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Worship at Grace
Year-round Schedule
Sunday Services at 10:30 am Celtic Meditations at 4:00 pm Healing Services every week at 4:00 pm Young and the Restless Chapel at 9:00 am the second Sunday of the month Morning Prayer Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at 9:30 am All are always welcome to worship and pray with us at all services
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This Week's Calendar
Wednesday
Day of Fasting
12:00 pm
Lord's Prayer
6:00 pm
Bible Study
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Thursday
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The Sunday of the Passion:
Palm Sunday
10:00 am
Liturgy of the Day via Zoom
4:00 pm
Celtic Evensong
via Facebook Live
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Monday
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6:00 pm
Bible Study via Zoom
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Leadership
The Reverend Debbie Phillips, Rector
Vestry
Tom Gaither,
Sr. Warden
Brian Fizer,
Jr. Warden
Ryan Patten, Clerk
Joanne Moar, Treasurer
Melissa Barnes
Laura Beasley-Topliffe
Katie LaBonte
Jane Stewart
Jason Stonehouse
Angela Williams
Staff
Larry Kamp,
Director of Music
Tom and Karen Tucker, Sextons
Cheryl Robinson, Bookkeeper
Worship
The Reverend
Debbie Phillips,
Chair
Hugh MacKay
Joanne Moar,
Vergers
Laura Beasley-Topliffe
Beth Brown
Lois Nicholson
Cindy Rhodes
Helen Watson-Felt,
Altar Guild
Deb Papps,
Chair
Jane Thompson
Maureen Joyce,
Flower Committee
Celtic Meditations Team
Ryan Patten, musician
Eric Wagner
Jane Stewart
Joanne Moar
Kathleen Tone
Director of Church School
Melissa Barnes
Real Asset Management/Property
Eric Wagner
Mike Ouellette
Tom Tucker
Bob Cole
Walter Weizenauer
Robert Hoffman
Stewardship
Ministry Team
Tom Gaither, Chair
Caroline Watson-Felt
Priscilla Lemons, Clerk
Creation Care
Laura Beasley-Topliffe
Tom Gaither
Jane Stewart
Garden of Life
Jason Stonehouse
Ad Hoc Fundraising
Peggy Carter
Melissa Barnes
Joanne Moar
Caroline Watson-Felt
Convention Delegates
Laura Beasley-Topliffe
Joanne Moar
Eric Wagner, Alternate
Deanery Delegates
Laura Beasley-Topliffe
Joanne Moar
Walter Weizenauer
Eric Wagner
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Dear Seekers,
A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. - Matthew 21:8
Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. - Mark 11:8
As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. -Luke 19:36
These three passages from three different Gospels depict the activity of the crowd when Jesus descended the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem. The crowds did not order palms from Vermont Church Supply to get ready for this event! As we see, they mostly used their cloaks and whatever branches they could find - like palm, but also olive branches - to place on the ground under the colt's feet.
This Sunday, we will do the same. I am asking that everyone find a branch for the service this week, or an article of clothing like a scarf or wrap to wave.
Instead of live streaming from Facebook, we will be using something called Zoom for the live service, so that we may be able to see each of us during the Palm Sunday processional with whatever it is we pick to wave as we sing.
When we finally gather again in person, blessed palm crosses will be handed out as a reminder for the rest of the year of the King of our hearts, who beat down evil and death with love.
May we strive to do the same.
In the Way of Love,
Debbie
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As you read above, this Sunday we will be observing Palm Sunday as we enter into the holiest of weeks.
The 10:00 am service will be live-streamed from Zoom, a meeting platform that allows us to see each other on the screen. The link for this service will be sent out on Saturday. All one has to do is click on the link at 10:00 and you'll be at the service! (For those of you who regularly are a bit late to church, you may join at any time).
The service will begin with the liturgy of the palms. The hymn will be "All, glory, laud, and honor" which we can sing from our homes as we wave our garments and branches. We then have the readings for the day, and we will sing "When I survey the wondrous cross," before the Gospel. Then, there will the Passion Narrative according to Matthew, read by members of the parish. Following the homily, the prayers come from the bidding prayers (without the solemn collects for you church geeks) from the Good Friday service. After singing "Ride on! Ride on in majesty!" the service concludes with a final prayer. I will ask that you stay on for another 10-15 minutes for a virtual coffee quarter of an hour.
