Today we'll share a good old fashioned potluck lunch following the service today. Nothing fancy - let's just pull out some tables and share whatever we've brought. Please feel free to attend even if you didn't bring any food - we'll count on the loaves and fishes!

Please sit at tables with your working group. The vestry will be giving us an update about the vestry retreat that took place yesterday, and which will inform our conversations together today.

• Mission: Discerns and enacts activities to engage in this winter and spring to keep sowing the seeds of God's healing love out into our community and to make Grace known as a place of healing and wholeness
• Property Resources: Considers our property and the way we're using it, exploring ways for it to support God's mission.
• Leadership Resources: Considers what kind of ordained and lay leadership we will need into the future to support our journey in God's mission.

Which one have you signed up for? It's time to get to work in these areas and everyone at Grace needs to take part in our important work together this winter and spring. Discussions will continue in our working groups during the potluck this Sunday.

About conducting a Food Stamp Solidarity Fast, Bishop Shori wrote:

"Lent is a time when we pray, when we fast, when we study, when we give alms. It's a time of solidarity and it is particularly a time to be in solidarity with the least of these. As you prepare for your Lenten season and your Lenten discipline, I'd encourage you to think about consciousness in eating... It's very, very difficult to find adequate calories and reasonably nutritious food [within a food stamp] budget. But it would be an act of solidarity with those who do go without every day and every week. An act of solidarity like that might increase your consciousness about those who go hungry, it might increase your own consciousness about what you eat, and it might provide an opportunity to share some of your largesse, some of what you save from that kind of eating with those who go without."

The week long fast we did at Grace just ends this Saturday. Did you take part? What did you discover through the experience? You'll have a chance to share that during lunch if you'd like.

Join your neighbors in faith for a potluck supper and then a short Lenten service on the Wednesday evenings of Lent. Supper is at 6, and the service is from 7:00-7:45 PM. 

• March 13                    Trumbull Congregational Church, 3115 Reservoir Avenue
• March 20                    Unity Hill United Church of Christ, 364 White Plains Rd.  

Certainly you've noticed the used clothing shed in our back parking lot.  Please spread the word about this new outreach project -laminated posters and small flyers are available to post and share.  Clothes donated into the shed are picked up by St. Pauly's, who distributes them all to people in need across the globe through their connection with larger agencies.  All of the usable clothing that gets donated makes its way to people in need, saving landfill space.  Items accepted include clothing, shoes, sneakers, belts, linens, pillow cases, blankets, curtains and stuffed animals.  (Please do not put rags, fabric scraps, pillows, toys, household goods or electronics in the shed.)  Grace church receives 4 cents per pound on all items collected in exchange for hosting the shed. For further info on this project, there is information about St. Pauly's available in coffee hour, or click on this link: St. Pauly's.  

If you and your spouse were married on or before December 31, 1963, you are invited to attend a special 50th anniversary liturgy held each spring in Hartford. Whether or not you can make it to the service, we can make sure you are included in the prayers that day. If you and your spouse have been married for 50 years or more and you'd like to be included in any way or if you have questions about the event, please call Maryann in the office.