Photo by Artem Malushenko | |
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Bill Rupp's 92nd Birthday! | |
GCPC folks at the Asheville Runway 5K | |
#GCPCathomeandinthesanctuary | |
Worship Preview | Sunday, October 23, 2022
In-person Service and Youtube
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*For the full revised common lectionary, please click here. | |
| Thursday, October 20 | A Journey Through the "Revelation of John" | 6:30 pm | Fellowship Hall/Atrium | | Saturday, October 22 | Garden Workday
(Team 2) | 9:00 am | GCPC Community Garden | | Sunday, October 23 | Hybrid Worship
(In-person and online) | 9:30 am @ GCPC
(also on Youtube) | | Sunday, October 23 | FellowshipTime | 10:45 am | Narthex | | Sunday, October 23 | Formation for All Ages
Children | Sanctuary
Youth | Youth Room
Adults | Atrium | 11:00 am
*please see details below | | Sunday, October 23 | Pumpkin Carving & Pizza Party | 12:30 pm | GCPC Courtyard | | Tuesday - Thursday | Church Office Open | 10 am - 4 pm | | Tuesday, October 25 | Session Mtg. | 6:00 pm on Zoom | | Wednesday, October 26 | Garden Workday
(Team 3) | 9:00 am | GCPC Community Garden | | Wednesday, October 26 | Bible Study | 12:00 pm | Jerusalem Room (also on Zoom) | | Wednesday, October 26 | Choir Rehearsal | 7:00 pm | Choir Room | | Thursday, October 27 | Men of GCPC Gathering | 9:00 am on Zoom | | |
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Children's Formation (K-5th Grade) | Sundays | 11:00 AM | Sanctuary
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Youth Formation (Middle/High School) | Sundays | 11:00 AM | Youth Room
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Adult Formation: Faith and Boundaries I Sundays | September 18 -November 20 | 11:00 AM I Fellowship Hall and Zoom
This fall, we will be exploring a faith based approach to boundaries, a vital tool for all communities and relationships searching for ways to create space for love, compassion, and and justice.
Facilitators: Margaret Tierney, Paul Rogers, Libby Kyles, Marta Alcalá, Patty Thompson, and Dean Presson
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86748147293
Meeting ID: 867 4814 7293 Passcode: 789
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Bible Study | Wednesdays | 12:00 PM | Jerusalem Room & Zoom
Join the pastoral staff to read and study our sermon texts for Sunday. No preparation needed; just come ready to open scripture and discuss!
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82947867192
Meeting ID: 829 4786 7192 Passcode: 789
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October 16, 2022
Deacons Stewardship Video
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A Letter from Cathy Froehlich... | |
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Dear Grace Covenant Community,
The happiest people on earth are the people who have discovered the joy of giving -unknown.
I have had the pleasure of serving as a Deacon for the past three years. I truly love being with and helping others and being a Deacon has given me that opportunity.
You many not know how your giving during this time of Stewardship helps the missions the Deacons hold dear. Your giving provides a Deacon’s Discretionary Fund. When our lives changed during Covid and we were not able to gather, those funds helped us to continue our ministries and our care for one another. We were able to put together and take “goodie” bags to your homes. Confidentially and with discretion, the deacons have helped people remain in their homes, provided meals and food to individuals and families, helped to cover an unexpected expense and other needs that may arise. A recent mission is to provide Christmas food packages to incarcerated individuals that have no family or community support.
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Jim and I have pledged for 2023. We never know what lies ahead of us or when our lives might change. We are confident in the assurance of God’s abiding and steadfast love. With your generous and faithful gifts, Grace Covenant can keep doing these meaningful ministries and so much more.
~ Cathy Froehlich
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READY TO SUBMIT YOUR 2023 PLEDGE?
Submitting your pledge is quick and easy! (Watch a tutorial video here.) Simply CLICK HERE or scan the Qr code to the right to submit your pledge online, all in one form.
If you would also like to set up automatic eGiving from your bank account or credit card, be sure to checkmark Add a scheduled gift for this pledge after the pledge confirmation and follow the prompts. These are two separate steps and forms - setting up a pledge does not renew eGiving automatically and eGiving without a pledge doesn't count towards our Stewardship and budget goals.
You will receive an email confirmation of your pledge and a separate confirmation for eGiving, if applicable. Questions or concerns? Please contact Natalie Weaver, Stewardship & Financial Administrator, at giving@gcpcusa.org or leave a message at 828.254.3274.
Keep in mind, anyone can pledge any amount - every single penny helps support the ministry and mission at GCPC!
