Grace Episcopal Church  
In This Issue
Sunday Ministers
Birthdays
Sunday Services

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Sunday 
8:00 AM
Celebrant: 
The Rev. Noah H. Evans
Preacher:
The Rev. Dr. Maggie Arnold 
LEM:  Branwen Smith-King
Altar Guild:
June Pietrantoni

10:00 AM 
Celebrant: 
The Rev. Noah H. Evans 
Preacher:  The Rev. Dr. Maggie Arnold    
Minister of Music:  Ruth Roper
LEM I: Mia Benjamin, Life Together intern
LEM II: Esther Brownsmith  
Lector I*:
Laura Duggan
Lector II*:
Sean Kerans Acolytes: 
Genita Johnson, Brianna Nwachukwu and Solomon Nwachukwu, Jr. 
Ushers: 
Jill Capuccio, Kristen Spence and India Smith 
Altar Guild
Dottie Palladino and Margaret Smist 
Coffee Hour Hosts: Tom Hamel,
coffee - Kathryn Benjamin, food 
Counters:
Wes Foote and Dennis Hale  
Vestry Person of the Day:
Kathy Mumma 
 
*click on link to prepare for this week's readings  

Birthdays

 

Elizabeth Woodbury and Catherine Woodbury (9/21); Nancy Daly and Jordan Williams (9/22); Gaby Cuba, Deborah Jennings and Kate Woodward (9/23); Wesley Foote, Sr. and Carl Kleifgen (9/24); James Klasen, Tina Riedel and Nikolas Sullivan (9/25); Edith Auner and Andrew Zafiris (9/26); Peter Bozovic and Lauren Henson (9/27).

 

If we do not have your birthday, please contact the church office at 781-396-7215 or office@gracemedford.org  
 
The Agganis Arena at B.U. became church on Sept. 13 for the ordination and consecration of the Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates as the 16th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.
Welcome
Please join us at Grace Church!
We celebrate the Eucharist at 8AM, 10AM and 5PM  The Rev. Noah H. Evans is the Celebrant and The Rev. Dr. Maggie Arnold is the preacher on Sunday.  Sunday school begins promptly at 9:45 AM. 

Medford Community Day!!

Come and visit the Grace Church booth at Medford

Community Day on September 21 from 1:00 PM to 4:30 PM at the Andrews Middle School.

Kid's Corner

Join us for Sunday School on Sunday at 9:45 AM.  

Godly Play Training at Grace Church

Grace Church is hosting Godly Play teacher trainings for the New England region on September 19-21st. During this training participants experience all aspects of the Godly Play method and begin to become fluent in the Godly Play core stories and lessons. Core training follows an action/reflection model of learning with a mixture of trainer-led presentations and participant storytelling presentations. Core training plenary presentations cover: the Spirituality of the Child, Setting up a Godly Play Environment and Supporting the Circle of Children. This will be a wonderful opportunity to become a Godly Play teacher, with the training right here at Grace Church! Let Noah if you are interested, or might be interested in this.

 

Acolytes are needed

Any child, 9 years or older who is interested in becoming an acolyte can speak to or have their parents speak to Wes Foote, Jr.

 

Friday night youth event on September 26:

Grace Church is hosting an evening of games and fun for youth, grades 6-12, on Friday, September 26th from 6-10pm. Parent chaperones are Maria Fenn and Cheryl Woodbury. Dinner is not provided, but kids can bring a favorite board game to share.

 

Enchanted Garden Tour

Laura Duggan is offering a tour of her "Enchanted Garden" to the children and families of the parish. Please RSVP to the parish office or on Facebook (where a carpool sign-up is also available), to give Laura an idea of how many to expect. The magic happens at 31 Hickory Avenue, 1:00-2:30 PM, Sunday, September 28th. An appropriately charming snack will be served.

Outreach Corner    
The next opportunity to help with St. Luke's Community Dining is September 27. For a few months, we will be preparing bagged lunches in the Grace Church kitchen from 9-10:30 AM and distributing them at St. Luke's between 11:00 AM and noon.  Please contact Brenda Pearson at bpearson267@gmail.com
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 September 21 is coffee.

