The next baptisms will take place during the Bishop's visitation at 10:00 am on April 23.  If you or your children are interested in baptism, please contact Fr. Zack as soon as possible if you have not already done so.

Grace’s 10:45 a.m. parishioners will see a familiar face in the procession and in front of the choir this Sunday as David Long returns to Grace as Interim Choirmaster. A long-time friend of the parish, David conducted Grace’s choir from 2003-2008 and then again as Interim for a few months in 2009. The choir and the church staff are excited to have him back, and we look forward to working with him to bring lovely music to our services.  

See below for a brief biography:  

David is currently in his twelfth year as conductor of The Chattanooga Bach Choir; has a degree from Elon College and holds master’s degrees in Performance-Orchestral Conducting (University of TN at Chattanooga) and Church Music (Southern Theological Seminary). David has participated in the Beyond the Baton Workshop Seminar, the Conductors’ Institute of the University of South Carolina, the Vakhtang Jordania International Conducting Competition, the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors and Orchestra Musicians, and the Oregon Bach Festival, where he was selected as a conducting fellow, studying in masterclasses under Helmuth Rilling. In 2001, he was selected to participate in the Symphonic Conducting Workshop and Competition at the Accademia dell’ Arte of Florence/Arezzo, where he was a prize winner and conducted the Accademia dell’ Arte Orchestra in the city of Florence.  

David resides in Chattanooga with his wife, Karen, a media relations specialist for Memorial Hospital, and their three children, Megan, Jacob and Cassidy. He enjoys bicycle riding with his family on the many trails and greenways along the Tennessee River and Chickamauga Creek.

The Rt. Rev. Rob Wright, a noteworthy speaker and Bishop of Atlanta, will be giving the keynote address to the Thorne Sparkman School at St. Paul's Episcopal Church this Wednesday night at 6:30 PM.  He will be speaking on the many ways the Episcopal Church engages in ministries of reconciliation in our nation and throughout the world.  

The event is open to the public. Suggested donation for those not already registered: $10 www.thornesparkman.org

Time to fish or cut bait! Next Friday (April 7) is the last date to buy Easter lilies AND get your dedication into the Easter bulletins. If you’d like to purchase one or more plants to honor or remember a loved one or in thanksgiving for friends, relatives or life events, please contact the church office (e-mail [email protected] or phone 243-3257), or take a form from the table in the Narthex, fill it out and tuck it into the almsbag on Sunday. Lilies will cost $15 each. The deadline is so early because the Easter bulletins are printed out-of-house and so must be finalized days earlier than usual. Please act now!!  

Your name:  _______________________________________________________

Phone Number: ____________________________________________________

  Honor  Memory  Thanksgiving                                  Name to list  

• ¨          ¨            ¨                                       ________________________
• ¨          ¨            ¨                                       ________________________
• ¨          ¨            ¨                                       ________________________
• ¨          ¨            ¨                                       ________________________

GET READY FOR FUN -- Grace’s annual Easter frolic for the young ‘uns has been scheduled for Saturday, April 15, at 1 p.m.  

Please note that it is at 1 p.m. instead of in the morning!   

We’ll meet in the Pavilion to do some simple crafts and games while the eggs are hidden. Then split up into age groups for some egg-hunting fun! As we’ve done before, the smallest ones will hunt eggs on the playground where they are fenced in! Please let me know if you want to help ([email protected]).  

Ways to help:

• Drop off stuffed eggs the week before
• Bring stuffed eggs that day
• Help stuff eggs during the week
• Donate items for stuffing!!
  

Reception for Father Ken – Saturday, April 15), after the Easter Vigil (which begins at 8:00 p.m.). All are invited to come thank and honor Father Ken for his service as Interim Rector at Grace. His last Sunday with us will be Easter Sunday.

Bishop’s Annual Visit – Sunday, April 23 (a week after Easter) – Bishop George will make his last visit to Grace before his retirement in August. At his request, we will all worship together at one service at 10:00 a.m. that day. A reception in honor of the Bishop and those who have been confirmed, baptized and received that morning will be held after the service in the Undercroft.

Holy Week, which has been so distant for so long, is bearing down upon us – Palm Sunday is just over a week away! Please note that, while most of our services remain at their accustomed times, the times for Stations of the Cross and the Good Friday liturgy have been changed this year. The later times will allow those who like to attend the big noon service at St. Paul’s to come to Grace as well should they choose; they also put the services closer to the time of day that scriptures tell us Christ died.

Sunday, April 9 – Palm Sunday – 8:00 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. (Liturgy of the Palms      and dramatic reading of the Passion Gospel

Thursday, April 13 – Maundy Thursday – 7:00 p.m. (Holy Eucharist and foot-washing) Friday, April 14 – Stations of the Cross, 2:00 p.m.
                            Good Friday liturgy,    3:00 p.m.  

Saturday, April 15 – Easter Vigil, 8 p.m.

