Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church

Grace Notes
Volume 41, Issue 12

December 2011

Candlelight Carol Service

Sunday, December 18, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church 1627 Monument Avenue

Chancel Choir Junior Choir Carol Choir Handbell Choir

Reception is hosted by the Presbyterian Women. Childcare provided.
Candlelight Yard Signs are ready for display again this year. The annual Candlelight Carol Service at Grace Covenant is one of our most meaningful services of the Christmas season. Let's share this beautiful time of music and scripture and candlelight with all our neighbors. Please pick up a yard sign and place in your yard the week before, the service. The signs will be ready on Wed., Dec 7 at WNL or the following Sunday, Dec. 11. Please display the signs in your yard for one week. Please remember to return your signs to the church to be used again next year. Candlelight is Dec. 18th at 5:00 p.m.!

Volume 41, Issue 12

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News from the Presbytery

Dear Members and Friends of the Presbytery of the James: The Communication and Coordination Team (C&C) of our presbytery met via conference call Thursday, November 10, 2011. During that meeting the Team was advised that some congregations in the presbytery had requested to begin the process under our policy of "Guidelines for the Presbytery of the James to Consider a Request from a Congregation to be Dismissed to Another Denomination." The four Sessions making this request are Spotsylvania Church, St. Giles Church, Christ Church, and Richmond Third Church. Each situation is being handled individually as each congregation is unique. The process to handle such requests is being used. The C&C Team requests the prayers of the presbytery for the listening teams as well as the congregations involved. These are difficult times in the life of the church; yet, we have a Sovereign God who oversees all things including difficulties within the church. May God continue to bless the work of the presbytery and her congregations. H. Carson Rhyne, Jr. General Presbyter/Stated Clerk

Being Faithful Stewards Each month the church office prints, folds and mails over 250 copies
of Grace Notes to members and friends of the church. This incurs costs in postage, paper and toner, as well as requiring time to print, fold, label, and deliver the newsletter to the Post Office. In an effort to minimize these costs, we are considering distributing Grace Notes electronically, rather than by paper. Besides the savings in the areas just mentioned, electronic distribution has several other advantages: 1) you will receive the newsletter the day it is published*, rather than having to wait on the bulk mail delivery schedule; 2) you can read the newsletter in color, rather than in black-and-white; 3) you can print out those pages (e.g., directions to an off-campus church event) that you like; 4) you can forward the email on to friends of yours whenever theres an announcement or an article that youd like to share with them. Of course, there are drawbacks as well, the primary one being that not everyone who receives Grace Notes has a computer or an email account. People in that situation would be welcome to pick up a paper copy at the church building (if you picked it up the following Sunday, you would still probably receive it earlier than you would have through bulk mail), or you can ask that the church continue to mail you a paper copy. Were asking that, if you do not want to (or cannot) receive the newsletter electronically, and do not wish to pick it up at the church, but prefer to have it mailed to you, please contact the church at 804/359-2463 or info@grace-covenant.org and let us know. Your responses will be very helpful as we determine how best to minimize our costs and faithfully steward the monies entrusted to us. Thank you for your cooperation and assistance.
*You will receive an email containing a link to the newsletter, which is published on the churchs website. This way we will not fill up your inbox with a large attachment.

Volume 41, Issue 12

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Tuesday, December 6 at 12:00 noon

All are welcome and invited! Before lunch, the J.R. Tucker High School Choir, Sounds Unlimited will present a concert in the Sanctuary. All are invited to come and enjoy the sounds of the season! Following the concert will be a luncheon in the Fellowship Hall. Cost is $4.00

*HostessCircle #2 Coordinating Team meets at 10:30 a.m. Any questions please contact Suzanne Sizemore at 288-7757

All Circles Meet on Tuesday, December 13

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Stewardship Corner and Financial Update Remember the Hungry

