As we approach All Saints Day, the 2021 Stewardship Campaign has received pledges from 107 households who have pledged a total of $443,419 as of October 29. We have made tremendous progress in the past six weeks and appreciate the prayerful consideration of all at Grace Episcopal as the Stewardship Campaign strives to meet three goals: 100 percent participation; sufficient income through pledging to maintain current payroll and obligations without relying on endowment income ($550,000); and increase giving beyond Grace through the Diocesan pledge and Outreach. The Stewardship Committee will continue its work and follow up as the parish prepares its 2021 budget.
Gratefully,
Your Stewardship Committee: Dennis Cross (Chair), Susan Cross, Carol Dent, Gail Dickerson, David Hansen, John Milford, Rob Minor
Stewardship in Action
The Memorials Committee
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
For the past few years, I have had the privilege of serving on the Memorial Committee.
This committee is unique in that it doesn’t ask the Vestry for money. Its resources come from the outpouring of love that family and friends have for people they have lost and from a desire to honor those who are still with us.
The Memorial Committee is tasked with using these funds in a meaningful way.
The committee receives requests from the rector, staff members and other committees in the church. Requests for funds are proyerfully consisted by the committee members: Diana Kenney, Jerry Nay, Marjorie Connelly and Laura Sterns. Written notifications are also sent to family members when remembrances arrive and notifications to the donors acknowledging the received remembrances.
In the recent past, money from the committee has underwritten a fair linen cloth for the altar,
crosses for the acolytes, a traveling communion set for home visits, and the two display cases on the Bridge (with thanks to Elisabeth Harralson and Jerry Nay who undertook these two projects).
As you look around this sanctuary you see that it is filled with remembrances of people who have been loved during their often too brief lives. A mother remembers a daughter; a wife remembers her husband or a family remembers their sons lost too soon to war.
Sit quietly and alone in this holy place and open yourself to the joy and love that surrounds you; the love that comes from God and the love of remembering and honoring those that have gone before.
Indeed, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to moan and a time to dance…
a time for loving remembrance of those who have touched our lives and made our lives better.
Carole Elmore
