If you need Christmas gifts but can’t face another catalog or big box store, gird yourself and head to the Bizarre Bazaar, the culmination of the Brainerd Market’s 10
th
season. It’s tomorrow (Saturday, December 7)! Running from
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
(please note the amended ending time!) the Bazaar will host a multitude of artists, crafts-folk, and cooks, and rumor has it that Santa Claus himself will be in attendance, ready to talk to and be photographed with his admirers in the Undercroft. The Undercroft will be teeming with friendly faces, and the tables will be laden with stuff you don’t see every time you turn around. Come! Enjoy! The folks on your Christmas list will thank you.
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Bizarre Bazaar on Saturday!
Advent Quiet Walk 12-8
The Way of Love Study Continues
Christmas Pageant/St. Nicholas Visit
Christmas Poinsettias
Food Ministry -- Report and Needs
Gardens and Grounds -- Tree Planting
Joseph Campbell RoundTable
Musical Opportunities
Thanks to Thanksgiving Cooks!
Meetings This Week
Serving on Sunday
Lectionary
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Advent Quiet Walk (Sunday, 12-8)
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All are welcome for an
Advent Quiet Walk
at
Reflection Riding, 2:00 pm, this Sunday, 8 December
. We are meeting outside at the bonfire pit in front of the main office. This event's purpose is to provide relief and a spiritually 'reset' from a busy and consuming season by turning to our first true home, the natural world. We will meet and walk any number of options, as groups or individuals, along the many paths, roads, and boardwalks offered at Reflection Riding, to include the treehouse, canoe launch, and animal viewing at the Nature Center (red wolves!). This is particularly suitable for children. We will meet for a quiet and brief reflection, then spend the next several hours as individually desired. Lisa (and dogs) will take anyone desiring on a guided walk. All dogs must be leashed, children optional!
Reflection Riding bonfire pit, across from the main office
400 Garden Road, Chattanooga, TN
2:00 pm -- ???
--Sponsored by Lisa Lemza, Tom Carroll, Brittany Williamson, and Kristiana Shaneyfelt, and other members of Grace's nascent GreenChurch/CreationCoalition, which will focus on bringing a voice of faith to regional environmental exploitation and injustice, biodiversity collapse, and climate change. Whew.
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The Way of Love
Wednesday Study Continues
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During Advent, David Stanislawski is offering a Wednesday evening study that works through the program prepared by the National Church called
The Way of Love: Practices for a Jesus-Centered Life.
The class began last week and continues on Wednesday evenings Dec. 11, and 18 at 5:30 for a potluck supper. The program will begin at 6:15 and end around 7:45. If you missed the first meeting, don’t be discouraged – come anyway! There will be plenty of insights in each session! The last meeting will be after church on Sunday, December 22 (the next Wednesday is Christmas Day, when few will be free to come!). We’ll begin with a simple meal and conclude by 2:30 p.m.
The Way of Love
is a way of life. More than a program or curriculum, it is an intentional commitment to a set of practices. It’s a commitment to follow Jesus: Turn, Learn, Pray, Worship, Bless, Go, Rest. A video of Presiding Bishop Michael Curry introducing the program is available at
https://episcopalchurch.org/way-of-love?wvideo=jroyof2vje
.
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Christmas Pageant and St. Nicholas Visit (12-15)
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Grace’s annual Christmas pageant will be performed on Sunday, December 15, during the 10:45 a.m. service. So that all performances in this classic presentation will be Oscar-worthy, there will be rehearsals for some or all of the participants this Sunday (December 8) and on Saturday, December 14. See below for all the details:
Christmas Pageant Play Rehearsal for
Speaking Parts Only
Noon to 2 p.m. on Sunday December 8
-- This is for ages 7 and up who are willing to do a speaking part. You are invited to come and be a part of the Christmas play (a step up from the regular pageant). The play is during church December 15. Lunch will be pizza. If that doesn't suit your child, have them bring a lunch.
We will meet in the Undercroft.
Sunday School, December 8
-- Additional Christmas Play Practices. All children in Sunday School for either class will get a chance to practice what they will do for the pageant. If your child is available, that would be great!
Christmas Play
Rehearsal for All Parts
on
Saturday December 14
9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
* All children and teenagers are welcome to be part of the Christmas play. Costumes will be behind the stage. Parents should find their child's costume and get them dressed. Please email Maria at
mhurt@saygrace.net
to alert me to your child's participation. I should have outfits for ages 4 and up. Children can be angels, shepherds, sheep or another animal. There are bits and bobs that can be used for younger children.
* Parents of children under age 5 will need to stay for rehearsal. All parents are welcome. Crowd control is always a fun activity.
* Everyone MUST be in the Sanctuary by 9:20 for us to get practice started! Kids with speaking parts need to be there by 9:10 if possible.
* Children with speaking parts may need to stay after 11 a.m. to be sure they are ready.
After the service is over and the pageant complete, all the children are invited to come to the library during the fellowship time to visit with St. Nicholas
! Come enjoy refreshments, praise for the performance, and some lively interaction with the saint most in the know about Christmas!
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It’s time to think about Christmas poinsettias!
If you’d like to purchase one or more plants for the decoration of the Nave for Christmas services, please pick up a form in the Narthex, use the form printed beneath the announcements in this bulletin, or call/e-mail the office to make arrangements and provide dedications (
243-3257/office@saygrace.net
).
Cost is $15 per plant, and we must have your dedications no later than Wednesday, December 18.