5 CENTS A MEAL 15 CENTS A DAY $1.05 A WEEK

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$4.50 A MONTH

WOW! Where did the year go? Christmas decorations have been in the stores since before the Halloween candy was on the shelves. Four weeks remain in 2011. At the end of November, we have received 76% of the total 2011 pledges. A little over $80,000 in unpaid pledges remains. If you have any questions about your pledge and/or gifts to-date, call Martha at 359-2463, extension 205, or email, bookkeeper@grace-covenant.org. After last months article on the 5 a meal fund, we noticed a very nice increase in gifts to the fund. The monthly average of $179 increased $10 to $189, based on three weeks of collections in November. (Grace Notes prints before we get a final total for November). October saw a total of $233.03 to 5 a meal and Novembers total was $233.72 (three weeks). Please remember the hungry during this very special time of the year. Year End... too soonMake sure any gifts to be applied to 2011, are postmarked by December 31. December 25, Christmas, is the last Sunday of this year. Keep these things in mind when you make your final contributions for the year. We post contributions based on the postmark, not the date on the check. Therefore, if you come to church New Years Day, the first Sunday of 2012, your gift will apply to 2012, even if it is dated December 31, 2011. Your 2011 Charitable Contributions statements will be available in the Narthex mid-January. All statements not picked up will be mailed by the end of January 2012. Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

October's contributions of $40,000 were slightly over those of September, with both months considered relatively good. Two months rental income was recorded in October and total income exceeded $52,000. Expenses of $45,500 were somewhat higher than the prior month but included over $5,000 in annual elevator maintenance expense. General Fund income exceeded expense by $6,700, excluding about $1,000 in Radio Fund expenses. For the year-to-date General Fund expenses exceed income by $46,500, excluding bequests, repayments from the Child Development Center, and transfer from the Radio Fund.

October's Five Cents per Meal offering was $233, an improvement from a low of $136 in September.

Page 5

Grace Notes

Greetings, Grace and Peace to all of our new friends and church family at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church! By way of introduction Rev. Keyes asked that I write a short biography for Grace Notes. First let me say that my family and I are proud to be joining the crew at Grace Covenant, and are excited at the idea of making Grace Covenant our church home away from home. Currently, I am under care of Prospect Presbyterian Church, in Mooresville, NC. Before living there, my wife and I lived in Greensboro, NC while she attended UNCG achieving her masters degree in Library Sciences. Originally I am from West Virginia and did my undergraduate work at a Wesleyan College there in the state. Since college Ive been privileged to serve many years working in the Christian Education field of several churches. Right now I am in my first year of a three-year Master of Divinity degree at Union Presbyterian Seminary, and am an Inquirer in the ordination track of a Presbyterian pastor. In the short time my wife, Leah, and our 6-monthold daughter, Amara, and I have been at the church we have been blessed by the openness and friendship in Christ that you all have shown us. I think you have some great Christian Education leaders here and am excited to lend what aid I can assisting your Christian Education ministry. Though I will only be working 6-10 hours a week, I am encouraged that we can bring new cohesion and exhilaration to the CE programming at Grace Covenant. We look forward to getting to know our new church family! In Christ, Christopher, Leah and Amara

Starring.
Cameron Baird has won the lead role in Fox Elementary Schools play: Seussical the Musical, based on the books by Dr. Seuss. She will be playing the role of the Cat in the Hat. The performances will be at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, December 8, and at 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Friday, December 9. The performance will be at the school. If you would like to attend, please save the date and come to support Cameron Baird, daughter of Katherine and Brian Baird. Admission is free.

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Grace Notes

ANGEL TREE

Dont miss this event. Its the best Christmas gift youll purchase this year. Guaranteed!

Grace Covenant is participating in the Salvation Army Christmas Angel Tree program this year. Clear plastic bags are under the tree in the Narthex for your convenience. All the gifts need to be turned in no later than Monday, December 5, 2011. Please place your purchased gifts on the stage in the Fellowship Hall. Thank you.

Operation Christmas Child

Thanks to everyone who participated in OCC. Between Grace Covenant and the Mothers Together group we were able to donate and bless 35 children with shoeboxes! Awesome job!

Poinsettias

Its time to order Poinsettias and Christmas Greens! If you would like to purchase a Poinsettia or give toward Christmas Greens, in memory/honor of a loved one, please return the enclosed insert with your payment by Monday, December 5. These Poinsettias and Christmas Greens will decorate the Sanctuary for the Candlelight Service and the Christmas holiday season. The deadline is Monday, December 5, no late orders will be taken.

