We are an Open and Affirming church. Every one of every age, race, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical or mental ability, or economic status is invited to join us as together we live out the Gospel message of love, forgiveness, service, and justice. | | |
A Message from Jack Kamps,
Gideon's Garden Director
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Jack here, filling in while Jimmy is on his anniversary vacation. Happy Pride Month!
As a queer farmer, I have been struck by how many LGBT+ folks are turning to the soil these days (or perhaps this is less of a recent trend and more a result of my own recent noticing). At the Farminary, we made up much of the student farm team. My queer coworkers and I—not the sort to leave any theological stone unturned—theorised about farming as a means of reclaiming our bodies, outside of the productive and reproductive logics of homophobic and transphobic capitalist systems—reclaiming our bodies as sites of kinship, of healing, of nurture, and of nourishment for as many creatures as possible. We found comfort in honouring that first kinship, remembering that no matter the state of our human relationships, the more-than-human world calls us into belonging.
Like Christ, we are both/and. Both soil and divine breath. Both embodied and ensouled. And it brings me much comfort to remember that, although I grew up in a place where to be gay was unspeakable, and to be trans was unthinkable, I am in good company with our nonbinary Christ, who is somehow not merely one or the other but fully both, embracing full divinity and full creaturehood. I am in good company with the Holy Trinity, who contains diversity and multiplicity within unity.
To celebrate queerness is to celebrate intersectionality, to acknowledge and celebrate our patchwork-ness, the many glorious and mismatched fragments of ourselves. Where the death-dealing powers and principalities would cut through each person and slice us up, carve away the parts that don't fit into neatly categorised boxes, the queer invitation of the Holy Trinity is towards wholeness, messiness.
One of the most beautiful gifts of my seminary education was my training in queer theologies and methods. In my coursework, I was invited to expand my imagination and pay attention to the queerness (both the strangeness and the LGBT+-ness) of the biblical texts. The new names God bestows on God's people as they undergo transition. The full inclusion of minoritised people such as the Ethiopian eunuch. Christ, with his three parents. Mary, pregnant before she was 'supposed' to be. Joseph, who gifted his son a lineage of ancestors with a bond thicker than biology. Christ, who eschewed normative marriage and lived a praxis of expansive kinship beyond boundaries of blood to bring all of creation into holy belonging. Such stories are simultaneously non-normative and rather commonplace. Queerness is not rare, it turns out.
And despite the Church's long thread of wounding with regards to LGBT+ people, it nonetheless carries an equally long thread of subversion, inclusion, and celebration of and from the margins. These queer glimmers are apparent if one knows where to look. From its early days, the Church provided a place for those who did not wish to marry or bear children, a welcoming space where sexual minorities such as women could determine for themselves what they would and would not do with their bodies. It spoke of itself as Christ's multi-gendered bride of many sexualities. It expressed deep yearning for Christ's return and the renewal and reconciliation of all things. (And queer folks know a thing or two about yearning, let me tell you.)
Qoheleth said it best: "Consider the work of God: for who can make straight that which God has made bent?" (Ecclesiastes 7:13)
- Jack
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Sermon 5-31-26,
The Rev. Janet Zimmerman
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First Sunday after Pentecost, Trinity Sunday
May 31, 2026, 10:00 AM
Berkshire South Community Center
Great Barrington, MA
For Zoom, Click Here
Meeting ID: 177 160 858
Passcode: 917937
Morning Prayer, Wednesday, 10:00 AM
Grace Church Chapel
67 State Road, Great Barrington, MA
In-person and on Zoom
For Zoom, Click Here
Meeting ID: 177 160 858
Passcode: 917937
Centering Prayer, Tuesdays at 5:00 PM
67 State Road, Great Barrington, MA
In the Summer months (June, July and August) Centering Prayer will swtich to Tuesday Evenings, instead of our traditional Thursday meeting time.
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Office Hours
The Grace Church Office is open on
Mondays - Thursdays from 10am to 4pm.
Come by to pray at the chapel or to have a cup of coffee with us!
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The countdown has begun! With Community Planting Day right around the corner, we have been putting our rears into high gear at the garden. Last Wednesday's volunteer hours saw us following Fisher around on the tractor, laying the irrigation lines and plastic mulch on the freshly formed beds.
Yesterday we set up the big tent (with a minimum of wailing and gnashing of teeth) and expanded the outdoor chicken run to include the area around the new mini coop.
This season's intern roster is nearly finalised—we're just waiting on a couple of packets from students who have confirmed interest. In the meantime, we're in communication with the Apprenticeship Coordinator over at Railroad Street Youth Project about adding Gideon's Garden to RSYP's Garden Apprenticeship visit schedule. This past Friday also kicked off our season with ExtraSpecial Teas! The group helped us seed popcorn in our Three Sisters beds and transplant sunflowers around the garden.
