Easter and Holy Week Offerings As is the custom at Grace Church, the offerings gathered on Palm Sunday, at the services during Holy Week and on Easter Sunday will be distributed outside our church. This year the Outreach Commission has selected three organizations, two international and one local, to share the Outreach Offerings equally.
American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem (AFEDJ). AFEDJ is devoted to building hope and peace by financially supporting education and healthcare available to all in the Holy Land and raising awareness in the US. Fourteen Diocesan schools in Israel, Palestine and Jordan educate more than 6,400 students each year. The Diocese operates two major hospitals, four outpatient clinics, and a number of mobile clinics. Four institutions support children and adults with disabilities. These institutions help all who enter regardless of religious, ethnic, or economic status and serve the needs of all people in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Israel.
Since the Russian attack on Ukraine, the Tabletochki Foundation in Kyiv, a partner of St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, has been concentrating on evacuating pediatric cancer patients and their family members to neighboring countries, across Europe, and even North America. Tabletochki’s staff arranges safe transportation to the western city of Lviv, and from there to a medical triage center St. Jude has set up with partners in Poland, where clinical partners evaluate the patients for future treatment. Natalia Wobst, daughter of parishioners Jude and Martin Wobst, as the lead representative for Eurasia at St. Jude’s Foundation, has spoken movingly of her work with local partners such as Tabletochki (Kyiv) and Fundacja Herosi (Poland).
As a hunger-relief nonprofit serving individuals and families at risk of hunger in all four Western Mass. counties, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts distributes food to member agencies; food pantries, meal sites, shelters and elder care facilities. This is a critical mission in these difficult times as many residents of our communities face food insecurity.
Please consider a generous gift to support these important programs. If you write a check, please make it payable to Grace Church and add “outreach” on the memo line. Thank you for any gift you are able to give.
If you are interested in being baptized this Easter season, or know someone who is, please contact the church office or the Rector. We would be happy to speak with you about this holy sacrament.
April Community Conversation Board – Holding Together Sorrow and Joy Throughout the month of April, our community conversation bulletin board, found in the Connector, is focused on the theme “Holding Together Sorrow and Joy.” Our liturgical celebrations in April take us through both some of the most sorrowful and most joyful moments in Scripture. What does it look like to try to hold together life’s sorrows and joys and the sorrows and joys at the heart of faith? We hope you will contribute your thoughts on the relationship of your spirituality to sorrow, joy, and all the experiences that fall in-between; you are also encouraged to view the contributions of others!
Is this your ministry? The Haiti Ministry welcomes new participants any time. If you’d like to visit and observe first, that’s fine, too. Our next meeting is Tuesday, April 19, at 5:00 in the Connector, in person and on Zoom. For the link, contact co-chairs Sandy Muspratt or Bonnie Vigeland, or any member of the ministry.
An Invitation from the Jewish Community of Amherst (JCA): Dayenu National action: The schmutzy seven campaign to “Get the dough out of fossil fuels” Thursday, April 21st at noon, Bank of America branch in the center of Amherst
The Jewish Community of Amherst (JCA) has invited Grace Church and other houses of worship to join them in advocating for divestment from fossil fuels, particularly on the part of large banks. During the weeks around Passover, Jews and allies will gather outside the branches and offices of the banks and asset managers that exacerbate the climate crisis by investing their money in Fossil Fuel Pharaohs: oil, gas, and coal companies. We will publicly proclaim today’s fossil-fueled plagues, and lift up matzah as a symbol of urgency, calling on these financial institutions to move their dough. It is long past time for them to honor their commitments and stop funding fossil fuels. Only then can we leave the polluting past behind and move towards a just and livable future.
SAVE THE DATE
Our parish will mark Earth Day (April 22) on Sunday, April 24. After each service there will be 2 actions you can learn about and choose to do. Your Climate Action@Grace group (CAAG), rebranded after many loyal years, is spearheading these efforts. Please consider joining in as you can—something quite easy, and/or something more involved and long-term. We are especially hoping that as a community of faith, we see and understand our options in response to Bishop Fisher and Bishop Gates’ declaration of climate emergency last year. Any participation will matter, including something as private as prayer. Look for us in the Connector.
The Postures of Prayer: Poems of George Herbert, Wednesday, April 27, at 6 p.m. in the Connector George Herbert, poet and priest of the Church of England, spent a good deal of time considering the most appropriate attitudes, both physical and spiritual, in which to approach or listen to God. Join us in reading some of the poems in which he represents this life-long struggle. Sharon Seelig, Roe/Straut Professor Emerita in the Humanities (English Language & Literature) at Smith College will lead this presentation.
Visit from St. Matthieu: The Haiti Ministry is delighted to announce that Père Wallin Decamps will be visiting Grace from Saturday, May 7 through Tuesday morning, May 10. He will be at the altar for the Sunday Eucharist at both services, and we’ll have a brief presentation after the 10:30 service. Père Decamps is the priest at St. Matthieu in Bayonnais and supervises the school. Please join us in giving him a warm welcome.