Decorating the Sanctuary

Join the fun on December 10 at 8:30 a.m. as we decorate the Sanctuary. You will leave with the Christmas spirit!

PEOPLE GROUP

The PEOPLE Group will gather at the beautiful home of Will Madden located at 3 Glebe Close at Westminster Canterbury, Saturday, December 10 at 6:00 p.m. Mark your calendars and plan to attend this wonderful evening of fellowship. Please bring an appetizer, main dish, salad, side vegetable or dessert to share. (Enough for 10 adults please)

Openers/Closers December 4 December 11 December 18 December 25 Hank Downing Jake Savage Pete Sizemore Lloyd Bostian

Elementary Sunday School continued December 25 Teacher still needed

Greeters December 4 Carol Wood Bob Copeland Elizabeth Russell Megan Meyer Marcia Manning Cherry Corley Leslie Hartman Carol Wood

Wednesday Night Supper/Glass Monitor December 7 December 14 Nursery Volunteers December 4 December 11 December 18 December 25 Childrens Worship Kits Kaete Unterzuber Lewis Rosebro Jo Garber Lisa Cardwell Lewis Rosebro Betty Appich Pat Aldridge

December 11

December 18 December 25

Host/Hostess for the Fellowship Time Volunteers host our Fellowship Time in the Social Room after Worship on Sundays. If you would like to volunteer to host the Fellowship Hour one Sunday, please sign up on the sign-up sheet in the Social Room or the Glass Office. Grace Notes Deadline: Friday, December 16 is the deadline for submissions for our January edition.

Volunteers for Grace Notes are needed to help prepare our monthly newsletter distribution and Elementary Sunday School a small mailing at 9:00 a.m. in the Library. Date to be determined. December 4 Janet Chenoweth If you would like to help for part, or all, of that Sudie Wood time frame, simply come to the church library December 11 Pageant-All Available and enjoy some fellowship with other members as you volunteer in this ministry. Staff needed December 18 Virginia Hudson

Grace Covenant Child Development Center

Barnes & Noble Book Fair and CDC
Once again, Barnes & Noble and the CDC are inviting you to participate in a book fair on December 1 from 5:00 8:00 p.m. at the Libbie Place store to benefit the CDC. A percentage of what is purchased in the name of Grace Covenant Child Development Center will be given to the CDC. This is a wonderful opportunity to start your Christmas shopping early and perhaps finish it. Stop by the Barnes and Noble store at Libbie Place and purchase books for everyone on your Christmas list. A great opportunity to purchase that book you have been wanting to read but just havent gotten around to. At the time of purchase, please let the person at the check-out counter know that your purchases are in the name of Grace Covenant Child Development Center.
%20 of all sales that accompany our daycare's promotional code will go towards a Barnes and Noble Gift Card for the education of our children. Save any B&N Christmas shopping you need to do for the Willow Lawns Barnes and Noble (Broad and Libby) on Thursday, December 1, 2011!!!

CDC Board Members are: Cal Gray, Jean Appich, Jordan Ball, Susan Boze, Cherry Corley, Catherine Kerns, Marcia Manning, Janet Miller, and Christof Meyer

Annual Christmas Pageant

NEW and IMPROVED CHRISTMAS PAGEANT! Think you've seen it all in Christmas pageants? Think again! Evelyn Tower is rewriting her everpopular Christmas pageant script to include not only our toddlers and elementary school children, but parts for our youth also. Director Janet Chenoweth promises some delightful yet traditional additions this year as well. Please mark your calendars for Sunday, December 11, at the Sunday School hour for our annual Christmas pageant. Christ is born! Hallelujah! December 11 at 9:30 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall This years annual pageant is a traditional Nativity Story, with focus on the Wise Men and their hopes for a world Savior, as well as on the Shepherds, who receive a revelation from heaven.