Christmas Poinsettias 2019 ($15 per plant)
Your name: ______________________________________________________
Phone Number: ______________________________________________________
Honor Memory Thanksgiving Name to list
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_____________________________________
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_____________________________________
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_____________________________________
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Food Ministry – November Report and Current Needs
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The Food Ministry did land-office business in November, giving substantial help through both vouchers to the Chattanooga Food Bank and our own food pantry. We gave vouchers to 108 visitors for 116 boxes of food, which fed 340 people (these numbers are higher than usual because we gave 40 extra vouchers just before Thanksgiving, using some of the money given in honor of Vivian Dodds’ 80
th
birthday to do as much as we could before Thanksgiving). The pantry gave food to 111 visitors, whose families included 354 folks needing nourishment.
Grace seems to have become the go-to spot for food-aid in the area. We move from full shelves to empty shelves in a matter of a couple of hours, so almost anything you bring will be used almost at once. Though we need almost everything all the time these days, the main needs this week are:
* canned tuna
*canned hams
* Vienna sausages
* beanie weenies
* Spam
* canned fruit/fruit cup
* granola bars
Thanks to all who make this ministry a priority -- your donations of food and $$ provide aid for those in our area who are homeless, who've been tripped up by medical problems or who have stepped up to take in siblings and grandchildren in spite of having few resources themselves. It may not look like manna, but it is.
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Gardens and Grounds -- Tree Planting
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We are STILL at it! The best time to plant trees and shrubs in our region is between Thanksgiving and Christmas; it looks like we'll be cutting it mighty fine to meet the latter. We expect delivery sometime next week of 4 more large
(i.e. 'heavy')
trees -- the beautiful Carolina silverbell, for the west front of the church, as well as a few odds and ends shrubs (a few native beautyberry and winterberry bushes).
-- WANTED:
We are looking for short notice, informal work parties to help with this on Friday/Saturday 13,14 December and/or Friday/Saturday 20/21 December, probably in the afternoons.
If you are willing to help -- we'll coordinate it at least 24 hours in advance -- know that (1), we need it, and (2) reply to Lisa at
lemzala@aol.com
.
-- Planting note: Roots will grow all winter in temperatures over 40 degrees F., so that a fall planting can give plants a significantly better root structure to survive the following summer. After Christmas it's just too cold to fool with.
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Joseph Campbell RoundTable
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For December, the Roundtable changes its meeting time: Instead of the third Monday at 7,
we meet the third Sunday at 6 p.m. in the Undercroft for Solstice Storytelling.
The theme for this year is:
Hope and Resilience: Reweaving the Web
. The program has grown from stories to include the "auditory channel of perception" since in the dark, we can still listen and hear each other. Expect stories, poetry and music. It's not too late to be added to the roster of performers. Derek Williams (
jdw0408@gmail.com
) is keeping the list. I'm happy to announce that Organized KAOS will be joining us again to end the program with their world music sound, including sitar, didgeridoo, drums, and more.
This program will be
December 15 at 6 pm
in the
Undercroft.
(Park in the lower parking lot off of Brainerd Road and come up the stairs under the awning. Turn right as you enter the building. Handicapped access is available.)
Liquid refreshments will be provided. Food offerings (mostly finger foods) are appreciated (Summer food offerings are "light," so consider food that might be "dark.")
Thank you for sharing our tenth year by "returning to the source" and reading Campbell's work. Each presenter and attendee is appreciated for your presence and offering. The variety of presentations was very impressive.
Mything in action,
Diana
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Bach’s
Magnificat
– St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Ashland Terrace, Saturday,
December 7
, 7:30 p.m. This is a fund-raiser for the Chattanooga Food Bank.
Scenic City Chorale, Music for Advent and Christmas
-- Sunday,
December 8
,
4:00 p.m., First Cumberland Presbyterian Church (1505 North Moore Rd.)
Metropolitan Bells
– Tuesday,
December 10
, 7:30 p.m., Brainerd Baptist Church (300 Brookfield Ave., 37411)
Tuesday,
December 17
, 7:30 p.m., Christ United Methodist Church, 8645 East Brainerd Road, 37421).
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Thanksgiving Supper Thanks!
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Dear Members,
Thank you for contributing soup, bread, crackers for our Service & Soup Supper on the 26th. Many hands made a great evening. I hope you discovered a new flavor that you can add to your recipe book and possibly made a new acquaintance or two!
Thank you --
Susan LaGraff & Staff
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Green Team Meeting (Undercroft) -- Sunday, December 8, 9:00 a.m.
Centering Prayer (Barth Room) -- Friday, 1:00 p.m.
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At the 8:00 a.m. service
: Lectors, Emily Evans, Thomas Evans; Intercessor, Jim Dorris; Chalice, Amie Brien-Slack; Acolyte, Cindy Davidson; Usher,
Mike Revenig;
Greeter, Lyn Martin
At the 10:45 a.m. service
: Lectors, Breezie Finley, Caleigh Jackson; Intercessor, Susan LaGraff; Chalice, Anne Curtis, Terry Burnett; Oblations, Jim and Barbara Harris; Acolytes, Laura Bertrand, Caleigh Jackson; Lead Ushers, Jerry Evans, Tom Carroll; Greeter, Anne Curtis; Web-Broadcast (camera, sound), Richard Lanham, Augie Sevart
Lectionary Readings
Hymns
Hail to the Lord’s Anointed
(Hymnal 616);
O come, O come, Emmanuel
(Hymnal 56, vs. 1-3);
On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
(Hymnal 76);
There’s a voice in the wilderness crying
(Hymnal 75);
Prepare the way, O Zion
(Hymnal 65);
Blest is the king whose coming
(Hymnal 74)
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