Greetings from Grace!
In this Issue: Lent at Grace, Youth Group Bingo, Save the Date for the Annual Gala, a Pilgrimage to Cuba and and More!
Grace Episcopal Church, Georgetown
1041 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007
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Upcoming Events |
After the 10:30 AM Service
Fat Sunday Coffee Hour Celebration
More details to come
3:45 to 6:30 PM
Youth Group Event: Kinderkonzert
Wednesday, March 5th
8:00 to 9:00 AM and 5:00 to 6:00 PM
Ashes-to-Go
12:15 and 7:00 PM
Ash Wednesday Services at Grace
Sunday, March 9th
After the 10:30 AM Service
Young Adult Bible Study
During the 10:30 AM Service
Children's Chapel
Sunday, March 23rd
After the 10:30 AM Service
Young Adult Bible Study
Noon to 3:00 PM
Youth Group Event: Lunch and Bingo at GMC
Tuesday, March 25th
6:30 to 9:00 PM
Parents Night Out
Sunday, April 13th Palm Sunday
After the 10:30 AM Service
Young Adult Bible Study
Sunday, April 20th Easter Sunday
Saturday, April 26th to Sunday, April 27th Time TBD Youth Group Event: Overnight Lock-in Save the Date! Details to come...
Sunday, April 27th
After the 10:30 AM Service
Young Adult Bible Study
5:00 to 8:00 PM
Annual Friends of Grace Gala and Silent Auction
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Coffee Hour Hosts |
March
9th Newsletter
16th Garden & Grounds
23rd Sunday School
30th Retreat Committee
April
13th Eucharistic Ministries
20th Vestry
27th Music on the Lawn
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Holy Eucharist, Wednesdays at 12:15 PM |
 | Ash Wednesday, March 5th |
Each Wednesday during the 12:15 PM service we celebrate a holiday or the life of someone important in the church. Here's the upcoming line-up:
March
5th Ash Wednesday
12th Gregory the Great, Bishop
19th St. Joseph
26th The Annunciation
Please join us for this brief (30 minutes) but spiritually rewarding service.
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Ashes-to-Go |
 | Ash Wednesday 2013, outside the Foggy Bottom Metro Station |
The administering of ashes in public spaces on Ash Wednesday has become a church-wide movement in the Episcopal Church.
Bishops and other ministers are taking this historic tradition outside of church buildings to train stations, Metro stops, and street corners, where interested passers-by are marked with the sign of the cross-a reminder of the temporal nature of life.
If you aren't able to join us at Grace on Ash Wednesday, check out this map to see if the Ashes-to-Go program will be near your home or office!
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Lenten Series at Grace
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The Reverend Sarah Motley, our Assistant Rector, will be leading a Lenten Series on Sunday evenings, immediately following the 5:00 PM service.
Watch The Reverend John Graham's weekly emails, delivered on Thursdays, for details.
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Daily Lenten Meditations
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Daily Lenten meditations, sent via email, are available from Episcopal Relief and Development.
These readings focus on creating economic opportunities and strengthening communities, with a particular focus on empowering women.
Sign up here
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Parents' Night Out, Tuesday, March 25th |
Leave your little ones with us on Tuesday, March 25th from 6:30 to 9:00 PM and enjoy an evening in Georgetown or simply get some time to yourself.
Helen Buhr and Chris Kreutziger will be on hand to have fun with the children.
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March Birthdays |
Darcy Bacon Luca Brennan Sabrina Brennan Derek Brock David Bujard Hudson Burner Frank Burgess Sarah Haft Aidan Harrington Lawrence Molinaro Scott Murphy Patricia Sarcos Alvarez Jim Sale Lee Tyner Susan Tobias
We'd like to include you in this list! Please email us with your birthday!
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Grace is lucky to have a growing base of young people in our parish -- and volunteers willing to plan events to keep them engaged! Please read on to learn more about two youth group events -- a concert tomorrow and a bingo tournament on the 23rd -- for those 11 and up. And please consider volunteering to help with our exciting new Sunday School Curriculum -- details appear below.
