Light a Candle and Give Thanks!

I have always loved sitting by candles and taking in the light and pausing for even just a moment. Over the weekend and last night I got to do this as a way to give thanks for people and ministries.  Last night the vestry of a Grace sat around a table, divided the names of all of you who lead ministries (one sheet of paper was for the entire congregation), and lit a candle for each and thanked God for your lives and for your ministries. Around that table were more than 50 candles representing just a fraction of the people who bring God to many people - members and nonmembers. 

The light was bright.  The Light of Christ is just as bright and shines around and through each of us.  Take a moment today to light a candle and give thanks for someone or some thing that has been a light in your life. While you are at it, light one for yourself.

For the next several weeks, we will be commemorating a holy woman or man in the Prayers of the People at the 10:30 liturgy.  Since some of these saints are not well known, we'll be including brief biographies of them in e-Items.  This week we will be remembering Anna Julia Haywood Cooper:

Anna Julia Haywood Cooper was born about 1859 in Raleigh, North Carolina, to an enslaved woman and a white man, presumably her mother's master. She attended St. Augustine Normal School and Collegiate Institute, founded by the Episcopal Church to educate African American teachers and clergy. There she became an Episcopalian and married George Cooper, one of her instructors, who was the second African American ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in North Carolina.

Widowed in 1879, Cooper received degrees from Oberlin College, and was made principal of the African American high school in Washington, D.C. Denied reappointment in 1906 because she refused to lower her educational standards. Cooper emphasized the importance of equal education for African Americans. An advocate for African American women, Cooper assisted in organizing the Colored Women's League and the first Colored Settlement House in Washington, D.C.

At the age of 65, in 1925, Cooper became the fourth African American woman to complete a doctorate, granted by the Sorbonne in Paris. From 1930-1942, she served as President of Freylinghuysen University. She died at the age of 104.

Listen, listen to me, and you will have good things to eat and rich food to enjoy. Pay attention, come to me; listen, and

Thanks in no small part to being motivated by the Outreach Committee, who voted to authorize $1,000 from PADS fundraisers to go toward the purchase of new tables used to serve meals to our PADS guests, we now have a total of 12 tables to replace the badly damaged round tables in the Parish Hall. 

Because the old tables were on their last legs, it made sense to replace them all at once; we realized significant savings by purchasing by the case.  However, because the money voted by the Outreach committee only covers a portion of the total expense, we are asking people to consider donating toward the cost of a table.  Each table cost $204.

If you'd like to make a contribution toward this project, please write Tables for Parish Hall in the memo line of  your check and mail it to us at:

Or click below to donate online: