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Get to know your Vestry- Q&A with Shelby Welch
During Mother Nikki's sabbatical, the Friday newsletters will feature one Vestry member each week. Please thank them for their service to the congregation, and let them know if you are able to assist with their committee's work!
Q: Name?
A: I'm Shelby Welch, 1st Year on Vestry
Q: What's your Committee Assignment?
A: Parish Life. We don't have a committee chair yet, but Maggie Reinberger and I are serving as temporary co-chairs. Besides us, the committee members are Lois Alworth, Marlaine Barnes, Annette Bates, Karen Brill, Shirley Bethune, Sheila Collins, Stacie Court, Jill Crandall, Gail Eilers, Marge Massey, Amelia Ross and Anna Thornton. We have just resurrected our committee after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID pandemic and the lack of committee leadership. We are slowly getting up to speed!
The Parish Life committee is active year-round for special events, funerals, and coffee hour. We always need more hands! We just completed an Easter Day reception and a special coffee hour after the Trey Clegg Singers. We are planning a parish event on Pentecost Sunday and a work day to organize our storage areas and assess our supplies. We will also have an event to kickoff a return to school and church school in August/September.
Q: What's the best thing about serving on the Vestry?
A: Getting to know my fellow Vestry members. I enjoy the camaraderie and never feel like I'm working alone.
Q: What's the biggest challenge with being on the Vestry?
A: I want to do so much more than we have budget for.
Q: What's your favorite hobby?
A: Making jams and jellies, preferably from the fruits my husband and I grow.
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Update to Yoga Class
The Monday evening yoga class has been canceled for May 1 and May 8 while Anna Hiers is away.
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Coffee hour needs your help! Danielle keeps us well-supplied with coffee and lemonade, but we need parishioners to sign up to bring either homemade or store-bought goodies…nothing fancy, just cookies, muffins, fruit, pastries, or cheese/crackers. There is a sign up sheet next to the kitchen counter in the Christian Education building.
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Parish Life will meet on Sunday, April 30, after the 10:30AM service. We have had a rousing revival with two receptions in a row!! Now we will meet and get organized.
Grab a cup of coffee and we will figure out the best place to meet. If you are interested, but can't make the meeting, please contact Maggie Reinberger 706-338-1471, or Shelby Welch 706-224-2835.
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Upcoming Concerts
ATHENS CHAMBER SINGERS
The Athens Chamber Singers present Come, Shaker Life: A Concert of Shaker Songs for Choir and Harp; at 4PM on Saturday, April 29 at Friendship Presbyterian Church. The concert, which is free and open to the public, is a warm-up for the group's upcoming performance at Piccolo Spoleto in June.
MERIDIAN WOMEN’S CHORUS CONCERT
The women of Meridian Women's Chorus invite you to their spring concert, Mother Earth and Her Gifts, on Sunday, April 30 at 4PM at Friendship Presbyterian Church. This free concert includes three pieces by local composers; two will be world premieres.
UGA CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY CONCERT
The UGA Chamber Music Society will have their Spring Concert Sunday, April 30 @ 5PM in the St. Gregory’s Sanctuary. The Chamber Music Society is a student organization that allows people from all majors to play music in a chamber environment. The recital is the culmination of the semester’s work. On this semester’s program, there are works from the classical repertoire, including pieces by Beethoven, Mozart, and Dvorak, and beyond, including a Disney Medley and an original composition. The event is free and open to the public.
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Celebrating the Life of
Gene Bianchi
Please save the date(s) and join us in celebrating the life of Gene Bianchi. If you can’t attend, sweet wishes are always welcome.
We will be gathering to celebrate Gene’s life twice, one for anyone in the Atlanta/Emory community and another, the next day, in Athens.
For Atlanta, we will gather Friday, May 5, at the Luce Center at Emory from 11AM until 1:30PM. Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe will conduct the celebration. Reflections and stories are welcome. A light lunch is planned.
For Athens, we will gather Saturday, May 6, at the National Restaurant on 232 W Hancock Ave., from 11AM until 1:30PM. Rev. Dr. Porter Taylor will conduct the celebration. Reflections and stories are welcome. A light lunch is planned.
For Gene's full obituary, click here.
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ACT Presents Moon Over Buffalo
Dallas Bono is going to be performing the role of George Hay in Moon Over Buffalo at Quinn Hall in Memorial Park (293 Gran Ellen Drive) in Athens from May 4 - 6 at 7:30 PM. The show was originally written for Carol Burnett, and is a delightfully funny and somewhat irreverent play about a couple of has-been theater performers trying to keep their theater troupe alive while trying (and failing) to defy the natural laws of aging.
Click here for tickets or buy at the door!
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SACRED GROUND
Sacred Ground is a thoughtful, sensitive, and faith-based resource created and financed by The Episcopal Church to assist local congregations in creating safe space for difficult but respectful and transformative dialogue on race and racism. Inviting participants to reflect on family histories and stories, as well as important narratives that shape the collective American story, the program is one path we can take in seeking to become God’s Beloved Community.
