Friends old and new will be present at the 10:00am service this Sunday, August 20, to honor Karla and Bill Vogt for 50+ years of service to Grace Church. There will be a reception at the rear of the nave immediately following the service.

Karla has sung in the choir for more than 50 years, has served numerous times on Vestry, has served as a Chalice Bearer for many years, has held all the offices in the Episcopal Church Women and has provided the "glue" for more dinners and fundraisers than she would probably care to count.

Retired Southern Ohio Bishop Herbert Thompson died unexpectedly Wednesday while in Florence, Italy. He was supplying there and had preached on Sunday. He apparently collapsed after swimming and could not be revived.

See the Diocese of Southern Ohio website episcopal- dso.org for further information.

If you haven’t already done so, take a look at the Belmont Avenue side of the church. All the undergrowth is cut away, much of the ivy removed from the building and some shrubs trimmed.

All of this is in preparation for a work day that will be scheduled in early September when we will dig out the stumps, remove more ivy, transplant some shrubs, add some additional ones and do other things to get our grounds in order.

We thank Molly Russell and her mother, who is a landscape designer, for creating a master plan for our grounds. We will have this plan for you to view in the next week or so. It may be that some of you will have shrubs, hostas or other plants that are called for in the plan in your garden that you would be willing to contribute. If not, maybe you would be willing to pay for a plant that is needed and make it a memorial or honorific gift. When the plan is ready, look it over and let us know what you think.

“We Missed You" cards have been prepared and are on the table in the rear of the church. When you come to church, please look around you, see who is missing, take a card and send them a note to let them know you missed them. Also think of those you haven’t seen in several weeks or months and send them one, too. You can either take it home and mail it or put it in the collection plate and we will mail it on Monday.

All of the flowers for the months of July and August were donated to Grace Church by Jones the Florist and arranged by Robert Lee. The money from those who had sponsored the flowers during this time will go into the Flower Fund to cover future Sundays when there is no sponsor.

We recently received this note from a recipient of a Grace Prayer Shawl.

"My name is Nancy LeClaire. I recently had a stroke and I am pleased to say that I am doing very well. I want to thank the Prayer Shawl Committee and more especially the talented person who knitted my beautiful shawl. I’ve used it many times and it has brought be great comfort."