THE SEASON OF THANKFULNESS |
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The Second Sunday After Christmas
GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
WEEKLY UPDATE: 12.31.10 |
| PLEASE REMEMBER IN YOUR PRAYERS |
Janet, Doug Doller, Jack Seeman, Charles Drumm, Yasso Herath, Bob and Donna Weber, Elizabeth, Nick DeRosa, Patrick Kelly, Kyle Warnall, Thomas Humeston, Ellie, Peggy Lehrecke, Ruth Ingram, Bill and Catherine Lubeck, Linda McManus, Peggy McCann, Fred Fee, Phil Cifuentes, Chris Brigando, Phyllis Darrin, Dale Brunken, Elizabeth Uccellani, Ruth Boepple, Matthew, Michael Barraclough, Margaret, Mark Ciraldo, Carmen, Deborah Federico, Peter Lubeck, John Federico, Corporal Ryan Deis, Marie, Phoebe Colwell
FLOWER MEMORIALS Lillian & William Whyard, Frank & Martha Collins The prayer list is refreshed monthly please call the office to add a name, or to request that a name be carried forward. There is a book in the narthex where -- before the service begins -- you may add names to be read during the Prayers of the People for the day. |
READINGS
CLICK HERE to listen to sermons from previous weeks |
COLLECT OF THE DAY O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
CLICK HERE to visit the Episcopal Church's weekly Bible study website. You'll find all the readings along with background and commentary, and there's an opportunity to add your own comments as well. |
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Something about this time of year makes us resolve to do all manner of things better. Almost all our good intentions will be history in a week or two. But there is also that other aspect of this time of year, the part that taps us on the shoulder and whispers that our lives are speeding away, faster and faster, evaporating as we speak. That there is not much time left. That soon we will be gone.
At the end of the year we remember the other years. Look at photos of people who are gone. See our young selves-they, too, are gone. We marvel at them. Was that party really sixty years ago? Was I ever that young?
Yes, comes the answer from the pictures. You were. You still are. I'm still here, inside you, your eighteen-year-old self. But remember, we are leaving soon. Good-bye, good-bye.
The only remedy for that sorrow is a life well lived now. "Love well that which thou must leave ere long," Shakespeare wrote, and he was right.
Don't let a day of the new year pass without marking it, because it will be gone when it is over. Put into your days the things you want there-no one else will fill them for you. Anything we have can be taken from us at a moment's notice.
Some of the people in our old photographs are dead already, and one day we will be, as well, and no one knows when.
But today is ours.
From Let Us Bless the Lord, Year One: Meditations on the Daily Office, Advent through Holy Week by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton
CLICK HERE to go to Rev. Crafton's website The Geranium Farm, where you can sign up to receive her Almost Daily Emo and tap into a host of other resources. |
| Click here to go to our Facebook page -- our cyber-bulletin board. Someone must have pictures from the Christmas Pageant or Christmas services to share! Remember to share items that you find of interest -- pictures, links, etc --make or ask for book or movie recommendations, etc.... Not into Facebook? Click here to send an email and we'll post your note to the Grace Church Nyack page. |
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SATURDAY, January 1 - Feast of the Holy Name
9:30am Holy Eucharist
SUNDAY, January 2
8:00am/9:30am/11:00am Holy Eucharist
Church School is on hiatus
2:30 - 6:30pm Amazing Grace Circus Youth Troupe rehearsal (Memorial Hall)
TUESDAY, January 4
10:00am Staff Meeting (Patterson Hall)
4:00pm Amazing Grace Circus Winter Acrobatics Class (Memorial Hall)
7:00pm Boy Scouts (Memorial Hall)
8:00pm Choir
WEDNESDAY, January 5
12:15pm Clericus (Patterson Hall)
4:00pm Amazing Grace Circus Aerial Class (Memorial Hall)
7:30pm Diversity Team Meeting (Rector's Office)
THURSDAY, January 6
4:00pm Amazing Grace Circus Dance Class (Memorial Hall)
SATURDAY, January 8
10:00am Midnight Run (Memorial Hall)
SUNDAY, January 9
8:00am/9:30am/11:00pm
10:10am ChurchSchool Classes
10:10am PARISH FORUM: The Season of New Beginnings
2:30pm Amazing Grace Circus Youth Troupe rehearsal (Memorial Hall)
6:30pm Senior Youth Group
6:30pm French Creole Mass |
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PLEASE NOTE
The Pledge Campaign for 2011 has come up short by a substantial amount. At the last meeting of the vestry, the parish leaders decided to take the following actions to balance the 2011 budget:
Ø Staff realignment including but not limited to a freeze on salaries for the year;
Ø Reducing the heat in all buildings by one degree with the continued option of closing the building one day a week (Sunday- Tuesday morning);
Ø Closing the parish office on Friday;
Ø Deferring all capital projects until a reassessment in June of 2011 and repaying the debt on 137 First Avenue over eight years instead of two;
Ø A reduction in all budget lines by 1% of the 2010 budget as adjusted.
