GCPC Weekly News | June 24, 2021
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PART enjoyed its first hybrid meeting! | |
Worship Preview | Sunday, June 27, 2021 | | |
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Sermon:
"Your Present Abundance"
by Richard Coble
Scripture:
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
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| TONIGHT, June 24 | Earth Team Mtg. | 7:00 pm via Zoom | | Saturday, June 26 | Playground & Popsicles | 3:00 pm @ GCPC | | Tuesday, June 29 | Racial Justice
Book Series | 6:30 pm @ GCPC
(Zoom link here) | | |
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Playground and Popsicles | Saturday, June 26 | 3:00-5:00 PM
Kids 0-11 and their parents are invited to join us on the playground of GCPC for some outdoor community building and popsicles. We will start at 3:00 pm and stick around until 5:00 pm. Please come for a little or a lot of the time! Please bring water bottles for your family.
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The Racial Justice Book Series | June 29 & July 25
The Racial Justice Book Series returns this summer with three books by Black female authors about the systems, consequences, and remedies of the deep entrenchment of white supremacy culture in our country and church.
We will hold our June and July book series meetings in person and outdoors! Both meetings will go 6:30-8:00pm. Bring your own dinner and be ready to discuss these important texts from a faith perspective.
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from the Creating Sanctuary Team (CST)... | |
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An Urgent Request to Meet Critical Needs of Latinas Seeking Safety in the US.
Stewart Detention Center now detains hundreds of women who were apprehended at the southern border. SDC is processing out 5 - 10 women each night, dropping them off at the bus station in Columbus, GA, where the El Refugio staff and volunteers, in partnership with Paz Amigos and Casa Alterna, work to get everyone to their next place in their journey.
The women desperately need fresh clothes and toiletries. And because they tend to be dehydrated, El Refugio needs powdered drink mix that contains electrolytes.
El Refugio’s Target registry - https://bit.ly/3fFmNPO - specifies items that El Refugio is seeking.
Of course, checks are always welcome. Donors wishing to support this effort should make checks payable to El Refugio. Indicate "Women's Initiative" in the memo line.
Address: El Refugio, P.O. Box 3996, Decatur, GA 30031
If you have questions about this outreach opportunity, please be in touch with Tish Anderson at 19ppanc40@gmail.com. And, of course, you can learn more about El Refugio at its website: elrefugiostewart.org.
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Deacon of the Week:
In this time of physical distancing, the deacons of Grace Covenant continue to be available to talk and pray with you by phone or online and to coordinate care. If
you have difficulty reaching your assigned deacon or if you do not know who your assigned deacon is, please feel free to reach out to our deacon of the week.
This week (6/20-6/26): Cathy Froehlich email: oremont2@gmail.com
Next week (6/27-7/3): Jeane Smith email: jeane.smith22@gmail.com
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Prayer requests will stay on the GCPC Prayer List for one month. Please let any staff know if you (or your loved one) would like to remain on the list for longer.
Iglesia Jerusalem congregation
Ryan Lockett (nephew of Denise Lockett)
Jennifer Martin (Yvonne Smith's daughter)
Bertilda Arteta (Marta Alcala-Williams' mother)
Sheldon Smith (Beth Robrechtʼs brother-in-law)
Alyse Pryzant Pribish (Ashley Cooper's mom)
John Maddrell (Martha Seddonʼs step-father)
William Johnson (Marty Johnsonʼs dad)
Denise Currie-Lowe (Karen Rohlʼs sister)
Barb Patterson (Friend of Mount Shoops)
Bob Crouch (Allen and Frances Johnsonʼs brother-in-law)
Marie and Jose Palacios and family (Marie is the presbytery coordinator of Guatemala partnerships)
Sarah (Phil Brown’s daughter)
Libby Shook (Melissa Shook's mother)
Johnnie Hayes' family
Harold Shook (Melissa Shook's father)
Bob Higgins
Florence and Steve Riedesel
Roslyn Carney
Susan Smialowicz
Laura Ross
Bill Williamson
Queen Mother Maggie Belle Gladden
John Mount Shoop
Elizabeth Fisher
Doris Prak
Dan Blake
Betsy Rhodes
Martha Branden
Kimo Hyatt
Angie Everett
Chuck Reiley
William Madamba
Mary Lou Nash
A Memorial Service will be held for Virginia "Ginnie" Stevens at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 27th, in the Memorial Garden at Grace Covenant. This will be mostly a time of prayer and sharing. (Ginnie previously served as PWNC's Associate for Mission and was a member of Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church before her move to Georgia.)