 

Thanks to all who helped with the Fall Clothing Pantry and to all who attended the Zumba fundraiser for the Somerville Coalition for the Homeless! 

Wednesdays at Grace

5:30: younger children's Godly Play classes

6:00: Community Dinner

Dinner hosts: Sara Irwin and Kateri Paul 

6:45: Older children's classes

Adult Education- 6:45-8:00PM

Environmental Film Series

September 24 and October 1

This fall during Wednesdays at Grace we will be looking at a few different environmental issues through an environmental film series. This series goal is to educate us so that we can better live out our faith commitments to "care for all creation."

 

A Will for the Woods, film screening

September 24, 6:45PM

This film was directed by Tony Hale, son of Grace Church parishioners Dennis Hale and Adele Travisano.

 

Determined that his last act will be a gift to the planet, a man prepares for his own green burial. Musician, psychiatrist, and folk dancer Clark Wang prepares for his own green burial while battling lymphoma, determined that his last act will be a gift to the planet. Boldly facing his mortality, the spirited Clark and his partner Jane have joined with a compassionate local cemeterian to use green burial to save a North Carolina woods from being clear-cut.

Documenting one community's role in the genesis of a revolutionary movement, A Will for the Woods follows Clark's dream of leaving a legacy in harmony with timeless cycles, and environmentalism takes on a profound intimacy.

 

Gasland II, film screening

October 1, 6:45PM

In this explosive follow-up to his Oscar®-nominated film GASLAND, filmmaker Josh Fox uses his trademark dark humor to take a deeper, broader look at the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the controversial method of extracting natural gas and oil, now occurring on a global level (in 32 countries worldwide). GASLAND PART II, which premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, shows how the stakes have been raised on all sides in one of the most important environmental issues facing our nation today. The film argues that the gas industry's portrayal of natural gas as a clean and safe alternative to oil is a myth and that fracked wells inevitably leak over time, contaminating water and air, hurting families, and endangering the earth's climate with the potent greenhouse gas, methane. In addition the film looks at how the powerful oil and gas industries are in Fox's words "contaminating our democracy".

 

Save the Date! 

Visit by the Rt. Rev. Alan Gates

January 7, 2015

Bishop Alan Gates will come to Wednesdays at Grace on January 7, 2015.

Other Announcements     


 Medford Community Day

Come and visit the Grace Church booth at Medford Community Day! It is today, September 21 from 1:00 PM to 4:30 PM at the Andrews Middle School

 

Grace Women's Book Club

The Grace Church Women's Book Club meets monthly at 7 pm on the third Thursday except for in August.  Here is our upcoming book selection.

September 18 is Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton 

Please see Genita Johnson during church at 10 am service. or contact her at pawleyslegacy@verizon.net for more information.  All women are welcome to come, even if you have not read this month's book and just want to check out our book club.   

 

Grace Women's Retreat

The Retreat is On! We have registered enough women to hold the dates (October 3-5) for the fall women's retreat at Rolling Ridge Conference Center in Andover, MA. Please contact Maria Fenn (MFENN@partners.org) about available spots left as they will be given on a first come first serve basis. As it gets closer I will be sending out informational emails. There will also be copies of schedules and such at church.  If any of you would like to lead an activity, let Maria Fenn know.    

 

Grace Church and GraceWorks support a sock drive to benefit Cradles to Crayons

Cradles to Crayons is running an area-wide sock drive from now until October 3rd culminating with children's concert they are holding in Boston on October 4th.  Grace Church and GraceWorks are hosting boxes to collect sock donations. They are collecting these types of socks:

* NEW socks only, please

* Sizes Infant up to Age 12

* Socks in multipacks welcomed

* White, colored, striped, polka dots, patterns...all welcomed! 

 

The website for the event on October 3rd is: http://www.kidsreallyrock.com/ FYI, Medford's own Alastair Moock is one of the headliners on the concert and another headliner, Ben Rudnick, got his start performing for the MFN.

