Take up and Read!

Grace Episcopal Church

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Grace Notes

28 August 2014

Tolle, lege.  These famous Latin words were heard by St. Augustine of Hippo (who’s feast is this day) in connection with his conversion from Gnosticism and libertinism to faith in Christ.  The words mean “take up and read”, and were heard by Augustine in a childlike voice.  Augustine opened a bible to read the first words he saw, and ended up reading chs. 12 through 15 of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, the same section of the epistle which forms our New Testament readings from last week until the third Sunday in September.  In this section of his letter, Paul switches from argument to exhortation, teaching about how believers are transformed in Jesus Christ.

What was the verse or section in Scripture that you first read on your own, or that you first remember being read to, or taught?  In my own case I, like Augustine, opened a bible at random, and read Mtt. 25.31-46, after an encounter with a dying patient in an emergency room kept me awake, and prompted me to search for something to read in the middle of the night.  I have never forgotten those verses (or reading all of Matthew that night), and began the process that led to my conversion to the faith that night.

God has many ways of speaking to us, often in Scripture, but we need to pay attention.  When we do we learn that the initiative is always with God.  (There’s even a fancy theological term for this reality—“prevenient grace”.)  Even when we focus on transformation, and, like Augustine, pay attention to what Paul exhorts us to in Romans 12—15, we do not transform ourselves, but are transformed.  No matter how diligent and faithful we may seek to be, the transformation is effected by God, not by us, and takes place only to the extent that we make ourselves available to God, and make our wills subject to His.

Augustine was probably one of the most brilliant men who ever lived.  As such, he was often a proud man who had to struggle with how his own will was subject to God’s, but when he subsumed his pride in real faith God used him to teach doctrine which is bedrock to Christian belief and understanding.  However brilliant and gifted any one of us may be, this brilliance and these gifts are gifts from God.  As such, God will use them when we make ourselves available to God.  We may never write great works of theology, like Augustine, or give to the Church such great prayers as the Te Deum, but God will use each one of us in the work and mission He intends.  Whether literally or figuratively, when we “take up and read,” and pay attention to what God is saying, He will transform us, and He will use us to transform the world around us.

Grace Abounds:  Please thank:

§  Paul and Andrea Aparicio for setting up Sunday coffee hour.

§  Jon and Michele Whitford for hosting the youth and family ministry brainstorming session and cookout, with additional goodies from Bobbi and Kaleigh Kraft.

§  Julie Davidson, Shephard Gooenow, Scott Lubbers, and Jennifer Pawlus for help with the floor refinishing project.

Call for Contributions:  If you have a spiritual reflection to share, or want to point your fellow worshipers toward a resource, submit your contributions to Fr. Karl (by email) by Wednesday in the week of publication.

Youth and Family Ministries:  This past Sunday at our brainstorming meeting for Youth and Family Ministries, we had a great turnout and many ideas were put forward to be considered for the direction, course, and future activities of our ministries at Grace Church.  Many of the ideas that were put forward are ones that would be fun for a parish family to participate in to create a larger sense of community, and let's be honest, just to have some fun. Other ideas were specifically focused on community and mission minded outreach.  As we continue to brainstorm separately and bounce ideas off of each other. P lease put forward any ideas you have for any ministry in our church.  If you don't know what ministries there are, ask.  If there something that you think should be at Grace Church, but we don't have it, talk about it and maybe you're being called to start something new!  Stay tuned to see what happens next, and don't forget to get involved!   

Sheboygan County Interfaith Organization (SCIO):  With all of the discussion in the parish  about the LoveINC initiative, let’s not forget SCIO.  The parish supports SCIO with an annual donation, and members of Grace also work in SCIO-sponsored ministries.  Mary Ann N. attends SCIO meetings for Grace, but in order to elevate the profile of opportunities to serve we are specifically recruiting your interest.  Get further details at www.sheboygancountyinterfaith.org .  We need an in-parish champion who can provide timely electronic media feeds for the blog, newsletter, Facebook page, etc.  If you are interested, speak to Mary Ann and also to Fr. Karl.