A Memorial Service for Liz Rupp will be held on Saturday, July 3rd at 1:00 pm outside at Grace Covenant.
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Volunteers Needed!
Would you like to serve on the Bereavement Team? We provide receptions following funeral services. We ask that you commit to one month, working alongside another team member. You can also be on a call list to help as needed. Please contact Cathy Froehlich, oremont2@gmail.com or 828-775-1016.
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VRQ—BBQ Cook Team | Tuesday, July 6 | 4:30 or 5:45 PM
On the First Tuesday of each month, a team of folks gather at the Veterans Restoration Quarters, (1329 Tunnel Road) to grill hamburgers and prepare supper for more than 200 US Armed Forces Veterans living in transitional housing at the VRQ— an ABCCM Ministry.
Team volunteers begin to gather at 4:30 to prepare the meal and fire up the grills; to help serve the meal come at 5:45. The evening meal is served at 6 and the team joins with the veterans at their table for supper. Commitments can be for one Tuesday or more.
Contact Bill Neeriemer if interested in joining the team.
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Presbyterian Womenʼs Circles are Zoom meetings. Please join us.
Circle 1: First Tuesday of each month, 10:00 a.m.
Circle 2: First Tuesday of each month, 7:30 p.m.
Circle 3: Third Thursday of each month, 7:00 p.m.
Circle 4: First Thursday of each month, 7:00 p.m.
Circle 5: First Monday of each month, 11:00 a.m.
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Setting up Zoom Meetings:
If you are a part of a group, Team, or Circle at GCPC and you want to have a Zoom meeting, let staff know. We will help you get set up on our GCPC Zoom account for group gatherings and meetings. You can schedule your meeting on the
calendar with Anna Louise, and any staff member can help you get set up for your meeting if you have questions.
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Please help us earn compost for our garden!
The Grace Covenant Community Garden is now a garden partner with Compost Now, a local home and business composting service. Customers who sign up for Compost Now's services will have their food waste collected by the company and turned into finished compost. Customers earn back a percentage of finished compost based on the amount of food waste they submitted. They can request that compost for their own garden, or they can share it with a garden partner like the Grace Covenant garden.
If you are interested in diverting your food waste from the landfill AND helping our community garden, please sign up here for this great service. Remember to have your finished compost sent to the Grace Covenant garden.
Already a Compost Now customer? You can now request to have your finished compost sent to the Grace Covenant Community Garden - just contact them at 919-525-0403. Thank you for helping us with this great resource!
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Fourteen volunteers had a very productive day in the garden on Saturday. Four rows were weeded, 55 pounds of chard, collards, and lettuce were harvested and donated to the WNC Rescue Mission, green beans were planted, three varieties of winter squash were planted, and the tomatoes and peppers were fertilized. Wow! The dedication and good cheer of the volunteers was evident today.
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Community Working Together | |
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GCPC Ministry Partner, Haywood Street Congregation
Summer Needs
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Refugee and LGBTQIA+ lives intersect every day -
World Refugee Day falls during Pride Month, and being LGBTQIA+ is a reason many refugees flee
~ by Rich Copley
"When the Rev. Victor H. Floyd traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border with a group from Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, he was prepared to encounter a lot of pain in refugees they would meet in U.S. detention facilities and migrant shelters in Tijuana.
He wasn’t prepared for Petter.
The Guatemalan young man was at Casa de Luz, a shelter for LGBTQIA+ migrants. Back home, he said his father and brothers attempted to murder him, twice, beating him and leaving him for dead on the side of the road. "
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Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) celebrates Juneteenth in a one-of-a-kind worship service
‘We look back to forge ahead’
~ by Gail Strange
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) commemorated Juneteenth with a unique worship service on Wednesday morning.
The theme for the service was “What Is the Work of the People — Holding the Legacy While Building Our Destiny.”
