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A spiritual home where all are welcome; a healing place in a broken world.
Issue 138, May 26, 2011
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Dear
Friend,
The response to the appeal for money to fix the room has been wonderful! See status below.
Ken
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 Fixing the Leaky Roof
Members and friends have responded generously to the appeal for funds to repair Grace's leaky roofs. Senior Warden Roger Perna reports: As of May 22, we have received $11,800 in donations from members and friends of Grace Church towards roof repairs. We are waiting on estimates from roofing companies; we need three estimates before we can approach the Diocese for help. One estimator noted wind damage to the roof, so we will pursue filing a claim with our insurance company. |
| Special Service and Pancake "Brunch 'n Chat" Planned for Pentecost--June 12
Please plan to join us in worship on this birthday of the church and stay for a pancake "brunch 'n chat" after the service.
Wear something red!
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Sunday Service Volunteers Make our Worship Complete
Sunday Service Volunteers are needed in all positions including choir members, Sunday School teachers and sitters. Training is offered for acolytes, Eucharistic Visitors and Chalice Bearers. We are a Common Ministry Parish - everyone is encouraged to serve. Please let the office know of your interest for training dates. The current schedule of services and volunteers is posted here.
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| Formation Team Plans for Children and Youth
Earlier this week, the Formation Team met to discus ways to improve participation of children and youth in Sunday School and other church activities.
The team decided that we will have Sunday school every Sunday throughout the year, including the summer months. A teacher rotation will be set up to schedule who will be leading the Sunday school activities on specific Sundays. We will have a minimum of two teachers per session in order to meet Safe Church guidelines. Five individuals have been identified as being willing to help as Sunday school teachers. We will recruit others.
Virginia Chapel will organize our outline for activities that occur at each Sunday school session. We will have a Bible verse from that day's Lectionary for the children to discuss. Other activities will include prayer, singing, crafts, fellowship, and snacks.
We discussed some children and youth who attend church, or have attended in the past, but are not presently involved in the Sunday school program. Roger Perna volunteered to contact these families and re-invite them to Sunday school. It was also agreed that we need to develop a strategy to canvas the neighborhood to recruit new children and youth to participate in our programs.
The team agreed that two ways of increasing child and youth participation are to get them involved as acolytes and/or in the music program. Ken Lyon volunteered to organize an acolyte training session in the future. It was also noted that Bill Jenne, our long term substitute organist who begins in July, has experience in children and youth choirs. It was stated by one of the team members that youth may be more inclined to participate in regular choir if we did not robe on Sundays. It was also noted by several team members that they have witnessed some more contemporary churches where choirs did not wear traditional robes. This issue will be brought up with the members of the choir.
Those present were team leader Roger Perna, Virginia Chapel, Grace Staples, Carol Lyon and Ken Lyon.
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Kenyon Conference "Intentionally Christian: Fostering Engaged Communities"
The 2011 Ohio Episcopal Celebration at Kenyon addresses a challenge facing the Episcopal Church today: What kinds of communities is the Spirit birthing today? What new ministries and new models are in the Church's present and future? How can we nurture engaged communities in our midst? This is a family celebration! Children and youth will gather for a program "Out of the Box and Into the Zone." The conference is an inter-generational conference hosted jointly by the dioceses of Ohio and Southern Ohio, with support from Bexley Hall Seminary. The conference will take place Thursday evening, June 23 through Sunday, June 26 on the campus of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Children 12 and younger are free when accompanied by a parent or guardian. The maximum fee for a family is $500. See fee schedule. Keynote speaker for the 2011 Ohio Episcopal Celebration at Kenyon is the Rev. Thomas Brackett. He is the Program Officer for Church Planting, Ministry Redevelopment and Fresh Expressions of Church at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City. His experience in liturgical renewal and culturally-sensitive evangelism, as well as his innovative approach to the power of community discernment, will bring a fresh perspective on how God is engaging our hopes and dreams in new ministries. Scholarships are available from the Diocese of Southern Ohio ( see here). Register and pay online. |
Sign Up to Help the Homeless on Friday evening, June 17
Grace Church members will be hosting homeless parents and children for dinner and overnight at College Hill Presbyterian church on Friday, June 17. We will need food cooked ahead of time for 22 people (a menu is provided). Also people to serve at 5 PM, people to sit and chat and eat with the families, and lay out the lunch items (provided) for them to make lunches for the next day, people to do activities with children and adults, and one person to stay overnight (on a cot) with a CHPC overnight volunteer.
