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How to Make Your 2027 Pledge

• Scan the QR code for a link to the online Pledge Card
• Click here: https://onrealm.org/gcpcusa/AddPledge/2027generalfund 
• Email your pledge and giving frequency to giving@gcpcusa.org
• Email Oana Lansman (oana@gcpcusa.org) or Sue Kersbergen (sue@gcpcusa.org) in the Finance Office at GCPC to help you get set up. 

#GCPCinthesanctuary

Worship Preview | Sunday, October 11, 2026

In-person and online service

Deacon of the Week:

The Deacon of the Week is available to talk, provide support, and coordinate care if needed. You are not alone. You are loved. Please reach out to our deacon of the week if you have any needs or concerns.

This week (10/4-10/10) Bob Giduz | email: Giduzr@gmail.com

Next week (10/11-10/17) Roberto Martinez | email: robolisa2@hotmail.com



Deacon of the Week Prayer:

May our faith grow strong and steadily, may our hearts be open to your healing, may we see beyond our fears and disappointments. When we feel overwhelmed, help us to remember that you are always with us; that you can make a way out of no way!

~ Bob Giduz

Pride Collective Gathering | Sunday, October 11 | after worship | Fellowship Hall

The Pride Collective: Shaping Our Future Together

What matters most to us as a community? Where do we want to go in the future? The Pride Collective is continuing this vital conversation, and your voice is an essential part of it.

Please join us in the Fellowship Hall, following the worship service, second Sunday of each month.

Grab some lunch, which we will provide,and pull up a chair as we discuss our shared mission, our core values, and where we are heading next. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend! Questions? Email Liz Huesemann.

Join us on Wednesday Nights for a delicious meal in community and opportunities for all ages to learn and grow together. Below you can register for the meal, but please feel free to come even if you haven't registered.

GCPC Choir Practice | Wednesdays | 7:15 PM | Choir Room

All youth and adults are welcome and invited! Just come with a curiosity and love for making music in community. No previous singing experience is needed.

I hope you will consider adding your presence and voice to our Choir!

If you're not sure, come and give it a try!

Blessings,

Ray

GCPC Writing Collective | Thursday, October 15 | 5:00 PM | Indie Room

If you love to write and welcome a chance to be creative and supportive around writing in community, come to the GCPC Writing Collective! Come as you are and when you can. Bring a journal and something to write with or your laptop and any food you wish to have.

The group offers prompts and time to write together and share if desired. Leadership is shared each month by its participants. If you have any questions about the group, please text Margaret Belk at 8285062742.

Invitation to read “The Color of Law”

As a next step in the readying process of our campus vision, we invite you to read with us “The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America” by Richard Rothstein. The Campus Vision team plans to read this important book on the history of racial discrimination in housing policy as we think about what it means to build deeply affordable housing on our campus. All are welcome to attend!

Mark your calendar - we will host a brown bag lunch after church on Sunday, November 15 for a discussion of the book!

GCPC Hand Bell Choir takes a 2 week break!

Would you like to ring as part of the GCPC Hand Bell Choir? Rehearsals take place on Thursday evenings in the church balcony from 6:30 - 7:30 pm, beginning again Thursday October 29! All youth and adults are welcome! No previous experience is necessary - Just curiosity and a love for making music in community. Please contact Ray at ray@gcpcusa.org if you are interested!

On Wednesday, October 7, Team 3 had four garden volunteers who harvested the following produce that was shared with garden volunteers and neighborrs. They also applied compost and tilled several beds.

Grace Abounds Food Pantry | Thursday, October 22 |

11:00 AM - 1:00 PM | Sanctuary

We believe the pantry embodies the church’s commitment to service and compassion. We try to keep our shelves stocked with canned goods, rice, beans, crackers, granola bars, cereal and other items. We also provide diapers, baby wipes and feminine products. Our pantry is stocked completely with donations. This is where we need your support to keep our pantry open.

Needs for the upcoming pantry:

• candied yams
• canned pumpkin
• stuffing mix
• jellied and whole berry canned cranberries

Parents' Night Out! | Friday, October 23 | 5:30 - 8:30 PM | Fellowship Hall

Kids 0-5th grade are invited to spend time with volunteers and staff on a Friday evening while parents connect. This event is free!.

ALL KIDS SHOULD PACK A SACK DINNER. We will provide drinks and dessert.

On Your 2026 Ballot. . .

The Constitutional Amendments are NOT your friends! 

Vote AGAINST all three.

This year, there are three NC Constitutional amendments on the ballot for voters to consider. Generally, one should weigh any Constitutional amendment carefully. Amendments stay for a long time, are easier to add than to remove, and cannot be tinkered with as times and situations change as regular laws can be. Amending the Constitution is serious business! That said, another serious problem facing voters considering these 2926 amendments is that the very brief descriptions of #2 and #3 on your ballot are very misleading in terms of what they really do. 

• Amendment #1—ID with mail-in ballot—is already law. Another voter suppression effort that discriminates against lower income, rural, older, people without easy access to photocopying

• Amendment #2--Caps state income tax, but not much for ordinary families. Who really benefits are very high wealth corporations and some rich families. 

