Followers

Grace Episcopal Church

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Grace Notes

26 January 2017

Today is the feast of Sts. Timothy and Titus, companions of the apostle Paul.  The letters written by Paul to these key players in the early days of the Christian movement are “pastoral letters,” i.e., written to specific people or churches to address particular issues.  The letters Paul wrote to these believers include solemn commissions to service and to life in the Church.  The letters have a lot to say about what leadership is to be in the Church.

But what about Timothy and Titus as individuals?  Timothy is referred to in several different ways in Paul’s letters to churches.  He is described as “our brother,” “fellow worker,” and “beloved and faithful child in the Lord”.  Paul probably also includes Timothy within the appellation “apostles of Christ” (with Paul and Silas)(1 Thess. 2.6).  Titus is described as a fellow worker and trusted emissary.  All of this makes Timothy and Titus sound very special, and there is no doubt that they were dedicated followers of Jesus Christ.  In remembering them (or any saint), therefore, can we just consider them as shining examples, or can we relate their examples more specifically to our own lives as followers of Jesus Christ?

They key word we can focus on is “follower”.  All of us are called by Jesus Christ, and He promises us that He will not only show us the way, but that He is the way.  He has promised, as well, to send the Holy Spirit as the One who will lead us into all truth.  Note the commonalities in those words:  follow, way, lead.  Just like Timothy and Titus we don’t have to figure out who God is calling us to be and what He is calling us to do.  He will show us.  Our pathway in life is not about navigation, but about remaining focused on the guidance we are given; guidance which is accompanied by blessing and comfort.  It is when we follow where God leads that we may be described in the words Paul used to describe Timothy and Titus.  God will provide us all the direction and all of the spiritual gifts necessary to accomplish any task He calls us to.

Grace abounds:  Please thank: 

§  Elizabeth Schaffenburg and Julie Davidson for the Sunday coffee hours.

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.

Don’t forget “Something Extra for Grace”:  Supplemental giving envelopes can be found in pews.  If you want to give something extra, please use an envelope to ensure that you are credited.

Music this Week:          The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

                                      Organist:  Ben Dobey

Prelude                          Chorale Prelude on Let us ever walk with Jesus

                                                                                                              Paul Manz

Entrance Hymn 477      “All praise to thee, for thou, O King divine”        Engelberg

Offertory Hymn 593      “Lord, make us servants of your peace”             

                                                                                                  Dickinson College

Communion Hymn 655 “O Jesus, I have promised”                                   Nyland

Closing Hymn 657         “Love divine, all loves excelling”                          Hyfrydol

Postlude                        Trumpet Tune in F                                 David N. Johnson

Parish Notices

§  The Annual Meeting: On Sunday, January 29, 2017, we will have one Mass at 9:00 a.m. followed by the Annual Meeting at 10:15 a.m. in St. Nicholas Hall. During the meeting we plan to offer continental breakfast. The agenda of the meeting will include committee reports, new Vestry elections, 2016 financial review and 2017 budget, review Vestry actions, and an overall review of the 2017 calendar. Please make every effort to attend and participate.      

§  Bible Challenge: Videos for all 52 weeks of the year are now available on Grace Abounds. If you take this challenge, you will find that in one year you will read all of the Bible! This will require less than an hour of your time, six days a week. A schedule of readings is provided on the parish website, along with weekly study summaries and a weekly video summary of the readings. If you need a good study bible for the challenge, contact the parish office. When we immerse ourselves in Scripture, the mantle of the Lord does fall upon us. We are equipped to discern God’s will and to lead others to know and love and serve the Lord.

§  Flower Schedule for 2017: Giving the gift of flowers is a wonderful way to remember a loved one or to offer thanksgiving for your blessings. If you wish to sign up for a specific Sunday, the Flower Schedule is available on the table in the narthex. More than one person can sign up for each Sunday.

§  Coffee Hour Schedule: There is a new sign-up sheet for hosting coffee hour in 2017. If you would like to host, please sign up for either 8:00 a.m. or 10:15 a.m. If you have any questions, please see Mary Massey. Thank you so much.

§  Like Grace Church on Facebook

§  Follow Grace Church on Twitter: @GEC_Sheboygan

§  Follow Grace Church on Instagram: @GEC_Sheboygan

§  We Are on Itunes! Check out the new podcast!!!

