Friday Evensong has returned to the church! We hope that you will be able to join us live and in person on Fridays at 5:30. It is a blessing at long last to be able to come together and join our voices in thanksgiving and prayer! A service booklet will be available at church. However, we will continue to provide a live link to Zoom for anyone who is unable to attend in person.
Reconnecting at Grace: Small Discussion Groups Throughout the Fall Throughout the Fall months, Grace will be hosting a series of small group discussions on a variety of topics. This idea – which emerged from our Adult Education Committee – came out of a desire to prioritize time for people to come together and share with one another. We hope these groups will serve as one way to strengthen old relationships and form meaningful new ones! It would be helpful, if you sign up in advance to participate. To foster deeper discussion, we’re limiting each group to 7 participants. Please email Terrie at tkorpita@gracechurchamherst.org with the date you’d like to sign up for in order to get yourself registered.
October Discussions:
Sunday Oct. 31st, 12 p.m./noon
In the Garth weather permitting; otherwise in Parish Hall; led by Tom
Topic: Who Are Your Heroes? A conversation for All Saints
Sunday Coffee Hour – Volunteers needed We are looking for volunteers to help set up coffee hour, following both Sunday services. Responsibilities include preparing coffee and cold beverages. Food is not being offered at this time. For more information please contact Betsy Mathews at magistramathews@gmail.com for the 8am service or Mark Leonas at mleonas123@gmail.com for the 10:30am service.
October’s 4th Sunday offering (October 24) will go to Amherst Committee for A Better Chance (ABC), which is a program in which five to eight capable, motivated students of color from underfunded and under-resourced urban schools come to Amherst to attend Amherst High School. They live together under the supervision of house parents/resident directors in downtown Amherst. Over one hundred young men have gone through the program, graduated from college, and are now contributing both personally and professionally to their communities. ABC was founded by Amherst area churches, including Grace Church, in 1968. The ABC board is a working board whose members donate their time in many ways from fundraising to hosting scholars for a week-end once a month, from tutoring to helping maintain the house, etc. ABC is volunteer-run and funded entirely by the local community. Please consider volunteering. There are many tasks that need volunteers. For more information contact DeAnne Riddle at 549-7526. Make checks payable to Grace Church marked clearly – Oct. Outreach. Thank you for your generosity.
Thanksgiving Collection for the Amherst Survival Center Help “Stuff” the Church with Bread Stuffing For Thanksgiving, the Amherst Survival Center has asked us to collect 500 boxes of bread stuffing, which the Survival Center will distribute throughout November. They begin distributing Thanksgiving foods on November 1st. If everyone brought 2 boxes of stuffing to church for the next 2 Sundays, we can achieve this goal. Thank you for your help.
All Souls’ Day: We will celebrate the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed Monday, November 8th, at 7:00 p.m., with a service of Holy Communion and a reading of names from the Book of Remembrance. There is a sign-up sheet in the back of the church, if you would like to add names of deceased loved ones.
Garden Cleanup The Garden Ministry will conduct a Garden Cleanup on Saturday, Nov. 20 from 9 to 11 a.m. All are welcome to help. Please bring pruning shears, weeders and containers for lugging detritus to the compost. Pray for good weather. Questions? Call Sherry Wilson, 256-6955.
St. Nicholas Bazaar NEW Update We apologize for making another change regarding donations, but with the large amount we’ve already received we realized we can’t accept any more donations at this time. Please hold your donations until after the first of the year, when we will gladly accept them for next year’s bazaar. The exceptions are antiques and fine jewelry – we are greatly in need of both! The bazaar will be Dec. 4 from 9 to 3, and volunteer sign-ups will be available in early November. Any questions, contact Joan (jobrien82@gmail.com). Thank you!
The Gifts from Grace Table at the St Nicholas Bazaar welcomes and needs your creations. Donations of your art and handmade crafts of all kinds are needed for the December 4th event. Any questions please contact Gillian Duda at ghduda@comcast.net 413-253-7626.
Fall is Yard-Sale Season. The Haiti Committee is eager to acquire a few specific kinds of toys to outfit the preschool classrooms at St. Matthieu, which have almost no toys. We are attempting to collect Duplos (the large Legos), MagnaTiles, and Brio trains/cars, tracks and other accessories. We’d also like a few dolls with Black or brown complexions. If you have any of these, please consider donating them to us rather than putting them in your yard sale. And if you are scouting yard sales and come upon any of these, please consider buying them for our Haiti school. The children of St. Matthieu will be most grateful. Please spread the word to friends with kids. Thank you!