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DIOCESAN CONVENTION
Worship--TONIGHT--Friday, November 20, 7 pm
A simple worship service will be offered to end our week and prepare us for Saturday's convention. It will be pre-recorded and offer music of various genres from talented musicians in our Diocese. There will be a necrology of those who have died since the last Convention.
The service will be live on the Diocese's FaceBook page and YouTube channel: DIOFB or DIOYT
Participants are invited to have a space prepared for worship with a candle, if desired. Here is the bulletin: DIO BULLETIN
Convention--Saturday, November 21 The 183rd Convention of the Diocese will begin on a Zoom webinar at 10 am on the 21st. It is free of charge. The link to the webinar will be available in next week's e-Blast. Voting members will receive the secured link by November 19.
Convention Proceedings: Same links as above beginning at 10 am.
INGATHERING OF PLEDGES
Sunday's worship will include an ingathering and dedication of our pledges for the ministries of Grace Church in 2021.
As we will not be able to bring forward our pledge cards in person, we will offer a "virtual ingathering." You should receive in today's mail a packet including a letter from the Senior Warden, a pledge card along with some giving  statistics, and Giving Badges--somewhat similar to the "I VOTED" badges in our recent election.
At the time of the offering, if you intend to pledge this year, you will be asked to put that badge on and join in the Prayer of Dedication.
UNITED CHURCHES THANKSGIVING SERVICE
The United Churches will offer its Thanksgiving service online this year. It will be prerecorded and available on the UCG FaceBook page at approximately 2 pm on This Sunday, November 22. You may access the service here: UCG
COMMUNION FOR ZOOM CONGREGATION
Would you be interested in participating in Communion as part of our Zoom worship as we did on All Saints Sunday?
For those of you who have signed up for Home Communion Kits, they may be picked up at the church during the times listed below. Our Thanksgiving service on Thursday at 10:00am will include Holy Communion. Please contact the church office if you need to arrange another time.
Saturday, November 21 8:15 - 10:00am
Monday, November 23 10:00 - 11:00am
Tuesday, November 24 2:00 - 3:00pm
Wednesday, November 25 8:30 - 9:30am
If you have not signed up and wish to be included, please call the church office.
Until we are able to worship in the church, additional consecrated wafers will be available each month.The consecrated wafers are holy. It is important that they be treated with reverence during and between services. We ask that you designate a place in your home that is special, for example, a home altar, or with your Prayer Book or Bible.
We anticipate with joy the time when we can all be safely together again.
Peace and God's blessings,
Gloria+ Deacon Diane
GRACE THANKSGIVING SERVICE
 We will worship on Zoom at 10 am on Thanksgiving morning. It will be a service of Holy Eucharist and of gratitude for the blessings we cherish. In this time when many of us will not be able to gather with family and friends for this annual holiday, perhaps you will join our church community at 10. Here is the Zoom link: THANKS
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I'm feeling a little wistful today. I expect some of you are as well as we face the beginning of the holiday season with rather poor prospects of being able to gather as we are accustomed with family and friends. Or, to make decisions about the relative risks of doing so.
Our Altar Guild and our Worship Ministries met by Zoom this week to make our plans for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany just as we do each year at this time. But this time, we had to make adjustments and also leave room for further changes in our pandemic status. Might we go back to limited in-person worship in this time? This is especially hard on those of us who like to have everything neat and in order. We are learning to be nimble and resilient! Not entirely a bad thing!
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All Those Young Bishops with Bishop Lee
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But I am especially sad that I am not at the Westin Hotel in Lombard participating along with our Grace Church and Rockford Deanery delegates in the 183rd Convention of the Diocese of Chicago. Even though we are just one table in a huge ballroom of people, it has been a very special time for me and for others as we mingle with crowd in worship and song as well as the business of the wider church. We attend small seminars with other churches and hear about--and learn from--their
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The "All Y'all Choir" leading Convention Worship
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ministries and our shared challenges. Our Grace group spends some quality time together, especially at our customary Friday night meal--in recent years at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen where we get to hear some Dixieland along with our meal! Then, some of us attend a bit of the diocesan tradition--a dance party where all ages dance together and make a joyful noise! Our bishop makes a regular appearance on the dance floor!
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A previous Grace delegation with the "Presiding Bishop."
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Last year at this time, Bp. Lee's address was entitled, "Bishops Come and Bishops Go." It was intended to be his last convention presiding over our diocese, as he would retire in August 2020. Who could have guessed that a pandemic would have turned our lives upside down. With the schedule that had been established, our new bishop would have been with us. But, here we are, still a few weeks short of deciding who that Bishop will be.
