GRACE NOTES. Potluck Luncheon. A Chance to Win! Chat with Matt. Worship God Learn from Christ Love One Another

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1 GRACE NOTES Worship God Learn from Christ Love One Another A Chance to Win Grace Church is conducting our annual pledge drive. Whoever submits their pledge by Dec. 2 will have their name entered for a chance to win a holiday basket The holiday basket will be on display in the Parish Hall. The winner will be chosen by Dec. 9. Potluck Luncheon A potluck luncheon will follow the 10:30 service on Dec. 2, Consecration Sunday. This will be the only service on this day. To confirm attendance and/or provide a category of dish to bring (Main, Vegetable, Salad or Dessert), Lorie W. at: ortiepok@grace.com We look forward to a lovely fellowship and celebration of our continued efforts and dedication to Grace Church Chat with Matt Parish Retreat with Fellows Seven parishioners, including the Grace Year Fellows, spent the night at the second annual Parish Retreat at Holy Cross Monastery the weekend of Nov Ten more joined the Saturday morning Family Constellations workshop led by therapist Dan Gates. Together we explored the powerful role of forgiveness in healing family wounds. Grace Year Fellows concluded the spirituality portion of their curriculum by sharing their Rules of Life. The rhythm of monastic worship, healthy meals, quiet conversation and contemplation was refreshing. We are blessed to have Holy Cross in our mid- Hudson region. Join us at next year s retreat: Oct Drop-in hours to speak with Father Matt about anything in your mind or heart are Wed. 1-3pm & Thurs. 9am-12pm, or by appointment. 1

2 EPIC Holiday Party EPIC is celebrating the close of a wildly successful 2018 on Friday, Dec. 14 at 6pm in the Parish Hall. We invite you to join us and meet the fabulous EPIC members and their families. RSVP to Abby N. at: abby@epicjustice.org. Christmas Flowers If you wish to give Christmas flowers in memory of a loved one or as a thanksgiving, you may pick up a form in the back of the church. Please note that the Parish Office must have your request no later than Friday, Dec. 14 in order for it to be printed in the Christmas bulletins. For more information, speak with one of the Altar Guild members. Christmas Pageant Our Christmas Pageant will be on Sunday, Dec. 23 at the 10am service at Grace Church. Rehearsals begin Sunday, Dec. 2 on the second floor of the Parish Hall. They will be held during regularly Sunday School time. All children are welcome to join The more angels and animals the better Volunteers are also always welcome. After the pageant, there will be cookies and hot chocolate in the Parish Hall. Come one come all experience the real meaning of Christmas Annual Cookie Sale The annual Grace Church cookie sale will take place Saturday, Dec. 8 from 10am-3pm. It will conclude with our St. Nicholas Bazaar featuring handmade crafts and edible treats from 24+ vendors. We expect it to be a wonderful kick-off to the holiday season. But for our cookie sale s continued success, we need your help If you would like to contribute your baking skills, please speak with one of our Cookie Ladies, (Lynda Boissey, Jean Hayes, Barbara Rudy, or Pam Freeman) after church, or sign up on the poster in the Parish Hall. We ask that each baker bake six dozen of their favorite cookies and bring them to the sale either Friday, Dec. 7 between 2 & 4pm or Saturday, Dec. 8 between 8 & 10am. If you need someone to pick up your donation, call Lynda at: Please include a card with the name and ingredients of your contribution. Customers will be free to put together their own assortment of delicious treats. Thanks Happy baking We look forward to receiving your cookies Sunday School News Children are not the church s future, they are its present. Father Matt Lunch Box continues. Volunteers always accepted The last Sunday of every month Grace youth serve lunch to over 100 at the Lunchbox in Poughkeepsie. Middle school & high school youth are welcome to join. We leave the church at 11am and return by 1:30pm. See John Lacey if you would like to help in this ministry. We decorated Mason Jars with Halloween and Fall inspired themes, then filled them with candy to raise money for our Sunday School & Youth Group The money will be used for the Mission Trip. In November, we explored icons & Saints. The children enjoyed identifying the different figures in the windows during their parish scavenger hunt. 2