We hope to see you at the garden for our Community Planting Day this Saturday, June 6, beginning at 10 am. Bring your friends and neighbours—all ages and abilities welcome. Rain or shine!
-Jack Kamps, Gideon's Garden Director
Scheduling update: Starting the week of June 1st, volunteer hours will shift our summer schedule of:
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 9 am–noon.
And don't forget—Community Planting Day at the garden will begin at 10 am on Saturday, June 6th. Hope to see you there!
| | OPPORTUNITIES to GIVE or VOLUNTEER | |
Lee Food Pantry
If you are interested in volunteering or donating, please contact Sue Gore at:
LeePantry@graceberkshires.org
Or, click the button below to donate directly with Credit/Debit or Paypal
Mark your calendars! It's Grace Church's turn to staff the food pantry on Saturday, May 30th!
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Books & Bread
Join us for appetizers,
dinner and discussion
on June 10 at 6:00PM
Our book is Here Comes the Sun
by Bill McKibben
Questions? Contact Peter Kirchoff
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The Guild at Grace
Come creators, artists, makers, crafters!
We will meet in the Grace Church office, 67 State Road, Great Barrington, on Wednesdays, starting May 20th, from 1 until 3.
Bring your projects to work on while we chat and share. Come regularly or drop in once and a while. Perhaps we will eventually do a group project, or a workshop led by one of us—we shall see. Don’t have a craft? Come learn one! And feel free to bring a friend.
For questions contact Mackenzie in the church office or Lea Carmichael Richardson.
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The Second Sunday
after Pentecost
| | Herrel, Edie Mae. Moon Glow | |
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.”
And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread throughout that district.
| | Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old | |
Here is a favorite hymn of mine which relates and celebrates the healing ministry of Jesus. The text is by Edward Hayes Plumptre 1821-1891 who was an English divine and scholar born in London.He was ordained in 1847, by Bishop Wilberforce, he proceeded M.A. in 1847, and joined the staff of King's College London. There his work mainly lay for twenty-one years, and he enlarged the scope of the institution by introducing evening classes. From 1847 to 1868, he was chaplain there, from 1853 to 1863 professor of pastoral theology, and from 1864 to 1881 professor of exegesis. He proved a most sympathetic teacher, and took a genuine interest in the future welfare of his pupils.
He also took a leading part in promoting the higher education of women as a professor of Queen's College, Harley Street, where he held the office of principal during the last two years of his work there (1875–77)
Plumptre published several volumes of verse. He had a keen perception of literary excellence, unappeasable ambition, and unwearied industry; but his gifts were hardly sufficient to insure him a place among the poets. Several of Plumptre's hymns have been admitted into popular collections.
The Tune St Matthew was composed by William Croft, who was born in the year 1677 and received his musical education in the Chapel Royal, under Dr. Blow. In 1700 he was admitted a Gentleman Extraordinary of the Chapel Boyd; and in 1707, upon the decease of Jeremiah Clarke, he was appointed joint organist with his mentor, Dr. Blow. In 1709 he was elected organist of Westminster Abbey. A very large number of Dr. Croft's compositions remain still in manuscript.
1 Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old
was strong to heal and save;
it triumphed over disease and death,
o'er darkness and the grave.
To Thee they came, the blind, the deaf,
the palsied and the lame,
the leper set apart and shunned,
the sick with fevered frame.
2 And lo, thy touch, brought life and health,
gave healing and strength and sight;
and youth renewed and frenzy calmed
Owned thee the Lord of light.
And now, O Lord, be near to bless,
almighty as of yore,
in crowded street, by restless couch, (or beds of pain)
as by Gennesaret's shore. (old name for the sea of Galilee)
3 Be thou our great deliverer still,
thou Lord of life and death;
restore and quicken, soothe and bless,
with thine almighty breath.
To hands that work and eyes that see
give wisdom's heavenly lore,
that whole and sick and weak and strong
may praise you evermore.
John Cheek, Music Director
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Praying for each other and for the needs of the world is a vital mission of Grace Church. To add a prayer request to this list, please contact the Church Office
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We supply this list so you may contact members of our congregation who are at home or in a nursing facility. Please hold in your prayers and reach out as you can. | |  |
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BLAKELY, Rosemarie
BREASTED, John
McCURDY, Deborah
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GRACE CHURCH
Please include in your daily prayers this week:
Members of the Parish Family: Cathy Haywood; Edna Leavenworth; Pennie Curry; Aicha and Matt Marcos; Rick and Sue Gore, and the Haywood family; Louise Peterson; Charlene Peet; The Rev. Marc Britt; Anne Andrews; George Raymond; Mark and Dindy Anderson; Linda White and her grandchildren, Claire, Mark, and Johnny; David Hamill.
