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Grace Episcopal Church
Parish News
For the Week of June 14, 2020
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Sunday, June 14
2nd Sunday After Pentecost
We will begin to regather for worship this Sunday. Please see the Regather Plans for Grace Episcopal Church below for details. Our services will also be offered online on
Facebook Live at 8 & 10:30 services and ZOOM for the 10:30 service.
If you cannot gather with us in person for holycommunion and would like to receive communion, please call the parish office (540.463.4981) or email (sharon@graceepiscopallexington.org) and let us know how many people in your household would like to receive communion and specify if anyone needs a gluten free wafer. Someone from the service will deliver (observing social distancing) the consecrated bread to you shortly after the service.
(Please register if you are attending at 10:30 in person here)
Regathering Plans for Grace Episcopal Church
Dear friends,
Our worship guilds are preparing to ensure that our regathering is as safe and joyful as possible. Please help us by
- Staying informed and vigilant with regard to your personal and household risk.
- Following the instructions in Stop the Spread of Germs. pdf Everyone should bring and wear a mask.
- Signing up for one of the Sunday services. Attendance at each service is limited to 41 individuals or households spaced six feet apart. These restrictions should not pose an issue at our 8 AM service. We will have to sign up to attend the 10:30 service. Sign-up will be available starting the Monday before the service by a link sent to you by email or you can call the church office to reserve a space.
- Bringing your personal Book of Common Prayer and Bible either in printed or electronic formats. You can download the electronic Common Prayer app here. Prayer Books and Hymnals have been removed from the church.
- Bringing a pre-printed or use an electronic version of the service. (www.graceepiscopallexington.org) If you arrive without Prayer Book or Bible a limited number of preprinted full text bulletins will be available.
- Remembering that because singing is currently deemed a "superspreader," we will currently be singing in our hearts and not out loud.
- Bringing the love of God and each other with you! Please don't forget the Holy Spirit including joy, kindness, patience, a sense of humor, and the openness to experience new things.
- The church will not be air conditioned during services. The front and side doors will be left open for circulation of air.
- Obeying the instructions of ushers, clergy and other worship leaders.
The opportunity to regather is not a sign that the risk of contracting the virus has diminished. It does mean that we have confidence that our health care system has sufficient capacity and that we all have sufficient resources to manage the risk.
Let us rejoice and be glad that we have come this far safely together, and let us continue to take care of one another as best we can in the months to come.
With thanks and praise to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Tuck, Martha, James, Lisa, and Sharon
Exploring a Prayer Discipline, Monday, June 15 at 10 am
Morning Prayer, Monday - Friday, 8:30 am
Compline, Monday - Friday, 8:30 pm
Did You Know?
Did you know that you can pay your pledge or make a donation to Grace Episcopal Church online? Go to
www.graceepiscopallexington.org From the list on the top right hand side click on
GIVE.
Study of the book of Acts, Wednesdays, 6:30 pm
From Our Minister of Music, Martha Burford
Father's Day is a'comin round the mountain! The Mother's Day video got lots of feedback. Time for a Father's Day video! Send pictures of the Fathers in your lives. Young pictures, old pictures, new pictures, baby pictures. This time the slides will be numbered, and we'll have a contest to see who can name the most fathers. Prize TBA. If you don't recognize someone in a picture, call around and ask. It can be a team effort! (But don't ask the staff!!!) Send your photos to Martha at
Martha@graceepiscopallexington.org by Monday, June 15.
(Note from Martha - The Mother's are winning. Please submit your pictures today!)
Wonder how we're making music these days?