3 Sunday School Continued: God is Our inspired and inspiring teachers posed this question in Sunday School: Who is God? Here s what the children came up with. For Tommy: God is Godzilla, a huge mythical beast whose mouth emits powerful rays capable of destroying tall buildings. Spread the Word Help spread the word about our great church. If you have any pictures of the parish, please send them to Diana Bellissimo at: lillymoorefarm@gmail.com so she can post them on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Advent Study Journeying the Way of Love Wednesday mornings 11am 12pm in the choir room. For Advent we will pause our study of Paul, and look at the first two chapters of Luke. Luke s gospel provides a pattern for understanding how we can live the Way of Love as individuals, as families and friends, as a community, and out in the world. CONNECT Youth Fro Zumara, God is a large powerful animal: a rhinoceros. The CONNECT Youth group has been re-awakening this school year. Our third meeting took place on Nov. 11. We enjoyed an engaging evening of applepicking at a nearby farm, dinner together at the vicarage, baking & discussion about the topics of climate change & spirituality. Each month, one of our youth has the opportunity to prepare a mini sermon on a topic of their choice to invoke a meaningful conversation which hopefully inspires change in members individual lives. Our next meeting will be Dec. 9 at 3pm. For more information, contact Marcella G. at: marcella.gallo@gmail.com 3

4 For her older sister Amara, the image of God has become more complex. God used to be a sort of threatening figure towering over cities with something like lightning in its hand. But now she thinks God is a shining human figure in heaven, like Jesus. Who is God? What is Your Answer? What is your answer to the question: Who is God? St. John the Evangelist answered simply, God is love. 1 John 4:8 For Cooper, God is busy a lot of things to juggle, a lot of prayers to answer. Love is the eternal uncreated energy of God that created, sustains and is bringing about new creation. How can we picture this? It is of course impossible yet the Italian epic poet Dante concluded his majestic three volume Divine Comedy, recording his journey through hell, purgatory and heaven, with a description of a beatific vision of God. Words fall far short, he admits, nor can he even hold in mind more than a semblance of what he saw and a bare remainder of the overwhelming feeling. One of his translators, Dorothy L. Sayers, describes his account of the vision of God: The final vision, the crown and climax of the whole work, consists in two revelations. First, Dante perceived in Divine Light the form, or exemplar, of all creation. All things that exist in themselves ( substance ), all aspects or properties of being ( accident ), all mutual relations ( mode ) are seen bound together in one single concept. The universe is in God. 4

5 In that abyss I saw how love held bound Into one volume all the leaves whose flight Is scattered the universe around How substance, accident, and mode unite Fused, so to speak, in such wise, That this I tell of is one simple light. Next, having glimpsed the whole of creation bound into one, Dante beholds the Creator, He sees three circles, of three colors, yet of one dimension. One seems to be reflected from the other, and the third, like flame, proceeds equally from both (the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost). Then, as he gazes, the reflected circle shows within itself the human form, colored with the circle s own hue. As Dante strives to comprehend how human nature is united with the Word, a ray of divine light so floods his mind that his desire is set at rest. At this point, the vision ceases, and the story ends with the poet s will and desire moving in perfect coordination with the love of God. The love that moves the sun and other stars (l'amor che move 'l sole e l'altre stelle). I believe this is a true vision, not a picture. But we can picture God Who is Love more simply, thanks to the Incarnation. Jesus Christ is the image (Greek: ikon) of the eternal God (2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15). Most poignantly, in this Advent and Christmas season, we see Jesus as human child, born of Mary, protected by Joseph, worshipped by angels, shepherds and magi. How amazing that God Who is Love may be seen in this way, as a human infant in the arms of his mother. A mother s love, expressing, holding, receiving the love that moves the sun and other stars. May God Who Is Love be with you always, in Christ. Matthew Hello from the Grace Fellows It s been a good three months in the Grace Year Fellowship. We have come to feel at home at Grace Church and within the larger Millbrook community. Our recent days have consisted of cooking individually & collectively in our kitchen, commuting to our various praxis positions at the Millbrook Community Preschool, St. Peter s in Lithgow, Cardinal Hayes Home, & the Parish Office and going on adventures to see movies in Millerton, exploring new classes at the local FORZA gym and sharing delicious holiday meals with our host families. It is rewarding to witness the growth we have already experienced during our short time together. We have moved into a harmonious rhythm at the house and are constantly learning more about letting go, taking initiative and practicing unconditional love. Next week we move into the Leadership Module of our curriculum and will begin studying and embodying different forms of leadership. The Grace Year Fellowship has proved to be a transformative program for us. We keep saying, Everyone should have a Year of Grace in life. 5

