Grace Notes Weekly is a newsletter of Grace Episcopal Church in Chattanooga, TN,
and is used to communicate the upcoming activities of this community.
EASTER
MAY 23, 2020
Sunday Morning Prayer
During this time of Social Distancing, we will continue to stream videos for Morning Prayer worship on our  Facebook page and  website at 9am and again at 10:45am.  Bulletins for each week’s service will be sent along with the Grace Notes weekend issue, and will be posted on the website alongside the video for the service. If you miss the 9am or 10:45am video streams, you can always go back and watch later. You can access the bulletin for this Sunday here .
IN THIS ISSUE
Online Morning Prayer
Imposter Emails from Clergy
Pentecost Readers Sought!
Arts Camp Cancellation
Daily Morning Prayer and Compline
Christian Formation Opportunities
Food Pantry
Keep in Mind...
Parish Prayer List
A Note from April about Impostor Emails
Friends, in the last couple of weeks, a number of folks in our community have received emails from people posing as either me or David Burman, asking for favors or monetary transactions. I understand that our bishop has also been impersonated in similar ways. Please remember that the Grace clergy won't send you emails asking for vague favors or monetary assistance outside of the established mechanisms for stewardship and giving at Grace. Our email addresses end in "@ saygrace.net ;" please check to make sure that is the case before you respond.
Pentecost Readers Sought
Sunday, May 31, brings the Day of Pentecost – the descent of the Holy Spirit to the people of God, and the birthday of the church. One of Grace’s traditions is to have the reading from Acts, which details the people’s hearing the Word each in their own language, read simultaneously in as many tongues as we can muster. So if you can read in French or Spanish, German or Russian, Urdu or Klingon, please get in touch with Jim Milburn ( jnmilburn@epbfi.com ) and sign on to this undertaking. If you don’t have access to the reading in the language of your choice, Jim will try to track it down for you.
Arts Camp Cancellation and Summer Activities for Kids
Well, I was hoping to have good news about arts camp. Instead, we are not going to pursue it. These were the big factors in making the decision to completely cancel for the first time in more than a decade: first, even if we could do it in person, our volunteers cannot be put at risk; second, if we did it online, there were many hurdles to jump to make it effective. Third, our teachers, who are parents, too, saw a lot of exhaustion even in home-schooled kids when it came to screen time. 

We may create some individual lessons as the summer moves on. Our goal will be to create some integrated content that children can participate in without needing too many special supplies. If your children might be right for participating in low-key Zoom meetings with music and so forth, please make sure you are in conversation with Maria.

Maria Hurt
Children's Christian Formation Director
Grace Episcopal Church
Accessing Daily Morning Prayer and Compline
We are continuing to do Morning Prayer and Compline everyday at Grace Church: however, Zoom is now requiring meetings to have passwords, and so the new passwords to get onto MP & Compline are below with the other needed details. See you there!

To get onto Morning Prayer at 9am everyday except Sunday: click this link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/160460538, & the new password is:
amprayer
To get onto Compline everyday at 8pm, click this link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/780772724, & the new password is:
compline
Christian Formation Opportunities
“Dream, Think, Be, Do” Sundays at 10am
After a technical problem this past Sunday, we will begin this Sunday, May 24th a course produced by Living the Questions. “Dream, Think, Be, Do” provides an overview of progressive Christianity featuring the insights of over twenty-five theologians and teachers at the top of their game. With sessions covering a broad range of theological topics, this series invites us into a process of re-visioning Christianity that is translating what it means to follow Jesus in today’s world. Videos will be made available the week prior to each week’s session, and we will gather on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. via Zoom for discussion of the topics presented. 

Here is the link to the zoom call for the meeting: 
https://us02web.zoom.us/j /84179947644  - and the password is Saygrace."
Click here for “Faith as Journey,”  , and click here for access to the weekly  Zoom Meeting  for this class. Please email Sean McEwen  if you are interested in joining.

(Should the links give any trouble, the Zoom Meeting url is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84179947644?pwd=cGp3TmQxczlMSjB3aUV2Y3k4OG4vUT09

and Faith as Journey is https://vimeo.com/398113678)

Parenting in Pandemic, Wednesday, May 13 th at 8:30pm
Rev. April and Grace’s director of children’s ministry, Maria Hurt, invite all parents who have children home during the pandemic to join us for a conversation via Zoom beginning on Wednesday, May 13 th at 8:30pm. We’ll share challenges and wisdom, have the opportunity to pray for one another, and discern ways that we can support one another and our kids during this difficult time.

Queer Theology
The community of Grace has long maintained a commitment of embracing and affirming the gifts and the belovedness of all persons, including LGBTQ+ persons. Beginning the week of May 17 th , the Rev. April Berends and Sean McEwen will be leading a Queer Theology class at 7 p.m. on Wednesday evenings so that we might explore these commitments more deeply. We are still compiling the reading list for this class, but we expect that it will involve shorter articles, videos and podcasts.  Material and content will be structured around the questions that participants bring to the class.  Possible topics might include questions about heaven, hell and salvation, how we see God’s story reflected in our own stories (and vice versa), how we might wrestle faithfully with doubts and questions, and how queerness and Christianity intersect and inform one another.  Sound interesting?   Email Rev. April if you would like to join this conversation, and be sure to send along any questions or issues you might like to explore. 
Food Pantry
The Food Pantry had 8 visitors on Wednesday who sought food for themselves and their 15 family members/housemates. We also provided nourishment for three dogs; the pandemic and its accompanying unemployment have made it hard to feed family pets as well. We are grateful to have received the wherewithal to be able to help these folks and their four-legged friends as well!