Surprises. Unintended consequences. Obstacles in the
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Part of the 2019 Grace Delegation doing business
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road of the most carefully planned routes. It is a time for giving thanks for the God who is with us in the rough places and plain. To grieve losses, of course, but to look deeply for those happy surprises, those touches of care and compassion, those bursts of insight and joy that peep through. They may be coming forth in these times. They may be from looking back and seeing and appreciating something in a way you never did before. HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE! And praise God from whom all blessings flow.
See you on Zoom! Gloria+
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CELEBRATE BISHOP LEE!
Zoom send-off on Saturday, December 5 at 4 pm
Episcopal Diocese of Chicago to join in a celebratory s  end-off for Bishop Jeff Lee and Lisa Lee on Saturday, December 5 at 4 pm via Zoom.
The event will include video greetings from parishioners, clergy and bishops; remarks from Bishop Jeff and Lisa; reflections on his episcopacy; and a festive toast. All are invited to join the virtual farewell celebration using the Zoom link below.
At the end of the celebration, Standing Committee president Anne Jolly will present the Lees with a retirement purse, a longstanding Episcopal tradition and expression of appreciation for his ministry. The Grace Vestry approved a contribution to the purse. If you wish to make an additional contribution, you are invited to donate by December 1. Gifts made be made online or by check (memo: Bishop's purse) and are tax deductible.
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READINGS: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24: God promises to rescue God's sheep, like a good shepherd, and to bring them to a fertile land, and then to judge between the sheep, protecting the weak from the bullies.
Psalm 100: A call to come and worship God and to enter God's temple with thanksgiving as people who are made by God and are the sheep of God's pasture. Ephesians 1:15-23: Paul gives thanks for the Ephesian Christians and prays that they may know God, God's call which is their hope, and God's power which raised Christ from the dead and made him head over all things, and which works in them. Matthew 25:31-46: Jesus tells a parable about judging the nations as a shepherd who separates sheep from goats, rejecting those who have failed to serve and love their neighbours, but embracing and welcoming those who have.
It is tragic that for so many the reign of Christ is seen only as some great military victory that Jesus will enforce on the world at some later time. It is tragic that for so many, this image of Christ's reign leads to cold disregard for the injustices in our world, and the suffering of the poor, the weak, the sick and the marginalised. Nothing could be further from the image of Christ's reign that we are asked to see and embrace in this last week of Year A. Here we are given a vision of a ruler who does not dominate or conquer by violence, but who chooses to be revealed in the margins of society - in the very ones we too often consider to be outside of God's grace and welcome. Here we are given a vision of a ruler who chooses the image of a nurturing and protective shepherd to describe his reign, not metaphors of violence, opulence and domination. Here we are invited to recognise that finding our place in God's reign is not about retreating from the world into some holy enclave and pointing fingers at all the "sinners" out there while we wait for Jesus to come and get "us" and destroy "them". Rather, finding our place in God's reign is about recognising that we - and all the outcasts that we thought were left out - are already included, if we will just see it, and see Jesus in each other. Then, as we serve and love and protect each other as we would Christ, and as Christ would us, we find that we are living and enjoying belonging in God's compassionate, gracious and serving reign. We do not need to wait for some future time for the parable of the sheep and the goats to be a reality for us. We can experience its truth today as we open our eyes to the Jesus in others and serve them accordingly, and as we allow them to serve us in return. We can know God's reign right now as we live from the hope that compassion and grace and welcome can be the principles on which our world is based, and as we allow that hope to give us the faith to trust in God's provision and care for all of us. Then, as we begin to see and experience the truth of God's reign in our daily lives, we will begin to show the generosity, the understanding and forgiveness, the inclusivity and celebration of difference that makes this reign of Christ manifest in our world now..
Thumbprints and commentaries from:
sacredise.com
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Third and Final Grace Galena Giving Campaign Story 2020: Richard Luther
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This week's giving campaign reflection:
Where all are queens and kings
By J. DAVEY GERHARD
The Church designates the final
Sunday of the Church year as
the Feast of Christ the King, a day in which the united rule of Christ over all of the universe
is celebrated. In many communities, it is a high feast, with altar guilds preparing white
vestments, flower guilds celebrating God's glory in elaborate displays, and hymns filled with alleluias. What a way to end the year, to celebrate
stewardship, and to prepare for Advent!