Caveat donor (Let the donor beware!)  The Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis—Lou Gehrig’s Disease) has “gone viral”.  This serves as a good example of how we all need to know what monies donated will be used for.  The challenge allows participants to make no donation, or to donate to any organization conducting ALS research, but the expectation involves a donation to ALS Association (ALSA).  This would pose a problem if, for example, you believe a moral issue is presented by research using harvested human fetal stem cells, which ALSA supports.  This is just an example, but it reminds us that in dealing with charity solicitations it is necessary to know who is soliciting, what they will use the funds for, and how much of the funds go to the stated charitable purpose (as opposed to overhead).  www.charitynavigator.org is a useful resource to look at financial issues, and to provide links for further research.  The websites of individual charities should have mission statements and disclosures about activities.  Make an informed decision.  (If you wish to explore the moral issues which relate to research using harvested human fetal stem cells, please see Fr. Karl.)

A Project Milestone:  Our project to refinish the church floor reached a significant milestone yesterday.  All of the floor within the rood screen has been completed.  Combined with the Lady Chapel and the chapel of Christ the King, this represents about 1/3 of the total area in the church.  At this rate, the complete project should be finished by early in the second quarter of 2015.

The next areas to be addressed include the vertical ceramic tiles at the base of the rood screen, the entrance way, the chapel of St. Jospeh, and the confessional/cry room.  After these separate areas are refinished, we will attack the main floor, starting at the front on the pulpit side.

Music this week:  Proper 17A

Prelude                                   Prelude on ‘Rendez à Dieu’                                    Geoffrey Vintner           

Opening Hymn 477               “All praise to thee”                                                 Engelberg

Offertory Hymn 450             “All hail the power of Jesus’ Name”                      Coronation

Communion Hymn 302        “Father, we thank thee who hast planted”             Rendez à Dieu

Closing Hymn 555                 “Lead on, O King eternal”                                      Lancashire

Postlude                                  Voluntary in C                                                         William Croft

Parish Notices

§  Mass in the Grass: Please join us Next Sunday, September 7, 2014 for an outdoor Mass and All Church Picnic at Deland Community Center, 901 Broughton Dr., Sheboygan, the Mass will begin at 10:15 a.m. with lunch following. There will be games and an appearance by Hiccup the Clown for our children’s enjoyment. Inviting guests is encouraged. There will be ONE MASS only that day. Please sign up on the sheet on the Narthex table.

§  Sunday School Begins: We are getting excited about Sunday School! The teachers have met and plans are being made for another wonderful year of learning about the love of Jesus Christ! Sunday School will begin on September 14^th at 9:00am. Please watch for more information.

§  Youth & Family News: This past Sunday at our brainstorming meeting for Youth and Family Ministries, we had a great turnout and many ideas were put forward to be considered for the direction, course, and future activities of our ministries at Grace Church. Many of the ideas that were put forward are ones that would be fun for a parish family to participate in to create a larger sense of community, and let's be honest, just to have some fun. Other ideas were specifically focused on community and mission minded outreach. As we continue to brainstorm separately and bounce ideas off of each other. Please put forward any ideas you have for any ministry in our church. If you don't know what ministries there are, ask. If there something that you think should be at Grace Church, but we don't have it, talk about it and maybe you're being called to start something new! Stay tuned to see what happens next, and don't forget to get involved!   

§  Walsingham Music and Flowers: The Walsingham Pilgrimage is just around the corner and preparations are being made. We will have a quiet day with meditations concluding with Solemn Evensong on October 10^th; and a Solemn Pontifical Mass with the Gaudete Brass again this year on October 11^th. Please donate so we can once again offer beautiful music that has become so much a part of the pilgrimage and the flowers that add so much to the beauty of holiness. Please make you check out to Grace Church with Walsingham music or flowers or both in the memo. Thank you.

§  SCIO – Sheboygan County Interfaith Organization: We have been a member of SCIO for many years. We have donated time and money for the outreach to the community, especially for women and children.  There is a sign up sheet on the table in the Narthex to receive the newsletter which will give many ideas about how to help. If you have questions please talk to Mary Ann Neuses.

§  “Before and After”:  The floor cleaning project to well underway! If you are interested in participating, see Fr. Karl. This is tough, physical labor, so if you are challenged in working on hands and knees, consider whether you want to help with material costs, with a gift outside of your regular giving to the parish. Thank you to all who are helping.

The Ragged Edge

Grace Episcopal Church

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Grace Notes

21 August 2014

This past week I was working with a parishioner on the floor refinishing project.  When we finished for the day, she made to feather in the boundary between the refinished and old sections, and I suggested that we should leave the borders stark and visible, that we want people to see the progress.  I made a half joke about the “raggèd edge of ministry”.  Little did I know how that joke would become manifest.

