Coffee Hour Help Needed

For the past couple of years the Blindspot has worked alongside our Coffee Hour Coordinator, Danielle Vogt, to provide food, serve, and clean up after the 10:30 coffee hour. We volunteered for this because, as a group, we had a desire to meet and socialize with members of the wider parish, and have time and space to meet with visitors, but coffee hour had been slow to recover following the COVID-19 pandemic. While prior to the pandemic it was normal practice for multiple parishioners to sign up and volunteer to bring food and serve during both of our coffee hours, this was not the case once we all returned to in-person worship. Danielle readily accepted the call to serve and fill this gap for our parish and the Blindspot has enjoyed assisting her in bringing attendance back up. There are now, regularly, multiple tables worth of parishioners who stick around for a snack, a cup of coffee, and fellowship. We couldn't be happier about the results!

Now that we are five years beyond our return to in-person worship and coffee hour is once again a thriving ministry, we believe it is time for us to turn our time and resources to other needs in our parish. Danielle will, of course, still be running the show but Blindspot will no longer be making Coffee Hour one of our particular ministries to the wider parish, with our last Sunday serving being on April 26th. We ask, and encourage, all members of our parish to find the sign up sheet posted on the bulletin board in the Christian Ed building and sign up for a Sunday that you can contribute a baked good, cheese plate, or other treat to the table and don one of our St Greg's aprons and give Danielle a hand with serving and clean up duties. Please help keep up the Gregorian tradition of hospitality to visitors and long time members alike!

Pastoral Care: Needs and Opportunities to Help

For those of you who are too busy to join yet one more committee, but would love an occasional opportunity to further share your love with fellow Gregorians, the following are some needs from your Pastoral Care committee:

Ride Ministry

Do you have occasional time to offer a ride to someone in our church family who needs help getting to a doctor’s appointment, therapy, or church? If you can assist, please call, text, or email Tammy Bowman at 706-296-8876 or email.

Thank you for serving in this simple but meaningful way!

Meal Train Ministry

Would you be willing to provide a meal when needs arise in our congregation—such as after surgeries, illnesses, or other challenging times? To volunteer, please email Bruce Bowman. Thank you for helping care for our church family!

Easter Boxes for Our Homebound Members

Easter Boxes for Our Homebound Members - Thank you again to everyone who helped with the Christmas boxes in December! Once again we are assembling boxes of goodies for Easter to bless members of our church family who have difficulty getting out.  We invite you to contribute cookies, candies or other special and fun treats.  Please bring your donations to the Parish Hall on Friday, April 3 between 1-4PM. They will be assembled into boxes at 10:30AM on Saturday, April 4 in the Parish Hall and picked up after Easter on Monday, April 6 to be delivered Mon-Wed. as your schedule allows along with any donated Easter lilies leftover from the Easter service. If you need to arrange a different drop-off time, or if you would like to help assemble or deliver boxes, please contact Tammy Bowman at 706-296-8876 (text/voice) or tamaralbowman@me.com.  Thank you for sharing the love of Christ through your kindness and generosity!

Thank you for sharing the love of Christ through your kindness and generosity!

Upcoming Youth Events: December

QR code for youth events

1) Our next Diocesan event is the Christmas Carol Camp-In in Macon, Dec. 20-21. This year the event will be hosted by Christ Church rather than St Francis. This is a very low impact event and we will return to Athens by approx. 2-3pm on Sunday. Wade will be attending this event and offering rides to anyone interested in attending!

2) If your middle schooler is interested in attending New Beginnings 51 in March you can register at the link below. Wade will be attending this event and offering rides to anyone who registers for the retreat or applies for Team!

3) Any high schoolers or parents that would like to join us on Team and make this retreat possible can apply!  

The Diocese and St Greg's offer financial aid to students in need for all Camp Mikell events. All of these events can be accessed with the QR code to the right.

Opportunity to Help: Community Christmas of Oglethorpe County

You can help local children have a merry Christmas. We are collecting new toys and fun items for kids from birth to age 18, and also collecting money to help families with their bills. I represent Community Christmas of Oglethorpe County, Inc., a local non-profit. We've been helping families for nearly 30 years. With help from many of you and other neighbors, last year we served 366 children from 157 households. Parents were able to pick 3 nice gifts, several stocking stuffers, and books for each child from the gifts that were donated. In addition, each family received $200-$800 towards their rent, electric bill, etc. (amount depends on the family size). We hope to do that again this year. The need is greater than ever, and we help families year round. Our organization is also now co-sponsoring a monthly food distribution and bi-monthly diaper bank for local families.  

How to help: 

  • Donate funds on our website www.CommunityChristmasOglethorpe.org 

  • or mail a check to 143 Bowen Farm Road, Crawford, GA 30630 (monetary donations are welcome at any time!)

  • Bring toys or other gifts to church and leave marked for Community Christmas

  • Teen items are always great, too. All fun items are due December 14 or 15.

We'll have a "free yard sale" with clean, very gently used clothes, coats, toys, baby items, etc. We would like to get these on December 14 or 15.  

Please contact me at 706-201-7241 or cbdrewry@gmail.com 

With hope, peace, joy, and love,
Catherine Bowen Drewry

Ride Ministry Request

Two of our parishioners at Terra Bella Senior Living on Epps Bridge Pkwy (who do not drive) have voiced a desire to attend Sunday School at 9:15 am. Currently there are drivers that can bring them to the 10:30 church service but not to Sunday School. Alternatively, they would be willing to come to the 8:00 service and stay through Sunday School. Please contact Tammy Bowman at 706-296-8876 (voice/text) or via email if you could be part of a team of drivers to assist with this. Thanks!