How disappointing to be suspending in-person worship once again! We have worked so hard as a congregation to maintain a safe place and find ways to keep connected. We will continue to be connected even with this setback.

We will continue with our plans to participate in the Episcopal Church's A Season of Prayer: For an Election. Sponsored by Forward Movement and The Episcopal Church Office of Government Relations, nine days of devotional prayers will be available each day for those who sign up on Forward Movement.

Here at Grace, beginning on Tuesday, October 27 at 5 pm, one of our clergy will lead a short service of prayer each evening through November 4, calling upon God for discernment in voting and for the well-being of our nation. though it will be strictly on Zoom.

[Episcopal News Service] As the United States struggles through a time of turbulence and tension, Washington National Cathedral will host a national interfaith prayer service on Sunday, Nov. 1 - two days before Election Day - featuring Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and other spiritual leaders. The service, titled "Holding Onto Hope: A national service for healing and wholeness," will be livestreamed on The Episcopal Church's Facebook page in English and Spanish from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Eastern time....

READINGS:
Deuteronomy 34:1-12: Moses climbs Mount Nebo and views the whole of the promised land. Then he dies, but no one knows where his grave is. After the thirty day mourning period, Joshua takes over as leader of the Israelites.
In the world of war, climate change, poverty, economic crisis and dread diseases, love may appear to be powerless and irrelevant. This may be because our view of love is so often informed not by Jesus, but by Hollywood. When love is nothing more than a feeling that one "falls" into and out of, it has nothing to say the big issues we face. But, when love is lived as Jesus did - practically, sacrificially, passionately and justly - it speaks directly to the root causes of our struggles. Ultimately all of our dealings in the world will grow out of one of two sources. If fear is the primary driver of our lives, we will ensure we have more than enough weaponry to protect us and we will easily attack any person or country we perceive as a threat. If fear is our foundation, we will hoard our wealth, and we will grab what we can with little concern for the impact on others or on our environment. When fear is our foundation, we will tend to minimise care and compassion for those who are unrelated to us or different from us. But, when love is our foundation, everything changes. Love drives us to seek connection and understanding, not war. Love drives us to share what we have so that all may have their needs met. Love leads us to think carefully about how we treat our environment and how we use our resources, and how we deal with those who are suffering, even if they are unrelated to us. Authentic love is expressed in practical efforts to bring justice, in tough and vulnerable peacemaking, in concern for the "least" and most vulnerable. Authentic love recognises the connections and interdependence between all people and between us and our world. Authentic love is the most desperately needed, and most powerful, solution to the tough struggles of our time. The challenge is whether we are prepared to embrace love, to live love, to "preach" love and to work to spread love through the world. Can we allow love to be the primary force behind our voting, our ethics, our morality, our social participation and our interactions. If we can and do, we will discover that, little by little, the world begins to shift further along a trajectory of compassion.

MEET THE CANDIDATES FOR BISHOP