The first day this week I had a young woman come to see me.  She was in distress because she had found her life partner dead.  I knew him and her, having worked with both of them on and off over the past two years as they struggled to put their lives together despite long histories of substance abuse.  They worshipped with us a couple of times, and one of the reasons she came here in an hour of need was to just say “thank you” for what the people of this parish have done.  In speaking with her we talked about his death (from drugs), her struggle (with drugs), and how absent God and an abiding relationship with Him, we all will seek but not find.  Obviously, she was in shock, and so we spoke much about grief and about resurrection.  In the course of this conversation it became obvious that she needed prayer, and that she also needed anointing for healing.  And so it was that I found myself (having been working on the floor) standing to anoint  and pray while wearing shorts and a T-shirt, knee pads and old shoes; while being somewhat covered in grime, and yet then placing a priest’s stole over my shoulders and my hands upon her head to pray, to anoint with the holy oil of healing, and to incarnate the presence of our Lord who comes to all in need and invites that their burdens may be cast upon Him.

Ministry without a raggèd edge is in grave danger of becoming self-satisfying, of becoming too comfortable.  One thing that is witnessed to in all of the gospel accounts is that our Lord never stopped being on the edge.  When we get too comfortable it can be easy to say something like, “Well, I’m not Jesus Christ.”  Which is true except that we are Jesus Christ.  We  incarnate Christ.  We are His Body, a Body which hungers and thirsts, and feels weariness, but a Body which nonetheless continues in mission, continues in service, continues to enter those dark places where people are lost, to bring the light; to bring the Way, the Truth and the Life.  When we do this we are sometimes covered with grime, and the stole of our office sometimes looks a little strange over our work clothes.  But it is at the raggèd edge that beauty and love, truth and good are most manifest, for it is at the edge that we can see the contrast between that which is eternal and that which is just dirt.

Grace Abounds:  Please thank:

§  Bobbi Kraft and Bryan Stenz for setting up Sunday coffee hour, and Tom Crouse and Julie Davidson for clean-up.

§  Jane Hanson for help in the office.

§  Jennifer Pawlus and Pat Reiss for help with the floor refinishing project.

Call for Contributions:  If you have a spiritual reflection to share, or want to point your fellow worshippers toward a resource, submit your contributions to Fr. Karl (by email) by Wednesday in the week of publication.

A Prayer for the People of Iraq: 

Eternal God,
in whose perfect kingdom
no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness,
no strength known but the strength of love:
So mightily spread abroad your Spirit,
That all peoples may be gathered
under the banner of the Prince of Peace,
as children of one Father;
to whom be dominion and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

This Prayer for Peace is found at p. 815 of The Book of Common Prayer.  It’s use is commended to the Church in this season by our presiding Bishop, The Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts-Schorri.

Sheboygan County Interfaith Organization (SCIO):  With all of the discussion in the parish  about the LoveINC initiative, let’s not forget SCIO.  The parish supports SCIO with an annual donation, and members of Grace also work in SCIO-sponsored ministries.  Mary Ann N. attends SCIO meetings for Grace, but in order to elevate the profile of opportunities to serve we are specifically recruiting your interest.  Get further details at www.sheboygancountyinterfaith.org .  We need an in-parish champion who can provide timely electornic media feeds for the blog, newsletter, Facebook page, etc.  If you are interested, speak to Mary Ann and also to Fr. Karl.

Music this week:  Proper 16A

Prelude                                   Matines                                                                           Louis Vierne

Entrance Hymn   427            “When morning gilds the skies”                               Laudes Domini

Offertory Hymn  525            “The Church’s one foundation”                                              Aurelia

Communion Hymn 655        “O Jesus I have promised”                                                      Nyland

Closing Hymn 411                 “O bless the Lord, my soul!”                         St. Thomas (Williams)

Postlude                                  Thou art the Rock                                                            Henri Mulet

            “Thou art the Rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against thee.”

Parish Notices

§  Stewardship:  There will be a meeting of all callers for the stewardship campaign this Sunday, 24 August, at 9 a.m. in the St. Mark Room (the Vestry room).