This service will be recorded and up on our website
www.gracechurchsalem.org, later in the day for those who cannot attend at 10:00 am.
At 4:00 pm, the Celtic service will be streamed on Facebook, with a reflection by Kathleen Tone read by the Rector. To access this service, go onto our Grace Episcopal Church Salem Facebook page. Whether you are on Facebook or not, a recorded version of this service will be accessed on our website
www.gracechurchsalem.org by 5:00 pm.
Please join us wherever you are
in your search for meaning.
Everyone is welcome at any and all services at Grace Episcopal Church
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*Note to leaders:
The new schedule is found on the website
here
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I am currently considering how we can observe Holy Week in theologically sound ways.
Maundy Thursday at 7:00 pm:
This is the night that Jesus gives us the great commandment: To love one another as he has loved us. He shows this love as a servant. The service will begin with the proper liturgy. Instead of the washing of feet, we are invited to make a commitment to serving others in a specific way over the next year. A symbol of our own choosing (rock for offering strength, candle to bring light to others, can of food if committing to feeding programs, pen or notes if the ministry will be staying in touch with others, a book if planning to read to another, etc.) will then be offered and left in our homes as a reminder of this commitment.
Following this, we will remember the poignant moments following the supper until Jesus' arrest as it is told in the Gospel according to Matthew.
Good Friday at Noon:
I am working on a video on the Way of the Cross using Cynthia Duda's poems. Wish me luck with this!
Good Friday at 7:00 pm:
The Proper Liturgy for Good Friday will be read.
Easter Vigil at 7:00 pm:
The stories from the Easter Vigil will be told as we move from the darkest of days into the excitement of Easter!
Easter at sunrise:
Depending on the weather, I will live stream from my home.
Easter at 10:00 am:
Bishop Gates is live streaming a service from the Cathedral. I invite everyone to join in this Diocesan-wide celebration of the feast.
The links for all these services will be included in next week's Grace-Notes.
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Bible Study
continues via Zoom.
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Bible Study tonight at 6:00 pm via Zoom.
Grace Church is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Grace Church's Zoom Meeting
Time: Apr 1, 2020 06:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/149208358
Meeting ID: 149 208 358
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New this week from the Presiding Bishop
On Our Theology of Worship: Questions in the Time of COVID-19
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Presiding Bishop Michael Curry's Word to the Church:
March 31, 2020
John Donne, Priest, 1631
Dear Friends in Christ Jesus,
We find ourselves in the strange position of fasting from physical gathering for worship of almighty God, not out of sloth or disobedience, but in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, for whom the primacy of love for God and neighbor is the way of life. In the context of the coronavirus pandemic, refraining from physically gathering together to hear God's holy word and receiving the sacrament of holy communion is itself an act of love for God and our neighbor.
As one of our spiritual ancestors once cried, "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" (Psalm 137). How shall we sing the Lord's song in this alien and strange land of COVID-19? How shall we conduct the public worship of Almighty God? How shall we provide pastoral ministrations to people who are sick, dying, and any in need? How shall we baptize? Ordain? How? I thank God for the bishops, priests, deacons, and the whole people of God who have been faithfully seeking ways to sing the Lord's song in ways that truly worship God and simultaneously help to heal and protect human life.
It is my conviction that the Anglican way of following Jesus has deep within it a way and habit of worship and liturgy that is of significant help to us in this moment. It may well be that the breadth and depth of the Anglican way of common prayer can come to our aid now, when for the sake of others, we abstain from physical, public gathering to hear God's Word and to receive the Sacrament.
With this in mind I convened a group to help me compose a theological reflection on how this Anglican way gives guidance in this moment. I hope this will be a framework, a theological context, or a signpost pointing in the direction of some of the wisdom of the Anglican way of common prayer. This is not in any sense a set of guidelines, directives, or mandates. I commend this work to you.
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be thou our guide while life shall last,
And our eternal home.
