Shrove Tuesday (also known as Pancake Tuesday, Pancake Day, Mardi Gras, and Fat Tuesday) is the day preceding Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.

Historically speaking, this is the day when folks around the world gather and clean out all of the fattening items from their lives as they take the journey from Lent to Easter.

Around Grace we have had Pancake Suppers, Mardi Gras Parties, Chili Competitions and more.

We are bringing back our famous chili competition.   Feel free to bring chili or toppings to share or just show up on Tuesday, February 17, from 6:00 - 7:30PM.

There will be a free-will offering; proceeds will be divided between the Journey to Adulthood group (as they prepare for a pilgrimage) and Grace Church.

Invite friends! Join the event on Facebook, or sign up here.

Ash Wednesday is February 18th. We will hold the following services at Grace:

7AM (with Eucharist)

12:15PM (brief service without Eucharist)

6PM (A Hands-On Ash Wednesday Service for Children and Others)

7:30PM (with Eucharist and Choir)

In addition, we will offer Ashes-To-Go. Email Shawn if you are interested in volunteering to distribute ashes. Here are suggested coverage times for volunteers:

6 - 9AM Train stations
11AM - 1PM in Downtown Oak Park
4 - 6PM Train stations and Downtown Oak Park 

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 are including brief biographies in e-Items.  

This week we will be remembering Frances Joseph Gaudet.

Frances Joseph Gaudet, 1861 - 1934

Frances was born in a log cabin in Holmesville, Mississippi, in 1861, of African American and Native American descent. Raised by her grandparents, she later went to live with a brother in New Orleans where she attended school and Straight College.

While still a young woman, Gaudet dedicated her life to prison reform. In 1894, she began holding prayer meetings for Black prisoners. She wrote letters for them, delivered messages, and found them clothing. Later, she extended this ministry to white prisoners as well. Her dedication to the imprisoned and to penal reform won her the respect of prison officials, city authorities, the governor of Louisiana, and the Prison Reform Association.

In 1900 she was a delegate to the international convention of the Women's Christian Temperance Union in Edinburgh, Scotland. Gaudet worked to rehabilitate young Blacks arrested for misdemeanors or vagrancy, becoming the first woman to support young offenders in Louisiana. Her efforts helped to found the Juvenile Court.

Deeply committed to the provision of good education, she eventually purchased a farm and founded the Gaudet Normal and Industrial School. Eventually, it expanded to over 105 acres with numerous buildings, and also served as a boarding school for children with working mothers. Gaudet served as its principal until 1921, when she donated the institution to the Episcopal Church in Louisiana. Though it closed in 1950, the Gaudet Episcopal Home opened in the same location four years later to serve African American children aged four to 16.

We have all passed through - and indeed still are feeling the tremors of - almost unimaginable moments of miscarriages of justice: in Ferguson, in New York, not so long ago in Florida. In partial response, we have dialogued, we have marched, and we have listened to public officials renew their commitment to correcting long-standing inequalities experienced by black youth and men in general in criminal justice systems all across this country. We now want to entertain a sustained discussion here in our church community about how we go forward in addressing these issues as an intentional Christian community in the light of that experience. To that end, we are creating an opportunity for all in our church to share their thoughts on these events by depositing your written thoughts in a box that will be placed in a very accessible location at Grace. We are doing this during Black History Month, and will use these thoughts to open a series of discussions in the months following Black History Month. Please note that names are not required, but if individuals wish to sign those statements, they should feel free to do so.

The Black History Luncheon is our gift to our church community to celebrate and bring to remembrance our history.

Please join us on Sunday, February 22 at 12:00 Noon in the Parish Hall. 

Donations are welcomed and will, this year, go to Mother Alice of Renk, Sudan, who lost her home in the fighting last year and, who is still without housing.

A veritable feast of African American, African and Caribbean dishes awaits you.