Whom do you know that may be looking for a spiritual community? A place and people who will explore the hard questions in life and seek communion and justice with God and our neighbors? 

See you Sunday! 

We celebrate the Eucharist at 10:00. 

It is the last Sunday before Lent, and on this day each year we hear an account of the Transfiguration of Jesus. On the mountaintop, his inner circle sees him in "glory." 

After the Eucharist, we will share refreshments and conversation.

On Shrove Tuesday, we eat rich and fatty foods as a kind of last fling before the sobriety of Lent. 

Grace hosts a Pancake Supper in Hadesty Hall (location of the food pantry) each year. The event runs 4:30-7:00, and it is a fundraiser. We sell tickets at the door, and we also invite donations to cover the expenses. David Moyer takes the lead on this event, and lately he's enamored of the Mardi Gras theme, so we can expect beads, music, and decor reflective of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. And since we live in the Lehigh Valley, we have fastnachts! 

It's a lot of fun and there are opportunities to volunteer time (for cooking and serving) and give money. Look for the sign-up sheets at the back of church or in the hallway, or call the office between 8:30 and 12:30 (610-435-0782). 

So goes part of the exhortation in the Ash Wednesday liturgy. We will celebrate a Eucharist and receive the mark of ashes at 7:30, Wednesday, February 13. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate. 

Lent is a season of penitence, and keeping Lent prepares us to enter deeply into the paschal mystery (Jesus' life, death, and resurrection and our participation in those) that we celebrate most intensely in the Paschal Triduum. 

"Paschal Triduum" is the term for the one Easter celebration that spans three nights (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday). The Great Vigil of Easter, held this year at 8:00 pm on March 30, is the principal liturgical celebration of the entire year. 

Please put all three nights of the Triduum on your calendar (March 28-30) and plan to be present as we are immersed in the stories and actions that shape us as followers of Jesus.

On the middle five Wednesdays of Lent, people of Grace will gather for a simple service of evening prayer at 6:00. We will continue in the mode we began in Advent, being attentive to God's presence through chanting, scripture reading, intercessory prayer, and silence. 

The students in our school who are elementary age meet upstairs, and each afternoon they have "special" classes. These include yoga, Spanish, art (at the Baum School), music, and chapel. 

In chapel recently, the students spent several weeks learning about the Bible, including how it's like a library, how it's sacred to Jews and Christians, and the names of the books. There are several materials that help them: a wooden model of the Bible with a small piece to represent each book of the Bible, charts to fill out with all names of the books, copying exercises, reading exercises, and of course, several Bibles the children can examine and compare. 

First-graders examine Bibles.

A third-grader makes a chart with each book of the Bible on it.