The Season After Pentecost |
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Though 2020 has been rock-in-the-Halloween-bag, coal-in-the-stocking kind of year, you at least get one good thing from this gift-challenged time in history: an extra hour of sleep! And you get it tonight -- October 31. Turn your clocks back before bed and enjoy an extra bit of escape from reality! |
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Time Change Tonight!
Book Review
Online Sunday and Daily Worship
Outdoor In-Person Eucharist for the
Feast of All Saints
Election Day Outdoor Evening Prayer
Clergy Outdoor Office Hours
The Return of the Seraphim Bush!
Tithely Donors' Financial Statements
Food Pantry
Family Promise Aid Sought
Forward Day by Day
Don Ludwig Committal Service
National Service for Healing and Wholeness
Don Ludwig Committal
Parish Prayer List
Community Care in Anxious Times
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This Sunday, November 1, at 10:00 Keith Davis will lead us in a discussion of Dr. Nancy deClaissé-Walford's book Introduction to the Psalms: A Song from Ancient Israel. He will cover the major themes of the psalms, the significance of the exile in the development of psalms; studies about the organization and structure of the Psalms, as well as the structure of some of the psalms and their verses. Please plan to join us using the Zoom link below:
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Online Sunday and Daily Worship
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Grace invites all to virtuously join us for virtual worship on Sunday and throughout the week, keeping together while being safely apart. You can access Sunday morning worship on our Facebook page and website at 9am and again at 10:45am. Bulletins for each week’s service will be sent along with the Grace Notes weekend issue, and will be posted on the website alongside the video for the service. If you miss the 9am or 10:45am video streams, you can always go back and watch later. You can access the bulletin for this Sunday HERE.
You are also invited to take part in the nearly-daily services of Morning Prayer and Compline that our curate, David, is offering. Available every day (except Sundays) via Zoom, Morning Prayer begins at 9:00 a.m., and Compline at 8:00 p.m.; in order to dodge trolls who are tired of lurking under bridges and hunger for folks to harass, you will need to use the passwords below along with the Zoom addresses:
Please note that there is a new link/URL for daily Morning Prayer. To find Morning Prayer each day except Sundays at 9:00 a.m., click the link below
or paste this URL into your browser:
Meeting ID: 746 8859 6599
Passcode: amprayer
To get onto Compline everyday at 8pm, click this link:
& the password is:
compline
Not only to get the support and comfort of the prayers and readings, but also the Zoom-presence of some of your favorite Grace folks. All are welcome!
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In Person Worship on Sunday for The Feast of All Saints
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Weather permitting, Grace will hold outdoor, in-person on All Saints' Sunday, November 1st, at 4:30pm. We will meet on the yard just behind the pavilion and the community gardens. In an effort to protect the health of our neighbors, participants must sign up in advance, and we will be limiting the attendance for this service to 30 households. You will receive an email confirming successful registration, and if the service is over capacity at the time you sign up, you will receive priority for next week's service.
For our celebration of All Saints, we will read the names of the saints who have died in the past year prior to communion this Sunday, and worshipers are invited to bring a photo, icon or memento of a saint or saints who are important to you to place on the altar before worship begins and collect once the service is finished.
Each household unit is asked to keep 12-15 feet distance from your closest neighbor on the lawn. Please wear a mask, and bring your own lawn chair or blanket. If you are unable to bring your own chair, please email David Burman at dburman@saygrace.net, and we can arrange to have one available for you. Bug spray is highly recommended!
Worshippers will receive communion in one kind only (bread). The priests will wear masks and gloves while we distribute communion, and all who receive communion are asked to keep their masks on while communion is being distributed, and then slip their masks off to consume the wafers once you’ve returned to your seats, returning your masks to your faces one you have eaten the bread.