§  Youth and Family Informational Meeting: All are welcome to come and share ideas for Youth and Family activities for this coming year. We will meet Sunday, August 24^th from 5:30 – 7:00pm for dinner.  The venue has not yet been decided

§  We will be having an open and idea exploring discussion about our ideas and hopes for our Youth and Family ministries. Our plan is to put together a list of ideas for us to discuss, implement, explore, and expand, and also to fill in a calendar for these two ministries. This means that anyone that needs to come with you is invited. If you have any concerns, please let me know. If you can' make it to the meeting feel free to send your ideas and thoughts to NJWhitford@gmail.com. Thank you for being a part of this conversation, and for your input,

§  Mass in the Grass: Please join us Sunday, September 7, 2014 for an outdoor Mass and All Church Picnic at Deland Community Center, 901 Broughton Dr., Sheboygan, the Mass will begin at 10:15 a.m. with lunch following. There will be games and an appearance by Hiccup the Clown for our children’s enjoyment. Inviting guests is encouraged. There will be ONE MASS only that day. Please sign up on the sheet on the Narthex table.

§  Sunday School Begins: We are getting excited about Sunday School! The teachers have met and plans are being made for another wonderful year of learning about the love of Jesus Christ! Sunday School will begin on September 14^th at 9:00am. Please watch for more information.

^§    Walsingham Music and Flowers: The Walsingham Pilgrimage is just around the corner and preparations are being made. We will have a quiet day with meditations concluding with Solemn Evensong on October 10^th; and a Solemn Pontifical Mass with the Gaudete Brass again this year on October 11^th. Please donate so we can once again offer beautiful music that has become so much a part of the pilgrimage and the flowers that add so much to the beauty of holiness. Please make you check out to Grace Church with Walsingham music or flowers or both in the memo. Thank you.

§  Intercessory Prayer Team: The prayer team has changed their time of prayer in the church to Saturdays at 11:00am. All are welcome to come and pray for Grace Church and the world. If you have questions please call the office.

§  “Before and After”:  The floor cleaning project to well underway! The Chapel of Christ the King is complete and the floors surrounding the high altar are finished with the help from many people. If you are interested in participating, see Fr. Karl. This is tough, physical labor, so if you are challenged in working on hands and knees, consider whether you want to help with material costs, with a gift outside of your regular giving to the parish. Thank you to all who are helping.

A Healthy Tension in Belief

Grace Episcopal Church

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Grace Notes

14 August 2014

Tonight we celebrate the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin, which some of us insist on calling the Feast of the Assumption.  Why “some of us”, and why tonight, rather than on the appointed date (15 August)?  The second question is easy to answer.  The feast is “movable” (BCP p. 17), and more can join with us (and in the pot luck supper which follows) on a Thursday than on a Friday evening.

The first question reveals how names have importance.  How we describe something, particularly in prayer, reveals a lot about what we believe.  The collect for the feast states that God has “taken to [Him]self” the Blessed Virgin.  This is a classical example of Anglicanism as a middle way that can encompass diverse beliefs and practices around a common core.  Thus, those who speak of the Assumption do so on the basis of their understanding and belief that Mary was free of sin, and was created free of sin.  This is doctrine within a wide segment of western Catholicism (not just Roman Catholicism), but it is not required (as it is in Roman Catholicism) that one believe in the sinlessness of Mary.  By praying that God has “taken” Mary to Himself, in our prayers we allow those who believe in her sinlessness to believe in the dependent doctrine that as one free from sin she was assumed into heaven.  But we also allow those who do not believe in sinless status of Mary to simply acknowledge that God has taken to Himself His servant and handmaiden.

Whether or not you believe in the sinlessness of Mary may matter very much to you in terms of how you understand your identity in faith, but it does not matter in terms of whether or not you are saved and will be one day taken by God unto Himself.  Allowing this tension in belief is one of the strengths of Anglican practice and doctrine.  Regardless of where you fall on this spectrum of belief, what we can all agree on is that Mary was the human being closest to God, having conceived and bore the Savior in her womb, and having granted to her son His human nature.  When we gather to remember and honor our Lord’s mother, as we gather to offer Him worship, we remember her “yes” to God, and pray that our response to our Lord’s call may ever mirror that of His mother, that by Jesus’ merits we may aspire to union with God.