One more thing -- save the date, Sunday, April 27th, for this year's Annual Gala and Silent Auction! As always, please take a moment now to get caught up on upcoming happenings at Grace.
In Christ's Redeeming Love,
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 Friends of Grace Gala
Save the Date SUNDAY, APRIL 27, 2014, 5:00 to 8:00 PM AT GRACE CHURCH
Theme "Louisiana Bayou Bash." Little Red and the Renegades will fill the sanctuary with the rhythms of zydeco music, and some of you might be moved to dance! Lots of good Cajun-style food to enjoy, too, and games with prizes.
Purpose
The Gala raises money for the Saving Grace Fund, established some 30 years ago to support maintenance, repair and restoration of Grace's buildings and grounds. This year, the focus is on the front of the church proper, its "façade."
Stone arches around the façade's windows and doors are crumbling. These arches are key to the church's structural integrity, and their deterioration will pose a safety hazard, too, if the problem isn't addressed. You may have noticed netting already in place over the upper windows, to hold the stone in place.
Plan
We've retained Aeon Preservation as consultants on this project. Their principal advisor for our project is Alfonso Narvaez, son of an Episcopal priest and multi-term Junior Warden of Christ Church, Broad Creek!
They have formulated a restoration plan, to be executed by Lepore and Sons, a stone restoration company located in Pennsylvania. Graphic illustrations of the work to be done will be on display in the church and Parish Hall in the weeks leading up to the Gala.
Cost
Estimated total cost for restoration of the façade, or "west elevation," is almost $150,000. And that's just the beginning - restoration of the stone on the north and south "elevations" of the church will cost over $200,000 each.
A surplus of funds built up over the past ten years will help us pay to get the work started, but we will have to work hard to raise funds to replenish the Saving Grace fund for the north and south restorations.
How to help First - purchase tickets for the Gala, come, and have fun! Invitations with RSVP cards will arrive mid- to late March. The ticket price, as in prior years, will be $100 per person and $175 per couple.
Second - if you can make a commitment beyond ticket purchase, please consider doing so. Levels and benefits are:
- Sponsor: $1,400; includes 4 tickets to the event and special listing in the program ($1,200 tax deductible contribution)
- Supporter: $700; includes to tickets to the event and special listing in the program ($600 tax deductible contribution)
Higher-level sponsorships are especially needed and welcome this year.
Third - help out with the Silent Auction, historically the biggest source of revenue for the Gala. Ways to help:
- If you can offer a service (assistance with household organization and computer repair and refurbishing have been popular items in the past, as have specially-prepared food and live music for social gatherings)
- if you like your hair salon, fitness club, or some other business you patronize and they're willing to donate a gift certificate
- if you have tickets to a sporting or theater event and are willing to donate them
If you can donate, contact Gala co-chair Scott Murphy or Silent Auction chair Ari Lynn Tonini. They'll be glad to hear from you!
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We're delighted to have Gala veterans Helen Buhr and Scott Murphy as co-chairs of this event, and an outstanding committee consisting of Peyton Craighill, Junior Warden Diana Dick, Paige Hill, Christina Kreutziger, Janet Sale, Ari Lynn Tonini and Crystal Upperman.
And as always, we're very grateful to those who have served in the past, especially last year's co-chairs Hillary Liebtag and Jane Mosbacher Morris, who've moved to (respectively) New York City and Lexington, Kentucky, along with Megan Ching and Tass Hudak, who've moved to Texas. We miss you, Jane, Hillary, Megan and Tass.
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 Grace|St. John's
Sunday, March 2nd (Tomorrow!)
3:45 to 6:30 PM
Kinderkonzert at St. John's
Sunday, March 23rd
Noon to 3:00 PM
Provide Lunch and Host a Bingo Tournament at Georgetown Ministry Center
This will be fun! We'll be taking sandwiches to Georgetown Ministry Center, eating lunch with the clients and leading a BINGO tournament with prizes!
