us to proclaim your Good News in this world. We pray for Donald, our President, Glenn, our Governor, and Steve, our Mayor, and all our elected officials. Guide them to lead us to the common good. 

We ask your prayers for peace; for goodwill among nations; and for the well-being of all people including those of the Ukraine. We pray especially for Gus Miller, Erin Yagla, Meghann Batten, Court Warfield, Andrea Alexander McCallum, Haden Hopkins, Hilda Kelly, Harry Hassell, Smith family, Mary Ann Harris, Bob & Mary Lou Brown, Diana Timberlake, Kristi Ellis, Pam Gillette, Ruth Beaudry, Tom & Fran Burke, Dawn Haase & Family, Kimette Cannady, Alicia Wood, Jenny Bruce, Anna Marie, Judy Sledd, Floyd Moore, Debra Molter, Tim Yagla, Erik Klauss, Steve Crain, Jessica Wingo, Margaret Belyea, Ray Tyson, Calvin Stanley, Lee Chambers, Bill King, Patty Smith, Douglas and Karen Bower and Derek Osterfeld.

We ask your prayers for the poor, the sick, the hungry, the oppressed, and those in prison. We also ask your prayers for those serving in the diplomatic corps, the military, and as missionaries: Larson Flanagan, Kemper Jones, Greg Ericksen, Matthew Thomas, Philip Morison, James Ashley, Ellie Deas, Andrew Brunson, and Katherine Murphy. 

We ask your prayers for those who have died. We ask your prayers for those who grieve their missing loved ones.  

Our citizens who live in Hanover County, the Board of Supervisors, School Board, and Manager. The print and broadcast media. The churches of metropolitan Richmond: members and clergy. All who live in poverty. All who suffer from mental illness. Our citizens who live in Ashland, Hopewell, Colonial Heights, and Petersburg, the town and city Councils and Managers. All who work in banks and finance; all making financial decisions for greater Richmond. Prisons and jails of metropolitan Richmond: prisoners and staff. All who are unemployed or underemployed. All public servants.

For all those who seek peace in the world and for ourselves, that we may bring about God's Kingdom here on earth. For our enemies, and for those who wish us harm.



Praise God for those in every generation in whom Christ has been honored.

• Prayer List- Prayers of the People
• Giving Online- Click here to give online or text "GIVE2THELESS" at 73256 from your phone.
• Ask for prayer-Send in your prayer request (please acknowledge if the prayer is private or for our Parish list)
• The Collect Collective- Daily short prayer with Father Rock
• List of Local Food Pantries- Click here for a complete list of local food pantries.
• Fall Line Farms- A wonderful organization that supports local farmers. Click here to order food so you can pick it up here at SJTL on Thursdays.
• Self- Guided Ways Of Worship Brochure- It has wonderful ways of engaging with your own space (and the spaces around the church) to find the Holy, already present, within them.
• Father Rock's Blog- Access reading of all of Father Rock's Homilies.
• Blessings & Dressings- A copy of the SJTL Cookbook 
• End of Life Planning Kit- Help with estate planning from the Episcopal Church Foundation.
• Diocesan Creation Care Website- Creation Care Task Force

Saint James the Less Episcopal Church

125 Beverly Road

Ashland, VA 23005

(804) 798-6336

Staff: (click on the name to email them)

The Rev. Rock Higgins, tssf Rector

Dr. Bart Natoli- Seminarian

Reggie Long- Organist/Music Director

Miriam Smith- Christian Formation- Children & Youth Director

Dawn Baker- Interim Parish Administrator

Office Hours: Monday 9am-2pm, Wednesday 9am-2pm and Friday 9am-12pm