PRESBYTERIAN OLDER ADULT MINISTRY -Reverend Charles E. SuttonPillow Talk: Will you love some one else after I am gone? Many couples, at some point in their relationship, ask this question of one another. At that tender and intimate moment the cautious answer is intended to be truthful. Sometimes it isnt. Often in the marriage ceremony a few Bible verses are read from 1 Corinthians 13, in which the Apostle Paul lifts up love as being greater than the gift of speaking in tongues. So faith, hope, and love abide...but the greatest of these is love. At this writers first marriage ceremony in his new pastorate, the groom was 71 and the bride was 69. It was the grooms second marriage, and the brides first. To a young pastor starting out this seemed to be most unusual. Today it is more acceptable. If your spouse has recently died, the resulting loneliness is a powerful force in pushing you to find love again. A New Romance is accepted as a gift from God. One Westminster Canterbury resident spoke of his new love as the best thing that ever happened to me. Often, the gift of longer life offers the added gift of a second love. Grief is some times softened as affection and concern is redirected. The downside is strong. Guilt is a huge factor. Question: Am I showing lack of love and faithfulness to my deceased spouse? Children and grandchildren say, Are you crazy? What are people going to say about you? In this writers eyes, blessed are committed older adult couples whose children and grandchildren are gracious in their acceptance and understanding of their elders, new relationship and commitment. Another danger lies in the chance that a late-in-life romance may falter and fail for reasons that cannot be controlled, causing heartbreak that equals grief. Perhaps late-in-life romance, or new love after the death of a beloved spouse, may be a blessing only for the strong and romantic at heart. God surely blesses those who love.

December Birthdays
1- George Campbell 2- Bill Correll 2- Callan Hartman 5- William Cole 11- Emily Johnson 16- Mary Mitchell 16- Lloyd Bostian 16- Patrick Bell 18- Janice Kessel 20- Rebecca Horner 20- George Gray 21- Ella Price 23- Louise Buhrman 23- Gaynelle Worley 25 Cal Gray 25- Jake Savage 25- Pritchard Whitley 27- Hampton Harris 27- Margaret Claiborne Hubbard 29- Brint Keyes 30- Michael Luning

December
Sunday Monday Tuesday 4 Mission Study Team 8:30 am Handbell Choir 8:30 am Sunday School 9:30 am Worship 10:55 am Fellowship Hour 12 noon 11Mission Study Team 8:30am 5 Poinsettias
deadline! Mens Lunch 12 noon Missions Comm. Meeting at 6:00 pm 1704 Park Ave Evangelism 6:30 pm at 1704 Hanover Ave

Page 10

Wednesday

6 Staff Meeting 10:00 am

7 Carol Choir 4:30 pm Junior Choir 5:00 pm Wednesday Night Live PW Luncheon 12:00 noon 6:00 pm Care Team 3:00 pm Admin Comm Meeting 6:00 pm Fellowship Meeting 6:00 pm Finance Comm. Meet 7:00 pm Chancel Choir 7:15 pm 13 Staff Meeting 10:00 am PW Circle Groups meet See page 3 Care Team 3:00 pm Christian Ed. Committee and Property Meeting at 7:00 pm 20 Staff Meeting 10:00 am Care Team 3:00 pm 14 Carol Choir 4:30 pm Junior Choir 5:00 pm Wednesday Night Live 6:00 pm Chancel Choir 7:15 pm

12

Handbell Choir 8:30 am Mens Lunch 12 noon Christmas Childrens Pag 9:30am Worship 10:55 am Worship Committee Fellowship Hour 12 noon Meeting 7:00 pm Deacons meet 12:20 pm

18 Mission Study Team 8:30 19 Handbell Choir 8:30 am Mens Lunch 12 noon Sunday School 9:30 am Worship 10:55 am Fellowship Hour 12 noon CANDLELIGHT SERVICE 5pm 25 Mission Study Team 8:30 Handbell Choir 8:30 am Sunday School 9:30 am Worship 10:55 am Fellowship Hour 12 noon 26

21

Church Office and CDC CLOSED

27 Staff Meeting 10:00 am Care Team 3:00 pm

28

Thursday 1 Mothers Together 9:30 am 2

Friday

Saturday 3 Mission Study Retreat 8:00 am2:00 pm

Community Group 5:45 pm 8 Mothers Together 9:30 am Community Group 5:45 pm 15 Mothers Together 9:30 am SESSION MEETS 7:00 pm 22 Community Group 5:45 pm 16 9 10 Hanging of the Greens 8:30 am Chancel Choir Rehearsal 10:00 am PEOPLE GROUP Will Madden/ Westminster Canterbury 6:00 pm 17 Dress Rehearsal for Candlelight 10:00 am

