News from Grace Episcopal Church 3.3.13

Celebrant and Preacher:
The Rev. Noah H. Evans
Minister of Music:
Ruth Roper
LEM I:
Genita Johnson
LEM II:
Dennis Hale

Lector I*:
Barbara Povey
Lector II*: Lucia Page
Acolytes: Ebby Akiba, Chioma Opara and Nzube Opara
Ushers:
Jane Scherban and Steve Duggan
Altar Guild:
Olivia Bracken

Healing Ministers:
Carrie Cross, Julina Rundberg, Brenda Pearson and Rachael Pettengill-Rasure

Counters: Wes Foote and Jean Spiers

Coffee Hour:
Tom Hamel, coffee, Deb Smith and Allison Andrews, food only.

*click on link to prepare for this week's readings

Birthdays

Mark McCurdy (3/5), Olivia New and Agnes Opara (3/6), Eleanor Puryear (3/7) and Adrian King (3/8).

If we do not have your birthday, please contact the church office at 781-396-7215 or office@gracemedford.org

Welcome!

Please join us at
Grace Church.

We celebrate the Eucharist at 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM on Sunday. Sunday School classes begin promptly at 9:45 AM. Nursery care is available for young children.

Protestant worship services are held at Tufts in Goddard Chapel at 7:00 PM on Sunday evenings. These services are coordinated by Rachael Pettengill-Rasure, Grace Church's Lay Assoc. for Student Ministry.

Click here to read our Rector, the Rev. Noah Evans, quoted in an article on Boston.com after speaking at Tuesday's Medford City Council Meeting about protections for transgendered students in our schools.

Preliminary Plan from the

Front Lawn Task Force

This past Sunday, February 24, the Front Lawn Task Force presented its preliminary plan for renovating our front lawn in the upcoming weeks and months. There was a lot of energy and vision in the room, which is essential to moving forward and making our front lawn as community-centered as possible. If you did not catch the presentation please check the "Greening Grace" blog.

If you would like to ask questions or offer suggestions, you may do so online by posting a comment to the blog post or at the parish hall bulletin board for the next two Sundays, March 3 and March 10 following the 10:00AM worship service. A member of the task force will be standing by the bulletin board on these two Sundays to answer any questions. Thank you for your participation! We are excited for the work ahead.

Lent at Grace Church

Lent Madness 2013

The Saintly Smack Down

What do you get when you combine a love of sports with holy saints? Lent Madness, of course. Based loosely on the wildly popular NCAA basketball tournament, Lent Madness pits 32 saints against one another in a single-elimination bracket as they compete for the coveted Golden Halo. But it is more than that: Lent Madness is really an online devotional tool designed to help people learn about saints.

Click Here to check on this week's pairing of Saints. Cast your vote and see who goes on to the next round.

If you're looking for a Lenten discipline that is fun, educational, occasionally goofy, and always joyful, join the Lent Madness journey. Lent needn't be all doom and gloom. After all, what could be more joyful than a season specifically set aside to grow closer to God?

Look for the brackets in Wiles Hall and put in your 'bracket' for the Faithful Four - there will be an prize for the winner!

Lent at Grace Church:

Poverty and the Church

The Outreach Committee is sponsoring a series on Poverty and The Church. This will be an opportunity for our community to re-examine what we understand about poverty. The series will have two ways to participate.

The first is through a book study. Bishop Tom Shaw has invited congregations to participate in a diocesan wide study on the book: The Rich and the Rest of Us by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West. "It's a book that frames the ending of poverty as America's 21st-century civil rights struggle, and it asks us to re-examine some of our assumptions about poverty in America, what it really is and how to eliminate it." Those who are interested in participating in the book study can join a reflection group which will meet after the 10AM Sunday service during Lent. Please read chapter 4 this week.

The second way to participate in this Lenten series is through Wednesday Adult Ed. We will be partnering with Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation to lead a four week series on Poverty. See below under "Wednesdays at Grace" for detailed descriptions of each week's topic.

For more information or If you have any questions please contact Rachael Pettengill-Rasure ( rachael@gracemedford.org).

Outreach Corner

The next opportunity to help at St. Luke's Community Dining is March 30. Please contact Brenda Pearson at brendapearson@comcast.net if you are interested in volunteering or have questions.

Food is needed for the food pantries that Grace Episcopal Church supports. Food items may be placed in the baskets just outside the main entrance to the sanctuary (an usher can help you locate them). The item for Sunday, March 3 is cereal. The item for Sunday, March 10 is coffee.

Other Announcements

Wednesdays at Grace

5:30: Toddler and Pre-K Godly Play

6:00: Community Dinner

Dinner Host needed on March 6th!

6:45: Godly Play 2 & 3, Rite 13 and J2A

6:45 Adult Education

This Lent, through Wednesday Adult Education We will be partnering with Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation to learn about Poverty and the Church.

March 6th - Race, Class and Wealth in the US

In the second week we will be joined by Steve Schnapp of United for a Fair Economy. He will lead an interactive workshop on Race, Class, & Wealth in the U.S. The goal of this workshop is to paint a picture of what is happening in our economy today and the impact of income inequality.

March 13th - A theological reflection on class

The third week will be a theological reflection on socioeconomic class and economic reconciliation. We will be joined by Nicholas Hayes and Marisa Egerstrom of Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation. In this session we will reflect on how our Christian faith informs who we are as economic beings and how we are called to act in this world.

March 20th - Grace Church: What we have learned/What we can do

The final week of this series will be an opportunity to discuss what we have learned through this series and the diocesan book study on the Rich and the Rest of us. The goal is to think about how our Grace Church community responds to poverty, income inequality, and socioeconomic class both within our church community and out in the world.

Women's Retreat
Final payments for the Women's Retreat are due on March 3rd. Information on the day only programming is to follow. Please contact Maria Fenn or Eva Englert (eva@gracemedford.org) if you have any questions.

Senior Men's Lunch

The next Senior Men's Lunch will be Wednesday, March 20 at noon at John Brewers Tavern in Malden. Please RSVP to the Parish Office.

Book Club

On March 21 the Women's Book club is reading An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff. On April 18 we'll discuss Bel Canto by Ann Patchett and we're reading Abide With Me by Elizabeth Strout on May 21. The Book club meets on the third Thursday of the month at 7 pm at a volunteer host's house. We welcome any woman to join us at any time. For more information about the club or our meeting locations contact Genita in person or at

pawleyslegacy@verizon.net

Casting has begun for the Passion Play, to be held on Palm Sunday, March 24 and the scripts are being distributed. Rehearsals will be held on Saturday, March 16 and Saturday, March 23 from 10:00 AM to noon. If you or your child would like to be in the Passion Play please contact me james@gracemedford.org or Laura Duggan lrduggan@aol.com. Thank you.

Palm Sunday, March 24, 2013

This year we will begin worship on Palm Sunday in an exciting new way! We will be marching to Saint Joseph's to meet their congregation for a blessing of the palms. Please be here by 9:30 AM to participate. The march will be led by the Passion Play crew and our Director, Laura Duggan. There may even be a surprise guest!

Say Cheese!
A new Grace Church picture directory will be made available later this year. So save the date! Photographers will be at Grace Church on the following days: April 19th and 20th and April 26th and 27th. Details will be provided soon. Volunteers are needed on these dates. If interested, contact the Grace Church Office at office@gracemedford.org.