WAYS TO PLEDGE:
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Online pledge card HERE
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Email giving@gcpcusa.org
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Call 828.254.3274 and leave a message for Natalie Weaver
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Fill out a pew pledge card and put in the Sunday offering plate
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Request a mailed pledge card from the office
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All Saints Sunday - November 6, 2022
All Saints Sunday is an opportunity for us to remember and honor the great cloud of witnesses of those who have come before us.
We are inviting you to add a photo along with the name(s) of those who have passed away in the last year (11/21-11/22) that you would like to lift up in prayer in the All Saint's worship service on Sunday, November 6th. We will also be doing the traditional necrology of GCPC members who have died in the past year.
Submissions should be made by Thursday NOON on November 3rd. Please email Micah at micah@gcpcusa.org with the picture, the name(s) of your loved one(s), and their birth and death dates. Please write “Nov 6 slide show” in the subject line.
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Just a few openings left! Sign up today! | |
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GCPC Advent Devotional Calendar
Would you consider participating in Grace Covenant’s 2022 Advent devotional? You are invited to create an advent devotional for a specific day’s assigned scripture based on the lectionary. We are encouraging creativity - your devotional could be a poem, painting, song or reflections on how the scripture moves you. Your devotional can be inspired by the Biblical texts from your day.
Entries should be submitted by October 31 to Margaret Tierney at margarettierney6@gmail.com, where it will be curated into this year's GCPC Advent Devotional.
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Volunteer with the Bereavement Team!
The Bereavement Team is looking for new volunteers. There are two ways to help serve:
- Join a monthly team for providing a receptions in the event of Memorial Services (1 month per year).
- Join a cookie prep team that would bake or buy 2 dozen cookies for the reception.
This is a wonderful way to serve the families of the church and get to know people better!
Please contact Cathy Froehlich, oremont2@gmail.com, or Susan Curtis, jandscurtis@msn.com, if you are interested.
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WNC WORKERS’ CENTER COLLECTION
Let’s support Covenant Partner Western North Carolina Workers’ Center as they conduct their annual “Women Fighting for Justice” Conference virtually. The focus of the 2-day conference is on training women leaders to work with employers on workplace aggression and violence issues.
Thirty-five women leaders will be attending online, and with our support of toys, activity books, puzzle games, art supplies and other books, their children and youth will be engaged while they participate. We’re excited to support 72 children and youth ranging in age from 1 month to 17 years!
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DEADLINE: OCTOBER 30
COLLECTION BOX:
IN NARTHEX
IDEAS: Coloring and activity books, crayons, puzzles, games, books, art supplies, infant and toddler-safe toys, anything to occupy children and youth ages 1 month to 17 years. Books in English are fine, especially books for teenagers.
Any questions, please call or email Chris Callaway at 404-633-7451 or christinecallaway4@gmail.com.
Let’s do what we can to support these amazing women!
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~ Submitted by Serve Council members Lynne Meacham, Eleanor Lane, and Chris Callaway | | |
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Our 13 Covenant Partners everyday serve Black and Brown communities with their time, energy and resources. We want them to feel loved, appreciated and supported in their important work. The Serve Council will be collecting items to present in beautiful gift bags in November.
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GIFTS OF APPRECIATION: Gift cards; self-care and stress relieving products such as scented candles, lotions, mists, facial, eye and foot masks, diaries/journals, positivity cards/postcards, chocolate, tea, goodies that will stay preserved - anything that will support our Partners relax and feel loved!
COLLECTION BOX: IN NARTHEX
DEADLINE TO COLLECT: NOVEMBER 13!
If you have any questions, please contact Eleanor Lane at elane@northstarlane.com. THANK YOU!!
~ Submitted by Serve Council members Eleanor Lane and Chris Callaway
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Deacon of the Week:
The deacons of Grace Covenant are available to talk and pray with you by phone or online and to coordinate care. If you have difficulty reaching your assigned deacon or if you do not know who your assigned deacon is, please feel free to reach out to our deacon of the week.
This week (10/16-10/22): Jerry Bleckley | email: Jerryb@nexuscorp.com
Next week (10/23-10/29): Pat Cheffins | email: patriciacheffins@gmail.com
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Prayer requests will stay on the GCPC Prayer List for one month. Please let any staff member know if you (or your loved one) would like to remain on the list for longer.
