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Worship Preview | Sunday, February 19, 2023
Transfiguration of the Lord
In-person and Online Service
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*For the full revised common lectionary, please click here. | |
| Thursday, February 16 | APNC Meeting | 6:15 pm on Zoom | | Thursday, February 16 | PW Circle 3 Mtg. | 7:00 pm | Offsite | | Sunday, February 19 | Hybrid Worship
(In-person and online) | 9:30 am @ GCPC
(also on Youtube) | | Sunday, February 19 | Fellowship Time | 10:45 am | Narthex | | Sunday, February 19 | Formation for All Ages | 11:00 am
*please see details below | | Sunday, February 19 | Earth Team Mtg. | 12:00 pm | Fellowship Hall | | Sunday, February 19 | Program on Palestine
"The Occupation: Is It Apartheid?" | 3:00 pm | Sanctuary | | Sunday, February 19 | High School Youth Group | 4:30 pm | Youth Room | | Sunday, February 19 | Deacons Mtg. | 7:00 pm on Zoom | | Tuesday - Thursday | Church Office OPEN | 10:00 am - 4:00 pm | | Tuesday, February 21 | Prayer Group | 10:00 am | Jerusalem Room | | Tuesday, February 21 | Finance Council Mtg. | 5:30 pm on Zoom | | Tuesday, February 21 | Serve Council Mtg. | 6:30 pm on Zoom | | Wednesday, Feb. 22 | Ash Wednesday | 12:00 pm & 6:00 PM Services | Sanctuary | | Wednesday, Feb. 22 | Choir Rehearsal | 7:00 pm | Sanctuary | | Thursday, February 23 | Men of GCPC Gathering | 9:00 am on Zoom | | Thursday, February 23 | PART Mtg. | 6:00 pm on Zoom | | |
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Children's Formation (K-5th Grade) | Sundays | 11:00 AM | Sanctuary
The children will begin in the Sanctuary with prayer, music and storytelling. At 11:25 am they will travel to their "wondering rooms" (second floor of Education Wing) to finish their Godly Play lesson. Pick up is at noon and children are invited to take a snack home.
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Youth Formation (Middle/High School) | Sundays | 11:00 AM | Youth Room
After worship service starting at 11 a.m. Middle and High Schoolers will meet together in the new youth room. We will provide breakfast-like snacks and will be learning about Holy Troublemakers and Unconventional Saints.
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Earth Team @ GCPC | Sunday, February 19 | 12:00 - 1:00 PM | Fellowship Hall
Seven of us from GCPC have just returned from the Creation Care Symposium inspired and challenged as we strategize next steps at Grace Covenant.
We will meet Sunday 2/19 after Sunday School in the Fellowship Hall to plan ‘what’s next’ at Grace Covenant as we strive to care for God’s Creation and re-energize the EARTH TEAM. Please join us!
Bring your own bagged lunch or email Kathy Singleton at kathywilsonsingleton@gmail.com to order a lunch from Green Sage as some of us will be doing. Email Susan Presson at 4pressons@gmail.com if you have questions.
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High School Youth Group | Sunday, February 19 | 4:30 PM | Youth Room
We will meet in the youth room for a conversation about LOVE with Meggie, Linzi and Russell. As always friends are welcome.
Next Saturday February 25th is Family Game Night 4:30-7:00 pm. We will gather in the Atrium and Fellowship hall for group games and dinner. Registration is available on Realm.
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There will be no Centering Prayer or Bible Study on
Ash Wednesday due to services.
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- There will be childcare available at the 6pm Ash Wednesday service.
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Look for the Lenten GraceNote tomorrow which will outline GCPC opportunities during Lent. | |
Two Lenten Devotional options: | |
The online and downloadable series, “With Creation: A Native and Indigenous Lenten Devotional,” will feature 12 Native American or Indigenous writers and is intended to fill a need within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). | |  |
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Sign up here to receive a copy of the Lenten devotional, "Seeking: Honest Questions for Deeper Faith," created by A Sanctified Art.