6 The Bishop s Address: On Becoming the Beloved Community The conclusion of Bishop Dietsche s Address at the Diocesan Convention, November 10, 2018 We have lived through, and continue to do so, an astonishing period of the violent rending of a broken covenant. Some thread which however tenuously bound us to one another, even across the painful history of our common life, seems now to have been cut. The foundations shaken. On every tongue is the lament, or for some the crowing, over the divide which now separates Americans from Americans, and the rage that simmers under everything. There seemed to be a feeling on all sides on this last. Martin Luther King was a clear-eyed realist, and he made his witness and came to his martyrdom in an era every bit as violent and confusing and as complicated as ours. Really much more so. Race riots and political riots. Assassinations and racial violence. Wars and rumors of wars. He might have been a dreamer, but he was certain that despite everything those dreams would be realized absolutely, in God s time, in the every day reality of the shared life of the American people. And for him what that required and demanded was the imperative for people of faith to choose with sober deliberation, and to build with character and judgment and sacrifice and Christly love what he called the Beloved Community. Which is the principle we are holding before ourselves at this convention. The same principle and the same imperative. You have heard me say that the world needs the church to be the church, and the church needs its priests to be priests, and the church needs its people to be Christians. It is a moment to guard our hearts. When the community of Christian people resembles or mimics or embraces the same tribalism that is infecting the larger culture around us, the possibility of our making a true Christian witness before the world becomes undone. We as people of faith may make no peace with evil. All of these injustices and prejudices and violence, and the degradation of people, require our fullest resistance, while at the same time the demands of nonviolence and the commandments of Jesus Christ compel us to reach across the divide in love to invite communion and transformation together with those we name adversary or enemy. You have heard it said that you should love your friend and hate your enemy, Jesus said. But I say love your enemy. Do good to those who hate you. Bess those who curse you. And Martin Luther King added, With every ounce of our energy we must continue to rid this nation of the incubus of segregation. But we shall not in the process relinquish our privilege and our obligation to love. While abhorring segregation, we shall love the segregationist. This is the only way to create the beloved community. Which means that the challenge for Christians today is to resist not only the evil that people do, but the seductive temptation to fall away from one another into camps. Recently I made my visit to a parish on Sunday morning, at which two quite young African American girls had written the prayers of the people, and then read them in church. And when their young voices said, We pray for Donald Trump our president, I thought Maranatha. Lord come quickly. So that if we really are in the last days, may these children even now teach us how to be Christians. Let us go back from this convention to the people we serve and the congregations where we make our lives and shape and nurture the people who share our lives. Let us reclaim our baptisms, and the renouncing of the evil that besets us from without and the evil which wells up from within us - because the world needs us to, is counting on us to - and affirm and embrace and follow and be lifted up by Our Lord Jesus Christ. Let 6

7 these our churches be laboratories where we may practice being the Kingdom of Heaven. Let us practice being Christians like the men and women at Emmanuel Church with forgiveness in their hearts even in their final hour. Practice being people of God like the Jewish doctors and nurses in Pittsburgh who treated the shooter who even as they cared for him screamed his desire to kill them all. Practice, Like Martin Luther King who on the night before he was taken from us said of the constant threats against his life, I don t care about that now. I just want to do God s will. Let us practice being Christian so that in the hour when it matters, when everything everywhere is on the line, we will be good at it. And if they drive nails in us like they did to Jesus, it will be okay. For we will reveal the miracle and wonder that is the Beloved Community. And live and die in charity with all the world. Amen. For the whole Address, and those of the other bishops, as well as other presentations at the Diocesan Convention go to A Note from Millbrook Community Preschool: Dear Families, As our way of giving to other families and children in need, we are collecting donations of the following items for Grace Smith House in Poughkeepsie: Please note, the following must be NEW clothing items. Please deliver items to the Parish Office or Preschool no later than Friday, December 14. Thank you Infant blankets, onesies, socks, etc. Children socks, underwear, t-shirts Adult pajamas, slippers & flip-flops, bathrobes, sweatpants & sweatshirts, socks and underwear Alternatively, gift cards to dollar stores, superstores, gas stations, local grocery stores, etc. are welcome About Grace Smith House: Established in 1981, Grace Smith House is a private not-for-profit domestic violence agency, which provides both residential and non-residential services to victims of domestic violence and their children. Thank you for your generosity Sincerely, The Staff at Millbrook Community Preschool at Grace Church Miss Deborah, Miss Kay, Miss Carolyn, Miss Maureen, Miss Ruth, Miss Barbara & Miss Marcella :) 7