But before we get too carried away with the grandeur of it all, today's Gospel tells a different story about kingship and leadership: It tells of service. Typical of Jesus, he begins with what we expect - in this case power and triumph - and turns it upside down and in doing so, reminds us that it is through our ministry that we increase the role of the Church in our community. True power doesn't come through force or wealth or conquest, it is derived from generosity, charity, and love. We change the hearts and minds of our neighbors by loving them and serving them.
Throughout this stewardship season we have heard about the
mission of our own churches. You have learned about the ways that your gifts impact the life of your church and your neighbors. Perhaps this year you met the challenges of a global pandemic by adapting your worship. Maybe you responded to the needs of your community by increasing your outreach or your ministry to serve your neighbors. What is certain is that you had the opportunity to express your love and your hope for the world through your annual gift to your church. We seek and serve Christ in all people by serving our neighbors.
This is the great commandment of Jesus to his followers and it is one of the promises we make at our Baptism. When we are asked by those we meet on the street or those to whom we minister in our communities if we will offer them drink when they thirst, or visit them when they are lonely, or give them food when they hunger, our answer will be yes! Through our generosity and our faith, we are called to that same royal line as Jesus, leaders in our communities. Now that is a feast worth celebrating!
J. Davey Gerhard is the Executive Director of The Episcopal Network for Stewardship, and lives and teaches his faith in San Francisco, California.
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MESSAGE FROM CHRISTIAN FORMATION
We are still requesting responses to the questionnaire sent out to those participating in
The Christian Formation Ministry needs a solid information base to make recommendations about future programs and their mode of delivery. Click
or, if you wish, drop them at the church office or in the church mailbox. Snail mail is also an option.
Wednesday Morning Study Group
An insult that cannot be forgiven, not even for eternity?!!
You're gonna want to avoid that one! Join us to study, ponder and discuss St. Mark's Gospel. We gather safely Wednesday mornings on Zoom, 10:30 - 11:30. Contact Greg Serwich for an invitation.
Meditative Prayer 9:00am Fridays
Looking for a way to improve your prayer life, to open your heart, mind and soul to the Holy Spirit? Consider joining the Centering Prayer Group Friday mornings for about forty minutes of meditative prayer: twenty minutes of Centering Prayer followed by Lectio Divina. Contact Greg Serwich (gserwich@gmail.com) for a Zoom invitation which includes a description of these types of prayer.
ZOOM POETRY GROUP
A Zoom Poetry meeting from Grace Church has been organized and meets online on Mondays at 2:00pm. This is not specifically a Grace ministry, but a number of Grace members and friends are part of it If you are interested, write Carol Poston at poston@sxu.edu
or call her at 815-777-0220.
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Worship and Ministry in the Midst of COVID-19!
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Pentecost Season Worship
Sunday services will begin at our usual 10:30 time on Zoom. They will also be recorded and uploaded as quickly as possible for those unable to participate on Zoom. The uploads will appear on the church's Facebook page, @FullyGrace and on the Grace website.
Wednesday morning services are also now only on Zoom. Bible Study and Centering Prayer are also on Zoom each week. If you would like to add your name to any of these participant lists, please e-mail the church office.
Ministry of Care
Here at Grace, The Ministry of Care has organized regular phone and e-mail contact with our most vulnerable members. If you are in need of assistance, or pick-up and delivery of prescriptions or emergency supplies, please contact Bonnielynn Kreiser. Also contact her if you are able to help out. And, of course, your clergy are available by phone, text, and e-mail to provide pastoral care,
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Vestry Liaisons
Vestry Liaisons' primary purpose is to assure two-way communications between the various ministries and the Vestry, to represent the ministries for resources or policy issues, and to support their events and activities.
Worship: The Very Rev.Gloria Hopewell, Rector
Building and Grounds: Greg Serwich (Sr. Warden 2019-2021)
Worship Committee: Charlotte Stryker (class of 2022)
Formation and Spirituality: Elizabeth Ludescher (class of 2022)
Fellowship & Hospitality: Anita Sands (class of 2021)
Ministry of Care/LEMs: Nancy Cook (class of 2023)
Outreach: Tony Packard (class of 2021)
Communications: Eric Kallback(class of 2023) Governance: Wardens & Rector
Officers: Greg Serwich, Senior Warden
Lynn Giles, Junior Warden,
Richard Luther, Treasurer
Diann Marsh, Clerk The Rev. Dr. Gloria Hopewell, Rector
Staff: Robin French, Director of Music Nancy Cook, Erben Organist Nancy Kenney, Parish Administrator
Chris Ludescher, Nursery Attendant
The Rev. Linda Packard, Priest Associate
The Rev. Diane Luther, Deacon
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IN-PERSON WORSHIP CONTINUES TO BE SUSPENDED. We will still lead worship on Zoom from the church, with only the Altar Party, musician, and Zoom operator present in the building. Regular services are 10:30 am on Sundays; 7:30 am on Wednesdays.
