eGraceNotes from Grace Church
News for and about Grace Episcopal Church
May 15, 2009
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Flags & Flowers

The entrance to Grace Church is looking particularly inviting these days, with fresh flags and blooming spring flowers.

Flags

A Liberian flag has been added to our usual complement of US, Episcopal, Pan-African and Rainbow Flags.

Flowers

Flowers

See more flower pictures here..
Dear Friend,

See you Sunday for the Sunday School-led Service and for Stir the Pot later in the day. See below for details.

Help keep Grace's members & friends informed by passing your news along to the editor.

In This Issue ...
Flags & Flowers
Sunday School Service this Sunday at Grace
A Note on Sunday's Readings
Stir the Pot Series Continues This Sunday
Coming Events
Keep in Your Prayers
Your Mission Council at Work
Eucharistic Visitors, Worship Leaders, Preachers Needed
Thanks...to ....
Everything is Coming Up Housing
All are Invited to Attend the Ohio Episcopal Celebration at Kenyo
Safe Church Training
Golf, Anyone?
Walk for Hunger
Episcopal Humor?
Pentecost Service Preview.
Sunday School Service this Sunday at Grace

This Sunday, May 17, the Sunday school will lead us in worship at the 10 am service.  The children and young adults will read the lessons, the prayers of the people and one of them will preach the sermon.  They will also serve as ushers and acolytes.

After the service, the Sunday School will host coffee hour in the parlor.

Your editor missed the last Sunday School service, and was informed later that he'd missed something great. He won't make that mistake twice. 

Bring your friends. See you Sunday!
A Note on Sunday's Readings

See the readings for the Sixth Sunday of Easter--Year B.

In the last weeks of Eastertide, our liturgical readings explore the results of the dying and rising of Jesus. Both the Gospel reading and the reading from 1 John speak of the self-giving love of God, revealed in Jesus' Passover from death to life, as the primary characteristic of our lives in Christ.
 
In this Sunday's reading from Acts, Peter and some other Jewish Christians were astounded to see Gentiles in the household of Cornelius receive the Holy Spirit just as they had on the Day of Pentecost. Peter's last reservations about welcoming Gentiles into the Church are erased and he and the other joyfully lead them to the waters of Baptism.
 
This Sunday was once called Rogation Sunday because medieval Christians went in processions (rogating) around the parish praying for the newly planted crops during this week. This is a good time to seek more effective ways to care for our environment and to witness that God's love is not only for humanity but also for the entire creation.
 
Joined together by God's spirit in baptism, bound up in the dying and rising of Jesus, related by creation to all the earth, we the people of God bring all our lives and one another into the saving love of God in Eucharist.
Stir the Pot Series Continues This Sunday at 4:30 pm

Traces of the Trade

Traces of the Trade
is featured this Sunday, May 17 at 4:30 pm, in Grace's film and  discussion series.

In the film, A Story from the Deep North, filmmaker Katrina Browne discovers that her New England ancestors were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. 

This event is being co-sponsored by Ascension and Holy Trinity Church, Wyoming.

No reservations are needed, simple supper is included, and it's free!
Coming Events

Grace Church Calendar

See the Grace Calendar Page for the most up-to-date listing of events at Grace and of possible interest to Grace people.  Let us know at webmaster@gracecollegehill.org if we've missed anything.
Keep in Your Prayers ... 

Prayer Requests
Maureen Back, 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; Irene Bryeans; Joshua, Caleb, Anne, and Darryl Handy; Marcus Flemister; Kim Herrmann, Al Berghausen; Teri; Mary Lou Bellows; Jackie Lewis.


Please let us know if you need pastoral care or know of someone who does. This includes information about illness, hospital stays, requests for visits, communion, and prayers for special concerns. Please help us to serve you.
Your Mission Council at Work

Mission Council has held special meetings recently to deal with several topics, not the least of which is preparing for life without a full-time priest. Minutes of their meetings are posted online within days of each meeting. Check 'em out to see what's happening.
Eucharistic Visitors, Worship Leaders, Preachers Needed

If you would like to assist in visiting the sick and shut-in and in taking them Communion please plan to get Eucharistic Visitor Training.  Let Vicar Ernestein or Jim Edgy know of your interest. 

We also need volunteers to train as lay worship leaders and preachers.

These positions need to be trained before Ernestein leaves us. If you are willing to do any of these, please let us know.
Thanks to ... 
 
