Today is Ash Wednesday. Services at Grace are as follows:

• 6PM (A Hands-On Ash Wednesday Service for Children and Others)
• 7:30PM (with Eucharist and Choir)

We will be sending another email with resources for the season of Lent. 

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.

It seems that the internal components of our 93-year-old motor that powers the huge fan that gives wind to the organ has failed. Thanks to Silvano Brugioni, Michael Brugioni and Cliff Hunt, along with the Parish Musician, we have removed it and it has been delivered to a factory that will totally rebuild the motor. It will return, completely restored, to serve us for nearly another century! This is an unanticipated and unbudgeted expense of $7,100.00.  

If you wish to contribute to this undertaking, you may donate securely online using the link below, or you may mail a check to Grace Church with "Organ Motor" on the memo line. 

Faithfully,

Dennis Northway, Parish Musician  

Shawn Schreiner, Rector

Barbara Larsen & Chuck Tupta, Wardens 

The book study group organizes itself around authors who focus on living more fully from one's soul in the second half of life. The life of Christ is often used by such authors as a paradigm for this.

The group won't meet in March; the next discussion will be on Wednesday, April 8, 2015 at 7:30. If you are interested in joining the group, or would like more information, please contact Bets Howland.

The new book chosen is: God at 2000, edited by Marcus Borg and Ross Mackenzie. (From the book jacket) "At a February 2000 conference, seven scholars of religion were asked to explain how their 'personal experiences...study, and ...faith perspective influence' the way they, as individuals, 'see God.' This volume recounts the conference proceedings, offering luminous essays by prolific writer Karen Armstrong, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, rabbi Lawrence Kushner, nun Joan Chittister, and others," including Marcus Borg. Each chapter begins with a biography of the scholar who wrote the essay.

Here is the reading assignment for the April discussion (43 pages):

• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Seeing God Again: What's at Stake, by Marcus Borg
• Chapter 2: Honest to God: The Universe of Faith, by Diana Eck

God at 2000

by Marcus Borg and Ross Mackenzie by MOREHOUSE PUBLISHING

Paperback

List Price: $22.00

Our Price: $8.98

Buy Now

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 Edward Thomas Demby.

Edward Thomas Demby, 1869 - 1957

Born in Delaware in 1869, Edward Demby attended Howard University and became an Episcopalian while serving as the Dean of Students at Paul Quinn College in Texas. Bishop John Spalding recognized Demby's gifts for ministry and sent him to work in the Diocese of Tennessee. Ordained a deacon in 1898 and a priest the next year, he served parishes in Illinois, Missouri, and Florida. In 1907, he returned to Tennessee as rector of Emmanuel Church in Memphis. He was also appointed as the Archdeacon for Colored Work, with responsibilities for the segregated "colored convocations" in the South.

While serving as Archdeacon, Demby was elected Bishop Suffragan for Colored Work in the Diocese of Arkansas and the Province of the Southwest. A major contributor to the westward expansion of the Episcopal Church, Demby drew African Americans into the church through his work with black hospitals, schools, and orphanages. Despite the difficulties he encountered among the white leadership in the South, Demby worked his whole life toward the full recognition of African Americans in the Episcopal Church.

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.