23 CDC CLOSED Church office 1/2 day Community Group 5:45 pm

24 Christmas Eve Service 5:00 pm

29

30

31 New Years Eve

Page 12

Dinner is served from 6:00 - 6:30 p.m. December 7: Brunswick Stew, corn bread, salad bar, chocolate clair cake for dessert December 14: No-peek beef, noodles, mixed vegetables, salad bar, rolls, fruit cake cookies
Wednesday Night programs are from 6:30 - 7:15 p.m. every week in the Fellowship Hall. Programs include special guest speakers or people in our own congregation, sharing various topics.

December 7th and 14th will begin the small group discussions of the Mission Study. Although the Mission Study surveys are still coming in, over 100 have been returned and will be the basis to commence the discussions. Should the discussions indicate there more time is needed, we will schedule more WNL opportunities mid-January.

New Fellowship Opportunity

Are you interested in having closer friendships with people you see in the pews at church? Be on the look out for information and an insert in the worship bulletin about "Dinner for Six"- small dinner parties in members' homes arranged by the Fellowship Committee. Simply fill out the insert, and you will be contacted in January about our first "Dinner for Six. Please sign up, so we can break bread together and form closer relationships with each other at Grace Covenant.

Congregational Survey
The Mission Study Team (MST) would like to thank everyone who has turned in the congregational survey. We realize that it was not a very short survey, and were grateful for the time that you gave to it. The answers we received have been very thoughtful and helpful. We are now compiling the data and will meet shortly after Thanksgiving to prayerfully consider the responses. We will also be hosting several small gatherings with respondents in December to discuss some of our findings and to deepen our understanding. Our plan is to have the study complete by January and published to the congregation so that we may proceed with electing a Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC). Thank you again for your support, your participation, and your prayers.
The MST is John Nevin (chair), Matt Johnson (vice-chair), Brian Baird, Matt Hartman, Catherine Kerns, Christof Meyer, Everett Reveley, and Brint Keyes (ex officio).

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Grace Notes

Twenty-Three Years of Music Ministry (Part 6 of 6)

At the end of December 1999, I returned to Richmond at Christmas to be with my family and to interview for the Director of Music position at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church. I am a native of Richmond and had lived here for over twenty years, but I had never been inside the sanctuary at Grace Covenant. At my interview I instantly fell in love with Grace Covenant's neo-Gothic sanctuary and the surrounding Fan neighborhood. On the return flight back to New York, I knew in my heart that Grace Covenant was the place where I needed to be. My first Sunday at Grace Covenant was May 7, 2000. Immediately after the postlude, church member Nancy White Thomas made her way to the organ console, introduced herself and gave me a Christmas ornament with an engraved image of the church on it. It was a joy to be in a place where everyone was so welcoming. At the time the Chancel Choir had about 24 singers, the Junior Choir had around 18 choristers, and the Handbell Choir had 11 ringers. Also, the church supported an annual concert series, August Musicales, which featured musicians both locally and from afar. In 2004, I started a choir for preschoolers which had only four children. By 2008 that number had swelled to close to 40! By far the most visible change in Grace Covenant's music ministry was the refurbishment of the pipe organ. An organ committee formed shortly after I arrived in 2000, and after a few years of study, meetings, and fund-raising, the Schantz organ was installed and dedicated the morning of Candlelight in 2005. I have always enjoyed accompanying choral ensembles and working with various choral conductors. I wasted no time in getting to know the various choral directors in Richmond. To date, I have worked with the following choral ensembles in the area: the Richmond Choral Society, the Central Virginia Masterworks Chorale, the James River Singers, the choirs of St. Bridget Roman Catholic Church, Church of the Redeemer Episcopal, Salisbury Presbyterian Church, Chester Presbyterian Church, and River Road Church, Baptist. I continue to perform concerts with several of these ensembles annually. The American Guild of Organists (AGO) serves to promote organ and choral music in the church and in the community. Over the years I have become very active in the Richmond Chapter AGO, and have served as the chair of both the Publicity and the Organ Repertoire Recital Series Committees. Since 2000 I have performed over ten solo organ recitals throughout Virginia and New York and hope to give a recital in France or Germany within the next few years. After twenty-three years in music ministry I feel incredibly blessed from the numerous people I have met in my choirs, church staff, and congregations that I have served. Working for the church has enabled me to visit amazing cities and venues throughout world. Grace Covenant has been extremely good to me over these past eleven years, and I am extremely grateful for the support received by its pastors and from the countless hours devoted by many eager choir and handbell members. It is amazing how quickly these eleven years have passed. The twenty-three years in ministry have passed even quicker! I look forward to many more productive years at Grace Covenant and with the music community in Richmond. Who knows what new adventures lie ahead? When they occur, I suppose it will be time to write another series of articles for Grace Notes! -Chris Martin, Director of Music