Sunday, April 16 – Easter services, 8 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.  

2017 Grace Episcopal Arts Camp -- June 19-23

An Artistic Romp through the Middle Ages  

Calling all princes and princesses! Hear ye, hear ye. Thou art invited to the annual arts camp. Put it on your calendar and get ready to enroll when the form makes it onto the website!    Cost is a mere $25 (or a spring lamb). Hours are 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Church-related Pre-K children and all K-5 elementary children (with or without church affiliation) are invited to enroll. Spots are limited. See Maria for more details or email her at [email protected]   HOW YOU CAN HELP:  

• Volunteer before or during camp
• Make or donate costuming items related to the Middle Ages for kids to play dress-up
• Donate to the arts camp fund to pay for children who can’t afford the fee
• Share books and materials related to Middle Ages

Register for this Episcopal camp soon!  Partial scholarships are available through the church.  Please talk to Maria Hurt for more information. We definitely recommend getting registered right away.  Go to gracepointcamp.org and looking under the Camps tab. 

-- May 19th - 21st: Family Camp- Rising 1st, 2nd, 3rd grades with parent.  
-- May 27th - June 1st: Intermediate Camp- Rising 4th-7th grades.  
-- June 4th - 9th: Youth Camp- Rising 7th grade-rising college freshmen.  
-- June 12th - 17th: Work Camp- Rising 7th grade-rising college freshmen.  
-- June 20th - 25th: Junior Summer Session- Rising 4th-7th grades.  
-- July 13th - 16th: Adult Camp- New camp for adults ages 21 and above.  
-- July 24th - 29th: Youth Summer Session- Rising 8th grade-rising college freshmen.  

Support Grace Point Outreach Camps

Grace Point outreach camps Camp Billy Johnson and Jim Muir Kamp 4 Kids provide us with a great opportunity to minister to kids throughout East Tennessee. However, it is common that these campers come to camp with limited or no supplies. A camp experience can change a child's life. We invite you to join us in our ministry. Please email Gracie Dover [email protected] with any donations. Thank you for supporting our outreach camps!   

Donations Needed:
bathing suits for girls and boys ages 9-18
new or gently used clothing for girls and boys ages 9-18
toiletries 
towels
reusable plastic water bottles
water shoes or shoes that can be worn in the lake

1. Small gardens irrigated. It's with great pleasure and after much hard work by Mike Shillinger that I announce that the Free Garden (Jerry Evans and Tom Carroll), Butterfly TWO (Beth and Mickey Myers), the Welcome Garden (Kristina Shaneyfelt), and, last year, the Courtyard (Jeff Workman, Mary Bacon Williams, Sally Scholze) are all fully irrigated. We still expect to get spray heads into Butterfly One (Richard Hyatt & Phaen Stone) later this spring. This takes a tremendous load off our volunteer garden keepers, who've been hand watering out in the blistering summer heat.

2. Volunteers needed. We could use more volunteers to help maintain these gardens!  Even if you can only spare a few hours a month, we'd appreciate it. We will show you what to do if you are trying to learn more about gardening. After all, we all came from a garden, and we're all yearning to get back to it. Contact [email protected], Lisa Lemza, or Kristina Shaneyfelt.

3. Grace Grounds has just been certified as an official Monarch Waystation, # 1570, by Monarch Watch. See details at http://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/ ; Maybe you could certify your home garden, too, and spread the habitat around for this collapsing butterfly population. Meanwhile, Kristina will be working with Jeff to add a lot of native pollinator plants to our gardens this spring; we ordered about $300 worth of small plugs for this purpose. See attached photo!

4.  Mowing the grounds. We continue to maintain the grass lawns at the highest possible mower setting to improve grass and insect health -- yes, there are lots of little happy bugs living their lives out there, and we don't want them to die as collateral damage to an artificial aesthetic. It is also much better for the grass. We will continue to mow around the wide swaths of daffodil patches, and will continue to do so until at least Mothers Day or even Memorial Day. Yes, they get pretty scrubby by then, but we have to let the daffodil bulbs rejuvenate if we want to see those blooms again next January, February, March. 

See above for a photo of our Waystation certificate. Ain't this FUN? 

 
Lisa Lemza

Taken from a DioET dispatch:

The Search and Nominating Committee held a productive and enjoyable 3-day discernment retreat with those nominees invited to continue in the process. During this time, we all got to know one another better through a series of activities, several question and answer periods, worship, and some much appreciated down time.   We have some wonderful folks in discernment with us and look forward to the next phase of our work. The next time you hear about the election, it will be from the Standing Committee on April 28 as they announce a slate of between 3 and 5 candidates. At that point, we will post all of the biographies, profiles, pictures, and answers to our questions submitted by the candidates. The Transition Committee will take over and also post videos of each candidate.  

Please continue to hold both the Bishop Search and Nominating Committee and the Transition Committee in your prayers as we continue to go about this holy work.