The sad clown?  Why is the death of Robin Williams generating so much comment, and so much expression of loss?  A suicide is, of course, tragic, and perhaps the stark contrast between the zaniness of a comic and the darkness with which he struggled strikes a collective nerve.  It could be just another example of the cult of celebrity (a form of idolatry).  It could be just that people feel loss that one they found so entertaining is gone.  I suspect, however, that the outpouring of grief over Williams has a lot to say about us, about how we understand ourselves, because humor is itself very revealing.

There is a certain element of aggression in humor.  In jokes we often say things that are otherwise forbidden.  Jokes can be light and comic, in which case they involve punning and just basically celebrate the silliness that is the antidote to taking life too seriously.  But jokes can also be sarcastic and hostile, expressing otherwise repressed animus against people who are “different”, or otherwise repressed sexual tension.  In our own day sarcasm and mocking dominate humor (college-aged people rarely “get” farce or something like the physical humor of someone like Buster Keaton), and I suspect that the strength of the reaction to Williams’s death relates to our appreciation that his witticisms and  sarcasms and imitations made as much “fun” of him as of his targets; that because he never took himself too seriously (or appeared not to), he could point out all those others in society who figuratively had forgotten to zip their trouser fly, or who figuratively had a piece of spinach caught between two front teeth.

Comedy involves the intention to amuse, the intention to produce laughter.  In today’s society most comedy involves laughter produced at the expense of someone else, someone who is the target.  Williams’s personal tragedy was one in which the comic’s intention and the target ultimately merged, and so when we laugh we must always ask “What (or who) are we laughing at?”

Grace Abounds:  Please thank:

§  Ed and Mary Clabots and Paul and Andrea Aparicio for the Sunday coffee hours.

§  Jane Hanson and Pat Ford Smith for help in the office.

§  Ben Dobey for gardening in the columbarium courtyard and the cutting garden.

§  Bev Evans and Nancy Yurk for serving at The Emmaus Meal at The Salvation Army.

§  The Crouse family, Scot Fabiano, Kaleigh Kraft and Caleb Klinzing for serving in the altar party at the Feast of the Transfiguration.

§  Bernie Markevitch and Pat Ford Smith for preparing and hosting the clergy luncheon for the clergy of the deanery.

Call for Contributions:  If you have a spiritual reflection to share, or want to point your fellow worshippers toward a resource, submit your contributions to Fr. Karl (by email) by Wednesday in the week of publication.

A Prayer for the People of Iraq: 

Eternal God,
in whose perfect kingdom
no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness,
no strength known but the strength of love:
So mightily spread abroad your Spirit,
That all peoples may be gathered
under the banner of the Prince of Peace,
as children of one Father;
to whom be dominion and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

This Prayer for Peace is found at p. 815 of The Book of Common Prayer.  It’s use is commended to the Church in this season by our presiding Bishop, The Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts-Schorri.

Music this week:

Music for Thursday, August 14^th, 2014 (Feast of the Assumption, St. Mary the Virgin)

Solemn Mass at 6 pm

Prelude                        Antiphons for the Magnificat                                                   Marcel Dupré

Entrance Hymn           “Ye who claim the faith of Jesus”                                              Daily, daily

Offertory Hymn          “Sing we of the Blessed Mother”                                           Abbot’s Leigh

Communion Hymn     “Sing of Mary, pure and lowly”                                           Pleading Savior

Closing Hymn 438      “Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord”                             Woodlands

Postlude                      Sicut erat in principio (Magnificat)                                 R. Benjamin Dobey

Music for Sunday, August 17^th

Proper 15 A

Prelude                        Intermezzo; Melodia                                                                      Max Reger

Entrance Hymn 390    “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”                                       Lobe den Herrn

Offertory Hymn 544   “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun”                                             Duke Street

Comm. Hymn 470      “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy”                       Beecher

Closing Hymn 551      “Rise up, ye saints of God”                                                         Festal Song

Postlude                      Chorale Prelude on Praise to the Lord, the Almighty                            Reger

Parish Notices

§  St. Mary the Virgin–The Assumption of Mary: Today! we celebrate the eve of the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin also known as the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. We will celebrate with a Solemn Mass at 6:00 pm. We continue the celebration with an All Parish Potluck Dinner. Please join in the fun. If you can stay and help clean up that would be wonderful.

§  Care & Share Small Groups: This Sunday, the 17th following the 8 am service, the "Care & Share" small groups will meet, if need be we will divide into two groups during the coffee hour.