• Amendment #3—Limits property taxes assessed by local governments—but not yours and mine, unless you are Duke Energy or some other large corporation. The limits are for the TOTAL amount of property taxes a county can collect in any year, not our individual property taxes. 

Impact of all this? Amendments #2 and #3 tie the hands of our local officials to meet changing and locally situational needs. The tax amendments will result in less money locally for our schools, emergency services, parks, and other services provided by the local government. And the only way to make up the shortfall will be increasing local sales taxes and raising fees for service. These taxes are overwhelmingly paid by lower and middle income people. They are regressive taxes.

Tell family and friends to vote AGAINST the tax amendments on the ballot. Be in the know when you go to Vote!

Organizations recommending voting AGAINST all three amendments: League of Women Voters, Common Cause, Carolina Forward, NC Democratic Party. A good resource for analysis is the NC Budget and Tax Center, www.ncbudget.org. 
Questions? Contact Dana Cozad decozad5@aol.com.

P.S. The two Bond initiatives are different than the Amendments. They provide for funding for local environmental and affordable housing projects.

~ Dana Cozad

Love's On the Ballot: Voting Our Faith | Tuesdays, Sept 29, Oct 6, Oct 13, Oct 20 | Noon - 1 p.m. | Online

“Love’s On The Ballot: Voting Our Faith” is a 4 part lunch and learn series brought to you by the NC Council of Churches, Christians Against Christian Nationalism NC, Pastors for NC Children, and People of Faith for Public Schools. 

Our Faithful Voter Guide is about Seven Spheres of Influence. This series of four Lunch and Learns will take the seven spheres and make them practical as we face the midterm election on November 3, 2026. How do we as people take action to engage seven spheres of influence at the ballot box this fall and beyond to build beloved community? Join us for one or all four interactive, live conversations. Please note: We will be recording the teaching portion to share later, but the conversations and Q&A will not be recorded.

Pride Day Build:

The work at Habitat for Humanity has special significance to marginalized communities, like LGBTQ+ folks, who are disproportionately vulnerable to poverty, housing insecurity, and homelessness.Having a Pride Build Day is a way to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, and the power members of that community have to build a safer, more welcoming, and more resilient future. It's an opportunity for us to stand in solidarity with each other, with our allies, and with all marginalized communities.

Pride Build Day 2026 | Saturday, October 10 | 8:15 AM - 3:30 PM

Sign up for Pride Build Day by going to the link below, logging in (or creating an account), then selecting the "Pride Build" shift on October 10. If you have any issues, you can also email volunteer@ashevillehabitat.org for assistance signing up.

https://aahh.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/?id=56039&job_name=pride build

Please bring friends and loved ones for a day dedicated to creating an intentional, welcoming volunteer experience for LGBTQ+ folks.

2026 Faith Build House:

Habitat for Humanity is seeking volunteers to help with the next Faith Build home. GCPC has consistently provided volunteers to Habitat for the Faith Build projects and we are asking for your help again. The work will begin in October and we are scheduling workers through the end of the year. Our typical build day for GCPC is Wednesday but I can sign folks up for any day they want. Each day can handle six volunteers and I would like to schedule October now. 

For this first phase of the build we will be focused on framing and carpentry skills. Experience is not necessary. Please let me know if you want to volunteer. The more the merrier. Lee Carol Giduz is now scheduling volunteers for Wednesdays in October and November. If interested she can be texted at 828-493-3959 or emailed at lcgiduz@gmail.com.

Click here to see the information for the homeowner who will purchase this Faith build home.

Racial Equity Institute (REI) Two Day Phase 1 Training | Friday, November 6 & Saturday, November 7 | 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM | Location: TBA

REI’s two-day workshop is designed to develop the capacity of participants to better understand racism in its institutional and structural forms. Moving away from a focus on personal bigotry and bias, this workshop presents a historical, cultural, and structural analysis of racism. With shared language and a clearer understanding of how institutions and systems are producing unjust and inequitable outcomes, participants should leave the training better equipped to begin to work for change.

Participants are asked to attend the entire training on Friday November 6th and Saturday November 7th 2026 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm both days. Participants are asked to provide their own lunch. In addition, some light snacks and coffee/tea will be available throughout the workshop.

Literacy Together is hiring for the position of:

Director of Programs & Partnerships



This position strengthens Literacy Together’s organizational infrastructure in order to:

• Further our mission to transform lives and communities through the power of literacy.
• Realize our vision for a just and equitable community in which literacy is accessible and achievable by all.

To apply, please send your resume and a thoughtful cover letter describing your interest and qualifications for this role to jobs@lit-together.org using the subject line: "Director of Programs & Partnerships” plus your last name. 

Applications will be accepted until 12:00 p.m. on October 19th. 

Different Strokes! is thrilled to present our fourth year of this series of monologues and short plays from October 1st - 18th.. This year, our theme will be: Get up, STAND UP! Stories of inspiration, success, or survival, despite the odds. Please join us as we present material from local authors and around the world.

Explore the series and lineups here: differentstrokespac.org/369-pt-4/

GCPC Nametags

If you are in need of a new nametag,

please email Anna Louise at annalouise@gcpcusa.org.