Should you not be able to get to the service, these are the names of those who have this year joined part of the Community of Saints which is no longer visible to us:
Elmer “Jerry” Kile, Linda Setliffe Young, Betty Van Iersel, Kathryn Pickering,
Madge Askonas, Caroline Smith, Gene Smitherman, Margaret Martin, Amy Hull, Will Benson, Gloria Barr, Robby Armstrong, Lew Meloan, Chris Barker, Bob Peake, John Wallen, Miriam Tucker, Pat Larkin, John Stewart, Jim Munro, Don Ludwig,
Floy Wang, Tim Lipham, Julie Kershaw Dollar, Chris Cushman, David Norton,
Reed Swaggerty-Morgan, Doug Reed, Sondra Powers, Donny Neal Parks,
Harry Moseley, and Joe Smallwood
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Election Day Evening Prayer
Tuesday, November 3rd at 5:45pm
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You are invited for a service of evening prayer at 5:45pm on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3rd. We will gather to pray for the nation, all who reside within its borders, and that we who seek to follow Christ remain faithful and responsive citizens of God's reign on earth. We will meet in the courtyard for this service, so that we're near the carillon when it rings out at 6pm. Please wear a mask and follow social distancing guidelines. We will have a few chairs available, but feel free to stand for this brief service, or bring your own lawn chair. |
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Clergy Outdoor Office Hours
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Anticipating that this may be an anxious week for many, the clergy of Grace will be holding office hours for prayer and conversation following the election. David will be in the courtyard from 10am-1pm on Wednesday, November 4th, and April will be in the courtyard on Wednesday from 1:30-5:00pm. We will add additional office hours as needed in the days to come. As always, if you would like to meet for prayer or conversation outside of office hours, our priests would be happy to see you. Contact April (aberends@saygrace.net) or David (dburman@saygrace.net) to set up an appointment.
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The (Virtual) Return of the Seraphim Bush
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A couple of years ago, when Grace somehow got left off the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree list, Jerry Evans and Tom Carroll came up with an alternative program (which office staff, ever-alert to the sin of plagarism, dubbed “the Seraphim Bush”) Through that unique program, Grace gave modest gifts to the residents of a group home – a chronically overlooked segment of the population. This year, we are once again giving to Volunteer Behavioral Health group home residents. All residents are severely and persistently mentally ill and live in one of four group homes throughout Chattanooga. These homes house both men and women who range in age from late the 20's to late 60's.
To make it simple and safe, we are asking parishioners to donate a $25 Walmart gift card, specifically. If someone wants to add a little something, all residents could use shampoo, body wash, toothpaste and deodorant. We need 34 Walmart cards. If someone wants to spend more than $25, we ask they get additional Walmart cards in increments of $25. If we get more than 34 cards, we will divide them among the group homes to be a "house" card to benefit all the residents in the house.
All cards and toiletries can be dropped off at the church during "office" hours or during the food pantry hours or at any in-person Sunday services. If someone can't do those times, they can email Tom (brownlow@epbfi.com)
or Jerry (jevans1958@epbfi.com) to set a time to meet them at church; the postal office could also be called into service! Gifts don't have to be wrapped but a gift bag would be appreciated.
All gifts should be at the church by December 20th at the latest.
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Tithely Donors' Financial Statements
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Grace’s financial office is in the throes of getting out third quarter statements. Please be aware that if you give through Tithely, the giving program that allows you to pledge online, the statement about those donations will come to you via e-mail rather than via mail from the church office. If you have given to the church through Tithely and via more conventional avenues as well, you’ll get mail from the church as well as an e-mail statement. So keep an eye on your inboxes as well as your mailboxes! |
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Wednesday’s pantry session was light by our usual standards – 15 visitors got food for 20 adults and 21 children, for a total of 41 fed. Since the last three weeks have brought around 30 visitors each day seeking food for around 90, the shelves are currently featuring some notable gaps. If you’d like to help us restock, these are the most needed items:
* canned vegetables, especially green beans, pinto beans,
baked beans, corn
* Spam or similar
* canned chicken
* canned tuna
* Vienna sausages
* spaghetti and spaghetti sauce
* saltine crackers
Monetary gifts are also helpful; they allow us to take care of unfilled gaps through purchases at Sam’s or Aldi.