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9 COME ONE and ALL The 13 th Annual Millbrook Library Holiday Silent Auction will take place from November 30 th to December 15 th. Stop by to view the gorgeous items and holiday gifts on display in the gallery of the Millbrook Library. On November 30 th the auction will kick off with a wine, cider and cheese preview party from 6-7:30. So while you are out enjoying the Millbrook s Parade of Lights stop by for some holiday shopping and festivities. You can continue to visit the library to view and bid on your favorite items, until the closing evening of December 15 th. That night the bids will be closed, winners announced, and refreshments served. It will be another time to mingle with friends and family and share in the holiday excitement {This event is organized by the Friends of the Millbrook Library. All proceeds go to support the many programs of the Millbrook Library that are not funded by its operating budget.} 9

10 CHRISTMAS FLOWERS A NOTE FROM THE ALTAR GUILD: ALTHOUGH OUR WISH IS TO ACCOMMODATE EVERYONE S MEMORIAL, CHRISTMAS BULLETINS ARE FINALIZED AND PRINTED WELL IN ADVANCE OF THE HOLIDAY. TO MAKE SURE YOUR MEMORIAL IS PRINTED IN THE CHRISTMAS BULLETINS, IT NEEDS TO BE IN THE HANDS OF THE PARISH OFFICE NO LATER THAN DECEMBER 14TH. We welcome donations in any amount for the many colorful poinsettias and wreaths in memory of your loved one or as a thanksgiving. Please include payment with this form & make your check payable to: Grace Church - Christmas Flowers Please print clearly Given by: In loving memory of: and/or In thanksgiving for: Check/cash enclosed for: Name Phone 10

11 DIRECTORY GRACE CHURCH Franklin Ave, PO Box 366 Millbrook, NY Phone Fax Office Hours: Mon.- Fri Grace Notes Articles Wardens: Kathryn Calame Barbara Rudy VESTRY Treasurer: Cathy Shanks, Class of 2018 Members: Lynda Boissey, Class of 2018 Pamela Freeman, Class of 2016 Evelyn Garzetta, Class of 2016 Nanci Kryzak, Class of 2017 John Lacey, Class of 2017 Ron Mustello, Class of 2018 Kyle Van De Water, Class of 2017 Beth Willis, Class of 2016 CLERGY & STAFF The Rev. Dr. Matthew Calkins, Rector Cindy Schmoke, Secretary Denise Bassen, Organist and Director of Music John Lacey, Lisa Lacey, and Betty Rae Nittiskie, Sunday School Coordinators David Swift, Facilities Manager Deborah Coconis, Preschool Director Evelyn Garzetta, Director, Grace Latino Outreach (GLO) Abby Nathanson, Director Engaging People in Change (EPIC) ALTAR GUILD Jean Hayes, Director Susan Quigley, Flower Chairperson Betty Rae Nittiskie, Secretary TASK FORCES & PROGRAMS Outreach Chair: Robin Capers Latino Outreach: Evelyn Garzetta (Chair), Kathryn Calame, Walter Cadette Fundraising: Pamela Freeman, Evelyn Garzetta, Betty Rae Nittiskie, Janelle Styles Lay Server Schedulers: Joan McGilvray, Evelyn Garzetta Hospitality Committee: Jean Hayes, Katherine Mustello, Betty Rae Nittiskie Finance Committee: Barney Calame, Larry Graham, Cathy Shanks Stewardship Committee: Kathryn Calame, Barbara Rudy Buildings & Grounds: Bill Hogan (Chair), Joe Garzetta, Richard Lucal, Ron Mustello, John Rudy, David Swift 11