You can choose to receive a printed copy mailed to your address or a digital PDF copy sent directly to your email.
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Important Announcements... | |
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This week a memorial marker that has been on the Grace Covenant campus since 1992 was lovingly placed in its new location near the basketball court on the field between Larchmont Apartments and GCPC. This marker honors the life of GCPC member, Mitchell Carlisle, who was killed in a car accident on March 13, 1992 when he was only 16 years old.
Mitchell loved to play basketball so the church put up a basketball goal in his memory in the parking lot along with the marker. During COVID the basketball goal began to get a lot more use with YTL scholars using it during their recreation time. The Property Council and Session realized the busy GCPC parking lot was becoming a challenging place for kids to play basketball safely, so a new basketball court and goal were put in down on the Larchmont field. And now the monument has been moved to that area as well.
We celebrate the lasting legacy of Mitchell's life and impact at GCPC.
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Deacon of the Week:
The deacons of Grace Covenant are available to talk and pray with you by phone or online and to coordinate care. If you have difficulty reaching your assigned deacon or if you do not know who your assigned deacon is, please feel free to reach out to our deacon of the week.
This week (2/12-2/18): Pam Baker | email: pam.dunkin56@gmail.com
Next week (2/19-2/25): Paul Tierney | email: paul@tierneyandco.net
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Prayer requests will stay on the GCPC Prayer List for one month. Please let any staff member know if you (or your loved one) would like to remain on the list for longer.
Iglesia Jerusalem congregation
Trey and Alisha Thompson and 3 kids - Gabi, Arlo, and Eldon (Patty and Brent Thompson's son and daughter-in-law and grandchildren)
Bill Brown (Mary Lou Nash's brother)
Family of Patricia McNeff Ormond (Bill McNeff’s cousin)
Kathey Avery (a member of Just Funding)
Cathy Wooten (William High’s mom)
Jessica Huie (John Huie's daughter)
Mimosa Hines (Robin Mallernee's daughter)
Maria, Esteban, and Erik Goicoehea
Cierra Williams (Marta Alcala's friend)
Susan Smialowicz
Doris Prak
Michelle Chromey and family
Andrea Rosal
Sharon Sasse
Reed Carney
Laura and Jonathan Ross
Margaret Rada
Juanita Schneider
Mary Byers
Gene Callaway
Gloria Moe
Ken Richards
Susie Churchfield
Our sympathy and support are extended to Jonathan Ross and family on the death of his father, Bill Ross, on February 10th. Please keep the family in your prayers.
A Service of Witness to the Resurrection and Thanksgiving for the Life of Madge Francis will be held on Saturday, February 25th at 1:00 pm in the GCPC Sanctuary.
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Presbyterian Womenʼs Circles are Zoom meetings. Please join us.
Circle 1: Second Monday of each month, 10:00 a.m.
Circle 2: First Tuesday of each month, 7:30 p.m.
Circle 3: Second Tuesday of each month (some Zoom and some in-person), 7:00 p.m.
Circle 4: Second Tuesdays of each month, 10:30 a.m.
Circle 5: First Monday of each month, 11:00 a.m.
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Need to set up a church zoom meeting?
Contact Anna Louise and she can get you all set up!
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The GCPC Community Garden is gearing up for the season! | |
Community Working Together | |
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"Black In Asheville" Film Documentary | Saturday, February 18 | 7:00 PM | Black Wall Street AVL (8 River Arts Place, Asheville, NC 28801)
Black In Asheville is a documentary that brings together Asheville residents and historians to recount Asheville’s Black history. A story that has to be preserved for generations yet to come. This film takes us back to the Antebellum Period and demonstrates in accurate fashion what life was like for enslaved people in Asheville. Further the film will explore the deplorable conditions of enslaved persons during the Civil War and their transition to the Postbellum Period of Reconstruction, Jim Crow and Black Code Laws.