The vestry is aware that this is a 'band-aid' on the situation and represents a stop-gap measure, and that future ministry depends on the generous support of the Gospel and witness of the congregation to ministry to which the parish is called.
Can't find your pledge materials? The pledge card is also available online (CLICK HERE); just print it out and mail to us, or place in the offertory plate on Sunday.There's also a very helpful new Question & Answer sheet that answers many of the questions we receive concerning pledging, and, for those who would like to make their pledge payments via scheduled credit card payments or electronic bank debits (e-pledge), the authorization forms are also on line. |
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THANK YOU
Paul Weiss and his family delivered our gifts (more than 100!) to the Rockland Family Shelter and wanted those who contributed to know how grateful those at the Shelter are. He says: "The staff there could not have been more appreciative, and the word they used the most was incredible, which it is. The good people of Grace Church are incredible and spread an enormous amount of happiness and good will this holiday season. I'm honored to have played chauffeur to that selfless act by so many." Thank You to everyone! |
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GraceMusic presents: Postcard from Paris
Sunday, January 30 at 4:00pm
The ravishing Ravel string quartet, luscious chamber music by Debussy & Faure; the exceptional artistry of Caterina Szepes & Peter Winograd (violins), Katherine Anderson (viola) & Wolfram Koessel (cello), Mae Barizo (piano and poetry).
Admission $15, Seniors $10, Students $5 Tickets available at the door |
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ADVENT WREATH FRAMES
If you purchased an Advent Wreath from us this year, please drop the frame off in the narthex or bring it by the office during the week so that we can recycle in the coming year. Many thanks! |
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ADULT SPIRITUAL FORMATION BOOK GROUP
INVITES YOU TO JOIN THEM
The new ASF Book Group had a very successful inqugural meeting, and welcomes new and returning participants at their next meeting on January 19 at 7:30pm. The new selection is Marcus Borg's novel Putting Away Childish Things, described as "an engaging way for readers to learn about the important issues dividing Christians today. Along the way, we join with the characters to ask the hard questions such as what does the Bible really teach? Who is Jesus? What is the nature of faith today?" If you would like more information, contact Jennifer Hausler (jhausler@optonline.net.) or Claudia Uccellani (uccell@yahoo.com). |
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PEOPLE TO PEOPLE
Please remember to bring a non-perishable food item to church every Sunday for People to People. 121 West Nyack Rd. Nanuet NY 10954 845.623.4900. |
ONLINE NEWS FROM THE DIOCESE OF NEW YORK CLICK HERE
WEEKLY BULLETIN INSERT FROM EPISCOPAL LIFE CLICK HERE
DIOCESE OF NEW YORK WEBSITE CLICK HERE
EPISCOPAL CAFE For daily Episcopal news/reflection/commentary CLICK HERE
ON FAITH conversations about faith and current events from all angles CLICK HERE
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When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and the princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
Then the work of Christmas begins...
To find the lost, to heal the broken
To feed the hungry, to release the prisoner
To rebuild the nations, to bring peace among people
To make music in the heart.
- Howard Thurman | |
To learn more about Howard Thurman, Click Here
"For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
~ T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding" | | | | |
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| GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.130 First Avenue.Nyack.New York.10960.845-358-1297
The Reverend Richard L. Gressle, Rector
The Reverend Emily Sieracki, Assistant to the Rector
Robert Barrows, Organist & Choirmaster
www.gracechurchnyack.org |
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