St. Gregory’s is offering the 10 session Sacred Ground program during this 2023 Sabbatical Summer as an opportunity to gather, pray and share a meal together, and to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest written materials, films and facilitated conversations. The meeting dates will be Wednesday evenings from 6-8:30pm from May 10-June 7 and June 28-July 26 with a two week break (June 14 and 21) to allow each participant to more intensively pursue a particular topic of their choice. We are seeking 8-10 people to participate with one another and 2 facilitators.
If you would like to sign up for this journey, please notify Kendall Kookogey at the St. Gregory's church office via email or at 706-546-7553 by Friday, May 5, 2023. There is no cost to participate other than your time and commitment.
For questions, contact Ellen Richardson via email or 912-660-0151 or Ron Balthazor /706-338-0625.
If you would like to read more about the program, follow this link: https://episcopalchurch.org/sacred-ground I hope you will prayerfully consider this opportunity at this important time of seeking understanding and healing in our fragile communities and our wider world.
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St. Gregory's next Family Promise week begins this Sunday. Thank you to those who signed up to host or bring a meal. We still need volunteers for evening and weekend host shifts. It's a short commitment of several hours. This is a good activity for parents and grandparents to do with their kids. The families generally keep to themselves and we are there as a resource for them. The families stay at Milledge Avenue Baptist Church. Sign up by clicking on this link. Scroll down until you find the week of April 30-May 6. For questions, email Annette or call 706-255-5839. We can be Christ's body here in Athens.
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safe pasture
when driving home
on a spring day
i sometimes went
a longer way
that took me by
a field of green
to slow and glimpse
a happy scene
of baby lambs
out in the sun
free to enjoy
their outside fun
bounding about
and jumping over
tall tuffs of grass
and mounds of clover
alice mohor
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Young Designer's Fashion Show
The Young Designers Sewing Program is a non-profit organization serving girls from Gaines Elementary School, Hillsman Middle School, and Cedar Shoals High School. Participants in the program learn to design, customize, and sew garments of all types. In addition to creative sewing, the girls learn many other life skills to prepare for leadership and success in the world. Travel abroad, field trips, speakers and other enrichment make this a unique program. Every year YDSP holds two fashion shows and this year the first one will be held at St. Gregory's on Saturday, May 13 at 3PM. The show will last about an hour with light refreshments afterward. I began volunteering in 2016, and I love this program, the girls, and other volunteers.
The fashion show is free, donations happily accepted. Friends and families of the girls, members of the community, and I hope that many Gregorians will come and see the creative efforts of these girls. I would like to have some volunteers to help set up and put away chairs in the Parish Hall, and help make tea, coffee, and lemonade.
Please contact me if you are willing to help out, interested in coming to the show, or just want to find out more about this amazing program.
With many thanks, Jenifer Borg 706-614-4895 or jeniferaborg@gmail.com
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Adult Spiritual Formation
The Adult Spiritual Formation Sunday morning Bible Study group meets at 9:15AM and is currently on a journey through The Book of Acts of the Apostles. Please join us!
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The food bank is in need of dried beans of any kind, and large, family-size containers of cooked cereals (i.e. oats, grits), not individual packets.
Let's help fill the Little Red Wagon!
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MEN'S GROUP
The Mens Group is embarking on a study of the new book by Gabor Mate : "The Myth of Normal; Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture." He studies trauma, and how it is a root actor in all of our lives, influencing our health and well being. After listening to a short lecture by the author, the group decided that his book will be a great contribution to our study of our lives in Christ. All men are invited to participate.
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Instructions for Live Streaming
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Near the time for service, underneath our channel logo, you will see our video for that day, with the word ‘live’ on it. The page will look like this:
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If you don’t immediately see the video that says ‘live’, (for instance, if you opened YouTube before the service begins) keep refreshing it.
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When you see the video square that says ‘live’, click on it.
Welcome to worship!
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Meeting Opportunities
Parish community offerings via Zoom or in person:
* Spring yoga meets on Monday evenings in Parish Hall from 5:30-6:30PM. All classes are donation-based. Donations this spring will go toward buying more yoga supplies for the class! Zoom link here for those at home. ** no yoga on May 1 or 8 **
Hebrew Reading meets via Zoom on Wednesdays from 1-3PM. If you're interested, email Joel Hunt for more info!
Stacie Court hosts "Let's Chat!" for women of the parish. The days and time vary, and not everyone can join every time, but everyone is welcome to join whenever they can! Email Stacie!
* St. Gregory's Book Club meets the first Friday of the month in Parish Hall @ 7PM ongoing for the foreseeable future. Email Lois Alworth if you are interested in participating.
*Threads of Prayer meets on the 1st Tuesdays of the month @1PM! We'll meet outside if the weather is good and inside the Christian Ed building if the weather is bad. Email Annette Bates if you are interested in participating. All knitters and crocheters welcome!
*Men's Group: 9AM on Saturdays. 1st & 3rd Saturdays at St. Gregory's library and 2nd & 4th & 5th Saturdays at the Somerville's house ! Email Peter Rice
* group(s) meeting in person
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