Thank you! Dine In, Help Out Haiti distributed over 150 quarts of soup and raised over $3000, including some generous extra donations. Thank you for your support and for your ongoing partnership with L’Ecole St. Matthieu/Lekol Sen Matye. We also thank all who contributed labor and homemade food, and the restaurants and bakery who shared their special soups and breads. Around the world, soup is community food made of the resources at hand. Thank you for extending community in this way.
Roots of Injustice, Seeds of Change: Towards Right Relationship with Native Peoples An interactive online workshop that will change the way you think about the land you call home. Sunday, Jan. 30th 3-5pm ET. Sponsored by Interfaith Opportunities Network, INterfaith Council of Franklin County, and Karuna Center for Peacebuilding. More info at interfaithamherst.org/400-years-roots and at Karunacenter.org/Jan30. Direct registration link is at: https://www.aplos.com/aws/give/KarunaCenterforPeacebuilding/Jan30
This week: Conversations About Haiti, First in a series: 7 p.m. Tuesday, February 1 on Zoom Please join us in a series of conversations with representatives of organizations that work with education in Haiti. We’ll begin with brief presentations and will then open up the floor for questions, and for sharing experience, advice, and ideas. We expect each session to last about 90 minutes. Because of the Omicron surge, we are moving these events to Zoom. Here is the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7028052390
February 1: Doug Albertson and Ken Mundt from Opportunities for Communities, Amherst. This experienced organization seeks to link communities with one another; to build educational opportunity and sustainable development in Haiti; and to prepare college students to work in international development. Students engage in the planning, execution and management of projects in partner communities, such as a school for Restavek children, a summer school, health screening, and micro-lending. During the pandemic, OfC has turned to working with a university in Haiti on academic exchanges and remote learning.
February 8: Sheila Humphreys, co-founder of HOST (Haiti Orphanage Sponsorship Trust), Brattleboro. HOST is a small volunteer-run organization that supports a partner in Haiti – an orphanage founded after the 2010 earthquake by a pastor and a teacher who are also volunteers. HOST provides funding for food, medical care, education, and vocational training for (currently) 35 orphans ranging in age from about 9 to the late teens. Its creative fundraising happens in southern Vermont.
March 1: The Rev. Rebecca Crosby, co-founder and Executive Director of the Crosby Fund for Haitian Education, Old Lyme, CT
March 8: Leslie Harrison, long-time volunteer with the Be Like Brit Foundation, Worcester
Mindfulness, Meditation, and Epiphanies, Wednesdays February 2, 9, 16, 23 For four Wednesdays in February, from 6:00 – 6:45 pm in the church, we will have an opportunity for inner renewal and the deepening of prayer and worship, led by Kell Julliard. The first part of our time together will teach specific practices of mindfulness and meditation. This will be followed by a modified compline service in which we will apply the practices we learned to deepen our experience. We will explore four Epiphany themes. Each week will feature a different epiphany – the first is gold for the epiphany of Christ within our hearts, then frankincense for our worship and wonder at the love of God and creation, then myrrh for the emptying that precedes our experience of the presence of God, and finally the water of baptism, which enables us to bring these epiphanies into our life in the world. The church will offer us the opportunity to be socially distanced in this time of COVID.
Grace Church Annual Meeting will be held on Sunday, February 6th immediately following a single service at 9:30am.
Grace’s Closet is starting up again With the cold weather upon us, this winter in this time of COVID the Fireplace Room in the Parke House will be a storage and distribution site for warm winter clothes for those in need. There are several ways you can help. Volunteers sort and organize clothes in the Fireplace Room, as well as deliver clothing to the Amherst Survival Center, Craig’s Doors, and Not Bread Alone as requests come in. Parishioners can also donate clean, usable coats and winter clothes for adults only by dropping off items on Sunday mornings or during regular business hours Monday – Friday. We hope you feel called to help, because we need your help. All health and safety protocols will be maintained, including the need to wear a face mask at all times. For more information, please contact Kevyn Smith at kevynsmith09@gmail.com.
The Grace Church Stewardship campaign for 2022 To date 136 pledges have come in totaling $419,238 – most encouraging, we have 7 new pledges. To those who have pledged God Bless, to those who have yet to pledge please pray and pledge so our Vestry can budget for 2022. If you need a pledge card, they are available as you enter the church or you can contact the office (413) 256-6754 or Bruce Stebbins at (413) 549-5933.
Parish Directory It’s time for a new Grace Directory! The last one was done in 2018. We have new members, and some folks have moved. Please send your updated address and phone number(s) to Terrie Korpita at tkorpita@gracechurchamherst.org. We plan to use the same photos as the last directory; unless you wish to submit a new one. Thank you!