We'll meet at Grace at Noon; pick-up at Grace at 3:00 PM. There is no charge for this event but members will be asked to bring pre-made sandwiches to share with the GMC guests for lunch.
Please let us know if you're able to attend (parishioners aged 11 and older and their friends are invited)!
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 Sunday School: Weaving God's Promises by Jacqueline Walters
We will be rolling out our new Sunday School curriculum for Lent. We are in Year One, which is entitled Weaving our Faith.
The theme of the lessons will focus on "God loves us and stays with us-no matter what-to bring us back to God's divine love." Isn't that an incredible promise for our children to share in? As we explore this promise we will review the life of Christ leading up to his Resurrection.
To highlight some of the principles of Jesus's teachings, we will:
- do a service project with Grace's Table in conjunction with the story of feeding the multitude
- create a mosaic of rice to visually represent Jesus's Transfiguration, and
- hopefully for Palm Sunday we will have enough students to create a video reenactment.
These are only a few of the great things we will be doing in Sunday School during this season.
These activities are only possible with the right support. We still need volunteers to teach. If you cannot commit to a whole month, even a week would still be big help. Please email me if you are interested in helping out.
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New Flower Fund to Honor Jean McKinney by Helen Buhr
Jean loved bright colors and flowers, and so it seems fitting to honor her now and in the future by creating a flower fund named for her.
The Jean McKinney Flower Fund will be used to provide flowers in the church to celebrate her life as well as her beloved husband Gary.
It can also be used to supplement the flowers on Easter or Christmas or
other Sundays if needed, and will exist as long as contributions are made until all the funds have been spent.
The first contribution has been made by Judy Meyerson, a longtime
friend of Grace and of Jean. We hope many of you will also send
donations. Your gifts are most welcome - please send them to Grace
Church, marked Jean McKinney Flower Fund.
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Convention Roundup By Peyton M. Craighill
The 119th Convention for the Diocese of Washington from January 31st to February 1st introduced new elements and brought back familiar ones too. Grace Church was ably represented by our Rector, John Graham, Assistant Sarah Motley and yours truly. The newest and most different aspect was the change in physical location, from the National Cathedral to Reid Temple AME Church in Prince George's County, a venue offering modern space with a greater variety of meetings rooms. The convention keynote focused on research results from the RenewalWorks program. Reverend Jay Sidebotham, Director of RenewalWorks, has been exploring the continuum of spiritual development within Episcopal parishes, outlined the catalysts for spiritual growth and how those can change the life of a congregation. A summary of his talk, in slides, is available here. Grace Church was honored during the Friday night Eucharist for being among the 11 parishes in the Diocese that have contributed a tithe in support of Diocesan mission and ministry. The convention rounded up on Saturday afternoon with a lively budget debate concerning campus ministry. The Diocese had planned to shift funding for dedicated chaplains at Howard and University of Maryland, and use those funds for broader campus ministry development. Students from Howard rose in protest and convinced the voting body to continue to support dedicated chaplains at those locations while simultaneously dedicating new funds, through a reallocation from other budget line items, to broader campus ministry development. |
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Vestry Notes from the February Meeting By Janet Sale, filling in for Vestry Secretary Barbara de Beaufort
Mutual Ministry Review: We reviewed the Vestry Member in Charge duties to see how we might update them. John Graham will incorporate the suggestions and provide the Vestry with a new list of duties for both the 10:30/10:00 a.m. and the 5:00/6:00 p.m. services. We discussed ways to better communicate on scheduling of Eucharistic Ministers as to eliminate so many emails. John and Larry Molinaro will look into alternative options. Rector's report: For the past few years the Outreach Committee has been supporting Grace's Table, Georgetown University students who help each Saturday, Music on the Lawn and the Washington Interfaith Network (WIN). We discussed the possibility of incorporating the Outreach Fund into the Operating Budget of the church. Gala: The first meeting of the Gala Committee will be Sunday, February 23 and the suggested date for the event in April 27, 2014. A possible theme is Louisiana Dance Party. We discussed ways we might raise a bit more money at this event to help with our stone work project. Assistant Rector: Sarah Motley has been working with St. John's along with Jeanne Jennings on the youth group activities. They have gotten off to a good start and want to keep the momentum going. Senior Warden Report: John Graham and Margaret Davis have been discussing John's taking off every Friday. This would enable John to work on the writing project, which he began during his recent sabbatical, for possible publication and to provide us with lectures on his findings. Junior Warden Report: Diana Dick and John Graham have interviewed garden services to help with snow removal and other jobs as needed. We need news doors for the rectory. Margaret Davis made a motion and Lee Tyner seconded the motion to approve an amount of $2,000 for the purchase of doors of equal or better quality. The meeting adjourned after Close of Day prayers at 8:00 p.m. The next meeting will be March 31. Full minutes of Vestry Meetings are in the binder in the Volunteer Office of the Rectory after they have been approved by the Vestry. |
Pilgrims in Cuba by Helma Lanyi
Jose Marti: "Once the United States is in Cuba, who will get it out?" 1889
We were asked either: "Why would you want to go to Cuba?" or "How did you get to go there?" by those who clearly shared our joy at this adventure.