Thanks to our stalwart volunteers – Gail Dooley and Linda Wideman, Richard Hyatt, Jim Harris, and Vivian Dodds, who take care of our visitors’ needs in heat and rain, wind and cold. We are grateful to them for their time, their good humor and level-headedness, and their willingness to put themselves on the front lines to provide help to those who are struggling. Blessings on our magnificent pantry saints!
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In spite of the many challenges of 2020, Family Promise has forged ahead in its quest to keep homeless families together while they work towards stable housing and financial independence. First Church of the Nazarene has been providing housing and overnight chaperones, but other area churches have been asked to help provide food, and Grace’s time-slot falls
during late November and December. If you are willing to provide a dinner for Family Promise clients between November 29 and December 26, please contact Skeeter Makepeace at skeeterellen55@gmail.com. You may prepare a meal or purchase one, and Skeeter can tell you how to access funds for supplies or the meal if you need them.
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Good news for those who use the quarterly Forward Day by Day booklets -- Grace has received the next edition, and you can avail yourselves of it in two different ways. If you want to pick up a hard copy (regular and large print are available), please drop by the church next Wednesday (or any Wednesday) between 9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.; we'll have some in the alcove so you need not trot through the building to get one. If you are guarding assiduously against any possible exposure to our tiresome nemesis, the coronavirus, you can access the publication electronically through the links below:
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Don Ludwig Committal Service
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A committal service for long-time Grace Parishioner Don Ludwig has been scheduled for Friday, November 6, at the State U.S. Veteran’s Cemetery in Hurlock, MD. If anyone needs Ann’s address for cards and condolences, e-mail Dabney at dcarden@saygrace.net.
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National Service of Healing and Wholeness (Nov. 1)
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Leaders to join Presiding Bishop Michael Curry for
Holding on to Hope: A National Service for Healing and Wholeness
On the eve of a historic election and in the midst of pandemic and racial reckoning, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry will call Americans together for a live-streamed prayer service from Washington National Cathedral. The Holding on to Hope service will be held on All Saints Sunday, November 1, at 4:00-5:30 pm EST, and viewers can join in a variety of ways.
Using a combination of live and pre-recorded elements gathered from across the nation, the service will feature an ecumenical and multifaith array of voices, musical offerings, and prayers designed to help the nation to confess, grieve, and hope as one. In addition to Bishop Curry’s sermon, the service will also include reflections from Father James Martin, a noted Roman Catholic author and commentator on American life and values; and Valarie Kaur, an inspiring Sikh filmmaker, author, and civil rights attorney.
“We hope people everywhere will light a candle and join us in prayer at this urgent moment in our national life,” Bishop Curry said. “As people of faith, we believe in the power of prayer and the power of God’s love to heal a nation and change this world.”
Special prayers for the nation will be offered by:
·Secretary Condoleezza Rice, Former Secretary of State and head of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University
·Shane Claiborne, best-selling author and founder of The Simple Way
·Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core
·Rabbi Shoshanah Conover, senior rabbi, Temple Sholom, Chicago
·Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
·Dr. Mohamed Elsanousi of the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers
·Dr. Cheryl Bridges Johns, leading ecumenist and professor at Pentecostal Theological Seminary
·María del Mar Muñoz-Visoso, executive director of the Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
·Dr. Tarunjit Singh Butalia, trustee of the Sikh Council for Interfaith Relations and Council of the Parliament of the World's Religions
The gathering will be officiated by Washington’s Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, Cathedral Dean Randy Hollerith, and Reverend Stephanie Spellers, canon to the presiding bishop for evangelism, reconciliation and creation.
Read more about the speakers and participants here (https://episcopalchurch.org/holding-hope/participants)
Information about the service is available here (https://episcopalchurch.org/holding-hope)
Watch the service at any of these sites:
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Please remember: Donald, our President; the Senate, the House of Representatives, and our Courts of Justice; together with all elected officials, and the other leaders of our country and the nations of the world.
We pray for Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury; Michael, our Presiding Bishop; Brian, our Bishop; for April, our priest; for David, our Curate; for George, our assisting priest; for Keith, our Seminarian; for our missionaries, and all other bishops and ministers.
