Juneteenth 2025
Now Recruiting Volunteers
On June 19, 2025, St. John's Church will join with St. Peter's Church and St. Phillip’s Church for our annual commemoration of Juneteenth, celebrating African American emancipation from enslavement after the Civil War.
A planning committee is preparing festivities, including a walk from St. John's to Peter Paul RVA for a worship service with historical themes, a performance of African traditional dance, and a picnic with outdoor activities.
The celebration begins at 8:45 a.m. and ends by 2:00 p.m.
Fifth Annual Juneteenth Celebration Needs Volunteers
If you would like to volunteer to prepare for the day, assist with food and activities, or to serve the day of the event, please contact Victoria Hauser.
Juneteenth 2024
The success of yesterday's fourth annual joint celebration of Juneteenth with the St. Peter's and St. Philip's parishes has been well-documented in our local press, including the main headline in today's Richmond Times Dispatch.
The celebration began with a brief Libation Ceremony in St. John's Churchyard followed by a march to Peter Paul RVA, where participants attended a prayer service and enjoyed a performance by Ezibu Muntu, a West African drum and dance company. The festivities concluded with a picnic at St. Peter's Church.
Peter Paul RVA's executive director provide the day's reflection, including the following remarks:
Chattel slavery, in many ways, has been made out to be a glorious system, which taught the enslaved individuals how to be ‘civilized...Even though we are in the year 2024 with limitless access to resources and technology, there are a number of individuals that still operate in this type of thinking... We, as the unified church, as moral and ethical humans, must be unapologetic in the way we remember and assess the atrocity that was chattel slavery.