We were 23 pilgrims with the DC based Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, an ecumenical group of lay people and clergy. We followed Thomas Merton who visited Cuba in 1940 after he became a Catholic, in order to explore the island's spiritual riches.
Our aim was to connect with the people in Cuba, see the island, and, like Merton, discover its spiritual riches. Our first stop was Matanzas. Here is the only ecumenical Protestant seminary on the island, supported largely by the Reformed Presbyterian church in the U.S.
We gathered for prayer, for centering exercises, for hearing and writing poems, for small group reflection, and we found ourselves connecting deeply to one another. The seminary sponsors an organic farm. The Cuban government is said to be very supportive of preserving the environment. The Presbyterian church provides clean water for the seminary through its Agua Viva program.
We soon got to know the women crocheters who offered their exquisite handmade stoles, purses, and wraps. They had been taught to crochet by the women in the seminary and now share their profits with groups that support Aids education. Many of us brought home a crocheted stole for our priests.
Cuba is beautiful. Beauty, however, can be dangerous when it creates desire. Christopher Columbus didn't mince words: "The fairest island human eyes have yet beheld...It is certain that where there is such marvelous scenery, there must be much more from which profit can be made."
What follows are centuries of exploitation of natural resources first by the Spanish and, after 1898, the Americans who decided that Cuba was theirs for the taking because of geographic proximity and therefore clearly within the area covered by the Monroe doctrine. It seems nobody ever asked the Cubans what they wanted.
It is necessary to understand the history of so much foreign domination in Cuba which caused the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro. To this day, Castro's socialist regime which displaced the former owners of wealth and power is the subject of fierce emotions, especially in Little Havana, the Cuban enclave in Miami. We did not go to Cuba for its politics, but for solidarity with its people.
That came about beautifully and movingly at the time of our bilingual retreat. About 18 Cuban lay and clergy prison chaplains traveled to see us, at times 15 hours in rickety buses, and stayed for two days. We ate together, we again sang, danced, and prayed together, we showed pictures of our children and grandchildren (they all like baseball), and we had an opportunity for getting a glimpse into each other's lives.
"So what do the people in Washington think of the embargo?" One man asked me through one of our interpreters. We answered that outside of Miami many, perhaps most Americans didn't support the embargo and welcomed more contact and trade and travel.
I then described what my group, the Episcopal Peace Fellowship, is doing which includes witnessing in front of the White House (ok unless you touch the fence) or the CIA, and proclaiming our opposition to torture, Guantanamo, drones, another war, among other things. As I was talking, my listener's eyes grew big and bigger: Those activities are not permitted in Cuba.
While we were there, a large conference of Latin American nations convened in Havana, under the leadership of U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki Moon, to declare a statement of non aggression with one another. During that time, opposition activists in Havana were put under house arrest or actually imprisoned.
