Christmas Services
Christmas Eve
4:00pm Holy Eucharist with Christmas Pageant
8:00pm Holy Eucharist with choral prelude at 7:30
11:00pm Holy Eucharist with choral prelude at 10:30
Christmas Day
10:00am Holy Eucharist
Sunday, December 29th
9:30am Holy Eucharist with Christmas Lessons and Carols
Christmas Offerings As is the tradition at Grace Church, offerings from all the Christmas services will go outside our walls to provide for our neighbors in need. The offerings will be divided between two recipients, one local and the other working throughout the world.The recipients of the Christmas Offering will be Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres and Craig’s Doors – A Home Association. Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) – A medical humanitarian organization. Currently MSF works in more than 60 countries around the world providing medical aid where it is most needed; in armed conflicts, epidemics, natural disasters and other crisis situations. Many situations call for a rapid response employing specialized medical and logistical help, but MSF also runs longer-term projects designed to tackle health crises and support people who cannot otherwise access health care. Among the many locations where MSF is now working are important projects in Bangladesh, Yemen, Central African Republic, South Sudan and Syria. Craig’s Doors – A Home Association is the organization which runs the emergency homeless shelter, Craig’s Place, located at the First Baptist Church in Amherst. Our offering will go to help support the shelter which operates from November 1st through April 30th of each year. In addition to overnight shelter, Craig’s Place provides access to showers, serves dinner and breakfast, provides case management for social service and housing referrals, and a medical clinic. Please consider a generous gift for those in need of housing and medical care at home and around the world.
The Church Office will be closed on Wednesday, December 25th through Friday, December 27th.
Important Year-End Note: If you would like your end-of-year donations to count as a 2019 tax deduction, checks must be dated 2019 and received no later than Thursday, January 2, 2020. Anything received after that date will count towards your 2020 deductions. However, pledges for 2019 may still be paid after this date; they will just be recorded as being received in 2020. Jaana Cutson, Bookkeeper
The Grace Church Stewardship campaign for 2020 To date 137 pledges have come in totaling $403,000 – most encouraging, we have 6 new pledges. We still have a ways to go but are off to a good start. To those who have pledged God Bless, to those who have yet to pledge please pray and pledge so our Vestry can budget for 2020. If you need a pledge card, they are available as you enter the church or you can contact the office (413) 256-6754 or Tom Dougherty at (413) 563-7321.
2020 Pledge Envelopes: If you requested envelopes, you may pick them up from the box on the table in the back of the church beginning this Sunday. They will (hopefully) be in alphabetical order. Note: if this is the first year that you have requested pledge envelopes, your pledge number may have changed.
Calendar Donations Please bring extra 2020 calendars to the food basket for the Survival Center.
Seeking volunteers: Please consider joining us on the Altar Guild. These women and men help to make our worship service beautiful and run smoothly. Some set up the altar before the service and clean up after; some arrange flowers for the altar; some launder small linens and other items that we use at the altar. All these activities contribute to the beauty and splendor of the altar as we worship together. At this time, we desperately need volunteers to assist with altar cleanup, especially after the 10:30am Sunday service. We try to schedule altar cleanup in pairs, therefore, you will not be doing this by yourself. All are welcome. You may volunteer yourself or include your spouse or partner. If you are interested or would like more information, please contact Sheila Mammen at (413) 665-8579 or smammen@resecon.umass.edu. Thank you so much for considering this ministry.
Remember the Children in Haiti—As you make your year-end charitable contributions, please remember St. Matthew’s, the school that Grace supports in Bayonnais, Haiti. Checks should be made payable to Grace Church, with “Haiti School” on the memo line. Our school is open and in full swing despite the disruptions in the country, but because of the unrest our kids are needier than ever. Please give as generously as you can. Contributions are tax-deductible, and 100% of the money goes to Haiti. Thank you!
SAVE THE DATE
Iconography Workshop, January 20 – 25, 8:30 am to 5 pm, Parish Hall. Participants will create icons using ancient techniques and natural materials rich with symbolic meaning: carved wood boards prepared with gesso made from chalk and glue, finely ground clay, pure gold leaf, and ground mineral pigments in an emulsion made from egg yolk. The underlying theology of the icon will be equally emphasized, as each technical step has a corresponding symbolic meaning. No previous experience is needed and beginners are welcome. For more details, contact Sandy Lillydahl 413-549-2740, slillydahl@library.umass.edu.