... Ken Lyon for repairing several electric lights, including the one on the front of the church which has been out for many years.  Ken, thank you, thank you. 
Everything is Coming Up Housing

Everything is Coming Up Housing, a workshop on putting your house in good order, is being sponsored by Working in Neighborhoods on June 6 and 14, from 8:30 am to 1 pm at the Ethel Taylor Academy Center, 1930 Fricke Rd (see map).  Call 513-541-4109 for more information.
All are Invited to Attend the Ohio Episcopal Celebration at Kenyon

The Ohio Episcopal Celebration at Kenyon (formerly The Kenyon Conference) offers a long weekend of something for everyone, whether married or single, newborn or octogenarian. 

This year's theme is "Faith and Politics: There is No Secular World." The keynote speaker is David Domke, co-author of the book The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America. Conversations with Domke, as well as with both Bishop Breidenthal and Bishop Hollingsworth, will compliment a wide variety of other activities like family board game night, Contra Dance entertainment, hiking or biking along the Kokosing Gap Trail, swimming at the Kenyon Athletic Complex, enjoying tasty food and intergenerational worship. There will be special programs for children and youth, as well as childcare for preschoolers.
 
Co-sponsored by the Episcopal Dioceses of Ohio and Southern Ohio, The Ohio Episcopal Celebration is open to people of all faiths. Registration opens at 3 pm on Thursday, June 25 at Peirce Hall on the Kenyon College Campus in Gambier, OH. Children 12 and under are FREE when accompanied by a parent or guardian. The conference will run through lunch on June 28.
 
Register online here, or  click here for more information.
Safe Church Training

Many of us are required to take this training for the prevention of sexual misconduct and child abuse.  Ken Lyon will attend the session in June at All Saints in Pleasant Ridge.  If anyone wishes to go with him, let us know.

The diocese requires Safe Church Training for:

    * All clergy
    * All wardens
    * All full time employees of the church
    * All who regularly work with or around children or youth
    * All licensed by the Bishop as Eucharistic Visitors
    * All who have the authority to begin new programs which involve children or youth
 
The Diocese strongly encourages Safe Church Training for:
 
    * Vestry or mission council members and congregational officers
    * All who give any kind of pastoral care
    * All who contract their services to the diocese or congregations
    * All who occasionally work with or around children or youth
 
Workshops offered in the Cincinnati area:

     * June 27, 2009   All Saints, Pleasant Ridge, Cincinnati.
 
Fill out the online registration  or contact Geraldine McDaniel at the Diocesan House. Phone: 513-421-0311. Cost for training is $15, which you can mail along with registration or pay online. 
GolfGolf, Anyone?

Gary Givler wants to know if there are others at Grace who are interested getting together for some kind of golf outing.  He assures us that skill level is not important. 

Contact Gary at deacon@gracecollegehill.org if you're at all interested.

Free Store Hunger WalkWalk for Hunger

A Hunger Walk to benefit the Free Store is coming May 25. Anyone interested in joining a group of walkers from Grace Church should contact Vicar Ernestein.  The entry fee is $20 with a T shirt, $15 without a T shirt if you register prior to May 12.  After that, the price goes up $5.
Episcopal HumorEpiscopal Humor?

If you've been an Episcopalian very long, you've probably noticed that Episcopalians have a "special" sense of humor.  We just received another example --You Might Be an Episcopalian If ...--which we've posted for your reading enjoyment.

If you're up for it, click here to see the above and three other examples, including some interesting Episcopal Advertising.
Pentecost Service Preview

Pentecost on May 31 is shaping up to be something special. 

At the 10 am service:
  • We will be honoring all those who have ever been associated with Grace Church throughout its rich history. 
  • Bob Laake and the drummers from the healing service will be with us.
  • Graduates of our Education for Ministry program will be honored as well.
Look for details in the next eGraceNotes. In the meantime, be finding something red to wear.
eGraceNotes is published weekly whenever possible. Our primary purpose is to help keep members and friends of Grace Church up-to-date on what's happening at Grace.

While we try our best to represent the Grace Church congregation, opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of anyone other than the editor (and perhaps not even his!).

The content of eGraceNotes depends on what news is provided us. Thus, the fact that something appears or doesn't appear in eGraceNotes is more likely a matter of whether or not someone provided information to publish rather than editorial bias. Send news that you think would be interesting to eGraceNotes@GraceCollegeHill.org.

Photos in eGraceNotes are often edited to remove extraneous material.

Ken Lyon, Editor.
Grace Episcopal Church | Phone: 513-541-2415 | 5501 Hamilton Avenue at Belmont Avenue | College Hill (Cincinnati) | OH | 45224