§  Intercessory Prayer Team: The prayer team has changed their time of prayer in the church to Saturdays at 11:00am. All are welcome to come and pray for Grace Church and the world. If you have questions please call the office.

§  Grafton Commemoration: An observed Feast of the diocese to honor the anniversary of Bishop Grafton's earthly death and heavenly birth. The 2014 Commemoration is August 23^rd from 2-6pm at the Cathedral of St. Paul, Fond du Lac. Bishop Gunter will speak on "Evangelical at heart, while in belief, a liberal Catholic." Visit diofdl.org/grafton for more information.

§  Mass in the Grass: Please join us Sunday, September 7, 2014 for an outdoor Mass and All Church Picnic at Deland Community Center, 901 Broughton Dr., Sheboygan, the Mass will begin at 10:15 a.m. with lunch following. There will be games and an appearance by Hiccup the Clown for our children’s enjoyment. Inviting guests is encouraged. There will be ONE MASS only that day. Please sign up on the sheet on the Narthex table.

§  Intercessory Prayer Team: The prayer team has changed their time of prayer in the church to Saturdays at 11:00am. All are welcome to come and pray for Grace Church and the world. If you have questions please call the office.

§  “Before and After”:  The floor cleaning project to well underway! The Chapel of Christ the King is complete and the floors surrounding the high altar are finished with the help from many people. If you are interested in participating, see Fr. Karl. This is tough, physical labor, so if you are challenged in working on hands and knees, consider whether you want to help with material costs, with a gift outside of your regular giving to the parish. Thank you to all who are helping.

The Beauty of Holiness

Grace Episcopal Church

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Grace Notes

7 August 2014

Today is the feast of Bl. John Mason Neale (d. 1866).  Neale was a pioneer in the Ritualist movement of which this parish is an heir.  A polymath (he spoke 20 languages), he was responsible for translating and reintroducing to the Church a large number of ancient hymns, and wrote many hymns himself.  Our own hymnal has more hymns that can be traced to Neale than to any other author or translator.

Neale (who was persecuted for his piety) reminds us that we are to “worship the lord in the beauty of holiness” (Ps. 96.9).  When we experience beauty we experience a small glimpse of the summation of all that is beauty.  We experience a glimpse of God’s Being.  This is true, as well, for experiences of that which is good, what is true, and what is love.  But rather than focus on what beauty is, and how we experience it, notice that the psalm enjoins that we worship God in the beauty of His holiness.  So, what is it that is holy, and how do we experience this holiness?

Holiness has a beauty all of its own. When we think of human beings, there is something marvelous about a character who is pure in heart, without guile, devoted to the Lord's service, lovely, and loveable. The beauty of holiness is "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit" (1 Pet. 3:4).  It is this holiness and this beauty that we experience in the witness and work of Neale.  The beauty which we experience in our own worship is not just experienced in sight and smell, touch and taste, in hearing.  As beautiful as we seek to make our worship in this parish, and as close to this ideal as we may come, what we do is an empty work if it is not the offering of that quiet and gentle spirit of a people who trust in God and seek to “set aside” (the literal meaning holy is “that which is set aside [for God]”) themselves for God.

Neale understood that to be in God’s presence we must set ourselves aside to experience Him.  Neale was the first priest (post-Reformation) in the Church of England to reserve the Blessed Sacrament in a tabernacle.  He was instrumental in reëstablishing the daily celebration of Holy Eucharist.  At Grace we live within his witness.  In this common witness may we experience God’s presence.  In Neale’s words (translating a hymn from the Bangor Antiphoner of 690), “Alpha-Omega, unto whom shall bow all nations at the doom, is with us now.”  (See  our own hymns nos. 327 and 328.)  God is with us.  Let us not only experience His beauty, but live into His presence, His holiness.

Grace Abounds:  Please thank:

§  Jim Gardner and Dcn. Michele Whitford for the Sunday coffee hours.

§  Jane Hanson for help in the office.

§  Paul Aparicio for trimming the ground cover around the church.

§  Erik and Meghan Neaves for providing muffins for the coffee hour.

§  Julie Davidson for help in the floor refinishing project.

Call for Contributions:  If you have a spiritual reflection to share, or want to point your fellow worshippers toward a resource, submit your contributions to Fr. Karl (by email) by Wednesday in the week of publication.

Last week the main column for this blog was written by Jane Hanson.  If you want to contribute to the blog your contribution need not be in addition to the main article.  It can be the main article.

