This Sunday’s Gospel • Matthew 18:21-35 Peter came and said to Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times....[continue reading]. Lectionary scriptures are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible. Virtual worship continues this Sunday, September 13.

Worship Services on YouTube How are you accessing the weekly worship services? Have you subscribed to the GHTC YouTube channel or are you watching on your smartphone or tablet? To stay up-to-date, be sure to like and follow the church on Facebook.

Welcome, Mark Koontz! Mark Koontz will begin his ministry as Assistant Organist on Sunday, September 13. Mark will play the closing hymn and a postlude by Mendelssohn for our online worship service. We look forward to hearing Mark’s beautiful musical offerings on the organ. Thanks to Mark for enriching our worship services with his musical gifts!

Coffee & Adult Formation Continues This Sunday, September 13 Join us this Sunday, September 13 at 10:00 a.m. as we continue our discussion of the wide variety of music styles available through our several Episcopal hymnals. Access this week’s handout online so you can listen to the examples in advance and be prepared for the discussion. The first 15 minutes are for fellowship, followed by 45 minutes of discussion of the music topic. Sunday we will discuss African-American Music from Lift Every Voice and Sing II. Click this Zoom link for access. 9/13/20 - African-American: Black Christians’ distinctive styles, including spirituals and Gospel songs. 9/27/20 - 20th Century: a style often complex both musically and theologically. 10/11/20 - Taizé, Celtic, & Native American: different styles from around the world which share elements of simplicity and repetition. 10/25/20 - Renewal: a worship music style that draws upon folk and popular music traditions and instruments.

Regathering Plan Approved - Ushers Needed! Our action plan for regathering for in-person worship has been approved by the diocese. Ushers will play an important role in keeping you keep safe and helping you follow our new procedures. Please let Bill Perkins know if you are willing to help. Training will be provided. Following our diocesan guidelines, which aim to protect the most vulnerable among us, we still need to wait until the health markers for the Richmond area meet the criteria of sustained two week decline in new infections and deaths before we can execute our plan. Once we have a date for returning to in-person worship we will provide a video introduction to all of the new policies and procedures meant to keep you safe. Staff continue to work remotely and we will keep you updated through the church website.

Faithful Witness to Our Community - Your Participation Invited Your Vestry is considering several options for ways that we as a parish may witness to our community about the important issues of racial equity and justice. Banners on the church building, statements in our online media, and parish-sponsored activities are all possible means of our witnessing. As such a witness needs to faithfully express the commitments of our parishioners, the Vestry wants to hear from you. Two Zoom listening sessions have been scheduled before the next vestry meeting on October 13. Every parishioner is invited to participate in one or both of them. Another way to share your ideas is to send your comments by email to Bill Queen. Since it is important that these comments and discussion reflect the views of our parishioners, please do not send an email or plan to login to a Zoom session anonymously. The Zoom sessions will be held on two Tuesday nights, September 15 at 5:00 pm, and September 29 at 7:30 pm. Click this Zoom link for access.

Sign Up for Digital Children’s Chapel & Sunday School Today Starting Sept. 13 Children’s Chapel and Sunday School will be offered at 11:15 a.m. in a live, digital format via Zoom on alternating weeks. Children’s Chapel will begin Sept. 13, followed by Sunday School on Sept. 20, and so on through the fall. You can read the full announcement here, but it is very important to keep in mind that you need to sign up for digital Children’s Chapel and/or Sunday School if you plan to participate. This is particularly the case for Sunday School as there are lesson materials that need to be delivered to your home to have the best experience. Please sign up here if you plan to participate, and let Aaron Davis know if you have any questions about these offerings.

Welcome, Mattison Payne, to Red Door Ministry! Mattison is our Social Work Intern for the 2020/2021 academic year. She is working with us, St Mark’s Food Pantry and St Thomas’ food pantry, to learn about food insecurity, access, and issues facing our Red Door Congregation. If you’d like to “meet” Mattison, you can watch this video.

Sacred Ground Circle If you are interested in joining the Fall Circle for Sacred Ground. The Film and Book Study- exploring our relationship with race. Ask each person to journey through the complicated history of connections across the history of the United States. This 10 session course, written by The Episcopal Church, dives deep to develop a more faithful relationship with one another, with God, and with all of Creation. This past session took place over 15 weeks because of holiday weekends and the materials' length covered. Mother Kim is planning to continue facilitating this group, but there may be other facilitators as well. If you are interested, please respond to this doodle poll with your availability.

Getting Souls to the Polls The Diocese recently released this election engagement toolkit. Getting souls to the polls isn’t just about casting our own vote, but about working together so we all can vote and vote faithfully. We can empower every voice in our congregations in this work.  “It is a Christian obligation to vote, and more than that, it is the church’s responsibility to help get souls to the polls.” -Presiding Bishop Michael Curry

Calling for Bibles We have given out all of our free bibles! Since we put up the “Free Bible” library box in front of GHTC we have given out more than 100 free Bibles. You may wonder where those Bible’s came from- well they were the ones that Campus Ministry collected for Prisoners but since we can’t bring anything into penitentiaries during COVID and folks were asking for them at Red Door we pivoted and now we need more! If you have any bibles at home that you have found during our covid cleaning let us know!

Reading More? Join the Club! A dedicated group of readers is reconvening this month via Zoom. The group will meet on the third Monday of each month. Growing out of GHTC's Spirited Sisters, this small group is open to any reader and welcoming new members, whether directly affiliated with GHTC or not. If you would like to participate, contact Mary Ann Blankenship (mablankenship625@gmail.com or 804-334-8922). The September book is The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. We're all reading more these days so why not take an hour to talk about a common book with friends? If you are interested in joining (either in September or in the future) let Mary Ann know so she can contact you.

Red Door Roadside Continues Every Friday we continue to feed hungry people with nutritious brown bag lunches. Although our volunteer needs have changed, we still need YOU to help us! Contact Kim Reinholz to assist in this ministry.