We pray for the unemployed and underemployed, especially those in our congregation and community. We pray for the homeless and the hungry, and for those in special need of prayer, especially
David Balling, Rick Jones, Edith, Terrie, Alex, Roberta Fish, Jeanette Cureton,
Wanda Kirkpatrick, Emma Andrews, Andrea, Steve Slack, Celeste Humphrey,
Jim Strickland, Bethann, Breezie, Angela, Dwight, James and Barbara Dooley, Dwight McMillan, Trevor Laymance, Ted, Deb, Doris, Emily and Daniel Brelsford, Michael Conner, Tom Wolfe, Bo and Mary Minor Brown, Helen Williams,
Nancy Mapel, Charlotte Dorris, Tyler Horton, Jeff Fugate, Rebecca Williams,
Tessa Spaulding, J.R. Hicks, Peggy Fugate, William Simpson, Timothy Penny,
Donald Jones, Cooper Jones, Sally Cauthen, Charles Smith, Jonathan Purple,
Steven Mosman, John Woodham, Libby Workman, Elaine Harrison, Jean Williams, Barbara Reed, Elizabeth Harrison, Joyce Smith, Jim May, Mary Ruth Clinton,
and Ann Swint;
We pray for Wil Mabry, Jake Dorris, Kevin Kelley, Tripp Mouron, Mike Mabry, Alexander Ross, Russel Webb, Logan Roberts, Jim Makepeace, Sean Benson,
Evan Watkins and all of our Armed Forces, here and abroad;
We pray for Angela Gregory, who is with child.
We pray for this community: For our local leaders; for our schools and marketplaces; for our neighborhoods and workplaces, for protesters and for police. Help us to honor your image in one another. Give us courage to strive for justice and peace among all people, beginning here at home.
We pray for all whose homes are in peril or uprooted because of climate change, for all displaced because of hurricanes, fires or other disasters.
We pray for all who are developing programs and policies to deal with the current public health threat; for those who are treating the sick, stocking shelves, transporting supplies, suffering from illness, coping with new life-patterns and finding ways to keep anxiety at bay for themselves and others.
We pray for those who have died, especially Jane Williams, sister of Amanda Cate, that your will for them may be fulfilled, and that they may share with all your saints in the full revelation of your eternal glory.
In the Anglican Cycle of Prayer: Pray for the Church of the Province of West Africa and The Most Rev. Dr. Jonathan Bau-Bau Bonaparte Hart, Primate and Metropolitan, Church of the Province of West Africa and Archbishop of the Internal Province of West Africa and Bishop of Liberia.
In the Diocesan Cycle of Prayer: Pray for All Saints and All Saints Episcopal School, Morristown, and for these South Dakota churches: St. Elizabeth, Wakpala; St. James, Mobridge; St. John, Bullhead; St. Paul, Little Eagle.
Those in need of continued prayer:
Marcia Magers, Major McCollough, John Cox, Gayanne Silver, Garvin Colburn, Heather Nelson, Robert Clark, Marty Landis, Dexter and Helen Williams,
Cheryl McCurry, Ethel Rutledge, Carolyn Minnich, Lanie Lundgrin, Terri Harvey,
Sue Sears, Anne Getz, Michael Roberts, Jeannie and Andy Williams, Jaime Cooper,
Teresa Noel, Tina Knowles, Brad and Kimberly Calhoun, Joyce and Greg Snyder, Martha Killeffer, Robert Durham, Jim Curtis, Hal and Sue,
Michelle Maroney, Jessica Ricketts
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Community Care in Anxious Times |
Our Grace check-in team leaders are continuing to contact parishioners via phone, text and/ or email. Please take a moment to pick up or write back to let them know if you’re okay and/or if you need help, pastorally or physically. The leaders of these groups will be in close communication with our priests and our network of volunteers. If you are a new member of Grace and we do not have your information in the directory, please fill out the New Member form here and let us know if you would like to be added to a check-in group. If you have an urgent pastoral need, please call the parish office at (423)243-3250 and leave a message on the main line.. We will be checking these messages regularly even if we aren’t in the office.
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