Announcements
Easter Flowers
Easter flower orders are due in the office by the end of the day on Thursday, March 23. The cost is $10 per plant. If you are not picking your plant up after the second service on Easter Sunday please call the church office to make other arrangements.
Easter Fountain Flowers
If you are interested in decorating the fountain during Eastertide please contact Angie. Opportunities to share plants and flowers for the fountain will be available beginning Sunday, April 23 and continuing through May 28.
Families may buy plants and flowers to decorate the Fountain on the Sunday they choose, delivering them to church on Saturday and following Sunday services, take their plants home.
Please contact Angie with questions or to sign up.
Offering Envelopes
By now you should have received your March envelopes. A number of you have asked to be removed from the envelope list…if you would like to be removed please email Angie at gracechurch517@gmail.com. If you asked to be removed you will likely still receive envelopes through May because we had to submit the May list to the company at the beginning of March. You can also give online https://gracelutheranchurch.com/give/
If you have offering envelopes please keep using them!
April Schedule
Birthdays, anniversaries, and worship participant schedule including Holy Week!
Save the Date
Please join us for a potluck breakfast on Easter Sunday between the 8 a.m. service and the 10:30 service in the Nolt Auditorium! More information in next week’s Grace News.
Grace Book Group
The Grace Book Group met last Tuesday to discuss our March books. The theme for March was—Ireland. We read books set in Ireland, written by Irish authors, and/or written by Irish American authors. Our next meeting is April 11th. For the April meeting we are reading books recommended by friends. If you need a book recommendation you can find many books listed here (you can
The local library will also be able to recommend a book for you. In May we are reading books by our favorite authors. We know it’s hard to pick a favorite author so we are picking from our top five favorite authors. If you have any questions or would like to join our group please contact Brenda Hayasaka at bkhayasaka@gmail.com.
Christian Formation
Tapestry of Pages Update
We met yesterday for our discussion of The Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley. Our next book is The Library of Legends by Janie Chang. This book is set during the Japanese invasion of China in 1937. The book follows a group of college students as they flee for safety. Copies of the book are available at the Lancaster Public Library and The Free Library of Philadelphia.
On their journey both the students and the reader learn about “The Library of Legends”. We will meet on Monday May 1 at 3 p.m. on Zoom to discuss this book. If you have any questions or would like to join our group please email Angie at gracechurch517@gmail.com or call the church office.
We are taking a brake for the summer and will meet up again sometime in September to being our discussion of See No Stranger by Valarie Kaur.
Reflections for the Church Year
Have you been reading the weekly reflection in the Grace News? Would you like to write a reflection? We are looking for folks who are interested in writing reflections throughout the church year with the exception of July because there is no Grace News in July.
If you are submitting something written by someone else please include the citation information (page number, publisher, author etc). If you would like to participate in this project please contact Angie at graceelcaapd@gmail.com or call the church office. If you would like a liturgical calendar please let Angie know and she will get one to you.
Weekly Reflection
Are you familiar with the movie Groundhog Day? The main character, Phil, is an arrogant weatherman who must cover a small town’s annual tradition of a
prognosticating rodent for six weeks of weather. To him it is a menial task. Phil gets hilariously trapped into reliving February 2nd over and over each day. Eventually he realizes he must change in order to break the repetitive cycle, and his story of redemption unfolds. Phil learns the value of making intentional choices, noticing and caring for others, and appreciating each moment as they come. Perhaps without noticing, we too have settled into a rut. Lent invites a reset opportunity. The alleluias go silent; the music is somber; we eat less; and we feel the weight of our sins more acutely as we gaze upon a rude and rugged cross. And we are called to journey with Jesus toward the beginning of God’s most loving redemption story for us all. Prompt us to pray with contrite hearts, listening ears, and yearning souls. Thank You for the Redeemer, and the gift embedded in the walk.
Lisa bisignani
gracelutheranchurch.com 