Grace Notes Page 14 As diverse as these experiences are, what ties them together is an overwhelming sense of possibility of limitless promise. (Yes, I am quite aware of how ridiculous it sounds to ascribe such lofty sentiments to the odor of a new automobile. But it is what it is). When I was beginning my second year as Admissions Director at Union Seminary, I was struck by the power of the new school year to usher in this same sense of new possibility, of a fresh start. Even though my job ran twelve months a year, the beginning to the academic year produced a palpable and campus-wide sense of newness, freshness, unspoilt vistas and never-before-seen understandings to be reached and experienced.
And he who sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. - Revelation 21:5

Several years ago, at a conference in Montreat, NC, I attended a workshop on I-dont-remember-what. The only thing I do remember was the opening activity, in which each of us drew scripture verses out from a basket. My verse was from Revelation 21:5 Behold, I make all things new. And at that moment, the power of these words surged through me. Not past tense I made and not future tense I will make but present tense: I make. I make all things new. Our God is a God who is in the business of making all things new. The business of giving brand new life to a demonpossessed man living in exile; to a blind man rebuked by Christs own disciples; to a Samaritan woman saddled with five divorces; to a diminutive (and likely ridiculed-all-his-life) tax collector; to a paralytic helplessly dropped through a roof demolished by his friends; to a woman shunned for years because of a blood flow no doctor could heal. To each of these people our Lord gave New Life. Brand-spanking-just-for-me-New Life. And he who sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. - Revelation 21:5

I find it curiously winsome that the church begins the new year more than a month before the rest of the world. While the Big Apple has barely begun preparations to drop the ball in Times Square and officially welcome 2012, the church has already finished its liturgical year, already celebrated and worshiped Christ the King, and has turned its gaze afresh to the One Who Makes All Things New, the One who comes to us as a newborn babe fresh, unspoiled, unsoiled, full of possibility, clean -- but ready? Hardly. Defenseless against Herods armies, against harsh and rugged poverty, against the baggage that attended anyone who hailed from Nazareth (John 1:46). And yet, through Him, and in Him, God made and makes all things new. One can easily wade half-mindedly into Advent with one eye on the Christmas shopping list and travel arrangements, the other on seasonal school and church events and preparations for large dinners with lots of relatives (or quiet dinners without the company of a departed loved one). One can easily appropriate the December rhythms the same way one did last year, and the year before that, and the years before that. But to do so is to turn away from the Work of God in our midst. For God is neither limited by our calendar, nor circumscribed by our festivals and religious observances. Our God is a God Who Makes All Things New. Now. As you read these words. In the next five minutes. Always. It is not just what God did 2000+ years ago, but what God does. Though you may feel that you are defenseless against the demands of your job, helpless in the face of unemployment, saddled by a dissolute past, trapped in a hopeless and dying marriage in the midst of these and every vicissitude, our God makes all things new. On the first Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of Hope. It is a faithful and appropriate response to the One Who Comes to Us in the frail body of an infant One whose earthly situation was, by all earthly standards, hopeless and yet Who was the One by Whom all things were made and in Whom all things are made new. That newness is for us. That freshness, that limitless possibility, that frisson of expectation. In our lives. In our church. In our world. He comes to redeem, which is to rescue from imprisonment, to deliver from slavery, to loose the chains that bind and to make all things to make your life new. Thats what He does. Thanks be to God.