§  https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/grace-church-sheboygan/id982836791

A Confessing Faith

Grace Episcopal Church

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Grace Notes

19 January 2017

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mtt. 16.16).  This is the Confession of Peter, commemorated yesterday.  Peter’s confession of who Jesus is comes right after the disciples are asked, “[W]ho do you say I am?”  This is a question that believers have answered by being believers.  We confess that we believe in who Jesus is, and we believe in what He teaches and reveals.  We trust in Him and seek to follow Him.  But in living out this confession we must be aware of how the question Jesus asks the disciples is now phrased to us by those who do not know God.  The topic of faith raises the question:  Who do we say Jesus is to those who do not know Him?  Do we say anything at all, or are we just “polite,” and leave the topic of faith outside of conversation?

Recall that Peter was by his own estimation not only an ordinary but also a sinful man.  (“Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord”—Lk. 5.8.)  He was no more “equipped” to testify to Jesus than any of us, except to the extent that God empowered him to do so.  (Mtt. 16.18—“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona!  For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”)  God revealed Himself to Peter because of, and in, Peter’s following of Jesus.

God reveals Himself to each one of us in how we follow His Son, and God will use each one of us to reveal Himself and His will to those who do not know Him, both in how we are seen to follow and (yes!) in words.  If ever you are hesitant to say what you feel in your heart about faith, say it!  Say it, because if you feel it in your heart you feel it because God is prompting you.  If your testimony is rejected or ridiculed, know that before the world hates any disciples it has hated Jesus first (Jn. 15.18).  Testify, and be in good company with Peter.  Testify, and be in good company with Jesus!

Grace abounds:  Please thank: 

§  Bob and Anne Hanlon, Tom Wright and Mary Snyder for the Sunday coffee hours.

§  Bernie Markevitch and Bobbie May for redecorating the church.

§  Mary Clabots for organizing a display of icons.

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.

Don’t forget “Something Extra for Grace”:  Supplemental giving envelopes can be found in pews.  If you want to give something extra, please use an envelope to ensure that you are credited.

Music this Week:          The Third Sunday after the Epiphany

                                      Organist:  Ben Dobey

Prelude                          Cherubic Hymn                                    Nicolai Tcherepnin

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

Offertory Hymn 490      “I want to walk as a child of the light”                 Houston

Communion Motet        “Jesus, Sun of Life “                                       G.F. Handel

Communion Hymn 661 “They cast their nets in Galilee”                     Georgetown

Closing Hymn 598         “Lord Christ, when first thou cam’st to earth ” 

                                                                                                    Mit Freuden zart

Postlude                        Prelude & Fugue in F Minor                          J.K.F. Fischer

Parish Notices

§  Adult Education: Continuing on Sunday, we will explore The State of the Church in 2017. We’ll use data and trend lines related to what it means to be a Christian in America and the world, to better define the broader context in which we live our faith. We will focus on how the changes around us and in us can best be identified, that we can best decide how to proactively serve in ministry.

§  Girl Scout Cookies! On Sunday, after both masses, Girl Scout Cookies can be preordered for $4.00/. Money will be due when the cookies are delivered at church. Any Grace Church youth member who is involved in Daisy/Girl Scouts should come in their troop uniform to help work the booth and we will divide the orders up equally between the participants.

§  The Annual Meeting: This year’s Annual Meeting will take place next Sunday, January 29, 2016. We will have one Mass at 9:00 a.m. followed by the Annual Meeting at 10:15 a.m. At the conclusion of the meeting we plan to have brunch in St. Nicholas Hall. The agenda of the meeting will include committee reports, new Vestry elections, 2016 financial review and 2017 budget, review Vestry actions, and an overall review of the 2017 calendar. Please make every effort to attend and participate. 

§  Annual Meeting Brunch: For those of you planning to stay for brunch following the Annual Meeting, please sign your name on the sheet provided in the Narthex so we may have an estimate of food to provide.

§  LAST CALL - We need your approval/updates for the Parish Directory: A draft of the parish directory can be found on the Narthex table. Please initial your information if it is current, otherwise make changes as necessary.