Iglesia Jerusalem congregation
Maria and Esteban Goicoechea (La Mariposa and her husband)
Seth Turnbow (Anne Raustol’s twin brother)
Trey and Alisha Thompson and 3 kids - Gabi, Arlo, and Eldon (Patty and Brent Thompson's son and daughter-in-law and grandchildren)
Sarah Ralston (Susie Bleckley’s mom)
Rebecca Longenecker-Singer (sister-in-law of Loidaly & Hans Rosario-Singer)
Maryann Jennings and Sasso Family
Carolyn McEchern
Eric Mount (Marcia Mount Shoop's father)
Family of Joe Frostick (Peggy and Heath Rada’s nephew)
Dorothy Zuck (Pat Durham's mom)
Betsy Wisehart (Pat Durham's sister)
Bill Ross (Jonathan Ross' dad)
Erik Jacobs (Kathy Jacobs' son)
Bob Higgins
Susan Smialowicz
Doris Prak
Michelle Chromey and family
Earl Fowler
Robin Gaiser
Andrea Rosal
Sharon Sasse
Lisette de Groot
GCPC Community member, Ernest Jack Griset III, passed away on Sept. 14, 2022. A graveside Service of Witness to the Resurrection will take place Saturday, November 5 at 1:00 pm at Lewis Memorial Park.
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GCPC Cancer Survivors & Thrivers Dinner | Sunday, November 6 | 5:30 - 7:00 PM | Fellowship Hall
This dinner is open to cancer survivors, their spouses or partners.
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Our guest speaker via Zoom will be Richard “Dick” Swanson. Dick is a 25 year survivor of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and Lymphoma and is thankful for modern day medicine and for friends and family that have supported and surrounded him with love through this cancer journey. For the past 8 years he has led a men’s cancer support group as a part of the Cancer Ministry at his home church, Westminster Presbyterian, in Greensboro.
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Presbyterian Womenʼs Circles are Zoom meetings. Please join us.
Circle 1: Second Monday of each month, 10:00 a.m.
Circle 2: First Tuesday of each month, 7:30 p.m.
Circle 3: Second Tuesday of each month (some Zoom and some in-person), 7:00 p.m.
Circle 4: Second Tuesdays of each month, 10:30 a.m.
Circle 5: First Monday of each month, 11:00 a.m.
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Need to set up a church zoom meeting?
Contact Anna Louise and she can get you all set up!
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On Saturday, October 15, Team 4 had 9 volunteers that harvested 6 lbs. of collards, 8 lbs. of bell peppers, 1 lb. of snacking peppers, and 8 lbs. of hot peppers. This harvest was shared with Loving Food Resources. | |
Also on Saturday, October 15, the Jasperwood crew (with 7 volunteers) harvested 800 lbs. of potatoes!!! This harvest was shared with the YWCA, YTL families, Loving Food Resources, Western Carolina Rescue Ministries and Bounty & Soul. | |
On Wednesday, October 19, Team 1 had 6 volunteers that harvested 15.5 lbs. of snacking peppers and 12.8 lbs. of hot peppers that were shared among the garden volunteers. They also spread compost and removed the plants from several beds. | |
Community Working Together | |
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Bilingual Candidate Forum | Thursday, October 20 | 6:00 - 8:30 PM | Zoom
The Racial Justice Coalition is excited to present a bilingual candidate forum, featuring both City and County candidates for office. The County portion will run from 6 pm to 7 pm, and the City portion will be from 7:30 to 8:30 pm. The RJC’s Rob Thomas will be moderating. You can register for the forum here.
RJC is co-sponsoring this forum with a bunch of other organizations that do important work in our community: Asheville Buncombe Community Land Trust, Asheville Food Policy Council, Children First / Communities in Schools, CIMA - Compañeros Inmigrantes de las Montañas en Acción, Just Economics, and Poder Emma. The issues we’ll be focusing on include racial justice, immigrant justice, food security, affordable housing, living wages, and transit.
This will be a bilingual event (some in Spanish and some in English). If you’re not bilingual, there is a way to opt into interpretation for the Spanish portions. If you’d like support on this, we invite you to join the Zoom fifteen minutes early.
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Repairers of the Breach | Saturday, October 22 | 4:00 PM | First Congregational Church of Christ (20 Oak Street) | |
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The Government Accountability Project (GAP) gathers information from public meetings and other sources, as well as through direct relationship-building with people inside government. This information is then analyzed by their Strategy Team, made up of local community thought leaders, in order to distill what is most relevant to racial justice. This distillation of the most urgent matters making their way through the political process is shared with the public, enabling more timely and effective advocacy.
In their most recent GAP Report, the Strategy Team shouted out an affordable housing proposal coming before the Asheville City Council on Tuesday, September 27th. This planned development will bring much-needed affordable housing to the Shiloh neighborhood, and it was encouraging that the developer sought out and responded to feedback from community members, moving the site further from the road despite an increase in cost. City Council approved the resolution unanimously.