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/us/costly-osprey-symbol-of-fight-to-cut-pentagon.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=panetta% 20osprey&st=cse 2. Ibid.

The Staff
Brint Keyes

2011 Officers
Our Elders serve the church as leaders; our Deacons lead the church in service. Please feel free to approach them with any questions or feedback about GCPC's ministries. CLERK OF SESSION: Everett Reveley ELDERS: Jean Appich (11) - Christian Education Brian Baird (11) - Evangelism (M) Maurice Bell (13) - Finance/Stewardship Kent Cardwell (12) - Missions (M) Cal Gray (11) - Property (M) Matt Hartman (13) - Worship; Evangelism Cheryl Jacobs (12) - Worship (M); Administration Catherine Kerns (13) - Christian Education; Evangelism Caroline Leith (11) - Worship Katie McCullough (13) - Administration (M); Missions Dana McKnight (11) - Finance/Stewardship (M) Christof Meyer (12) - Discipleship Tom Miller (12) - Christian Education (M) Everett Reveley (12) - Finance/Stewardship Robert Rosebro (13) - Property DEACONS: Pat Aldridge (11) - Cards and Prayer Ministry Betty Appich (11) - Deacon Support Pat Ball (12) - Flower Deliveries Cherry Corley (12) - (Vice-M) Susan Farrell (12) - Visitation, Transportation Nikki Hazlegrove (13) - Meal Deliveries Jim McCullough (13) - Deacons Fund Julia Poppell (11) - (Secretary) Visitation Dawson Watkins (11) - (M) Visitor follow-up Carol Wood (13) - Visitation and Prayer Ministry Sid Yates (12) - Ushers MISSION STUDY TEAM: John Nevin (M) Matt Johnson (Co-M) Brian Baird Matt Hartman Catherine Kerns Christof Meyer Everett Reveley Brint Keyes (ex officio) (M=Moderator)

Interim Pastor
Revbrint@verizon.net Chris Martin

Director of Music and Organist

martin@grace-covenant.org Vanessa Strait

Administrative Assistant
strait@grace-covenant.org Martha Rubin

Bookkeeper

bookkeeper@grace-covenant.org Willie Alford

Sexton

Church Office Hours: Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Phone: (804) 359-2463 Fax: (804) 278-6298 www.grace-covenant.org Sundays: 9:30 a.m.
10:55 a.m. 12:00 noon

Sunday School for all ages in the Education Building Worship Service in the Sanctuary Congregational Fellowship in the Social Room

Grace Covenant Child Development Center Nicole Williams

Interim Director director.gccdc@verizon.net

Non Profit Org. US POSTAGE PAID RICHMOND VA PERMIT NO. 161

Address Service Requested

December December December December December December December December December December And he who sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.- Revelation 21:5 I read a news story recently about how the Marine Corps strategically fighting to keep the V-22 Osprey safe from budget cuts had recently flown Leon Panetta, the Secretary of Defense, to an appointment in New York City in one of the aircraft. According to the article: Defense Department officials say the hybrid aircraft was the fastest way to get Mr. Panetta and his entourage to New York that day. But anyone who has followed the tortured history of the Osprey over the past quarter-century saw the persistent, politically savvy hand of the Marines in arranging Mr. Panettas flight and another example in what has become a case study of how hard it is to kill billion-dollar Pentagon programs. At a car dealership, what the salesman wants to do is get you inside the vehicle, said Dakota Wood, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel and defense analyst. You take the test drive and, wow, its got a great stereo, it feels good, it has that new-car smell. That new-car smell. We all know what hes talking about. That distinctive aroma that signifies fresh, unspoiled, unsoiled, full of possibility, clean, ready, brand-spanking-just-for-me-new. New tires, new engine, new fuel injectors, new shocks, new paint and wax job, new computer-controlled navigation/stereo/iPod/DVD console, new seats (no crumbs or stains!!), new (and improved) cupholders the whole nine yards. It means free from the baggage (and car repairs) of the past. A clean start. Nothing holding you back. There are other times in life when Ive known that feeling. The first day of classes (before all the homework gets assigned). The first day pastoring among a new congregation. The first eighteen holes of the spring. -continued on page 14-