§  Call for Diocesan Convention Delegates and Alternates: Diocesan Convention is scheduled for October 21st from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. commencing with mass at Holy Apostles, Oneida at 9:00 a.m. followed by the convention meetings at the Radisson Hotel in Ashwaubenon. We are in need of four delegates and four alternates to attend and vote at Diocesan Convention. This will include a pre-convention information meeting, there are several scheduled. If you are willing to serve, please call the office. Delegates and alternates are determined by volunteer order. In the event that we have more than eight responses, we will vote on January 29th at the Annual Meeting.

§  Love Buckets: Next week is the last Sunday to donate items. As other churches have donated to our own GAP Ministry – Martha & Mary Cooking Guild – St. Luke’s is asking for donations to their Love Buckets Ministry. A list of supplies needed is posted on the notice board, and a large grey bin for donations can be found in the Narthex. This is a GAP Ministry of Love INC organized by our neighbors, St. Luke’s Methodist Church.

§  Bible Challenge: Videos for all 52 weeks of the year are now available on Grace Abounds. If you take this challenge, you will find that in one year you will read all of the Bible! This will require less than an hour of your time, six days a week. A schedule of readings is provided on the parish website, along with weekly study summaries and a weekly video summary of the readings. If you need a good study bible for the challenge, contact the parish office. When we immerse ourselves in Scripture, the mantle of the Lord does fall upon us. We are equipped to discern God’s will and to lead others to know and love and serve the Lord.

§  Flower Schedule for 2017: Giving the gift of flowers is a wonderful way to remember a loved one or to offer thanksgiving for your blessings. If you wish to sign up for a specific Sunday, the Flower Schedule is available on the table in the narthex. More than one person can sign up for each Sunday.

§  Coffee Hour Schedule: There is a new sign-up sheet for hosting coffee hour in 2017. If you would like to host, please sign up for either 8:00 a.m. or 10:15 a.m. If you have any questions, please see Mary Massey. Thank you so much.

§  Like Grace Church on Facebook

§  Follow Grace Church on Twitter: @GEC_Sheboygan

§  Follow Grace Church on Instagram: @GEC_Sheboygan

§  We Are on Itunes! Check out the new podcast!!!

§  https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/grace-church-sheboygan/id982836791

Because Aelred is My Friend

Grace Episcopal Church

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Grace Notes

12 January 2017

Today is the feast of St. Aelred of Rievaulx, a twelfth century English monk remembered as the patron saint of friendship, on the basis of his work On Spiritual Friendship.  This work is available in modern English, but rather than write about what Aelred teaches, let us consider what friendship has to teach us about faith.

Friendship is founded, of course, in relationship.  For someone to be my friend, I have to have a relationship with him.  This relationship, this friendship, can be a very powerful motivator for action.  Thus, for example, if I decide to do something (even something not in my interest), and state my reason for acting, “I am doing this because Aelred is my friend,” no one would question that friendship can form a valid basis for action.  This highlights the difference between categories of thought as thinking relates to reason.  It is popular in modern culture to contrast faith and reason, with the implication being that faith is unreasonable or irrational.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

If I believe that I am the Tsar of Russia, all would recognize that this would be a form of irrational thinking, of unreason.  If, however, I say “I am doing this because Aelred is my friend,” this is represents a reasoned decision based on a nonrational construct.  Friendship (or love, or beauty, or a desire to pursue truth or goodness) is nonrational, not irrational.  My decision to act on a nonrational construct is itself reasonable.

Like friendship, faith is nonrational.  This does not mean that it is opposed to reason (any more than friendship is).  It just means that I cannot use the methods of reason (e.g., formal logic) to determine whether or not a friendship (or love, or beauty, or a desire to pursue truth or goodness) is or is not real.  The reality of the friendship is experienced.  The reality of faith is experienced.  Friendship changes me, changes lives, as does faith.

At John 15.15, Jesus calls His disciples friends.  He tells us that we are in a personal relationship with Him.  Quite apart from our duties to offer worship, we gather with Jesus because He is our friend, and bids us to treat each other as friend, brothers, sisters, those who matter to us because of how they matter to Him.

Grace abounds:  Please thank: 

§  Wayne and Pat Sather, and Bobbie May for the Sunday coffee hours.

§  Bernie Markevitch for hospitality for the meeting of deanery clergy.

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.