GAP puts out a report every Monday, which you can read here. We also encourage you to subscribe, so you get a notification each week when the report goes live.
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Hood Huggers International, Peace Gardens & Market and Blue Note Junction present.... | |
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GCPC's Covenant Partner, Bountiful Cities
Help support FEAST!
Their FEAST program reaches over 1,150 students a year in Asheville, Buncombe County, and Madison County with hands-on cooking and gardening classes in schools and afterschool programs. Help us fully fund this important program this fall!
Bountiful Cities FEAST teachers work within Asheville City and Buncombe County schools, Hot Springs Elementary and Francine Delany New School to give students hands on experience. We are not funded by the school systems, and yet we integrate with the grade level curriculum to provide history, science, reading, math, and art education in addition to gardening and cooking. Our goal is to give students tools that will last a lifetime. If they have seeds they will know how to have food.
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Click the button below to read the latest newsletter from the UNCA Prison Education Program. | | | |
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Interfaith Initiative -
Social Justice Opportunities
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Buncombe Community Remembrance Project |
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PC(USA) pastor and author discusses ‘Our Angry Eden’ with Presbyterians for Earth Care -
‘‘The world we are helping to maliciously co-create is going to be a rough one’"says the Rev. Dr. David Williams
~ by Mike Ferguson
The inspiration to write his 2021 book “Our Angry Eden: Faith and Hope on a Hotter, Harsher Planet” came, of all places, during a meeting of National Capital Presbytery, the Rev. Dr. David Williams told Presbyterians for Earth Care during a Zoom conversation Thursday. Listen to Williams’ talk here.
“We had a meeting focused on the dynamics of Creation care, the importance of recognizing our responsibility to care for the world around us, this delicate planet we’ve been blessed with,” said the pastor of Poolesville Presbyterian Church in Poolesville, Maryland. “Our charge was to go home and reflect. How should we theologically engage? I spent the next six months writing a book about that.”
While many people think the task is caring for a delicate and fragile Creation that some argue is already broken, “I have a different reaction to that,” Williams said. “Creation is huge and terrifying … It’s not that we have to care for Creation. We have to take care around Creation.”
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The Rev. Samuel Son, the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s manager of Diversity and Reconciliation | |
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: why they are marks of the church, and how we can practice these values in our congregations and mid councils -
Economics can be an important component of a church’s faithful witness
~ by the Rev. Samuel Son for Presbyterians Today
This article, which first appeared here, is a continuing series on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Church. In the first and second article, we recalled how the values practiced intuitively in the early church were a response to their understanding that Jesus proved himself God’s anointed through the resurrection. This article argues for the importance of economics to the church’s faithful witness to Jesus’ resurrection.
When we read about the first band of Christ followers selling their possessions and “distributing the proceeds to all, as they had need,” (Acts 2:45), we clap our hands, lauding such noble sacrifice, but snicker under our breath, whispering, “Now that’s a bit too much!” We eye their sudden dispossession as fanatical, what uncouth cults do: they sell everything and go up to the mountains because they are cocksure of Jesus’ return date and time. We have (and have had) many Christian-freaks/fringes who abandoned human society to welcome the end of the world, only to return poorer. Here we are, 2,000 years later, and the human society is still humming, and money still matters, so let’s live out our faith in “decency and order.”
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An Evening with John Philip Newell | Monday, October 24 | 7 - 9 PM | Anderson Auditorium, Montreat
The Three Graces: An introduction to the vision of John Philip Newell’s new book Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul.
John Philip Newell will be introducing the main themes of his award-winning book, Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul, focusing especially on the three graces of Celtic wisdom for today:
- The Grace of Nature
- The Grace of the Human Soul
- The Grace of Awakening
Following the presentation (including Q&A) there will be a reception and book signing.
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The church office is open Tuesday - Thursday, 10am - 4pm.
We recommend calling ahead or emailing to set up an appointment if you are wanting to meet with a specific staff member. Please note, many staff are off or work remotely on Monday and the office is not open on Friday.
Coming to visit? We have a new video doorbell to assist with security. To access the building or office, please enter through the far left glass doors off the courtyard (labeled Enter). Ring the doorbell to have the door unlocked. The GCPC office is down the hall to the right, just past the Sanctuary.
You can also reach our office by phone at 828.254.3274. Follow the prompts for the staff directory to dial by name or press 0 for the main office.
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Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church
789 Merrimon Ave. Asheville, NC 28804
828.254.3274
www.gcpcusa.org
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