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Come Grow in God's Love
and experience Grace in all
ways!
Adult Formation
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Church
School
Children's
Easter
service
in the Chapel. |
Bible
Study arts and
crafts make
the Scripture
vibrant for
children. |
Church School
(Christian Formation: Youth)
Church School will resume on
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Donita
Duffee, Sharon Swink and Sue Schroder will be teachers this year
along with Joan, alternating throughout the Sundays of the coming year. We
will be using the "Living the Good News" curriculum based on the Episcopal
lectionary
readings so that parents and grandparents are hearing and
learning about
the same Scripture as the children to better follow-up at
home
for further Christian formation of their children with take-home activity
sheets to encourage home involvement.
- Cassie Hamand has agreed to
assist the teachers in this
ministry
for our younger children.
- Children ages 4-12 (or until
confirmed) are expected to
attend
Church School unless
scheduled to serve as
acolytes or remain with
their parent or other adult
for the entire worship
service in the Church.
Children & Families -
"Vacation Days Off" (see
calendar):
Wednesdays of July: 7/1, 7/8, 7/15, 7/22 and
7/29/09
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Church
School Summer Camp 2006
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a larger
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Who would have
thought Bible
School Summer
Camp could be so
fun? |
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Outreach: Children &
Families
Parents' Day Off - "Vacation
Bible School Summer Camp
2007"
- Wednesdays - July 11th through August 8th, 2007 (Ages
6-12)
-
Adult Teachers led classes
preventing bullying,
building our Christian
character by growing in the Fruits of the
Holy Spirit, planned
dress-up skits,
guitar led music sing-a-longs, plus fun
times to play games, watch
videos,
play outside, fly kites in the park and
make new friends. Teachers
Donita,
Sue, Karen, Alyssa, Rachel, Barb and Pastor
Carolyn with Jr. Counselors
Cassie and Stormy made sure each summer
session was jam-packed from
beginning to end in engaging fun learning
opportunities. The children
also
learned more this year about plant growth
for planting their sunflower
and
pumpkin seedlings and other seasonal potted
flowers from U of I
Extension
offices Master Gardener, Paula Trainor-Rosenbaum.
-
Mary’s Homestyle Restaurant
again provided their
delicious meat loaf
luncheon entrees for the children,; others
made cash contributions
towards
meals and fun field trips out bowling on a
rainy afternoon and to the
Bloomington Children’s Discovery Museum on
another day. Nutritious
meals
and snacks were provided by Barb Post and
Marie Pulliam; Marilyn and
Jerry
Shepard; Donna Brackney and Roberta
Robinson and Sue Schroder.
Children's Harvest Fall Fest
Parents join their
children for a fun afternoon
at the annual Harvest Fall
Fest decorating pumpkins,
playing carnival games,
hearing a story read
by Pastor Carolyn, taking a
whack at the candy-filled
piñata and enjoying
a BBQ with ice cream bar
dessert.
School Days Off - Spring 2008
Friday,
Last day of Spring Break
on March 28, 2008
9:00 AM to 5:00 PM for children ages 6 to
12 years old
(Includes breakfast, lunch
and snacks.)
Offering Loads of Fun
Activities!
Arts & Crafts - Bible
Stories - Dress-up Skits -
Games - Computer Activities
and more! Enroll Today - All are welcome!
(Please register early
before
slots are full.) Fee - $5/child or max
$10/family (Funding
available.)
900 Manlove at Torrance
Avenue (across from County
Health Department)
(815) 842-1743 or
gracepontiacepiscopal@earthlink.net
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Livingston County
Community Pantry at 420
N. Plum Street in Pontiac
(815) 844-1039
Grace Episcopal Church is one of the founding partners
with other Pontiac
churches and organizations to launch the new Pantry
that opened its doors
to help those in need on Saturday, July 7, 2007. The
initial plan started out
during the summer months to have the community pantry
open on Saturdays
from 10 a.m. until noon, while building up resources
and expanding in the
fall to work towards full service by the holidays.
Additional Wednesday hours
of operation from 4-6 p.m. started 8/1/07 and on
9/10/07 the Pantry opened
a 3rd day every week on Mondays from 6-7 p.m.
Additionally, the Pantry is
open to receive donations on Wednesdays 3-4 p.m.
Donations of non-perishable food, paper products,
cleaning items and clothing
detergent can be dropped off during open hours, or call
to arrange a drop-off.
Monetary donations are greatly appreciated to purchase
additional grocery
and meat inventory to supplement donations. The LCCP is
encouraging other
organizations, churches, and businesses to collaborate
with them to play an
effective role to end hunger in Livingston County by
partnering with this
County-wide Pantry to serve our less fortunate
neighbors within the
community.