As enslaved people transitioned to freedmen after the Civil War, they continued to live a segregated existence filled with the violent threats designed to control free people assuring that they were kept controlled. This film shows how the establishment of churches and schools was vital to the progression of Black life. It is important to tell these stories that history intentionally omitted, so that future generations are made aware of the many important contributions.
This film raises the question, “How much better off are Blacks today in a supposedly non-segregated Asheville and seeks to define where do we go from here?”
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Update on Winter Safe Shelter, a collaborative effort between GCPC, Grace Episcopal, and Trinity United Methodist | |
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The Winter Safe Shelter is still in need of volunteers.
You can sign up at this link.
Check out the most current needed items by clicking here.
Last, see what is emerging out of the community at WSS. The Restored Dream Project is re-emerging at the Winter Safe Shelter. Click here to learn more from its founder and resident of WSS, JoeRob.
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Carolina Jews for Justice hosted:
“Envisioning Reparations with Dr. Mullen”
Who better to update the community about the Reparations process than Dr. Dwight Mullen, Professor Emeritus of UNC Asheville and Chairperson of the City of Asheville’s Community Reparations Commission. Check out the full recording here.
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Racial Equity Institute (REI) Upcoming Trainings
The Western North Carolina Racial Equity Collective is a collective of volunteers in counties across the mountains working to create more equitable communities. Together we organize to bring the Racial Equity Institute workshops and trainings to our area and beyond, as well as facilitate community conversations about race, racism and how both are operating in our communities.
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Interfaith Initiative -
Social Justice Opportunities
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Buncombe Community Remembrance Project | | |
Evangelist Annie C. Foreman of Reachout Christian Center Church, at right, spoke movingly last month during a service of apology for the sin of slavery and its aftermath. (Contributed photo) | |
PC(USA) pastors and other leaders offer a public apology that was centuries in the making -
During a service in Lansing, Michigan, an evangelist who picked cotton as a child explains what the apology means to her
~ by Mike Ferguson
Late last month dozens of white clergy from churches and mid councils, elected officials and other leaders in Lansing, Michigan, gathered at the Reachout Christian Center Church to apologize to the African American community for slavery and its aftermath. Among the participants was the Rev. Jermaine Ross-Allam, director of the PC(USA)’s Center for the Repair of Historic Harms.
Ross-Allam said that the service included a litany of repentance read by the white people who were present. For him, a powerful response to the apology came from Evangelist Annie C. Foreman of Reachout Christian Center Church, who spoke of having to pick cotton beginning at age 3. A few years later, she recalled looking heavenward and telling the Almighty, “Lord, there’s got to be a better life. I cannot live like this the rest of my life.” Sharecropping “was all my parents knew, and that’s what they did,” she said. “We didn’t go to school every day. When we went to school was when it rained.”
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Photo by micheile dot com via Unsplash | |
Third Act’s Day of Action on March 21 seeks limits to bankrolling fossil fuel expansion -
Third Act Faith, an interfaith working group of clergy and laity, is helping with the day’s events
~ by Dr. Dan Terpstra
Third Act, whose members are age 60+, is organizing a Day of Action that will give people, regardless of age, an opportunity on March 21 to pressure the “Big Four” banks (Bank of America, Chase, Citibank, and Wells Fargo) to stop bankrolling the expansion of the fossil fuel industry.
Third Act is not doing this alone. According to a Third Act news release, to date, 29 other organizations have signed on as partners for the Day of Action, including GreenFaith, the Sierra Club and the Hip Hop Caucus.
Among those working on behalf of the 3.21.23 campaign are the members of Third Act Faith, an interfaith working group of laity and clergy from across the nation and denominations who bring a faith-based perspective and presence to Third Act’s work. To that end, they are at work on creating a liturgy specifically for the Day of Action, under the leadership of the Rev. Jerry Cappel, an Episcopal priest and director of the Center for Deep Green Faith, and Rev. Dr. Jane Ellen Nickell, Chaplain Emerita of Allegheny College. They also are encouraging its members and their faith communities to be involved, where possible, in local 3.21.23 actions.