Don’t forget “Something Extra for Grace”:  Supplemental giving envelopes can be found in pews.  If you want to give something extra, please use an envelope to ensure that you are credited.

Music this Week:          The Second Sunday after the Epiphany

                                      Organist:  Ben Dobey

Prelude                          Two Chorale Preludes (Duo and Adagio) on All glory be to

                                      God on high                                                    J. S. Bach

Entrance Hymn 135      “Songs of thankfulness and praise”                    Salzburg

Offertory Hymn 444      “Blessed be the God of Israel,”                        Thornbury

Communion Hymn 126 “The people who in darkness walked”                   Dundee

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

Postlude                       Chorale Prelude on The people who in darkness walked

                                                                                                          C.H.H. Parry

Parish Notices

§  Adult Education: Continuing on Sunday, January 15, 2017, we will explore The State of the Church in 2017. We’ll use data and trend lines related to what it means to be a Christian in America and the world, to better define the broader context in which we live our faith. We will focus on how the changes around us and in us can best be identified, that we can best decide how to proactively serve in ministry.

§  Sung Compline: On Sunday, January 15, 2017 there will be a potluck supper at 6:30 p.m. followed by Sung Compline at 8:00 p.m. Please join us for a beautiful restful service full of candles and music. A sign-up sheet for the potluck supper can be found on the table in the Narthex.

§  Signing of the Tripartite Covenant: We need four lay members of the parish to attend mass next Sunday, January 22, 2017 at St. Dominic and St. Peter Lutheran Church (two people at each church) as representatives of Grace Church to sign the Tripartite Covenant. Mass at both churches commences at 10:30 a.m. Please call Grace Church office if you would like to serve in this capacity.

§  Icon Workshop: During Lent (February 26 through April 9, 2017) we will offer a seven-part workshop on Sunday afternoons (1:00 – 6:00 p.m.) in which participants can write (paint) their own icon of the archangel Michael. This workshop will be held at the parish and presented by Katherine de Shazer who has been painting icons for over 16 years. The fee is $350.00 including materials and limited funds are available for scholarships. A $100 deposit is required to register and the deadline is Wednesday, January 18, 2017. A sign-up sheet and more information, including where to send your registration and deposit, can be found on the table in the Narthex.

§  Girl Scout Cookies! On Sunday January 15 and 22, 2017, after both masses Girl Scout Cookies can be preordered for $4.00/. Money will be due when the cookies are delivered at church. Any Grace Church youth member who is involved in Daisy/Girl Scouts should come in their troop uniform to help work the booth and we will divide the orders up equally between the participants.

§  The Annual Meeting: This year’s Annual Meeting will take place on Sunday, January 29, 2016. We will have one Mass at 9:00 a.m. followed by the Annual Meeting at 10:15 a.m. At the conclusion of the meeting we plan to have brunch in St. Nicholas Hall. The agenda of the meeting will include committee reports, new Vestry elections, 2016 financial review and 2017 budget, review Vestry actions, and an overall review of the 2017 calendar. Please make every effort to attend and participate.

§  Annual Meeting Reports: If you are in charge of anything, please write a short report to be included in the Annual Report and send it to the office office@gracesheboygan.com by Friday, January 20^th. Thank you so much.

§  Call for Vestry Nominations: Vestry elections will be held on Sunday, January 29th, at the parish annual meeting. We need at least three nominees, with names provided to the parish office by Friday, January 20th. You can nominate another person or yourself. To run for Vestry you must be a qualified elector of the parish, which means that: (1) You are regular in your attendance on worship;(2) You have received Holy Eucharist at least once in the prior year;(3) You are active in your support of the parish through a pledge or some other form of giving; and (4) You are at least sixteen years of age. (5) Provide a brief biographical sketch which allows your fellow parishioners to better understand your relationship with God and His Church. Vestry members are called to committed leadership, and are expected to attend twelve meetings throughout the year (once per month); and participate in parish activities as you are able.

§  A draft of the 2017 Parish Directory: can be found on the Narthex table. Please take time to review your entry and initial your information if it is current, otherwise make changes as necessary.

