GCPC Weekly News | October 7, 2021
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Click "View entire message"
at bottom of email to see the FULL newsletter
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Melissa Shook & Bob Schaefer | |
Marta Alcala-Williams, John Mount Shoop & Kaola Smallwood | |
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Dear Grace Covenant Community,
Generosity has been a GCPC trademark for a long, long time. And GCPC generosity has been one big way this beloved community has embraced God's invitations in all the Holy Shifts of these last eighteen months. On Sunday we kicked off our "Stewardshift" campaign, so it's time for us to come together again in trust and with generosity to fund another year of ministry at Grace Covenant. The Rada Family had a conversation at their dinner table about what Stewardshift means to them. What a gift that we're invited to sit down and listen. Thank you, Heath, Peggy, Margaret, and Blake!
Peace,
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This year, pledging through Realm is even easier! (Watch a tutorial video here.) Simply CLICK HERE to submit your pledge online, all in one form.
If you would also like to set up automatic eGiving from your bank account or credit card, be sure to checkmark Add a scheduled gift for this pledge after the pledge confirmation and follow the prompts.
You will receive an email confirmation of your pledge and a separate confirmation for eGiving, if applicable. Questions or concerns? Please contact Natalie Weaver, Stewardship & Financial Administrator, at nweaver@gcpcusa.org or leave a message at 828.254.3274.
WAYS TO PLEDGE:
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Online pledge card HERE
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Email Nweaver@gcpcusa.org
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Call 828.254.3274 and leave a message for Natalie Weaver
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Request a mailed pledge card from the office
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This week's Stewardshift video! | |
How to Check-In for worship on the Realm app | |
Worship Preview | Sunday, October 10, 2021 | | |
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Sermon:
“Shifting Gears:
Help in Time of Need”
by Richard Coble
Scripture:
Hebrews 4:12-16
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*For the full revised common lectionary, please click here. | |
| Saturday, October 9 | Compassion Camp & Playground Time | 9:30 -11 am @ GCPC
(11-12, playground) | | Saturday, October 9 | Garden Celebration | 3:00 pm @ the GCPC Garden | | Sunday, October 10 | Adult Education Class - Caste | 9:00 am on Zoom | | Sunday, October 10 | Kids Zoom Adventure | 10:15 am on Zoom | | Sunday, October 10 | Livestream Worship | 10:45 am on Youtube | | Sunday, October 10 | Confirmation Class | 3:00 pm @ GCPC | | Sunday, October 10 | Youth Group (MS & HS) | 5:30 pm on Zoom | | Tuesday, October 12 | Property Council Mtg. | 6:00 pm on Zoom | | Wednesday, Oct. 13 | Bible Study | 10:00 am on Zoom | | Thursday, October 14 | PART Mtg. | 6:00 pm on Zoom | | |
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GCPC Compassion Camp | Saturday, October 9 | 9:30 - 11:00 AM
On the Second Saturday of each month we will meet on the church lawn for a Bible story, community building, music, movement, creating, playing and a sending. The theme for these times is Lovingkindness.
Lovingkindness is the utmost form of selfless love toward ourselves and others. The practice begins with focusing on self-compassion because once we have compassion for ourselves, we can have compassion for others.
These sessions are designed for families to participate together (no drop-off).
Families with Children 0-5th grade will meet from 9:30-11:00 am.
Please wear comfortable clothes, a water bottle and a blanket to sit on.
Masks will be worn by staff and volunteers.
As always, this is open to the community, please invite friends to join us!
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Fall Adult Education - Caste | Sundays | October 10 - November 21 | 9:00 AM | via Zoom
A Close and Spiritual Reading of Isabel Wilkerson's Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. We will go through Caste chapter by chapter on Sunday mornings. Leaders from the Racial Justice Book Series will take turns leading the discussion. Whether you were a part of the summer gatherings or not, whether you read the book years ago, or are coming to it for the first time, please join us! Questions? Email Richard Coble.
Reading Schedule
- 10/10: Part 1, p. 1-35
- 10/17: Part 2, p. 39-96
- 10/24: Part 3, p. 99-164
- 10/31: Part 4, p. 167-260
- 11/7: Part 5, p. 263-308
- 11/14: Part 6, p. 311-357
- 11/21: Part 7, p. 361-388
| GCPC Kids Zoom Adventure | Sundays | 10:15 AM | via Zoom | You will receive an email on Friday with the zoom information. Email Anna Louise (annalouise@gcpcsua.org) if you would like to be added to the list. | |
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Lectionary Bible Study | Wednesday, October 13 | 10:00 AM | via Zoom
Join the pastoral staff to read and study our sermon texts for Sunday. No preparation needed; just come ready to open scripture and discuss!