God love you. God bless you.
Keep the faith,
+Michael
The Most Reverend Michael B. Curry
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church
An Offering of Reflection by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry
On Our Theology of Worship: Questions in the Time of COVID-19
Across The Episcopal Church the current Pandemic has given rise to many questions about challenges to our liturgical life. Bishops are being asked, "May we do this or that? Will you permit this or that way of celebrating the Eucharist or delivering Holy Communion to the members of our congregations?" Some years ago in an essay titled "Is There a Christian Sexual Ethic?" Rowan Williams observed that in the then current debates about marriage rites for same sex couples, this "permissible/not permissible" way of conducting the conversation was a dead end. The real (and much more productive) question for a sacramental people, he said, was not simply whether a given practice was "right or wrong," but rather "How much are we prepared for this or that liturgical action to mean?" How much are we prepared for it to signify? Sacraments effect by signifying.
Sacraments are actions that give new meaning to things. The current questions about the way we worship in a time of radical physical distancing invites the question of what we are prepared for a given sacramental encounter to mean. Sacraments are communal actions that depend on "stuff": bread and wine, water and oil. They depend on gathering and giving thanks, on proclaiming and receiving the stories of salvation, on bathing in water, on eating and drinking together. These are physical and social realities that are not duplicatable in the virtual world. Gazing at a celebration of the Eucharist is one thing; participating in a physical gathering and sharing the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist is another. And, God, of course, can be present in both experiences.
And that is surely the most important thing to remember. From the time of Thomas Cranmer, mainstream Anglicanism has insisted that the Holy Eucharist is to be celebrated in community, with no fewer than two people. In contrast to some medieval practices, the Prayer Book tradition was deeply concerned with reestablishing the essential connection between the celebration of the Eucharist and the reception of Holy Communion. Over time, of course, many factors contributed to a general decline in the celebration of the Eucharist well into the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and Morning Prayer became the common service of worship on the Lord's Day. And while it is good and right that the situation has changed dramatically, that the Holy Eucharist has again become the principal act of worship on Sunday across our church, few would suggest that the experience of Morning Prayer somehow limited God's presence and love to generations of Anglican Christians. There are members of our church today who do not enjoy a regular sustained celebration of the Eucharist for a variety of reasons other than this Pandemic - they are no less members of Christ's Body because of it.
Practices such as "drive by communion" present public health concerns and further distort the essential link between a communal celebration and the culmination of that celebration in the reception of the Eucharistic Bread and Wine. This is not to say that the presence of the Dying and Rising Christ cannot be received by any of these means. It is to say that from a human perspective, the full meaning of the Eucharist is not obviously signified by them. Our theology is generous in its assurance of Christ's presence in all our times of need. In a rubric in the service for Ministration to the Sick (p. 457), The Book of Common Prayer clearly expresses the conviction that even if a person is prevented from physically receiving the Sacrament for reasons of extreme illness or disability, the desire for Christ's presence alone is enough for all the benefits of the Sacrament to be received.
Richard Hooker described the corporate prayer of Christians as having a spiritual significance far greater than the sum of the individual prayers of the individual members of the body. Through corporate prayer, he said, Christians participate in communion with Christ himself, "joined ... to that visible, mystical body which is his Church." Hooker did not have in mind just the Eucharist, which might have taken place only quarterly or, at best, monthly in his day. He had very much in mind the assembly of faithful Christians gathered for the Daily Office.
While not exclusively the case, online worship may be better suited to ways of praying represented by the forms of the Daily Office than by the physical and material dimensions required by the Eucharist. And under our present circumstances, in making greater use of the Office there may be an opportunity to recover aspects of our tradition that point to the sacramentality of the scriptures, the efficacy of prayer itself, the holiness of the household as the "domestic church," and the reassurance that the baptized are already and forever marked as Christ's own. We are living limbs and members of the Body of Christ, wherever and however we gather. The questions being posed to Bishops around these matters are invitations to a deeper engagement with what we mean by the word "sacrament" and how much we are prepared for the Church itself - with or without our accustomed celebrations of the Eucharist - to signify about the presence of God with us.
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