§  Love Buckets: is a GAP Ministry of Love INC organized by our neighbors, St. Luke’s Methodist Church. As other churches have donated to our own GAP Ministry – Martha & Mary Cooking Guild – St. Luke’s is asking for donations to their Love Buckets Ministry. A list of supplies needed is posted on the notice board, and a large grey bin for donations can be found in the Narthex. This drive will run until the end of January.

§  Call for Diocesan Convention Delegates and Alternates: Diocesan Convention is scheduled for October 21st from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. commencing with mass at Holy Apostles, Oneida at 9:00 a.m. followed by the convention meetings at the Radisson Hotel in Ashwaubenon. We are in need of four delegates and four alternates to attend and vote at Diocesan Convention. This will include a pre-convention information meeting, there are several scheduled. If you are willing to serve please call the office. Delegates and alternates are determined by volunteer order. In the event that we have more than eight responses we will vote on January 29th at the Annual Meeting.

§  Something Extra for Grace: Envelopes are available in the pews if you are moved to give an extra gift, beyond your pledge or regular plate donation, toward the life of the church. Gifts are tax deductible if you write your name on the envelope.

§  Bible Challenge: Videos for all 52 weeks of the year are now available on Grace Abounds. If you take this challenge, you will find that in one year you will read all of the Bible! This will require less than an hour of your time, six days a week. A schedule of readings is provided on the parish website, along with weekly study summaries and a weekly video summary of the readings. If you need a good study bible for the challenge, contact the parish office. When we immerse ourselves in Scripture, the mantle of the Lord does fall upon us. We are equipped to discern God’s will and to lead others to know and love and serve the Lord.

§  Flower Schedule for 2017: Giving the gift of flowers is a wonderful way to remember a loved one or to offer thanksgiving for your blessings. If you wish to sign up for a specific Sunday, the Flower Schedule is available on the table in the narthex. More than one person can sign up for each Sunday.

§  Coffee Hour Schedule: There is a new sign-up sheet for hosting coffee hour in 2017. If you would like to host, please sign up for either 8:00 a.m. or 10:15 a.m. If you have any questions, please see Mary Massey. Thank you so much.

§  Like Grace Church on Facebook

§  Follow Grace Church on Twitter: @GEC_Sheboygan

§  Follow Grace Church on Instagram: @GEC_Sheboygan

§  We Are on Itunes! Check out the new podcast!!!

§  https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/grace-church-sheboygan/id982836791

Being Translated

Grace Episcopal Church

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Grace Notes

5 January 2017

Epiphany means “manifestation” or “showing”.  We recall and celebrate that God become flesh and dwelling among us was revealed/manifested to all the world—to all the Gentiles—not as Messiah exclusive to God’s chosen people, but as Immanuel (“God with us”) for all of us.  I have written previously about the many ways in which God reveals Himself and His will to us.  For this week I want to focus on how we go about experiencing this revelation in an ongoing process of translation—“translation” in the original sense of the word:  to be carried across.

There is no ideal translation of the Bible.  Even if each one of us were to become expert in ancient Hebrew and Greek, our experience of God’s manifestation of Himself and His will in scripture would remain most imperfect if our purpose in reading involved no more than understanding.  Certainly there is much that we can understand better by studying and understanding how the Bible came to be written, in what contexts, by whom, focused on what pressing needs.  But all such understanding pales compared to the reality that the Bible was and is decidedly strange.  Scripture is in many senses otherworldly, and that’s the point—that we are drawn into another reality, a reality which we can only experience by and through the humility in which we will be gradually transformed by the words God has chosen to use (using human authors) to reveal Himself and His will.

The Bible is not a collection of human words about God, but words inspired by God about Himself.  There are plenty of words about God, from such notable believers as Aquinas, Dante, Bonhoeffer (to name just a very few).  There are plenty of words about systems of belief.  (That’s why there are whole courses in theology.)  But of Aquinas or Dante or Bonhoeffer we never say “The word of the Lord” after reading them.  We do say this about the Bible, because we say that in some sense these words are words used by God, given to us by God, to communicate with us, and to communicate with us that we might be changed.

The real issue in biblical translation is not about how we “understand” words originally written in different languages and contexts, but about how we are translated—carried across—into the reality of God’s self-revelation.  How is the manifestation (the epiphany) of God made real in the changes in us?

Grace abounds:  Please thank: 

§  Kevan and Traci Revis for the Sunday coffee hour.

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.

