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Save the Date
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Photos during church:
June 10
UTO Collection:
June 17
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Welcome to Grace!
As part of our being Grace in the city, we want to extend our welcome to anyone seeking God or a deeper life with God. If someone you know fits that situation, consider forwarding this newsletter to her or him. Or, if you prefer, let the church office know and we'll do the forwarding.
See you Sunday. --Beth Reed, Priest-in-charge |
| Sunday, June 10, at Grace | |  Eucharist, Photos, Refreshments
We celebrate the Eucharist at 10 AM. Photographer Hub Willson will be taking pictures of the parish at worship--these photos will be used on our website and in other communication materials. Please plan to attend this Sunday, so these photos show our worship space as full and as joyful as it can be.
We enter the stretch of the church year "after Pentecost." We return to our week-by-week reading of the Gospel of Mark. The second readings are from several letters of Paul, starting with the Second Letter to the Corinthians. The first readings (from the Old or First Testament) were chosen by lectionary framers for their relation in some fashion to the gospel passage of the day. The relation may be a similar image, a contrast, or a First Testament personage or idea that is referred to in the gospel, among other things.
After the service, we'll gather for refreshments and conversation.
The photo above is by Hub Willson. |
| Grace Community Foundation | |  Here are the May numbers
Food pantry usage is up 6% so far this year. For May, the pantry served 297 families. This includes 541 adults, 36 seniors, and 425 children. These people are our neighbors.
Our pantry also welcomed some new volunteers from neighborhood, including several men from the Community Corrections Center at 608 Hamilton and a woman and her two adolescent daughters from Allentown who are looking to be more active in their community this summer. The diversity among our volunteers is a strength of the pantry, and new volunteers quickly learn our approach of treating each person with dignity. |
| United Thank Offering | | We'll do this on June 17 
At the Eucharist every week, the plate is passed and people put in their pledges and other contributions. On a few other occasions through the year, we have the opportunity to make donations to ministries broader than our own. June 17 will be one such day. The United Thank Offering is a ministry of the Episcopal Church for the mission of the whole church.
Grace Church received a grant from United Thank Offering several years ago of around $35,000, which was used to renovate the downstairs bathrooms and the church offices. In other words, we have benefited substantially from UTO, and if we can support this effort, we should, so others can benefit as we have. Special envelopes will be included in the bulletin this Sunday, and the envelopes can be put in the plate on June 17. (If you forget, there will be a "grace" period.)
In recent years, our parish has made very small contributions to this national effort (about $200 per year). It would be great if this number could go up substantially.
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| Congratulations! | |  Graduates celebrate accomplishments
In the name of the parish, I extend congratulations to people in our midst who are graduating this season: to Beverly Rickles (with an M. Ed. from DeSales University), to Julia Molloy (from William Allen High School), and to Julia Reed (from Grace Montessori).
Other graduates connected to Grace are students in the Literacy Center's GED program. They have been meeting for classes in our multipurpose room every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday since last fall, and they will receive their diplomas on June 19. Few parishioners see this program in action, but that doesn't mean it isn't vitally important to some of our neighbors in Allentown. Another person connected to Grace receives a special award next Monday: Jack McNamara (son of Patty, the director of our pantry), was named the Nicest 5th-Grade Boy at Muhlenberg Elementary. |
| Downtown Development | |  There's a hole in the middle
of the city
A few blocks from the church and across the street from the main campus of our school, there's a huge hole in the ground. It's the beginning of a new arena and hotel and office buildings. What happens next? Delay in the process seems to be a possibility.
I encourage you to stay current on this issue and bring your thoughts and questions to any parish gathering. This is our neighborhood, and Grace Church and our ministries and our neighbors will surely be affected by whatever happens nearby.
(The photo is by Donna Fisher and appeared in the online version of the Morning Call on May 23.)
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| Summer Reading Group | |  It starts June 17
A group of parishioners has been gathering for several years now on summer Sunday nights to read and converse about a book or two, as well as to enjoy refreshments and each other's company. The group gathers in homes.
The first book this summer is Tavis Smiley and Cornel West's The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto, and the the group will begin on June 17. For more information, contact Mary Louise Bross or Bob House. If you would like to buy the book at the Moravian Book Shop in downtown Bethlehem, you can get a discount and not pay sales tax if you tell them you are reading it with the Grace group. |
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