The service opened with the African tradition of calling upon the ancestors. After a roll call of great leaders like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., James Weldon Johnson, Fannie Lou Hamer, Zora Neale Hurston, Muhammad Ali and others, worshipers were reminded that no matter the language, the denomination, the tribe or one’s social status … we are one.
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The Buncombe Community Remembrance Project
On May 30th, 2021, The Buncombe Community Remembrance Project in conjunction with the Equal Justice Initiative held a series of three soil collection ceremonies in memorial to lynching victims in Buncombe County. This, the second of the three, remembered Bob Brackett, a black man lynched on August 8th of 1897.
| The Buncombe Community Remembrance Project aims to acknowledge and remember individuals lynched in Buncombe County. To learn more about our mission, visit http://mlkasheville.org/activities/remembrance-project/ | |
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Pisgah Legal 2020 Justice Forum speaker, Clint Smith,
interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air
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Many of you remember the powerful and evocative presentation by Clint Smith at Pisgah Legal's 2020 Justice Forum. Clint recently spoke on NPR's Fresh Air about his book, How the Word Is Passed, where he writes of his travels to eight places central to the history of slavery in America, including Thomas Jefferson's Monticello plantation and Louisiana's Angola prison, which was built on the site of a former plantation.
You can order a copy of Clint's book, How the Word Is Passed.
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A Summer Virtual Sunday School on the Climate Crisis | Sundays | July 11, 18, 25 and August 1 | 4:00 - 5:15 PM | via Zoom
This program is taught by the southern Indiana group Presbyterian Climate Advocates, made up of the Rev. Dr. Trisha Tull and Carol Dunn of Scottsburg (Indiana) Presbyterian Church, Beth Snyder of Jeffersonville (Indiana) First Prez, and Kristina Lindborg, an Indiana Citizensʼ Climate Lobby volunteer.
To register and receive your Zoom invitation, please go to our website: https://www.presbyclimateadvocates.org/upcoming-classes/
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Story Medicine Worldwide class offerings | |
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IRA Charitable Rollover
Did you know that if you're 70 1⁄2 or older, you can make a tax-free contribution from your IRA? The Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act (PATH) allows you to make a charitable gift directly from your IRA without counting the donation as income. You can use your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) to pay your
church pledge or donate to a charity... all without having to pay income tax on
those dollars!
IMPORTANT: The donation must come directly from the IRA to the charity to avoid being considered taxable income. Contact your investment fund manager to request a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) made payable to Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, mailed to the office at 789 Merrimon Ave, Asheville, NC 28804. Be sure to remind them to list your name as the donor in the memo line so we can apply it to any pledges you may have.
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Summertime Stewardship
Are you looking forward to time outside and away
from screens, but concerned about staying on top of your pledged giving? Don't worry, there are ways to give easily remotely, even automatically!
MAIL gifts to the office at 789 Merrimon Ave, Asheville, NC 28804(the office remains closed but we are checking the mail)
BANK BILL PAY mails checks remotely, one-time or on a recurring schedule – contact your bank to set this up
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ONLINE at https://onrealm.org/gcpcusa/give/now or through your Realm Connect smartphone app
TEXT "giveGCPC" to 73256 on your mobile device, then follow the prompts
Interested in setting up online recurring giving? Follow these simple step-by-step instructions to self-manage eGiving through Realm or return this signed authorization form to have our Finance Office set up on your behalf.
If you have any questions, please contact Natalie in our Finance office at nweaver@gcpcusa.org or by leaving a message for Natalie Weaver at 828-254-3274.
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HOW TO CONTACT STAFF:
Our staff are all still working remotely as the office remains closed due to the pandemic. To leave a voicemail for a staff member to return your call, follow these steps:
- Beginning in June, the office will be open on Tuesday, 10am - 4pm.
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Call the office at 828-254-3274.
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Listen through the office closure notice, which will then take you to a staff directory.
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Enter the first 3 letters of either the staff member's first or last name on your phone keypad (i.e. to reach Natalie Weaver, you'd enter 628 for NAT or 932 for WEA).
- You'll be directed to the staff member's individual voicemail, where you can leave a message to be returned as soon as possible.
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If you just want to leave a message for the general voicemail box, press 0.
You can also reach our staff by email- please see our website for each staff member's individual email address.
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Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church
789 Merrimon Ave. Asheville, NC 28804
828.254.3274
www.gcpcusa.org
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