CLICK HERE to read the 2020 Annual Meeting Booklet

My breast cancer surgery has been set for Tuesday, February 2 at BMC in Pittsfield. It is a Stage One cancer and I expect positive results and a good future. While I’m recovering from surgery, you will have the opportunity to worship with several fine priests: The Rev. Betsy Fisher (1/31, 2/21, 2/28), The Rev. Jane Tillman (2/7, and The Rev. Steve White (2/14). Elizabeth Holland and the Rev. Cara Davis will lead Centering Prayer. The Revs. Erik Karas, Sam Smith, and Margaret Bullitt-Jonas will lead Tuesday Bible Study. As I'm able, I'll continue to be involved in some administrative and worship planning work throughout February. Next week, I'll share plans for covering pastoral care needs during that month. Thank you for all your prayers, expressions of concern, and offers of help.  

The Rev. Ted Cobden 413-528-2247

Pennie Curry        413-429-7093

Sue Gore           413-243-2273

Happy New Year everyone! I have arrived back in Madison safe and sound. It has been a quiet week here-- a week of relaxation and family time. I was able to enjoy Christmas Day with my parents and brother, and midweek I had the chance to take a walk with my grandmother on a nice day. We've had plenty of snow since I've come home, and I thank God that we were blessed with good weather during our travels because it has been nothing but sweeping national storm systems since!

I send you all my deepest gratitude for the parting gift Grace Church offered on my final Sunday and for all the gifts you have given me in the past two years. Grace Church is truly a congregation of generosity and courage, the kind that comes straight from the heart.

I will be inspired by your creativity and focus on the community as I enter into my new ministry, starting this week. I will be the interim pastor at Middleton Community Church (UCC) in Middleton, WI. The church is excited for me to lead their youth group as well as build a garden ministry on a plot of land across from the church building! (Sounds like things I learned how to do at Gideon's Garden!) I am a bit nervous to begin this new leg of my journey, just as I imagine you all are a bit nervous to start yours, but thankfully our faith tells us that God is with us every step of the way!

Many blessings to you and all your loved ones. May 2021 bring renewed hopefulness for a safe world and one that is filled with the kind of love that comes from God.

Jen's new address is 

2628 Hupmobile Dr., Cottage Grove, WI 53527. 

Meeting ID: 824 5008 6637

Passcode: 501604

Good News Gardens Book Group:

for a virtual discussion of

Education for Ministry (EfM) is a four year course of study and theological reflection from Sewanee (one of our Episcopal seminaries). Karen Byers mentors a group sponsored by Christ Trinity Sheffield that meets weekly on Zoom. John Cheek was a 2020 participant, and this year John and Sarah Sieber are part of the group. The group will share a tidbit from their discussion in each Tuesday's Child.  

Our journey for the year began with the moment in Luke's Gospel right before Jesus called the disciples. Here is Luke 5:1-7 from The Message: "Once when he was standing on the shore of Lake Gennesaret, the crowd was pushing in on him to better hear the Word of God. He noticed two boats tied up. The fishermen had just left them and were out scrubbing their nets. He climbed into the boat that was Simon's and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Sitting there using the boat for a pulpit, he taught the crowd. When he finished teaching, he said to Simon, 'Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch.' Simon said, 'Master, we’ve been fishing hard all night and haven’t caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I’ll let out the nets.' It was no sooner said than done—a huge haul of fish, straining the nets past capacity. They waved to their partners in the other boat to come help them. They filled both boats, nearly swamping them with the catch."

As we welcome the promises of a new year, please join friends from around Western Massachusetts for a virtual discussion of This is God’s Table – Finding Church Beyond the Walls.

In this compelling and readable new book, local writer and pastor Anna Woofenden, a prophetic voice in the faith and food movement, writes about her experience founding and nurturing the Garden Church in San Pedro, California. As Sara Miles (author, and founder/director of The Food Pantry) says in the book’s Foreword, “Woofenden shares the story of what happened when she gardened, worshiped, and ate with anyone who would join her. As churches across the Western world wither, what would it take to find a raw, honest, gritty way of doing church – one rooted in place, nurtured by grace, and grounded in God’s expansive love? What would it take to carry the liturgy outside the gates? What if we were to discover that in feeding others, we are fed? This is God’s table. Come and eat.”

Our conversations will take place on Zoom over three Thursday evenings from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m., Jan. 28, Feb. 11 and 25. You are welcome to attend as many sessions as you can. The final meeting will include a Q and A session with the author. Click here to register for this event. We will send out the zoom link the day before our gatherings. For more information, please email one of the facilitators: Maggie Sweeney ([email protected]) or Harvey Hill ([email protected]).

Please contact Andrea White at [email protected] or 413-884-4836 for assistance.

Click Here

(Meeting ID): 859 9461 5863 (Passcode): 508436

To that end, the South Berkshire Episcopal/Lutheran Churches will offer a six-week Epiphany Bible Study Series on Tuesdays beginning January 12. The Revs. Sam Smith, Erik Karas, and Libby Wade will be our guides as we engage Biblical laments to help us acknowledge the depths of suffering and lead us to find hope in the midst of that suffering. Please have a Bible and pen and paper handy for each session. Libby Wade will lead this session on "Lamenting Together" with Psalm 137 and Romans 12:4-5 as the biblical focus. We hope you will join us as part of our Zoom Community!

Meeting ID: 826 0996 0553               

Passcode: 446609

Questions? E-mail Libby at [email protected].

[email protected] and by phone 413-644-0022.

Kathy Clausen 413-329-1724

Rick Gore, Jr. 413-441-7036

Sue Gore 413-243-2273

Mary Anne Grammer 413-258-4212

John Cheek 413-446-8863

Dindy Anderson 413-274-3854

Anne Andrews 413-528-2766

Dutch Pinkston 413-274-6566

Cathy Haywood 413-464-6664

Holly Murray 860-977-9198

The Rev. Libby Wade is available for pastoral emergencies. 270-519-6934.