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Deacon of the Week:
In this time of physical distancing, the deacons of Grace Covenant continue to be available to talk and pray with you by phone or online and to coordinate care.
If you have difficulty reaching your assigned deacon or if you do not know who your assigned deacon is, please feel free to reach out to our deacon of the week.
This week (10/3-10/9): Earl Fowler | email: earljfowler@aol.com
Next week (10/10-10/16): Cathy Byers | email: byersabc@gmail.com
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Prayer requests will stay on the GCPC Prayer List for one month. Please let any staff know if you (or your loved one) would like to remain on the list for longer.
Iglesia Jerusalem congregation
Marge and Warren Weidner (Jane Stoffer’s sister and brother in law)
Jami Schaefer (friend of Sarah Van Gunten’s life long friend, Sherry)
Debi Miller (friend of Marcia Mount Shoop)
Joan Haag (Carolyn Haag’s mother)
Jeff (Tricia Hynes’ son)
Dick Gibson (Jeff Gibson’s dad)
Davis (son of Linda Upchurch)
Bob Higgins
Florence and Steve Riedesel
Susan Smialowicz
Laura Ross
Bill Williamson
Queen Mother Maggie Belle Gladden
Elizabeth Fisher
Doris Prak
The Seddon Family
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20s/30s/Beyond: Cookout and Pumpkin Carving | Thursday, October 21 | 6:30 PM | Alex Hollifield and Ben Kees' House
If you are a young adult-ish, get ready for an evening of outdoor pumpkin carving! Before the weather gets too cold, we are excited to mask up for a spooky socially distanced event to remember! We will provide pumpkins, s'more stuff and some pumpkin carving supplies. Please bring extra supplies and blanket/towel/small table and/or chair for yourselves. Don't forget your mask and any special dinner snacks you might enjoy!
Let's enjoy the opportunity to catch up and carve together!
Questions? Contact Richard Coble: rcoble@gcpcusa.org
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Presbyterian Womenʼs Circles are Zoom meetings. Please join us.
Circle 1: Second Monday of each month, 10:00 a.m.
Circle 2: First Tuesday of each month, 7:30 p.m.
Circle 3: Varies (Click here to see schedule for 2021-2022), 7:00 p.m.
Circle 4: First Thursday of each month, 7:00 p.m.
Circle 5: First Monday of each month, 11:00 a.m.
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Need to set up a church zoom meeting?
Contact Anna Louise and she can get you all set up!
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On Saturday, Team 2 weeded Beds 3 and 10, planted lettuce and kale starts in the World Garden, harvested 78 pounds of summer squash, beans, okra, eggplant, tomatoes, bell peppers, snacking peppers and jalapenos. Jim applied fish fertilizer to new fall crops. The produce went to YTL.
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It's never too late to sign up to volunteer in the garden. Please contact Betsy Wilson at betsywilson1111@gmail.com if you are interested. | |
Community Working Together | |
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The Center for Participatory Change (CPC) is hiring a Co- Executive Director to be part of our community-based, movement building organization.
CPC is a 501c3 non-profit based in Asheville, NC. CPC ‘s vision is collective liberation, la liberación del pueblo. Our mission is to ignite collective power, transform systems of oppression and heal in community.
CPC’s work is rooted in racial equity, popular education, and language justice. Our work at the core combines these strategies:
- Create intersectional spaces for healing;
- Build skills and structural analysis to lead and sustain movements for collective liberation; and
- Support and lead collective action.
CPC is taking the time to shift and adapt from the unprecedented time we have and are still living in. We are looking for someone who thrives in innovation, creativity, who is adaptive and open to change. The Co-Executive Director will participate in the strategic direction of CPC and our vision of collective liberation.
Click here to see the full job description
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Earth Team News
COP26 will begin with the world leaders meeting once again to address Climate Change. Stay tuned for next week’s blurb to learn how we as people of faith can contact the United States negotiating team and President Biden to express our sense of urgency to care for God’s Creation. We, faith people, have a unique love and perspective about our Earth. Politics, justice, and economics are certainly important, but the future of our planet is at stake. We pray for the world’s leaders, and WE must also advocate for all living things. Please contact leaders once we get their information next Thursday.
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Calvary Presbyterian Church Celebrates 130 Years!
Calvary Presbyterian Church in Asheville celebrates its 130th anniversary the entire month of October, and they are inviting the community of Asheville to these events. They'll have a series of programs on Sundays. You can find the schedule of events here.
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Faith and the Death Penalty | Sunday, October 10 | 4:00 - 5:00 PM | Online
Join the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NCCADP) for an online conversation about faith with those most impacted by our capital punishment system. Panelists include George Wilkerson, who is living on North Carolina’s death row; Andre Smith, who teaches Buddhism to men in prison and lost his son to homicide; and Rev. Sharon Risher, who lost her mother and two cousins in the shooting at Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston. Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove, noted writer and leader in the Red Letter Christian movement and the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, will moderate the panel.
