Interim Grace Notes for August 6, 2021

Funeral for Pastor Jody's mother

The funeral for Pastor Jody's mother, Lorraine Crawford, was held on Tuesday morning at St. John's with Pastor Matt officiating. Tom was the organist, and Heather handled the streaming from the balcony, both working with unfamiliar equipment, but performing admirably. Pastor Matt provided an inspiring message, and it was good to see Jody again. I met Jeff for the first time. There were many Grace members present to show their support for Jody, and Grace staff attending were Linda, Tricia, Maureen and I.

Worship Committee Meeting

Worship Committee adjusted their meeting to 2:00 pm Tuesday because of the funeral for Jody's mom. Commmittee members are: Cindy and Judy (Council reps), Becky (Altar Guild rep), Tom, Maureen and I.

This was the first meeting of Worship Committee in a while, so there was a lot to discuss. We will change liturgy setting from ELW 10 to ELW 4, which is the same as LBW (green book) Setting 2. We will still omit Kyrie and use Glory to God instead of This is the Feast. There was some discussion on the size of the bulletin - you may be aware that recently we started printing 8.5x11" booklet with 2 staples on the side. This provides a much larger and easier to read text and music to sing the hymns from. On the other hand, some have complained that the large format is too clumsy. Folded 8.5x14" format was also discussed, but this paper is more expensive. If you have strong feelings one way or the other, let the committee know.

Other discussion items included Reformation and All Saints. Since Reformation falls on October 31 this year, there was a suggestion to hold both Reformation and All Saints celebrations on the same Sunday. We'll continue this discussion next month. We have attempted to restart the home communion visitors, and sent out a letter several weeks ago. Some indicated they were willing to resume home visits, but with Covid Delta variant on the increase, we are going to hold off on that for now.

Lift Leaders Meeting

Lift Leaders met Wednesday for their 1st and 3rd Wednesday meeting. Mary Carmen joined us via Zoom from Mexico, and informed us thatshe and her husband are working to renew their visas for return to the United States to resume their ministry. We discussed the possibility of doing a "Blessing of the Animals," generally done by some congregations around October 4, which is the commemoration of St. Francis of Assissi. This could be done in the courtyard at Grace, or make it more of a community outreach by holding it at the Fremon Dog Park. Sundays and Seasons, our online Lutheran worship resource provides three options for a Blessing of the Animals service. You can view one of them HERE.

Transition Team Meeting

The Transition Team met for our second meeting on Thursday at 4:30 pm. The main agenda for this meeting was to learn more about the Interim Developmental Task of "Coming to Terms with History," also referred to as "Heritage," which means reviewing how the congregation has been shaped and formed. To address this task or focus point, we began plans for "A Time for Historical Reflection." This will be congregation event designed for remembering and recording important events in the history of Grace. We will then ask the question “What does this mean?” and develop meaning statements that will help us plan for the future. Schedule wise we are looking at early October, following 10:00 worship. October 10 seems to be the best choice, as the Browns game does not begin until 4:00 pm. The team will continue their planning for this event at their next meeting on August 19 at 4:30 pm

Death of David Preus and Walter Wangerin

Our ELCA lost two legendary leaders this past week; David Preus was Presiding Bishop of The American Lutheran Church, of which Grace was a part prior to the formation of the ELCA in 1988. Preus served as Presiding Bishop from 1973 to 1987. You can read the obituary for Bp. Preus HERE.

Also, we just learned that Rev. Walter Wangerin died follwoing a long battle with cancer. Wangerin was a noted writer, theologian, teacher and speaker. He was also a professor at Valparaiso University for a number of years. You can read morea bout Wangerin HERE.

Confirmation Leaders Meeting

Confirmation Leaders from the Lift Congregations met at Grace on Thursday to plan for the coming season of Confirmatin Ministry. We will be returning to Sunday sessions following worship twice a month. The program has a two year rotation - year 1 covers the Biblical message, and year 2 covers the Small Catechism, which is what we will be doing this school year. Heather does a super job of working up the schedule, and we as other leaders fill in the various slots for teaching, leading activities, providing lunch, and a lunch time story teller. I'm looking forward to working with this group as we carry out this very imporant ministry with our youth. We will be scheduling an organizational meeting with youth and parents in early September.

Covid-19 Spread

Last week I linked to the CDC web page that has been monitoring the spread of the SARS-Co-V2 delta variant, and included the current ratings of Sandusky and surrounding counties. You may rememember that the four classifications are Low, Moderate, Significant, and High. I've included the chart below to indicate that since last week, two counties have changed: Wood has moved from Moderate to Substantial, and Erie has moved from Substantial to High.

	Jul 23 - July 29	Jul 29 - Aug 4
Sandusky	Substantial	Substantial
Wood	Moderate	Substantial
Ottawa	Substantial	Substantial
Erie	Substantial	High
Huron	Substantial	Substantial
Seneca	Moderate	Moderate