Dear Friends,

Now that those of us in Salem have had some time to recover from Halloween, we enter the holiday season. As joyful as this time is, it brings many different emotions along with the joy. It is a time of exhaustion for many reasons. It can be a time where memories bring profound sadness. It is also a time of gratitude for those people who have loved us and we have loved, and for the prayers we have received from so many. Being followers of Christ, when we gather around the table, we remember all this love, all the many sacrifices made on our behalf, and all the new life waiting for us in the days to come.

God has blessed us with these many emotions which bring us closer to the sacred. It is in these times that we become vulnerable and turn to the lover of our souls, who never turns us away. During the next few weeks, allow yourselves to feel what you feel, to remember Jesus felt all these emotions too, and gathered them up in the resurrection to be hallowed. During this holy time, let your heart be broken to let love in.

In the Way of Love,

Debbie

This Sunday

Parish Prayer List

Please keep the following in your prayers:

For Neal and Maureen Joyce, Arthur, Jane, Marty Siegel, Laszlo Katko, Jane Thompson, Deb Young, Cindy Rhodes, Ron, Linda Layne, Gerald Tucker, Allison Mascolo, Melissa Glassman, Max Joyce, Inga, Henry, and Lucas, Mel, Corey MacNeil, Helen Phillips and her family, Dianne, Michael Towey, Jenny, Loretta and Kris, Deb Papps, Derek Fuller and Family, the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem and their ministries, for Ukraine; the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Salem, the Salem Public Schools and for an end to racism, war, anti-Semitism, gun violence and oppression. If you have prayer requests, please email

[email protected] by Tuesday at noon for publication in that week's e-news.

These last few weeks we have heard reflections about how people are rooted in abundance. We have considered our own faith journey rooted in the love of God. We have also heard the words of Jesus about generous love depicted in parables.

This Sunday, we are called to act upon this grace. This Sunday, we are challenged to make a thoughtful and honest pledge to support God’s work here at Grace Church. This spiritual practice of pledging will open new doors of joy. It will open new ways into your heart. It will allow new generations to learn about their own identity as children of the Divine and to see the loveliness of Christ in others. It will bring reassurance to those who are anxious and fearful. It will allow our neighbors to witness to the loving purposes of God which we model in our ministries to those in any kind of need, sickness, or loneliness.

You may make this pledge in a variety of ways.

You may bring it to church and drop it in the plate.

You may mail it to Grace Church.

You may email [email protected].

You may go on our website www.gracechurchsalem.org and click “Stewardship” on the menu bar.

However you make your pledge, know that it will make a significant impact on lives in ways you may never know. It will even impact you! For in pledging to Grace Church, you are acting on the faith and trust you have in God to nourish and sustain you all the days of your life.

Each of us is rooted in abundance in some way. Let us celebrate the many gifts present in everyone who walks through our doors. Let us also be mindful of the needs and rights of others, and of the ways we can meet some of those needs and advocate for some of those rights as a community who loves Christ.

Our ingathering of pledges will take place this Sunday. Anyone who has offered a 2024 pledge card will receive a bulb to root in our abundance garden. We will also observe the upcoming Thanksgiving Day with hymns , anthem, and sermon.

Please make you pledge by Sunday either in person, by mail, by emailing [email protected], or online on the website www.gracechurchsalem.org/stewardship. We are all rooted in abundance, and we share that abundance to bring about the dream of God.

Advent is Coming

Novemeber 26is the final Sunday in the liturgical year, also known as Christ the King. We begin the year preparing for the arrival of the coming of Christ and we end it with Christ in glorious majesty. It is a “New Year’s Eve” of sorts.

The following week, we begin the church year anew with Advent. Advent is a season observed in most Christian denominations as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for both the celebration of the Nativity of Christ at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. The name was adopted from Latin adventus  "coming; arrival", translating Greek parousia from the New Testament, originally referring to the Second Coming.

The season of Advent in the Christian calendar anticipates the "coming of Christ" from three different perspectives: the physical nativity in Bethlehem, the reception of Christ in the heart of the believer, and the eschatological Second Coming.

Practices associated with Advent include Advent calendars, lighting an Advent wreath, praying an Advent daily devotional, and a hanging of the greens ceremony.

Advent also begins a new cycle of readings from Scripture. The Gospel readings will be predominantly from the Gospel according to Mark.

On the first Sunday of Advent, we will have purple hangings to represent the coming of the King of kings. We will bless the greens and light the first candle on the Advent wreath. The music will have a feeling of expectation, and we will add an introit anthem by the choir at the beginning of each service at 10:00 am.

With it being the first Sunday in the month, we will also have the Birthday prayer and blessing. As we begin a new year, let us join our hope-filled hearts together as we await the coming of God with us.

Coffee Hour Hosts

Please consider signing up to host coffee hour using the QR code at church. The Tuckers make the coffee each week and you provide a snack for children and adults.