Don’t forget “Something Extra for Grace”:  Supplemental giving envelopes can be found in pews.  If you want to give something extra, please use an envelope to ensure that you are credited.

Music this Week:          The First Sunday after the Epiphany

                                      Organist:  Ben Dobey

Prelude:                        Chorale Fantasia on How brightly shines the Morning Star 

                                                                                                Dietrich Buxtehude

Entrance Hymn 124      “What star is this, with beams so bright”          Puer nobis

Offertory Hymn 497     “How bright appears the Morning Star”                                                                                                                            Wie schoen leuchtet

Communion Motet        The Sinless One to Jordan Came                      Andro Hart

Communion Hymn 121 “Christ, when for us you were baptized”     Solemnes haec

Closing Hymn 119         “As with gladness men of old”                                    Dix

Postlude:                       Chorale Prelude on ‘How brightly shines the Morning Star’

                                                                                                              J. S. Bach

Parish Notices

§  Adult Education: Beginning on Sunday, January 8th, we will explore The State of the Church in 2017. We’ll use data and trend lines related to what it means to be a Christian in America and the world, to better define the broader context in which we live our faith. We will focus on how the changes around us and in us can best be identified, that we can best decide how to proactively serve in ministry.

§  Sung Compline: On Sunday, January 15^th, there will be a potluck supper at 6:30 p.m. followed by Sung Compline at 8:00 p.m., a beautiful restful service full of candles and music. A sign-up sheet for the potluck supper can be found on the table in the Narthex.

§  Girl Scout Cookie Time! Calling all Grace Church Girl Scouts and cookie lovers! Inviting all Grace Church Girl Scouts to work the cookie order booth AFTER both masses on Sunday, January 15th and 22nd. Please wear your sash or vest. Cookie order forms will be available outside of the parish hall and will be evenly distributed between the participants. Cookies will once again be $4/box and money is not collected until delivery sometime in February. Thank you for supporting your local Girl Scouts! 

§  The Annual Meeting: This year’s Annual Meeting will take place on Sunday, January 29, 2017. We will have one Mass at 9:00am followed by the Annual Meeting at 10:15am. If you have been in leadership of any group or committee please submit an annual report to the office@gracesheboygan.com. Please make every effort to attend and participate.

§  A draft of the 2017 Parish Directory: can be found on the Narthex table. Please initial your information if it is current, otherwise make changes as necessary

§  Love Buckets: is a GAP Ministry of Love INC organized by our neighbors, St. Luke’s Methodist Church. As other churches have donated to our own GAP Ministry – Martha & Mary Cooking Guild – St. Luke’s is asking for donations to their Love Buckets Ministry. A list of supplies needed is posted on the notice board, and a large grey bin for donations can be found in the Narthex. This drive will run until the end of January.

§  Something Extra for Grace: Envelopes are available in the pews if you are moved to give an extra gift, beyond your pledge or regular plate donation, toward the life of the church.  Gifts are tax deductible if you write your name on the envelope.

§  Bible Challenge: Videos for all 52 weeks of the year are now available on Grace Abounds. If you take this challenge, you will find that in one year you will read all of the Bible! This will require less than an hour of your time, six days a week. A schedule of readings is provided on the parish website, along with weekly study summaries and a weekly video summary of the readings. If you need a good study bible for the challenge, contact the parish office. When we immerse ourselves in Scripture, the mantle of the Lord does fall upon us. We are equipped to discern God’s will and to lead others to know and love and serve the Lord.

§  Flower Schedule for 2017: Giving the gift of flowers is a wonderful way to remember a loved one or to offer thanksgiving for your blessings. If you wish to sign up for a specific Sunday, the Flower Schedule is available on the table in the narthex. More than one person can sign up for each Sunday.

§  Coffee Hour Schedule: There is a new sign-up sheet for hosting coffee hour in 2017. If you would like to host, please sign up for either 8:00 a.m. or 10:15 a.m. If you have any questions, please see Mary Massey. Thank you so much.

§  Like Grace Church on Facebook

§  Follow Grace Church on Twitter: @GEC_Sheboygan

§  Follow Grace Church on Instagram: @GEC_Sheboygan

§  We Are on Itunes! Check out the new podcast!!!

§  https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/grace-church-sheboygan/id982836791