Dear Friends,

When I first started doing anti-racism work in community, we would often be asked where, in our body, whatever we were feeling was residing. It was the first time I ever considered such a question, or rather, had to consider such a question.

I just got back from clergy conference where we were led in the Pentecost story by Debi Thomas, who was absolutely phenomenal. In a discussion of hope, she asked where, in our bodies, hope resides. I kind of took a methodical approach, starting with my head. After much contemplation, I felt hope in my feet. I felt it was hope that gave me the ability to act, to move, to have agency.

What makes this question so important is that we are incarnational people. We are each a part of a greater whole as well, and so we each feel things, like hope, in different ways, in different places of our body and in different kinds of bodies.

So this week I ask you to ponder where, in your body, does hope reside?

In the Way of Love,

Debbie

This Sunday

Parish Prayer List

Please keep the following in your prayers:

For the Diocese of Massachusetts as we search for our next Bishop Diocesan, for those battling cancer, especially Faith’s friend and the Princess of Wales, Heather and Prescott,, Ariana, Sheridan, Faith Aroko and Family, Jesse Hurst and Family, Angela Williams, Neal and Maureen Joyce, Arthur, Jane Thompson, Deb Young, Cindy Rhodes, Ron, Gerald Tucker, Allison Mascolo, Melissa Glassman, Max Joyce, Inga, Henry, and Lucas, Mel, Corey MacNeil, Dianne, Michael Towey, Jenny, Loretta and Kris, Deb Papps, Derek Fuller and Family, the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem and their ministries, Palestinian Families, for Ukraine and Haiti; the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Salem, the Salem Public Schools and for an end to racism, war, anti-Semitism, gun violence and oppression. In thanksgiving for the Fundraising Committee at Grace Church. If you have prayer requests, please email prayerlist@gracechurchsalem.org by Tuesday at noon for publication in that week's e-news.

Welcome spring

Our Annual Plant Sale will be on Saturday May 11th this year. This is always a fun event and the fundraising committee is counting on you all to help make it happen. Please let us know how you plan to participate by returning a form or emailing us at fundraising@gracechurchsalem.org . We would like to have all donations by Saturday May 4th to allow us time to sort, repot and buy supplemental plants as needed for the sale. We would also like to have volunteers to help with set up, break down and sales on May 11th.  Please contact one of us or send an email and we will sign you up. Thank you for your support. - Peggy, Melissa, Joanne, and Kourtni

Bishop Candidates’ Meet and Greets

The Transition Committee, of which our own Kourtni Patten is a member, has announced the scheduling of a series of open meetings around the diocese May 7-11, giving the people of the diocese an opportunity to meet and learn more about the nominees for election as the diocese's 17th bishop diocesan. All in the diocesan community are invited to attend, particularly those who are voting members of the Special Electing Convention to be held on Saturday, May 18 at Trinity Church in Boston.

The meet-and-greet gatherings will be held on:

Tuesday, May 7 at All Saints' Parish, Ashmont in Dorchester, 7-8:30 p.m. 

Wednesday, May 8 at St. Mary's Church in Barnstable, 10-11:30 a.m.

Wednesday, May 8 at St. Thomas's Church in Taunton, 7-8:30 p.m. 

Thursday, May 9 at Christ Church in Needham, 2-3:30 p.m.

Friday, May 10 at Christ Church in Andover, 7-8:30 p.m. (with childcare)

Saturday, May 11 on Zoom, 10:30 a.m.-noon (with special Zoom rooms for youth and young adults, as well as for all others).

Additionally, there will be a "Coffee & Conversations with Clergy, Postulants and Candidates" session on Thursday, May 9, 10:30 a.m. to noon, at St. Paul's Church in Dedham.

Information about Zoom access and other details will be posted at www.diomass.org/bishop-search/meet-greets as they become available.

A Prayer for the Bishop Election

Loving and Living God, as we seek a bishop for the Diocese of Massachusetts, we also seek you. Help us to listen deeply as you speak through the people of our diocese; through our parishes, missions, ministries and institutions; through our neighborhoods, towns and cities; through our past and our present; through word and sacrament.

When we are distracted by other voices, other tasks, other pressures, call us back to you. Give us courage, vision and an ability to see past the surface of things. May we be patient and compassionate, trusting always in your mercy and goodness to us and to all that you have made.

We pray this in the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, one God. Amen.