 

Blessing of the Animals and Holy Eucharist 

Sunday, October 5 at 5:00PM

Come join us for a Blessing of the Animals! We will be acknowledging our relationship with creation, especially those animals who are a part of our daily lives! Bring your dogs, cats, fish, and sheep, stuffed animals, or a picture of animals, for a special blessing at Grace Church.

 

We will also be collecting donations for the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem, MA. The Northeast Animal Shelter is one of New England's largest no-profit, no-kill animal shelters and takes in homeless animals across the US. Currently, they have a large need for canned dog and cat food, jars of all-meat baby food, clay cat litter, toys for dogs and cats, as well as blankets. For more information on donations, contact Kris Plausky at kris.plausky@gmail.com   

 

First Friday Performances at Grace

We are offering new social and entertaining opportunities geared toward adult parishioners and their friends, and will be presenting events on the First Friday evenings at 7:30PM this Fall. We urge you to come and support these events.

 

On Friday October 3,  "Sisters in Song" will present its 3rd musical revue concert   Love Heals; No Day like Today -mostly beautiful duets from Broadway Musicals. Requested donation is $20 (more if you can; less if you wish) includes coffee and dessert and will benefit the Ellie Fund which supports women with breast cancer and their families with services (free of charge) as they convalesce. This is a local charity which helps patients in our community.

 

On Friday, November 7, "Love, Loss and What I Wore" will be repeated by popular request. This was presented April 4 to a rave-review audience at Grace and we are pleased to present it again.   Proceeds from this production will go to our Grace Church Youth Groups' projects.   Donation is $10 (more if you wish) and includes coffee and dessert.

 

For further information, please contact Maria Fenn, the producer of these special events or June or Jeff Pietrantoni.

 

"Tea with Mary Cassatt"  

and Silver Tea  

presented at Grace Church on Sunday, October 19th, 3:00 PM.  This one-woman play provides a glimpse into the life of Mary Cassatt, famous for her paintings of mothers and babies.  She was a Victorian woman who was the only American invited to exhibit with the French Impressionists. Written by and starring, Laura R. Duggan, this multimedia production will also include a question and answer session with "Miss Cassatt."  A silent auction and gift basket raffles will help fund the restoration of the historical Grace Church organ.  For tickets, contact Laura Duggan. Tickets also available at Grace Church, #781-396-7215 or at Best Sellers Cafe.  Early Bird Tickets $12.50, $15 at the door. 

 

Reading and Signing of Grace Church
parishioner,
Julia Lisella's new book, Always
Please help celebrate the publication of Julia Lisella's second full-length collection of poems Sunday, November 2 (All Saints Sunday), following the 10 a.m. service. Julia will read a few poems and answer questions about the work. The books will be on sale for $18; the profits of each copy sold will go to our Grace Church Fund for the Organ Restoration. 

Always, Julia Lisella's new collection of lyric and free-verse poems, explores the transition from youth to midlife when what once seemed like impossible or impassable hurdles that might have made us feel hopeless in our twenties-war, hypocrisy, pain, illness, death, terrible grief-are full of creative possibilities for us later in life, to renew or even to reinvent. Characters emerge in Always that explore, observe, and instruct: St. Francis, a young boy, teenage girls, a mother in mid-life, husbands and wives, teachers and students, 19th century writers, and dead parents who speak from their full lives into the future.

and a comment from one of the readers:

 

"Always-a concept, Julia Lisella says, we can't understand, and yet have a word for.  Such conundrums fill these lovely and lucid poems.  It's not easy to make complex riddles clear, but that is what these poems do, exploring the tension between 'dust and devotion,' body and spirit, or in her ongoing dialogue with St. Francis, that dual attraction of denial and embrace.  'Make something beautiful,' this poet thinks in one poem, and she certainly does-not the cold beauty of the finished, the resolved, but the rich and deep beauty of the journey, the struggle itself."  -Betsy Sholl