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Stewardship & Sustainability | |
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IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO SUBMIT YOUR 2023 PLEDGE!
Submitting your pledge is quick and easy! Simply CLICK HERE or scan the Qr code to the right to submit your pledge online, all in one form. You will receive an email confirmation of your pledge.
Questions or concerns? Please contact Natalie Weaver, Stewardship & Financial Administrator, at giving@gcpcusa.org or leave a message at 828.254.3274.
Keep in mind, anyone can pledge any amount - every single penny helps support the ministry and mission at GCPC!
WAYS TO PLEDGE:
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Online pledge card HERE
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Email giving@gcpcusa.org
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Call 828.254.3274 and leave a message for Natalie Weaver
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Fill out a pew pledge card and put in the Sunday offering plate
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Request a mailed pledge card from the office
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Asheville Parks & Recreation celebrates Black culture with special events in February | |
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Throughout the year, Asheville Parks & Recreation (APR) and its partners share unique stories, rich culture, and opportunities for all community members to reflect on Black history, heritage, and hope. Programming staff are hosting events at community centers in February to celebrate Black History and Legacy Month.
“February is a time to recognize, celebrate, and highlight the struggles, successes, and contributions of Black Americans,” according to D. Tyrell McGirt, APR Director. “Through art, food, movies, and more, the community is invited to pay tribute to the legacy of achievement in the context of Asheville’s and the nation’s pasts and shine a light on inspirational moments happening in the present that will define our futures. Everyone is invited to celebrate and thoughtfully reflect at one or more of these opportunities.”
Black History and Legacy Month Highlights
All events are free, but advance registration is recommended as space may be limited. In addition to these special events, many community centers will display youth projects emphasizing Black historical figures and literary heroes throughout the month.
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Feb. 23, 6-8 p.m. – Soul Food Supper at Stephens-Lee Community Center - In the late 19th century, the church became a gathering place for the Black community and impacted the development of what's now considered soul food. Fried chicken, fried fish, sweet potato pie, sweet tea, black-eyed peas, cornbread, and more were served during Emancipation celebrations and church gatherings. Celebrate 100 years of Stephens-Lee High School at this dinner sponsored by school alumni and the East End/Valley Street Neighborhood Association with down-home cooking that’s been passed down through the generations. Advance registration is requested to help with planning. Please call (828) 350-2058 for more info.
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Feb. 23, 2-4 p.m. – Pie Baking Contest at Grove Street Community Center - A staple throughout Black culinary history, pie recipes are often a closely-held secret only handed down when the time is right. To enter a pie, register online or call the center at (828) 350-2062.
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Feb. 24, 3:30-5:30 p.m. – Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park Work and Learn Day at Stephens-Lee Community Center - Did you know one of the oldest community food forests is located in Asheville? With over 40 varieties of fruit and nut trees, a butterfly habitat, and annual vegetable garden, maintaining this space named for the famous inventor and agricultural scientist is a year-round job for volunteers. Please call (828) 350-2058 for more info.
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Click here for a Primer for Christian Nationalism Discussion | |
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The church office is open Tuesday - Thursday, 10am - 4pm.
We recommend calling ahead or emailing to set up an appointment if you are wanting to meet with a specific staff member. Please note, many staff are off or work remotely on Monday and the office is not open on Friday.
Coming to visit? We have a new video doorbell to assist with security. To access the building or office, please enter through the far left glass doors off the courtyard (labeled Enter). Ring the doorbell to have the door unlocked. The GCPC office is down the hall to the right, just past the Sanctuary.
You can also reach our office by phone at 828.254.3274. Follow the prompts for the staff directory to dial by name or press 0 for the main office.
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Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church
789 Merrimon Ave. Asheville, NC 28804
828.254.3274
www.gcpcusa.org
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