Invite yourself, your family, your friends and your neighbors to Grace this Sunday at 10:00am to meet Fr. John Bower, the new Interim Vicar at Grace Church.

Those words of the Prophet Isaiah described our situation late last January. Grace Church indeed "walked in darkness," with dissolution seeming imminent.

Then a light shone upon us! In our dire need, help came from the Diocesan Office and from friends in other parishes. Buoyed by this, we responded in a way that Bishop Price described as "the positive and 'can do' attitude of the people. No one talked about closing down or folding up their tents," showing that the reports of Grace Church's demise were indeed "greatly exaggerated."

During the following months, prayer and hard work by parishioners and their allies have brought us through a critical emergency situation. Typical of such efforts was the Work Day on October 7, in which we began a long overdue cleanup/landscaping of church grounds.

Now we have become a Mission Congregation. Our new Interim Vicar, the Rev. John Bower, will join us on Sunday October 15. Under his spiritual guidance, we will be able to develop in a united and coherent way. Mission status provides an organized, stable base for our future growth and development.

We are no longer on the floor of the dark Valley, but neither have we escaped! From our new vantage point part way up the exit slope, we can not only see how far we have come and how far we have yet to travel, but we can see how the landscape itself has expanded and changed. We have a new base, but it is, more than anything, a staging area for the next part of our ascent.

We have a new spiritual guide; we have a new hope and determination. A long and challenging effort faces us; every worker is needed and no contribution is too small. The Light still shines, as beacon and goal, as we climb further. For our mission is not merely survival; it is growth and development as exemplar, reaching out to others in our parish and our immediate community, showing that, no matter how grim the situation, there is always hope and help.

With prayer and perseverance, work and worship, major performed tasks seen by multitudes and minor tasks seen only by God, let us finish the climb. Let us reach the point where the valley lies behind us in the past and in so doing follow the Biblical admonition (slightly paraphrased) to "let our light so shine before the people, that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven."

Excelsior!

John S. Thayer, Sr. Warden

What a difference a day makes--when it's a Grace Church Work Day. Next time you're at the church, take a look at the grounds around the church. The new look is due to the combined efforts of volunteers from Grace and around the Diocese who came together at Grace on Saturday, October 7. Look here for pictures of the Work Day and of the dedication of the work the next day.

Thanks to Roger Speer who arranged for Bobbie Russell to make our landscape design and brought us Molly Russell who has coordinated with her mother and done so much work for us.

Thanks to the youth of the diocese who worked so hard on our behalf: Terri Sexton, Beavercreek; Maddie Lansberry, Cincinnati; Karen Weber, Cincinnati; Art Paul, Mason; Maggie Foster, Columbus; Zack Cornelissen, Cincinnati; John Lugter, Cincinnati; Brian Turner, Worthington; Anny Stevens-Gleason, Oxford; Lisa Huncka, Columbus; Thomas Rogers, Kettering and Tim Borah, Covington, Ky.

Thanks to the members of Grace Church who were so instrumental in making the day a success--to all our ladies who prepared and donated our wonderful lunch and to those who, although unable to dig, decided they wanted to do more and went hunting for jobs and ended up removing wall paper, mopping floors, and doing many other odd jobs around our Church. That is the infectious spirit that makes Grace Church.

So thank you: Greta Kappes, Ruth Bertram, Susan Dewbrey, Wanda Miller, Diane Sanders, Todd family, John Thayer, Jackie Lewis (who organized the food), Grace Staples, Elizabeth Kelly and Mary McLain.

For those who contributed food; Bob and Florence Poyer, Greta Kappes, Susan Dewbrey, Phillis and Jim Dietz, David and Maria Mukasa, Dianne Sanders, Wanda Miller and Grace Staples.

Thanks to Bob Poyer, Wanda Miller, David Mukasa, Mary McLain and Jim Edgy who loaned tools for us to use.

And thanks to David Mukasa, our Jr. Warden, who arranged for two of the hardest working guys we have ever known to dig a trench in the garth so the wall could be moisture-proofed, preventing moisture from seeping through the wall into the room under the choir room, making it usable for Sunday School. They also dug out by hand all the large stumps for the shrubbery around the church and assisted with planting.

And thanks to David for installing the drain pipe in the bottom of the trench, loaning equipment, his truck, bringing the grill, purchasing food and the many other things he did that are too numerous to mention.

Thanks also to Anne Warrington Wilson who not only brought many hostas and spent the day helping to supervise the youth and doing the hard work of gardening but also returned a day this week and did more work.

Thanks to Mary McLain who took the many photographs.

And thanks to Ann and Lou (Dean of UC Law School) who donated many of the plants from their garden, to Greta Kappes and Carol Lyon who have donated other plants that are yet to come, and to an anonymous donor who contributed all the purchased plants in the front of the church and some around the church. And to Funke’s Garden Center on Gray Road for giving us a 50% discount on all plants which enabled us to have more plants than we originally expected.

And lastly, thanks to our Sexton, Bob Jones, who worked for weeks cutting shrubs, hauling them to the back of the church and on our work day was all around, helping in every way he could to make the day a success.

Our thanks to all of you for this outstanding success.

As of Sunday, October 8, just one week into the canvass, canvassers had received 15 pledges totaling $28,684.

At the 10:00am service a few weeks back, all present laid hands on long-time Grace member Karla Vogt and husband Bill Vogt, sending them out to their new home in Wooster, OH. Pictured above are Elizabeth Kelly and Bill Vogt.

Thy Vogt's new address is
1753 S Funk Rd,
Wooster OH 44691.

Their new phone number is 330-264-0852.

Pictured left are Elizabeth Kelly, Jackie Lewis and Karla & Bill Vogt.

Pictured right are the Rev. Raymond Betts and Karla Vogt.