ANYONE SCHEDULED TO SERVE WHO IS NOT COMFORTABLE BEING IN THE CHURCH, PLEASE CONTACT THE CHURCH OFFICE.
PARISH HOUSE
Regular hours will continue. Nancy is available on Tuesday - Friday mornings. I am available Monday by appointment and Tuesday-Thursday. In-person meetings are suspended (except for the 12-step programs that are part of our community outreach). please contact us ahead of time if you need to come by.
And masks are essential!
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Last Sunday in Pentecost
Christ the King
November 22, 2020
Zoom Worship-10:30 am
Meeting ID: 824 2178 3266
For quick reference, find Sunday's readings by clicking here:
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Psalm 100
Ephesians 1:15-23
Matthew 25:31-46
Ministers of the Service:
Presider: Rev. Dr. Gloria Hopewell
Deacon: Rev. Diane Luther
Lector: Nancy Cook
Intercessor: Deb Pausz
Vestry Coordinator: Greg Serwich
Music Director: Robin French
Greeter: Amy Hardwicke
Altar Guild: Charlotte Stryker
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First Advent
November 29, 2020
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
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For a current prayer list, click on the following link:
Grace Prayer List
The Request For Prayers notebook is in the Narthex/ Entrance area of the Church. Please feel free to request prayers for yourself or others at any time by filling out a form or contacting the office by either phone or email. May we first and always be "a people of prayer."
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Events This Week:
Sunday
Last Sunday in Pentecost
Christ the King
Holy Eucharist 10:30am
ONLINE ONLY on Zoom
Monday
Outreach Committee Meeting
10:00am Online
Zoom Poetry Meeting
2:00pm online
Tuesday
Holy Eucharist* 7:30am on Zoom
Bible Study** online 10:30am
Thursday
Thanksgiving Service
10:00am on Zoom
Friday
Meditative Prayer** online 9:00am
Saturday
To receive an invitation with the link to online events, please contact Gloria at
gracerector@
gracegalena.org
or **Greg Serwich at gserwich@gmail.com All are welcome! |
For current and upcoming events, check out the Google
calendar on the website
Calendar
Link to most current directory here:
Link to August - December 2020
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You can now get information on Formation Ministries directly from the new Grace website at the following links:
Children and Youth Adults
Spiritual Practices
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If you are in need of assistance while ill or recovering: meals, transportation, visits, please contact the Ministry of Care Facilitators who can assist you
and connect you with parishioners who have trained and committed to this ministry that includes Parish Visitors, Meals, Rides, as well as the ongoing Servants through Prayer, LEMs, and the Greeting Card ministry.
Ministry of Care Leadership Team: Facilitators : Bonnielynn Kreiser
Terri Jackman
Clergy Advisors:
Gloria Hopewell,
Linda Packard
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DEADLINES!
News and prayer requests:
Sunday Bulletin:
Wed. end of day.
e-Blast:
Thursday noon.
Anniversaries and Birthdays
Have yours been missed in our bulletins? Send to Nancy. Thank you!
News and Photos
for e-Blast!
People want to know what's going on at Grace! There are places here for your event, program, or interesting tidbit. Comments on this e-Blast may be sent here.
Audio files of sermons are posted on the Grace Church website as well as in the next week's e-Blast. Paper copies are available upon request.
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| | Grace Galena Wednesday Service 11 18 2020 |
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| | Grace Galena Sermon November 15, 2020 |
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| | Grace Episcopal Church, Galena IL Wednesday 11 11 2020 |
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| | Grace Episcopal Church Sunday Eucharist 11-8-2020 |
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| | Grace Episcopal Church, Galena IL, Wednesday 11-04-20 |
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| | Grace Church Galena All Saints 2020 |
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| | Grace Galena Sunday Eucharist 10 25 2020 |
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| | Grace Galena Wednesday Eucharist 10 21 2020 |
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| | Grace Galena Sunday Eucharist 10 18 2020 |
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| Grace Entry Video with Music
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| | Virtual Chapel with Compline |
2020-21 Giving Campaign
NOVENA SERVICES
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| | Season of Prayer: For an Election Novena #2 10-28-2020 |
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| | Grace Church Galena IL, A Season of Prayer: For an Election 11-3-2020 |
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| | Grace Episcopal Church Galena IL, A Season of Prayer: For an Election, 11-4- 2020 |
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