The North Carolina Council of Churches is a sponsor of this event.
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YWCA's Racial Justice Workshop | Thursdays | October 7, 14, 21 | 11:00 AM
Join the YWCA in a 3-Part Racial Justice Training that explores anti-Black racism, overlapping systems of oppression, and racial equity in Asheville and Buncombe County. The training will take place over three sessions, each lasting one hour and fifteen minutes.
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‘The intersection of faith and media’ -
Communicators Network launches discussion on using social media to amplify voices that aren’t heard from enough
~ by Mike Ferguson
"In the Communicators Network PC(USA)’s first-ever episode of Community Conversations broadcast via Facebook Live on Tuesday, the Rev. Lee Catoe and the Rev. DeEtte Decker didn’t hesitate to share their thoughts on how churches and the denomination can use social media more effectively to help amplify the voices of people who aren’t regularly heard from. Hear the conversation by joining Communicators Network by clicking here.
'The church will take media seriously,' Catoe responded. Increasingly he’s felt led to talk about 'the intersection of faith and media,' and he has a trove of radio and television memories from childhood on which to draw: the televangelists (and their wives, including Tammy Faye Bakker and Jan Crouch) and Christian musicians of his youth who put on a spectacle many Presbyterians find off-putting.
'This type of Christianity is not taken that seriously. We [in the Reformed tradition] have elevated academia even when it comes to social media, which is where the culture is at,' Catoe said. 'We haven’t used media in the right way — except Mister Rogers. We should have hopped on that train and figured out what it looks like.'”
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The Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity, founder and creative director of A Sanctified Art, was the guest Monday on Between Two Pulpits. (Photo courtesy of Lisle Gwynn Garrity) |
"A paintbrush in one hand, the Bible in the other" -
A Sanctified Art’s Lisle Gwynn Garrity can create evocative paintings during worship — and exegete the text for good measure
~ by Mike Ferguson
"Far from 'the peaceful easy feeling we experience when all is well and all is right,' God’s peace is 'something really robust and active,' a peace “that is the most present in the presence of pain, in the hardest moments of my life, in situations that feel impossible.”
Those were among the insights provided by the Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity, the founder and creative director of A Sanctified Art, who was the guest of Special Offerings’ Bryce Wiebe and Loren Rogers on Between Two Pulpits, which was recorded and later uploaded due to Monday’s Facebook outage. Watch their 36-minute discussion here.
Gwynn Garrity discussed peace, worship, the creative process and her thoughts on the gospel lesson in Sunday’s lectionary, the story of the rich man asking Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life as told in Mark 10:17-31."
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OLLI - Fab Friday: "Combating Homelessness in Asheville: How Did We Get Here and Where Are We Going?" | Friday, October 8 | 11:30 AM- 1:15 PM
Vann Vogel is the current Board Chair of Homeward Bound and a volunteer lawyer for Pisgah Legal Services. He will be sharing his unique perspective and not presenting on behalf of either organization. Vogel will examine the many causes of homelessness, current challenges in our city, and current programs including encampment policies, Homeward Bound's Days Inn motel conversation, the proposal for a low barrier shelter and other transitional and emergency shelter programs. A critical look at "Housing First," a strategy for ending homelessness that focuses on housing as the key consideration.
Use this link to join the October 8 Fab Friday.
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There's still room to join:
October-November 2021 Virtual Enneagram Series
Introduction to the Enneagram: All Nine Types
Facilitated by the Rev. Carol Hovis
Tuesdays, 4pm-6pm and Wednesdays, 7-9pm, for Six Weeks
Starting Tuesday, October 5th and Wednesday, October 6th
You can mix & match which days you participate.
Contact Carol for more information: cmhovis@gmail.com
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HOW TO CONTACT STAFF:
Our staff are all still working remotely as the office remains closed due to the pandemic. To leave a voicemail for a staff member to return your call, follow these steps:
- The Church Office is open on Tuesdays, 10am - 4pm.
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Call the office at 828-254-3274.
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Listen through the office closure notice, which will then take you to a staff directory.
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Enter the first 3 letters of either the staff member's first or last name on your phone keypad (i.e. to reach Natalie Weaver, you'd enter 628 for NAT or 932 for WEA).
- You'll be directed to the staff member's individual voicemail, where you can leave a message to be returned as soon as possible.
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If you just want to leave a message for the general voicemail box, press 0.
You can also reach our staff by email- please see our website for each staff member's individual email address.
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Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church
789 Merrimon Ave. Asheville, NC 28804
828.254.3274
www.gcpcusa.org
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