Want to learn how you and
your family can "connect"
more with our
church? Then be sure to
contact us. Need
directions? Click
here.
Easter Pastoral
Letter for 2010:
In the thirteenth century,
the Persian poet Rumi
had an interesting way of
describing our need for resurrection. He wrote this
dialogue: "The mystics
are gathering in the street. Come out!" Those cosseted
in their abodes cried
out, "Leave me alone. I’m sick." "I don’t care if
you’re dead! Jesus is here,
and he wants to resurrect somebody!" Isn’t that a
curious way to say it?
"I don’t care if you’re dead! Jesus is here, and he
wants to resurrect
somebody!" Jesus always wants to resurrect somebody,
but too often there
seems to be good reasons to choose not to be
resurrected
The ones in Rumi’s poem
thought they were too sick
to be resurrected. For
Pontius Pilate, it was the desire for power.
For the Jewish leaders, it
was the need to have
everyone think like they
thought. For many of us, it’s the fear of letting go of
the familiar routines
that lull us into believing we are in control.
Churches, as well, have any
number of reasons for not
being resurrected:
"We might offend some of our members." "This isn’t how
other churches do
it." "We’ve always done it this way." "We’ve never done
it that way." You may
never have been to a church in need of resurrection,
but you probably can
imagine it. Ironically, like the sick persons in Rumi’s
poem, the constant
specter is the fear of death, permeating everything
with a survival mentality.
The church always needs resurrection but never more so
than at the
beginning of ‘something new’ God is doing. Early on
Easter Sunday morning
the disciples were the world’s deadest church.
Mary Magdalene was the first
to go to the cemetery at
dawn on the Third
Day. She went to the grave of the finest person any of
them had ever known.
It was still dark when she got there. She wasn’t sure
exactly why she’d come.
When there was finally enough light to see, she was
devastated by what she
discovered: "Oh, no, not this. Not only have they
beaten him, not only have
they murdered him, but now they’ve stolen his body. How
could they do
this?"
Then Jesus speaks to her. She doesn’t
recognize him at first. Then
Jesus
speaks her name. In a simple word, a single sound,
darkness becomes light,
despair gives way to hope, and life overcomes death.
When Jesus calls her
by name, Mary is transformed from the last mourner in a
dead church into
the first witness of a living church. She’s been
resurrected. Mary runs to
tell
the church to wake up, "I’ve seen the Lord. I don’t
care how dead you think
you are! Jesus is here, and he wants to resurrect
somebody!" Tony Campolo,
the popular religious writer, recounts the story of an
African-American pastor
calling his congregation to resurrection. For an hour
and a half he preached
one line over and over. "It’s Friday, but Sunday’s
comin’”; "It’s Friday, but
Sunday’s comin’."
As Bishop Jeffrey Lee observed in his last
Easter pastoral letter, “The
plagues
of violence, racism and inequality continue to keep us
from becoming the
society we claim to be in Jesus’ resurrection
hope. Sometimes the bad news
seems relentless. But in the face of all of it, now is
the time for Christians to
proclaim the power of God to bring new life out of
anything death has to
throw at us. We are not alone.” The power of the Holy
Spirit is with us
blowing through creation – sometimes we can even feel
her presence doing
a ‘new thing’ at every turn, and working miracles at
every moment. This
community of faith at Grace Episcopal Church has been
blessed with those
winds of change and new life in the last several years,
and rejoice that what
is hoped for by the in breaking of the Kingdom can be
experienced and
glimpsed right now in the life of this parish. The
tough work the Vestry did
last year is beginning to come to fruition in awesome
opportunities that God
is unfolding for us in the coming months with new
ventures to undergird the
congregation’s financial stability now and into the
future. Come and see to
make real and partake in the power to change the world
through new life
that Christ invites you into here at Grace Church.
It’s still Friday in these
waning days of Lent as we
prepare to enter the sacred
events of Holy Week and the Paschal mystery of Jesus’
passion, death and
resurrection. God will teach us through new life in
Christ to think outside the
box, and not fear to go where the Spirit leads. God
will take us beyond what
we’ve always done, to carry the best of the past with
us as we move forward
with welcoming hearts, open minds and an adventurous
spirit into our
Creator’s redeemed future.
Jesus is present and wants to
resurrect us in the hope we
feel. He wants to
help us understand that it’s Easter now.
May God, who is always
making all
things new, bring you hope and peace in Christ’s new
life of the Resurrection
this Easter Season. Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord
is risen indeed! Come
rejoice!
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Yours in our
Lord’s Love,
Reverend Carolyn Bavaro,
Rector
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