Check out this video about Grace's music ministry published by Virginia Theological Seminary. Their Center for Lifelong Learning is offering a series of music ministers sharing about music during Covid. You'll see familiar faces and spaces:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irs0TbdPZuA&t=6s
We are finding ways to share music and song. Many of you have noticed that the choir keeps contributing to prerecorded music for services. For now, we will keep doing that, as we cannot gathering as singers in our liturgies. This too shall pass. In the meantime, if you play keyboard or a stringed instrument, when we start to regather, those could be played in the sanctuary. I'd love for folk to volunteer! If you sing or play a wind instrument and want to do a recording, please let me know. If you want to, but don't know how, I can help you, and we'll figure it out!
Beloved Hymns: Y'all, I know you have hymns that you love and that have formed you. It's a really lovely way to learn something about hymns and about each other. Click on the doc and just type. Or, if you're shy to do that, send me an email, and I'll enter your text into the document. AND make note of your hymn so we can sing it soon. Maybe we can have a zoom hymn-sing!
United Thank Offering Parish Coordinator Needed
We are grateful to Julia Littlefield for her faithful service as our Parish UTO (United Thank Offering) Coordinator, during the past sixteen year. Julia would now like to offer this rewarding opportunity to another parishioner.
Thank you from the Christian Outreach Committee
The Christian Outreach Committee would like to thank all who contributed to Boys Home "Christmas in May Wish List. In addition to items delivered to the Boys Home bin in the Parish House, parishioners donated a total of $660 to the "Community Outreach" online fund on the Grace website. These funds were used to purchase remaining higher-cost items on the Wish List. Your generosity is certain to brighten the lives of the boys, especially during the recent months of restrictions related to Covid-19 health and safety considerations at the home.
Clean out your garage* for a good cause!
* closets, cupboards, attics, basements, etc.
It's almost time for our second annual SUDAN MISSION YARD SALE at Grace, scheduled for July 11, 8:30 am to 2 pm. This year, proceeds from the sale will send three South Sudanese youths, John, Mary and William, to high school for the 2021 academic year (January to December). The goal is $3,500. All kinds of resalable items are needed for the sale. Items may be dropped off in the Scout Room, downstairs in the Parish Hall. If you would like to make a monetary donation, you can send a check to Grace Episcopal Church with "South Sudan Students" in the memo line, or make an online donation by selecting "Community Outreach" from the drop down menu on the church website at
In spite of the global pandemic brought on by Covid-19, the students are making excellent progress under the care of the Rt. Rev. Peter Yuol Gur, their bishop in the Diocese of Tonj, South Sudan. Your donations of yard sale items and cash will help give them the opportunity to continue their education for another year.
I Can Help
The COVID-19 virus will leave some of us in Rockbridge isolated and vulnerable and others better positioned to help out. We are working together as an unofficial group of neighbors in the region who want to help match people who are experiencing hardships from COVID-19-related issues with volunteers who have offered to provide help. If you are healthy with no underlying conditions, you may want to volunteer for in-person assistance to others, such as delivering food or supplies or running errands. If you are more comfortable offering assistance from your home, there are options for that as well. We will be doing our best to direct you to up-to-date organizations that need volunteers or to match you with people who have indicated need. After you fill out the form, we will let you know where you can be most useful based on what we are hearing. THANK YOU, KIND PEOPLE.
I Can Help
Project Horizon
Project Horizon says that with the increased number of clients they are needing to put people in hotels. Gift cards to grocery stores and microwavable foods (i.e. noodles in a cup, mac n cheese) or easy to fix items (Poptarts, individual cereal) are requested. Project Horizon can use cleaning supplies and toilet paper. Donations may be left in the box just inside the Grace Episcopal Church Parish House door under the bridge. Gift cards may be mailed directly to Project Horizon at 120 Varner Ln, Lexington, VA 24450.
You are invited!
Census Workers Needed in Lexington City and Rockbridge County
Birthdays for the weeks of
June 14 and June 21
Penny Henneman (6/14)
Susan Bedell (6/15) Judy Schram (6/16) Alden Mastin
(6/18) Susan Lawrence (6/20) David Grizzle(6/20) Summer Hull (6/20) Sandy Harcus (6/24)
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