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News for and about Grace Episcopal Church
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February 24, 2009
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| Dear Friend,
Last Sunday, we bade good-bye to "alleluias" until Easter. Lent begins tomorrow, Ash Wednesday. Read on for ways to experience this season of preparation.
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 Pancakes, etc, TONIGHT (Tuesday)!
No need to make supper tonight. Drop by the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper at Grace. Serving starts at 6 pm.
Enjoy pancakes, sausages, orange juice, milk, coffee & tea.
No set charge. All donations go to Grace.
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| Ash Wednesday Services Tomorrow
There are two
services planned for Ash Wednesday: The first is at noon and the second
is at 7 pm. The noon day service will be a silent
service, sans music; the 7 pm service will have music and singing.
The Ash Wednesday liturgy is intended to be a challenge to Christian people. It confronts us with
the radical change in living which is the way of Christ. We are faced with sin
and salvation as alternative directions for our lives--sin as separation from
God, from others, from ourselves, and from the natural world; salvation as
reconciliation with God, others, the natural world, and ourselves.
The liturgy on Ash Wednesday is reduced to its primary elements
of Word and Sacrament. We are called to consider our mortality and, in that
context, our sin and our absolute dependence on God for salvation and for life.
We may be tempted to limit our concern to our sins and our
mortality, letting the ashes be the most important thing in our worship today.
But the liturgy uses the ashes simply as the starting point for that which is
far deeper and ultimately more important: salvation. The ashes, the penitence,
the fasting--all these are but the means to the goal of Ash Wednesday, of Lent,
and of all Christian living: namely, repentance, new life, and ministry to
others.
"Be reconciled to God," Paul tells us. Fasting which is not accompanied by an inner change in our
behavior to others, especially the poor and the helpless, is condemned by God
in the first reading for Ash Wednesday. It is those whose fast is characterized by works of mercy
to others who will be blessed in their Lenten living.
On this day, the phrase, "Remember, you are dust and to dust you
shall return," is turned around into, "you shall have life, and you shall have
it abundantly."
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Lenten Study at Grace
During Lent, we will study, meditate
and prayer using "40 days of Lent," a publication from Forward Movement.
Forward Movement says, "Personal prayer is the
focus of our Lenten meditations for 2009, inviting true spiritual discipline
through themes of fasting, prayer, devotion to God, forgiveness, denial of
self, and service to others."
During the week we will read our daily meditation and pray. On Sunday, we will meet as a group following the service and meditate and pray for each other,
for the people of Grace and the Diocese of Southern Ohio and the world.
Join Vicar Earnestine in this Lenten journey. The Forward Movement booklet is available in the office. |
| Deanery Lenten Series Begins Tuesday March 3
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| Keep in Your Prayers ...
Eloise Pinto, Ruth Bertram, Joyce Markham; Mrs. Matthews; Judy
Handy, Shelly Martin, Barbara Todd; Kim Martin,
Robb Martin; Florence and Bob Poyer;Dean Bryeans,
Mary Hall, Chris; Irean Bryeans; Joshua, Caleb, Anne, and Darryl
Handy; Marcus Flemister; Kim Herrmann,
Al Berghausen; Teri; Mary Lou Bellows; Jackie Lewis.
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Grace Hosts Workshop on Reconciliation in the Church
Grace Church Vicar Ernestein Flemister and Lisa Hughes of Worklife Associates will lead a workshop on "Reconciliation in the Church" at Grace Church next Sunday, March 1, from 1 to 3:30 pm. Light refreshments will be served. The workshop is open to members of any and all churches.
This interactive workshop will present an overview of conflict
transformation suitable for members and leaders of churches who are currently experiencing conflict or
those who simply want to recognize and ease potentially destructive
conflicts that jeopardize mission and relationships.
Topics include: -
The
Nature and Role of Conflict
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Conflict
in the New Testament: Finding Renewal in Conflict
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Interpersonal Peacemaking Skills
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Coming Events
In the coming week at Grace: - Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper, today (Tuesday) beginning at 6 pm.
- Ash Wednesday Service (quiet), Wednesday, February 25, noon to 1 pm.
- Ash Wednesday Service (with music), Wednesday, February 25, 7 to 8 pm.
- Choir Practice, Thursday, February 26, 7 pm.
- Choir Practice, Sunday, March 1, 9 am.
Eucharist Rite II, Sunday, March 1, 10 am. Coffee Hour follows the service. It's "Sharing Sunday," bring non-perishables for Christ's Community's Pantry.
Reconciliation in the Church Workshop, Sunday, March 1, 1 to 3:30 pm.
Coming special events: - Hip-Hop Service, Saturday, March 7, 5 pm.
- Stir the Pot Series: Do Not Go Gentle, Sunday, April 26. A film about the power of imagination and aging. The filmmaker will be with us.
See the Grace Church Calendar for more complete and uptodate information on meetings and services at at Grace. Let us know if we've missed anything.
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Mission Council Moves to Balance Budget & Mission
Talk of deficit is everywhere these days, from the federal
government to our household budgets.
Grace church, as you may remember from the Annual Meeting, is looking at a deficit of $55,000+ for this year. Mission Council is working to determine what we can do to have a balanced
budget and still carry out the mission of Grace church in College Hill.
Last Thursday afternoon, Senior Warden David Mukasa
and Treasurer Roger Perna met with the Diocese's Canon for
Congregational Formation John Johanssen to hear what advice he could give.
Thursday evening,
Mission Council met with Bishop Breidenthal to seek his advice. I think many of us in mission council thought
the Diocese or the Bishop would tell us where and how to get more money. Instead, we got a new way to begin to look at
our situation.