Music this week:  Proper 14A

Prelude                        Prelude & Fugue in E flat (WTC Bk. II)                    J. S. Bach

Entrance Hymn 7        “Christ, whose glory fills the skies”                            Ratisbon

Offertory Hymn441    “In the Cross of Christ I glory”                                  Rathbun

Comm. Hymn 691      “My faith looks up to thee”                                        Olivet

Closing Hymn 542      “Christ is the world’s true light”                                 St. Joan

Postlude                      Prelude & Fugue in D (WTC Bk II)                           J. S. Bach

Parish Notices

§  Youth/Family meeting rescheduled:  The meeting planned for this Sunday, to discuss youth and family ministries, will be rescheduled.  We will not meet this Sunday. 

§  Summer adult formation at Grace Church: will continue on Sunday, August 3^rd  –August 10^th, at 9 a.m. Our discussions will focus on eight realities of the Church, that she is: 1. visible; 2. universal; 3. enduring; 4. possessed of authority; 5. embodies beauty; 6. hierarchical; 7. in communion with the saints; and 8. a moral witness. We will examine particularly how these are embodied in Anglicanism. In other words, we are going to talk about how and why the Church matters, and how we participate in how she matters! 

§  St. Mary the Virgin – The Assumption of Mary: Thursday, August 14^th we will celebrate the eve of the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin also known as the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. We will celebrate with a Solemn Mass at 6:00 pm. We continue the celebration with an All Parish Potluck Dinner. There is a sign up sheet on the table in the Narthex. Please join in the fun. If you can stay and help clean up that would be wonderful.

§  Grafton Commemoration: An observed Feast of the diocese to honor the anniversary of Bishop Grafton's earthly death and heavenly birth. The 2014 Commemoration is August 23^rd from 2-6pm at the Cathedral of St. Paul, Fond du Lac. Bishop Gunter will speak on "Evangelical at heart, while in belief, a liberal Catholic." Visit diofdl.org/grafton for more information.

§  Mass in the Grass: Please join us Sunday, September 7, 2014 for an outdoor Mass and All Church Picnic at Deland Community Center, 901 Broughton Dr., Sheboygan, Mass will begin at 10:15 a.m. with lunch following. There will be games and an appearance by Hiccup the Clown for our children’s enjoyment. Inviting guests is encouraged. There will be ONE MASS only that day. Please sign up on the sheet on the Narthex table.

§  Intercessory Prayer Team: The prayer team has changed their time of prayer in the church to Saturdays at 11:00am. All are welcome to come and pray for Grace Church and the world. If you have questions please call the office.

§  “Before and After”:  The floor cleaning project to well underway! The Chapel of Christ the King is complete and the floors surrounding the high altar are finished with the help from many people. If you are interested in participating, see Fr. Karl. This is tough, physical labor, so if you are challenged in working on hands and knees, consider whether you want to help with material costs, with a gift outside of your regular giving to the parish. Thank you to all who are helping.

§  Hebrew:  We will offer a course in biblical Hebrew. Classes will meet from 7 to 9 p.m. on Thursdays, beginning on 11 September.  There is a cost of $100 for materials, but this can be supported through a generous scholarship fund.  The class is open to people who are not members of the parish, so feel free to invite friends from the community or other churches. This class does not assume that you have any particular ability in learning a language. The goal is not to learn to speak and write Hebrew, but to be able to work in the biblical text using written and online aids.  We want to be able to work in the text to gain insights into the message of the Bible, insights that may not be apparent in English. What can we learn about God and His will for us by exploring these differences? Our discussions will be more theological than linguistic, as they were in our Greek class. If you are interested, or know someone who is, contact Fr. Karl.

§  EfM or Education for Ministry: was created to help you find your vocation and ministry with a trusted group of friends. By studying scripture, history and reading other people’s writings, we discover more about God’s wonderful plan for our lives.  Two groups are starting September 8, 2014. The Monday group meets at 6 pm and the Tuesday group meets at 9 am. Sign up by August 1st in order to get your books before the first class. Cost is $350 and this includes college credits and all your materials. Scholarships are available, so don’t let the cost keep you from participating. You can go to the EfM website at: www.sewanee.edu/EFM and print your registration materials or if you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact Barb Drewry-Zimmerman at: bzimmy@excel.net or call her at 920-893-5189.