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You may deliver flowers to the church yourself on Saturdays or the office can order them and have them delivered for $65. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Christ's Redeeming Love,

Dust off your trench coat and re-watch the Humphrey Bogart classic  -- you'll be spending a little time at Rick's Café Américain in 1940's Morocco!
 

Delicious food, drink and classic piano music await you - and if you promise not to tell the Vichy guards, you can slip into the backroom casino where games of blackjack and roulette will be in full tilt! 
 

 

 

 

 

Sincerely,

John Graham, Rector

 

We're delighted that Lenore Reid has agreed to take on the responsibility for the logistics of pastoral care: notifying the committee of pastoral needs in the church, soliciting and scheduling volunteers for tasks such as sending a card, making a visit, and delivering meals, and related tasks. 

Sally Avignone and the Rector are working together on a series of readings, conversation topics and / or spiritual practices for Pastoral Care Committee meetings. 

 

The goal of these efforts is to help committee members deepen their own understanding and appreciation of pastoral ministry, as both a highly practical service to those in need and as a part of our individual and communal spiritual journeys. 

 

Contact us to learn more about the Pastoral Care Committee or to volunteer!

 

"Grace was founded to serve the laborers, craftsmen, shopkeepers, and watermen of the Georgetown waterfront. 

 

"The Evening Star reported in February, 1895, '... It is the only church here in a really poor district and whenever its pastor is not in the pulpit or fulfilling his own immediate wants he is out among his people dispensing aid to the unfortunate.'"

                      -- Excerpt from A Short History of Grace Church

 

Lower Georgetown is no longer a "really poor district," of course, and now it's not just the pastor "dispensing aid to the unfortunate."  

 

We count many homeless persons among our neighbors in this very well-to-do area,  and many of Grace's members, as well as the pastor, help provide a home-cooked meal, companionship, and the opportunity for conversation on matters spiritual and temporal for our homeless friends. 

 

This ministry, called Grace's Table, takes place in the Parish Hall, and occasionally on our grounds, every Saturday from September through May. For over three years, Kristin Killoran Hasse has made this program run.  

 

She recruits and schedules volunteers, encourages or harasses as the situation may require, cooks and serves meals at least monthly with husband Jon Hasse, and otherwise keeps us on track in our historic vocation of serving those in need.  

 

In December of 2010, we promised that if she served one more year as coordinator, Grace would find someone else to step in at the beginning of 2012. 

 

We almost kept our promise.  Beginning April 1, Kay Horst will work with Kristin for a month or two, then take over coordinating responsibilities herself. 

 

Thank you, Kristin, for reminding us so powerfully, and much more by your example than by your words, that God has put us here to make the love of Christ real for all who come to us.

 

Contact us to learn more about Grace's Table or to volunteer!   

I'm delighted that our Grace's bi-monthly newsletter has been revived, and very grateful to Jeanne Jennings for bringing her gifts and commitment to this ministry of communication. 

 

Picking up on a tradition initiated by my predecessor, Scott Murphy, I'll prepare a "Vestry Notes" column for forthcoming issues, letting you know what the Vestry is doing and discussing. 

 

For this "maiden voyage", though, I want to offer a brief reflection on what Grace has meant to me during my time here. In doing so, I hope and trust that I am speaking for many of you.

 

"...for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more."
                                                                       Jeremiah 31:34

As we move through Lent and lean toward Easter and its promise of rebirth and renewal, we can all give great thanks for Grace Church, its vibrancy, its health, and - most of all - its community of people gathered together. Grace Church connects us to our flawed selves while enabling us to weave a work together that celebrates God's forgiveness, call to service, and shining love. 

 

While soaring church towers can inspire, huge organs can forcefully call, large congregations can be mighty; Grace church does all of this and more by being its modest, simple self. We are a diverse group brought together by common cravings for love and peace, ritual and the Word.

So many people tell me, and we share together, how humbled we are by all that Grace Church is. The genuine kindness, the lack of typical D.C. status interest, the commitment to serve, to learn, to create beauty, nurture it in the children, sing it from the choir. 

 

As a result of all that Grace is, it is a growing, thriving place led by a gifted Rector who moves people of all ages and backgrounds to come together for a greater purpose, to understand the give of love.

 

On behalf of the Vestry, thank you - to each of you - for all you contribute to Grace Church in the way of a growing stewardship effort; a full church with strong ministry; a beautiful garden; heartfelt outreach; prayerful pastoral care; and a commitment to save the physical structure as well as the heart of Grace Church. 

 

And we like to do so while having great fun together - at birthday parties, Saving Grace evenings, play readings, jazz brunches, poetry on the lawn, Bach festivals, coffee hour, and Grace's Table.  What fun it is to create such community together!

Enjoy Spring and new life, and let us remember, as St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians reminds us, 

 

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God--not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life." 

 

It is a joy to serve with you.

With faith,
Margaret Davis
Senior Warden

 

We're delighted to welcome Jeanne Jennings as our new newsletter editor.  

 

You'll see some updating of the format; instead of a PDF attachment, the newsletter will open up when you open the e-mail that delivers it.  Some "branding" touches will help everyone recognize it right away as a Grace, Georgetown communication.

 

Jeanne came to us during the Rector's sabbatical last summer, and has offered herself to Grace's ministries since coming through our gates. Welcome, Jeanne, and we look forward to the newsletters you'll produce.  

 

Many thanks, too, to Jonathan Jones, who served faithfully and well as our newsletter designer until his departure for Florida a little over a year ago.

 

Questions, thoughts or ideas about the newletter? Email us! 

By Helma Lanyi

 

"I believe that the methods of modern international war are quite incompatible with the Christian principles of reconciliation and brotherhood." 

 

For this conviction, Bishop Paul Jones of Utah was forced to resign his post in 1918.  He helped found the Episcopal Peace Fellowship in 1939 when it was part of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the oldest American peace group.

 

Bishop Jones later helped Jews and others who fled Nazi Germany and he argued for greater understanding in relations with Japan. The EPF also protected conscientious objectors during the Second World War. 

 

Today the EPF's motto is "Do Justice. Dismantle Violence. Strive to be Peacemakers." The EPF focuses on preventing wars; practicing non-violence is a thread that goes throughout all EPF activities.

 

Based in Chicago, the EPF works closely with the Anglican Network on Peace and Justice and other faith-based peace organizations. There is a local chapter here in DC and many more across the country. The EPF also has a number of Action Groups, focusing on topics like: 

• Conscienctious Objection
• The Death Penalty
• Nuclear Abolition
• Israel/Palestine Issues
• Peace Education
• The Environment

A new Action Group on Torture and Abridgment of Civil Liberties is in the planning stages. 

 

In 1930, just 22 years after Bishop Jones was censured, the Lambeth conference declared that "war as a means of settling international disputes is incompatible with the teaching and principles of our Savior, Jesus Christ." The Episcopal Church is now part of the National Religious Campaign against Torture.  

 

I invite you to join the Episcopal Peace Fellowship and become involved in our local DC chapter. Here in DC we enjoy communicating via email and meeting to discuss issues; we also host workshops on nonviolence as practiced by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. I feel grounded in coming to a position on any given topic, international or domestic, by consulting EPF principles. 

 

If you are interested in learning more about the EPF, please email me, speak with me at Grace or visit www.EPFNational.org.