9:00 am 

 

 

Welcome to the weekly e-newsletter of Grace Episcopal Church. Read about what's happening at Grace, and use the quick links to the left to find other helps to our life with God. 

Lent is a spare, stark season in the church's year. We gather in silence for the Sunday liturgy. We fast from our weekly refreshments and conversation time, and we will return to these joyful practices at Easter. We reverently prepare for the immersion in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection that is the Easter Triduum (April 5-8). 

To share Grace's news with a friend, click the "forward email" link at the bottom of the page. This could be a simple way to let someone know about our life and work, and to communicate our welcome.

See you Sunday!

We celebrate the Eucharist at 10:00. The first reading is from the prophet Jeremiah, in which God talks about a new covenant with the people, one that will be written on their hearts. For the full texts, click on "Sunday Scripture texts" in the Quick Links box. 

After the service, we will meet in the gathering space to consider the fifth scripture reading of the Easter Vigil (Isaiah 55:1-11), a passage that begins "Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and whoever has no money, come, buy and eat!" Are you thirsty? Is the church thirsty? Our city, our culture--do they and do we want the food and drink on offer? 

Read more about this conversation below. 

The image is Meu Coracao/My Heart, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54138 [retrieved March 22, 2012].

During Lent, our Forum time after church will focus on some texts of the Easter Vigil. Beth Reed will lead these conversations. 

A booklet with texts and meditations is available at the back of the church. It will ground our conversations on the Sundays in March. These conversations are open to everyone; please consider participating, especially if recent Forum offerings have not appealed to you! Each Sunday's discussion will stand on its own; that is, you do not have to commit to coming every week.

The texts can be read at home to prepare for Sunday's conversation. What questions do they raise for you? How do they sound to you in light of our Triduum celebrations? Which parts of the readings comfort and challenge you? How do you hear the Spirit speaking to God's people? When we come to celebrate the Vigil in the darkness of April 7, our experience will likely be richer for having already opened our hearts and ears to these texts.

If you cannot partake of these conversations at the Forum time, 

the texts and meditations can seed your prayer at home through the season of Lent. 

You know Grace has no paid custodial staff: we take care of our building ourselves. Parishioners attend to weekly cleaning tasks. Kelly Cannon and Jeff Reed do some vacuuming, and the Brosses clean the bathrooms, for example. The Altar Guild takes care of linens and vessels for our services. Ray Harbort and Ellen Roberts tend the gardens. 

The next two Saturdays (March 24 and 31) volunteers will gather at 9:00 am for serious spring cleaning. In addition to the worship space, we need to pay attention to the gathering space, the administrative offices, the doors and windows, blinds, carpets, etc. We will work for several hours each day. 

 

It's not glamorous or exciting, but maintaining a clean space is part of our common life and part of the hospitality we offer visitors. If you are able to contribute even an hour, please do so. David Moyer, our junior warden, is organizing this effort. If you are able to give him advance notice of your participation, that would be helpful. Send him an email here. 

Muffins and coffee will be provided.

The event will be held in Dyer Auditorium in the Walter Building on Moravian Academy's Upper School campus, 4313 Green Pond Road in Bethlehem. 

The image is from the website uncommonpromise.com. 

Cecilia Rodriguez has a lot of experience connecting our neighbors with jobs. She used to do that work for Allentown's Weed and Seed effort, and her office was in our building, next to our gathering space. Weed and Seed was defunded by Pennsylvania this year. 

But Cecilia is back, doing similar work and again in our office space, now under the auspices of Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley (CACLV). The organization pays a very modest monthly rent to Grace, and her work fits with our mission in the city. 

You can see Michael Fegley in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), "a three-actor romp through the Bard's plays full of parody, improvisation, and farce." The Allentown Public Theatre show runs Thursdays through Saturdays, March 22 through April 7 in the Long Haul Room of the America on Wheels museum. (Michael is very sad to miss participating in the Triduum this year. Grace will miss his voice during the Genesis reading at the Vigil.) For tickets, click here. 

August Fegley and Julia Reed will appear in Alice in Wonderland at Allentown's Civic Theatre April 12-14. August is the White Rabbit, and Julia is Rose. The box office phone is 610-432-8943.