From Fr. Ethan: Building a welcoming community
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Telling the story of "The Little Prince"
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"There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." - Galatians 3:28
I was very moved last week by the participation of the parish's children in our 10 am Trinity Sunday liturgy. There is something transformative for me about children in worship: the gurgling of babies, kids sitting on the floor listening to a story, and older children (thank you, Caroline and Noah!) bringing up the gifts at the offertory. It is a sign that we are passing on the faith to the next generation of Christians in an intentional and authentic way.
Sure, kids and babies can be noisy and unpredictable, but one of the ways people--both children and adults--learn how to pray, listen, and sing during worship is by being in the sanctuary week after week. Simply being present serves to form and catechize new Christians. Along with our Godly Play program, adults can model for children how to engage the mystery of God as part of the worshiping community. In time, kids learn the norms of behavior in worship, as they do at home or at school. And kids have a lot to teach us grownups, too: the joy of wonder and imagination, the immediacy of the senses, and the refusal to take things at face value. As I preached at both masses, the Trinity expresses that God is all about relationships, and as God's children, it teaches us that we have need of each other. Mutual respect in the sanctuary, at coffee hour, and during formation is a spiritual discipline we are all called to adopt as Grace members.
But becoming a welcoming community takes practice (not to mention patience, and humility, and generosity), whether it is of children, or homeless men and women, or visitors. The vestry and I have brainstormed about how to practice this welcome better, and we will be making some changes. For starters, in the interest of creating a peaceful and prayerful space for worship, we are asking that everyone refrain from conversation within the circle of the sanctuary 10 minutes before and after the service. We are also asking everyone to put away their cell phones during the service as a sign of respect toward God and the rest of our worshiping community. And just a reminder to help keep our sanctuary clean and tidy by leaving food or drink downstairs. Additionally, we are in the process of revamping coffee hour to make it simpler and more consistent from week to week, so that we avoid the "feast or famine" scenario. Finally, I will also be reaching out to people who may have been attending for a while and would like to have a nametag like the rest of us. All of this is designed is encourage mutual respect and deeper community. If you have ideas for improving welcome at Grace, feel free to reach out to me or a vestry member, and look for more changes to come.
Abundant blessings,
Fr. Ethan+
Help share Grace Church's own story during Printers Row Lit Fest!
During Sunday's Adult Formation with Maureen Jenkins on "Show, Don't Tell: Why Media Relations Matter to Grace," we brainstormed ways to share Grace's mission and ministry during the June 11-12
Printers Row Lit Fest. (In fact, our own 2nd floor sanctuary will host six literary sessions between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday, June 11.) Please review the list below - and if you'd like to volunteer for/assist with any of these beforehand or during the festival, e-mail
Father Ethan or
Maureen Jenkins ASAP. More than 100,000 people will flood our 'hood for the Lit Fest. Let's share our own story that weekend!
- Running video montage of Grace Place before and after Lit Fest events in sanctuary
- Consistent and clean signage in ALL our front windows
- Hospitality Hub on main floor (offer water, places to charge phones, clean seats and bathrooms), with friendly Grace members staffing
- Solicit corporate sponsor to provide water for Hospitality Hub (ask Kasey's Tavern!)
- In case of rain, offer ponchos or rain hats
- Make Grace Place a phone charging station ("connect to a higher power"). Collect or borrow extra chargers for the space
- Look into cost of giveaway cell phone chargers
- Assemble "swag bags" of things Fest-goers might need
- Focus on a specific ministry - such as Soul Scarves. Have members here knitting.
- Produce you're-invited-to-worship-at-Grace cards for those who attend Fest events here
- Mini-tours of our award-winning loft sanctuary after Lit Fest events end at 3 pm Saturday
- Hold book drive for Prison or other ministries
- Sustainable/recyclable bookmarks to tie into literary theme
- Inexpensively printed note pads with Grace Church info
- Writing pens with Grace info
- Performance art/poetry slam
Who's Offered to Help
- Kim Callis - Hospitality Hub
- Shawna Atteberry - any needed copywriting
- Maureen Jenkins - Purchase ponchos or inexpensive rain gear. Investigate cost of phone chargers, note pads, pens, etc.
June
Adult Formation Schedule
June 5 - Anglican Religious Communities:
Brother Ron Fox, director of vocations for the Brotherhood of St. Gregory, will join us on Sunday, June 5 to share with us the life of religious communities in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.
June 12 - The Diaconate:
Deacon Jon Baumgarten has been attending Grace part-time for several months. He will lead a discussion of how the Episcopal Church understands the ministry of all the baptized, and the deacon's part in that larger ministry.
June 19 - Christian Heritage in a Muslim World:
Fr. Ethan will facilitate a discussion of Christian-Muslim relations using his recent trip to Egypt and Turkey as an interpretive lens. Fr. Ethan will draw upon the art, architecture, and culture of these countries to illustrate the complexity of Christian-Muslim relationships.
June 26 - The History of Gospel Music in Chicago: Janet Harper of the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College Chicago.
Search Committee Update
Grace's Search Committee is now reviewing written responses to the questions posed by the committee to seven candidates. The written responses should help the committee learn more about each candidate's leadership approach, their faith journey, and their unique experiences and gifts. Once the review of the written responses has been completed, the Search Committee will conduct phone and/or Skype sessions with some of the applicants before further winnowing the field to the candidates who will be invited to come to Grace for in-person interviews. Throughout the interview process, Search Committee members must keep candidate names and information confidential, so details cannot be shared. To see the document that explains our congregation and its mission so that applicants would know if they felt comfortable applying for this position, check out
Grace's parish profile
, which describes our congregation and identifies what we are looking for in our next rector. This important document is the result of your hard work and prayerful input over several months.
Please remember this committee, and all of Grace, in your prayers as we enter the final months of the search process.
Grace Search Committee: Andrea Billhardt and Terrie McComb, co-chairs; Stephen Howe, Wendy Manning, Tom Miller, Marilynn Rochon and Dan Wilson, members.
Grace Men gather this Thursday
On Thursday, May 26, the men of Grace Church will meet up on the first floor of Grace between 5:30-6 pm. Supper will be ordered, and the conversation around topics large and small will commence. It's an enjoyable evening of fellowship open to all men of Grace. Questions? Contact Men's Group organizer Craig Bivins by email.
Vestry Update - May
At the May 17 meeting, the Vestry EXAMINED a financial update; REVIEWED human resource issues; NOTED recommendations from the Safety Meeting; ENDORSED recommendations for coffee hour etiquette and RECEIVED an update on the new rector search.
Please keep the Grace community in your prayers
Email your prayer requests to
[email protected].
For Grace's rector search committee; for Pearl Kondla; for Jim McKnight; for Sharon Vaughn's fiance Donald Boston; for the repose of the soul of Thelma Dams, Taylor Rockhill's grandmother, and for the Dams family; for the community of Grace Church and her leaders as we continue our forward movement in this transition;
for the birthdays in May of Gia Interlandi (30) and Amie Crawford (30); and
for the anniversaries in May of Tracy and Shawna Atteberry (26), and Marilynn Rochon and Jerry Hiller (30).
Audio files of past Grace sermons are available on YouTube.
Centering prayer is offered most Wednesday evenings at 6 pm. Worship for Holy Trinity Lutheran Church takes place on Saturday evenings at 5 pm.
Fr. Ethan Jewett, Editor, and Gail Purkey, Asst. Editor
(Please email items for the newsletter to
Fr. Ethan and
Gail. Deadline for inclusion is the Saturday before the weekly issue is emailed Tuesday.)