Grace Church members and friends volunteer in this way 5 times a year as part of a College Hill Church network which in turn is part of Interfaith Hospitality Network of Cincinnati. The families board the bus the next morning at 6 am for work, school, and the Day Center. The families are very appreciative of this temporary help while they are searching for housing. Eighty-five families were served and found housing last year through this program.
Please see Grace Staples or Mary McLain if you have questions and sign up on the sign-up sheet at the left front of the sanctuary for one of the tasks. Thank you! |
 Welcome Bill Jenne, Organist
Bill Jenne is coming to Grace as organist and will be accompanying Sunday's service. Jonathan Tan will be leaving for Austrailia in late June.
Bill has a variety of great experience providing musical leadership to worship; we look forward to working with him.
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Prayer Requests
Please keep these people in your prayers for their special needs:
John, Lauren, Dr. Rehan, the Daniel family, the Cavalieri family, Virginia Chapel's family, Anne, Darryl, Caleb & Joshua, Brian, Kim & Robb, Lynda, Marty, Leroy, Erik, Alison, Alexis & Nathanael, Marie, Maureen Back, Irene Bryeans, Dean Bryeans, Fr. Bob Hufford, Diane, Maxwell & family, Barbara, Beverly, and the people in the Mississippi flood area.
Please let us know who should be included on our prayer list. You may use the Prayer Request Book at the rear of the nave to have persons included in the Sunday bulletin Prayer List and for prayers this week, or you can tell the office (513-541-2415, office@gracecollegehill.org). Make sure you have the person's permission to list him or her.
Pastoral Care
If you need pastoral care or know of someone who does, please call or email the office (513-541-2415, office@gracecollegehill.org). Keep us informed about about illness, hospital stays, requests for visits, communion, and prayers for special concerns.
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 Thanks to ...
- ... Marjorie Shadd, Roger Perna, Bob Jones & Ken Lyon for cleaning out much of the stuff that had accumulated in room 9, in preparation for making the room usable for other purposes.
- ... the Worship Team and the office staff for putting most of the words and music of our worship service in the bulletin. This certainly makes it easier for visitors to participate.
We're sure that we've left out many of the people who deserve our thanks. Let us know who we've missed by clicking eGraceNotes@GraceCollegeHill.org. |
Coming Events
To see everything that's coming up at Grace, click here. If you see errors or omissions, please email eGraceNotes@gracecollegehill.org. |
News Shorts
- David Mukasa's father died in Uganda last week. David and Maria are now in Uganda.
- Carl Relyea is in Mercy Mount Airy Hospital in room 564. Visitors are welcome.
- Elizabeth Kelly is recuperating at her apartment in Twin Towers. She'd appreciate a visit. Her phone number is (513) 853-2993.
- We've posted some new pictures of members and friends in the Grace Church Picture Directory. Ken Lyon brings his camera to church most Sundays. If you're not in our album or if you'd like a "retake," just ask.
- Mission Council is considering a proposal to host a day care center. A committee headed by Chuck Bowles is developing a contract with the provider. Possible displacement of groups by the day care program will be handled by the appropriate committees and the wardens. Work will be expedited on a new Small Assembly Room across from the Sunday School room.
- Mission Council gave the go-ahead to air condition the Great Hall using $2000 donated for that purpose.
- Altar flowers are funded through your donations. The suggested amount is $35. You can donate for flowers on our Donation Page, or you can sign the Flower Donation Sheet on the table by the Belmont Door. There is a special flower box for smaller donations that can be combined to provide a Sunday arrangement.
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Grace Building Available for Weddings, Receptions, Meetings
We make our facilities available to outside groups for their use when time and space permit. Not only does this provide a service to those who need it, it also raises money to defray the expense of maintaining our building. To avoid confusion about who's doing what, Mission Council has established the following procedures: - All weddings, rehearsals and related receptions should be referred to Tony Denbo (aed45247@yahoo.com, 513-661-3477).
- All other rental or reservation requests from members or outside groups or individuals for the Great Hall or any space should be referred to J. White (513-532-9362, mizwone@gmail.com).
- The online calendar is the source of information about our building schedule.
 The Great Hall has been upgraded and makes a nice place for receptions or other meetings. See some recent pictures here. We want to augment the our photo album with some wedding pictures that show off the building. If you have some, please send them to Ken Lyon at webmaster@gracecollegehill.org. If you give him physical pix, he'll return them, of course. |
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