The shelves remain well-stocked overall, but we are short a few  crucial supplies after this week’s  service session. Most needed are:

·         Spaghetti noodles
·         Hearty soups and stews (we’re overflowing with plain chicken noodle and the like, but need to beef up, quite literally, with beef stew and beefy soups
·         Packets of instant mashed potatoes (we’ve got a number of huge containers of instant potatoes, but are short the packets that work best for a one or two person meal)
·         Packets of instant grits and oatmeal (we’re well-endowed with microwaveable cups of oatmeal, but for folks without those appliances, the packets work better)
·         Mac and cheese
·         Pork and beans
·         Adult cereals (we’ve got lots of colorful kiddie stuff, but no sober sorts such as Total or raisin bran
·         Small bags of dry dog and cat food

Thanks to all who have donated goods, and thanks, as ever, to the stalwart band which has so ably handled things during these weeks of pandemic: Richard Hyatt, Linda Wideman, Gail Dooley, and Lisa Lemza. Their labors and reliable presence are blessings to the church staff as well as to our neighbors in need.
Keep in Mind...
Pastoral Care -- If you have an urgent pastoral need, please call the parish office at (423)243-3250 and leave a message on the  main line . We will be checking these messages regularly even if we aren’t in the office.

Directory -- If you are a new member and would like to be added to the online directory, fill out a new member form here. If you are accessing the directory via the web page, the password is "Saygrace" with a capital 'S'.
Parish Prayer List
Please remember: Donald, our President; the Senate, the House of Representatives, and our Courts of Justice; together with all elected officials, and the other leaders of our country and the nations of the world.
 
We pray for Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury; Michael, our Presiding Bishop; Brian, ourBishop; for April, our priest; for David, our Curate; for George, our assisting priest; for Keith, our Seminarian; for our missionaries, and all other bishops and ministers.
 
We pray for the unemployed and underemployed, especially those in our congregation and community. We pray for the homeless and the hungry.
 
We pray for parishioners and loved ones, especially the Tangel family, Jane Williams, James and Barbara Dooley, Kathleen and Caroline Belcher, Bo and Mary Minor Brown, Helen Williams, Nancy Mapel, David Stanislawski, Charlotte Dorris, Tyler Horton, Jeff Fugate, Rebecca Williams, Tessa Spaulding, J.R. Hicks, 
Marcia Magers, Major McCollough, Peggy Fugate, Jean Lorren, 
William Simpson, Timothy Penny, Donald Jones, Cooper Jones, Sally Cauthen, Charles Smith, Jonathan Purple, Steven Mosman, John Woodham, Libby Workman, Rebecca Cook, Elaine Harrison, Jean Williams, Barbara Reed, Elizabeth Harrison, Joyce Smith, Jim May, Mary Ruth Clinton, and Ann Swint; 
 
We pray for Wil Mabry, Jake Dorris, Jordan Tschoepe, Kevin Kelley, Tripp Mouron, Mike Mabry, Alexander Ross, Russel Webb, Logan Roberts, Jim Makepeace, Sean Benson, Evan Watkins and all of our Armed Forces, here and abroad;
 
We pray for Emily Stone Brelsford, Kerry Baker, and Janine Revenig, who are with child.  

We give thanks for the birth last week of Virginia Marie Hickle, son of Lizzy Mouron and Matt Hickle and grand-daughter of Nan Fortiner and David Mouron.

We give thanks for the life of Vance Cobb, cousin of Jane Pickering, who died this week.

We pray for all who are developing programs and policies to deal with the current public health threat; for those who are treating the sick, stocking shelves, transporting supplies, suffering from illness, coping with new life-patterns and finding ways to keep anxiety at bay for themselves and others. 

We pray for those who lost homes, property, and loved ones in the storms last weekend, and ask for strength and perseverance for those coping with damage to their homes and neighborhoods.
 
In the Anglican Cycle of Prayer:   Pray for all members of the Anglican Communion around the world; for the Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Rev. Justin Welby; for all primates and bishops; for members of the Anglican Consultative Council; for the Secretary General, The Most Rev. Dr. Josiah Idowu-Fearon; for the staff at the Anglican Communion Office in London and the UN Offices in Geneva and New York.
 
In the Diocesan Cycle of Prayer : Pray for St. John, Johnson City, and Grace Point Camp; for Christ Church, Yankton, SD.

Those in need of continued prayer
John Cox, John and Cherry Stewart, Gayanne Silver,Garvin Colburn,
Heather Nelson, Robert Clark, Marty Landis, Dexter and Helen Williams,
Cheryl McCurry, Ethel Rutledge, Carolyn Minnich, Lanie Lundgrin, Terri Harvey,
Sue Sears, Anne Getz, Michael Roberts, Jeannie and Andy Williams, 
Jaime Cooper, Teresa Noel, Tina Knowles, Brad and Kimberly Calhoun,
Joyce and Greg Snyder, Martha Killeffer, Robert Durham, Jim Curtis, Hal and Sue, 
Michelle Maroney, Jessica Ricketts


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