Mission
Council met Monday and decided to form four committees to look more deeply into four arenas:
- Renting Building Space: Ernestine Flemister, David Mukasa, Charles
Bowles, Roger Perna
- Joining with another Congregation: Mary McLain, Bret Bernard, Roger Perna, Ray
Betts
- Fund-Raising: Bennyce Hamilton, Belinda Perna, J. White and
Bret Bernard
- Common Ministry (sometimes called Total
Ministry): Carol Lyon, Wanda Miller and Justine Matovu
At the next Mission Council
Meeting (March 18 at 6 pm), each of the committees will report on the cost and benefits in the broadest sense in their
area. At that time, we will be making
decisions about how to proceed with the mission of Grace church and have a balanced
budget.
For more information or to express your opinion, talk with
one of the members of Mission Council.
In addition, please pray for Grace church, that we may discern what God
wants us to do.
Thanks to Carol Lyon for this article.
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 News from the Administrator, Jim Edgy
- The
plasterer has completed his work.
- The EnGuard Color Guard and Dance Team that practices here on Monday evenings has
volunteered to paint the hall ways where the plaster has been
repaired.
- Parolees
will come this week and continue work on the rest rooms on the 2nd
floor as well as begin those on the 1st floor. They will also do some cleaning.
- We are
exploring ways to replace the lower Belmont door. It has always been a problem, swelling
in damp weather making it hard to open and close; the finish will not
adhere even though it was totally refinished 3 years ago and has had
several coats of varnish applied since then. At one point it totally
fell apart. Jim Dietz repaired it so we continue to have security. We are looking for a fiber glass door
that will not swell. However, it
will have to be painted rather than finished in the natural wood
finish. We will also put the new
combination lock on the door when it is installed.
- We are
planning a grounds work day in late March or early April to rake and clean
all the beds and get them ready for mulch and plantings. In late April we will spread the mulch
except in those areas where things are to be planted. In this way, maybe we can get a head
start on the weeds.
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Digital
Church?
Tammy Roberts sends us her reflections on the "God's Web: Connecting in the 21st Century" conference that she and your editor attended last Saturday.
We
live in a digital age. Whether you are two or ninety-two, we are all a part of
this digital age and this affects us in how we live, work, interact, and yes,
possibly even worship.
Did
you know one of the first ways Lisa and I checked out Grace was to do a web
search on it--this after seeing the various flags on the front façade. A good
strong digital presence is vital for our church and for the Episcopal Church.
As
you know or may not know we already have a great website for Grace Church which
Ken Lyon does a nice job of maintaining. He also produces a nice news
supplement called eGraceNotes, but there is more we can do together to join
the digital age.
Ken
and I attended God's Web conference Saturday at the Procter Center presented by
the Diocese of Southern Ohio. There, we learned of ways we can better interact in
this digital age and how to better connect to one another.
The New Southern Ohio Web SiteThe
first big news is that the Dioceses is offering a platform on which all
churches within the dioceses can develop and host their websites. You might ask what
the advantage of that would be. We already have a good site! Well, we would be
better networked with each other and with the rest of the Diocese. Parishioners from all over Southern Ohio
would have direct access to our events and news stories, and we would be able to see their information quickly. And it is free for our use (this is always an important item to us) .
Persons
in addition to Ken will be able to update the website; many contributors can
directly add news, events, photos, and video. It's a big job to keep a site
current and updated and should not be a one person job. We attended two classes
on this exciting new way of developing and hosting our website. Ken and I will
soon undertake making it happen. Stay "digitally" tuned for more news on the
new and improved website.
Podcasting I
attended an interesting session on podcasting (see definition here). How neat would it be to hear
Reverend Ernestein Flemister's sermon while vacationing on a beach in Florida! Or perhaps a recording
of one of Belinda's great solos on your home computer! There are some
wonderful opportunities for podcasting our service or parts of and at very
little cost, if any.
I listen daily to a Morning prayer podcast on
my iTunes that is made available by the Episcopal Church in Garret County, Maryland. I found it with a simple
web search. Imagine someone across the world hearing sermons or music from our
little Grace church in Cincinnati.
Here
are some other Episcopal sites to check out that have podcasts available: In ConclusionThese
are exciting times and we are going to do our best to be involved and connected
and use these resources to communicate what we already know: That Grace is
alive and a wonderful place to worship, whether electronically or in person. |
Diocese Starts Job Blog
Part of being in community with each other is
sharing the strength of our networks. The diocese has a new job blog to help match jobs and people.
Folks seeking employment are invited to post 2-3 paragraphs with their skills and
job interest, along with contact information.
Employers also are invited to
share job openings or other help wanted information.
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| World Day of Prayer Coming to Twin Towers
 Anne Henneberg writes to ask us to join her at the chapel at Twin Towers for this area's annual World Day of Prayer gathering on Friday, March 6 at 10 am.
World Day of Prayer
is a worldwide movement of Christian women of many traditions who come
together to observe a common day of prayer each year, and who, in many
countries, have a continuing relationship in prayer and service.
The focus of prayer for 2009 is The Women of of Papua New Guinea. The gathering at Twin Towers will include presentations on the situation there.
For more information contact Church Women United's Trudy Bernet at 513-591-4890.
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 First UCC Holds Annual Sauerkraut Dinner
First United Church of Christ in College Hill holds its annual Sauerkraut Dinner Saturday, February 28. Along
with the featured sauerkraut, the menu will include sausage, mashed
potatoes, spatzle, vegetable, and dessert. Some spaces remain at the 4:30 seating. Cost is $9.50 for
adults, $4 for children. Take-out orders, as well as sausage by the
pound, are available. Make reservations at 513-541-7302.
(We are posting this notice here in return for First UCC publicizing our own Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper.) |
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