My current tennis partner is injured and so we asked a friend of ours to play while she heals. Janet was my partner many years ago and we have often played since then.
Our first match was yesterday. As we were playing, I noticed that I didn't have to worry about what Janet was doing during a point because we'd played together for so long. I was conident in her abilities, reactions and in what she'd do strategically. This confidence in another made it easier for me to have confidence in my own game. Although we won the match, the real pleasure came in playing with someone I enjoy so much.
Our faith can be like this. If we truly have faith in God, we too can live our lives more confidently, enjoying time we have with the Divine and with those we love. If we have confidence in God, we can also set aside our own anxieties and fears about "losing."
This may lead us to have faith in others, even those who occasionally mis-hit.
God wants us to have a relationship with the sacred so that we too may live a life confident that the way of love is the only way.
In the Way of Love,
Debbie
This Sunday
This Sunday, the Gospel offers us an example of the meaning of hospitality.
At 10:00 am, the Church School will gather to engage in a story with Melissa Barnes.
At 10:00 am, Holy Eucharist is celebrated with Deb Papps assisting with the readings and prayers. If you will not be there physically, you may engage with the service on either Facebook or on Zoom, using the links on the sidebar.
At 4:00 pm, our Celtic Evensong with Communion will have Kourtni Patten giving the reflection. You may also engage with this service on Facebook.
Please join us wherever you are
in your search for meaning.
Everyone is welcome at any and all services at
Grace Episcopal Church
Parish Prayer List
Please keep the following in your prayers:
Mel, Virginia Szurma, Melissa Glassman, Corey MacNeil, Cliff Cutler, Helen Phillips, John Gourley, Martin Ryan, Kristin Gourley, Scott Tucker, Zan Duffy, Dianne, Linda Whalen, Kim Colvin, Sarah Colvin Duffy, Michael Towey, Jesse Kamp, Stacia, Bob Peterson, Brian Peterson, Jenny, Loretta and Kris, Deb Papps, Derek Fuller and Family, the people of Palestine, Afghanastan, and Haiti, and the Salem Public Schools. For the peaceful repose of the soul of Robert Squillaro. For an end to racism, gun violence and oppression.
If you have prayer requests, please email regathering@gracechurchsalem.org by Tuesday at noon for publication in that week's e-news.
Memorial Service for
Jon D. Papps
Saturday, 25 September at 11:00 am
All are welcome to join us for Jon's memorial service at Grace Church (please see our COVID protocols in this newsletter)
Below you will find Jon's obituary:
Jon Daniel Papps of Salem, age 90, died on Sunday, December 20, 2020 while in rehab at Advinia Care. Born on January 22, 1930 in Morristown, NJ, oldest son of George H. Papps Jr and Elizabeth (Verschuur) DuBois. He attended St Thomas Choir School in NYC, Morristown High School and graduated from Upsala College in East Orange, NJ after serving in the Air Force during the Korean War, 1950-1954. After moving with his first wife, Diane Tonak, and children to South Carolina and Severna Park, MD he moved to Marblehead, MA in 1968 where he worked for Hood Manufacturing, making sailcloth for boats. When Hood no longer produced their own cloth he went to work for Howe and Bainbridge, sailcloth makers in Boston, before establishing his own business out of his home. He began making sail tape for sailmakers, a business which thrived for over 30 years before he retired in 2014 and moved to Salem. While living in Marblehead Jon was very involved in the sailing community where he and his wife, Deborah, owned several sailboats over the years. He also had been a member of the vestry of St. Andrews Episcopal Church, where he was instrumental in the installation of a new organ. Jon leaves his wife of 32 years, Deborah (Collins) Papps; two sons, Jon C. Papps (Diane) of Simpsonville, SC and Jeffrey G. Papps of St. Augustine, FL; 3 step-children, Robert Duff of North Conway, NH, Allison Duff (Alan Barth) of Salem, and Stephen Duff (Michele) of Philadelphia, PA; his sister-in-law Elizabeth Papps of PA; his cousin, Carol Wetmore of NJ; two nieces, 3 grandchildren, 4 step-grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his brother, G. Oliver Papps. Gifts in memory of Jon can be made to the Organ Fund, Grace Church in Salem, 385 Essex Street, Salem, MA 01970.
This Year's Stewardship Theme
What is the best gift you have ever received?
We have been asked this question throughout our lives by many people in different contexts. Possible answers to a parent or a teacher could be a new walkie-talkie set (these were the Seventies), a bike, a horseback ride with my grandmother, or when as a teenager, a jeep in the driveway with a big red bow on it. Later it could have been an education, a chance to study abroad, canoeing on a quiet river, making Christmas cookies with our mom.
Every Perfect Gift
What do these perfect gifts give us, aside from the pleasure of the possession? They teach us about living in the moment, appreciating what we have. They also teach us generosity, for the delight in experiencing the gifts call us to share such moments and experiences with others. This is the relationship between receiving and generosity, and it’s a pattern, that, once it takes root in us, continues in perpetuity. The more we practice generosity, the more abundance we recognize around us.
The theme and image for Every Perfect Gift are wrapped in the metaphor of the butterfly and chrysalis. To the ancient Greeks, the butterfly represented the image of rebirth and freedom. The word they used for butterfly was psyche. It also means spirit. The humble and beautiful butterfly contains the philosophical and spiritual idea of the soul breaking free from its shell — free to discover, to inspire, to create, to communicate, to share.
These are also gifts of our stewardship. As we share our time, talent, and treasure with our church and with the world, we unleash those same gifts in our communities: discovery, inspiration, creativity, communication, sharing. Through the ministries that are enabled by our gifts, the inspiration we show to our neighbors to unlock their generosity in the world, and the stories we tell about ourselves and our experiences, we participate with God in an abundant vision for the world. Every perfect gift comes from God above.
If you would like to share a story during the service of a gift you received and the impact it made, please contact Debbie at gcis1@verizon.net.
Anti-racism News
The anti-racism team will be meeting next week. Under discussion will be a memorial for the victims of racism, cottage meetings and a day spent on the Black History Tour in Salem. If you would like to be a part of our team, please contact Brian Fizer at brianfizer@gmail.com. If you have other ideas, please email him as well.
St Francis Celebration!
We will be celebrating St. Francis on Sunday, October 3 in a number of ways.
At both the 10:00 am and the 4:00 pm, we will have the blessing of animals. As in years past, all well behaved pets are welcome to come to church that day and they will receive a blessing.
New this year!
Following the 10:00 am service, we will be selling dog biscuits on the front patio and we will open our pumpkin patch on the side lawn for pumpkin sales.
Unfortunately, as a result of COVID protocols, we cannot offer the silent movies again this year, so this will be our only fundraiser for October. Please be generous and SPREAD THE WORD about this event
The Church Cracked Open: Disruption, Decline and New Hope for Beloved Community
We invite the laity of our diocese to a conversation with the Rev. Stephanie Spellers, Canon to the Presiding Bishop for Evangelism, Reconciliation and Creation Care. Our churches and communities have been cracked wide open by pandemic, racial reckoning, economic suffering and generations-long decline. As the temptation to get "back to normal" beckons in this season of regathering and reopening, how can communities be helped to embrace disruption, dismantle white supremacy and empire, fall in love with Jesus and embody the dream of God?
Canon Spellers will draw on wisdom from her new book The Church Cracked Open: Disruption, Decline and New Hope for Beloved Community, and from churchwide efforts toward truth-telling and discipleship, in order to equip us as a community of leaders and learners. (Canon Spellers will be giving a presentation at Clergy Day later in the afternoon.) Please join the laity of our diocese on zoom for this important conversation.