Amnesty International accuses Cuba of being the only Caribbean nation that has POCs, or prisoners of conscience. Yes, Cuba is a dictatorship with one party rule and no opposition. But, and in Cuba there is always a "but", it appears... Cubans enjoy free education and free health care. The country has an extraordinarily high literacy rate. The arts are flourishing, and religion is no longer outlawed. In fact, churches are providing social services for children and seniors, and they also served as a dispensary for the medicines foreign visitors like us had brought.
Our pilgrimage concluded with four days in Old Havana, a World Heritage site. The city is resplendent with Spanish style buildings, the magnificent "sea wall "which serves as boulevard for Havanans doing whatever, reading flirting, drinking, fishing.
We saw the black madonna and her worshippers. Many are adherents of santería, the African style religion which runs alongside Christian worship, as we were told.
Raúl Castro, Fidel's brother, has loosened economic restrictions. It is now possible to run a private business, a bed and breakfast or restaurant, for example. Everything else is state owned.
Members of our pilgrimage group hope, and pray with the Cuban people, that this will continue, and that the enmity between Cubans in Miami and their friends and relations in Cuba will give way to the realization that, more than anything else, we are brothers and sisters of one another, and that embargoes, and sanctions, are not a way toward peace, but toward driving people apart.
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Weekly at Grace |
Sundays
8:30 AM
Holy Eucharist
Prayers for the Nation and the World
Held outside at the Memorial Cross, includes remembrance of the Fallen (only the last Sunday of each month; 15 minutes)
10:30 AM
Holy Eucharist
Music, child care and Sunday School
5:00 PM
Evening Eucharist
Plan to stay for refreshments after the service
Laying on of Hands for Healing, second Sunday of each month at the 8:30 AM, 10:30 AM and 5:00 PM services.
Tuesdays
12:15 PM Centering Prayer
35 minutes
Wednesdays
12:15 PM
Holy Eucharist
30 minutes
Saturdays
11:30 AM
Grace's Table
Grace's Table offers hot lunch, Bible study and fellowship for persons who are homeless or living on the margins.
Contact the church office for more information or to volunteer.
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About Grace
Grace Episcopal Church, Georgetown, was founded nearly 150 years ago to serve the laborers, craftsmen, shopkeepers, and watermen of the Georgetown waterfront.
By 1857 regular services were being held in a wooden chapel that stood in the southwest corner of the churchyard, where the World War I Memorial Cross now stands.
Outreach to the community, particularly lower Georgetown, remains a vital ministry of Grace.
To that end we host a variety of events for the public, including an annual Bach Festival and Music on the Lawn. Our parishioners are also active volunteers for the Taste of Georgetown, which supports the Georgetown Ministry Center, located in the basement of our Rectory.
Grace Church is committed to providing a spiritual refuge for everyone living and working in the Georgetown area regardless of their religious affiliation. Visitors to Grace find a warm welcome, wonderful music, and a heartfelt faith. We are located on the east side of Wisconsin Avenue, just below M Street and the Canal, in the heart of Georgetown. Please join us for a service, an event, or just moment of quiet during your day. A weekly schedule of events appears in the column to your left. Sunday Parking: 3 options
1. South Street Lot behind the church - 20 spaces free until 1:30 PM with one time use pass from Grace Church entrance.
2. Eagle Bank Lot across Wisconsin Avenue from the Church - 8 spaces free until 1:30 PM with one time use pass from Grace Church and limited use based on availability for the 6:00 PM service (5:00 PM beginning September 8th).
3. Cinema Garage on K Street just east of Wisconsin Avenue - 2 hour free parking until 1:00 PM with a separate exit ticket from Grace (exit tickets just inside the church left side door) - use both tickets at the pay station to leave the garage.
Weekday Parking at the Cinema Garage on K Street just east of Wisconsin Avenue - Monday through Thursday Day and Night and Friday until 6:00 PM. 2 hour free parking with a separate exit ticket from Grace (exit tickets just inside the church on the left) - use both tickets at the pay station to leave the garage.
Grace Episcopal Church
1041 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007
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