Others we love: Keiron Lee, friend of Doone Marshall; Jack Starr, father of Richard Starr; Mimi and Dick Alford; Julia DePeyster, friend of Lea Richardson; Ada Gómez, mother-in-law of Rev. Jimmy Cynthia Griesing, Holly Murray's mother; The Rev. Gene Perry and Shirley Perry, Mark Perry’s parents; Paul, neighbor of Gina and Phil; Fran Hunt, Anne Andrew's sister; Michal Snyder, Dessida's sister; George Laye; Molle Cheek, John, and Lee Cheek's sister-in-law; Fleming and Dick Rutledge; Tania Guerrero and her baby daughter Eugenia Marie Ayala Guerrero; David Rodriguez Ovalle, Sergio Rodriguez's father; Richard Cherneff; Bishop Michael Curry; Sara Miles and her wife Martha; Jerry and Karen Ericson; James Driscoll; Livia Driscoll; Deborah McCurdy.
Those who have died: Dale Peterson, Hawa Kiebre and Salif Tiri Ouedraogo, Aicha Marcos’ mother and father; Jeff Zinn, Dindy Anderson's brother in law; Kathy O’Brien, Pennie Curry’s sister; Paul Haywood, Sue Gore's brother; The Rev. Donna Larson former Rector of St. George’s; Hannah Peabody, Caroline Murray’s friend; The Rev. Donald Peet; Joan Mulhern, Rob Clausen’s sister; Pamela Drumm.
Our world: For the people of Iran, Lebanon, Haiti, Palestine, Israel, Ukraine, the Sudan, and all other places of violence and war, that peace and justice may prevail, and human fear and suffering diminish. For all victims of hatred in this country; for all victims of gun violence and also for those who inflict gun violence on others. For all who are alone, afraid, or despairing. For prisoners, unhoused people, newly arrived immigrants, and all our neighbors, near and far.
The many ministries of our local community
Especially for our partners at St. Paul's and the Rev. Samuel Vaught, the Rev. Jane Tillman, and the Rev. Libby Wade; Christ Trinity and the Rev. Erik Karas; our Bishop, The Rt. Rev. Miguelina Howell; and the Mampong Babies' Home.
Diocesan Cycle of Prayer (Week of 5/24)
Congregations, Ministries, and Partners in Ministry
Saint John’s Church, Millville
Clergy living beyond the Diocese
Commission on Mental Health and Substance Abuse
The Church and Wider Mission
Episcopal Women’s History Project
The New England Synod of the ELCA
The Episcopal Church in the United States of America; Sean, Presiding Bishop
The Anglican Communion throughout the world; Sarah, Archbishop of Canterbury-elect; for the Episcopal Church of Jerusalem & the Middle East
Anglican Cycle of Prayer
Sun 5/24: The Episcopal Church in the Philippines
Mon 5/25: Diocese of Zanzibar (Tanzania)
Tues 5/26: Diocese of Zaria (Nigeria)
Wed 5/27: Diocese of Central Zimbabwe (Cen. Africa)
Thurs 5/28: Diocese of Ziwa Rukwa (Tanzania)
Fri 5/29: Diocese of Zonkwa (Nigeria)
Sat 5/30: Diocese of Zululand (Southern Africa)
And we offer thanks: for all those celebrating birthdays or anniversaries this week.
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FLOWER DEDICATIONS
Please place your dedications in an envelope and include the name of the person you wish to honor.
Please note that your $30.00 contribution toward the flower purchase can be sent to the Grace Office or placed in the Offertory Collection.
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An Episcopal Community in the Southern Berkshires
67 State Road/P.O. Box 114, Great Barrington, MA 01230
Grace Church Parish Administrator: Mackenzie Kendall
You can reach the church office by email: office@graceberkshires.org
and by phone: 413-644-0022.
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The Rev. Jimmy Solano Pickett
Rector of Grace Church
rev.jimmysp@graceberkshires.org
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Jack Kamps
Gideon's Garden Director
gideonsgarden@graceberkshires.org
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John Cheek
Choir Director
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OFFICERS
Rector ....................The Rev. Jimmy Solano Pickett
Senior Warden ........Matt Marcos
Junior Warden ........Evie Starr
Treasurer ..................Sue Gore
Clerk ...........................Doreen Hutchinson
VESTRY - AT LARGE
Class of 2027..........Jainee McCarroll, Kevin Rosero
Class of 2028..........Mackenzie Kendall
Class of 2029................Dindy Anderson, Phil Burt, Lynn Carlson
| | Tuesday's Child Editor: Mackenzie Kendall | | | | | |
