Dear Friends of Grants Pass Center for Spiritual Living,

“Well, the frost is on the pumpkin and the hay is in the barn.” Those lyrics by James Taylor always swirl around in my head this time of year. We’ve lit our first fire in the wood stove, I’ve drug out my winter shoes and the morning air smells with a crispness only autumn can bring. I feel all warm and cozy just writing about it.

All the friends of GPCSL seem to have returned from their summer travels and activities, as we are bursting at the seams on Sunday. The energy in the sanctuary has been exploding with love and enthusiasm. I’m encouraged and uplifted by the smiling faces and warm hugs I receive. There are many new faces joining us each Sunday.

We have three classes underway right now; a good sign that we, as a spiritual community, are hungry for practical tools to put our spiritual principles into action in our daily lives.

Our community outreach this past Saturday, Celebration in Spirituality, came together nicely. This was an outreach event to the Grants Pass community and surrounding area, to introduce ourselves and what we do at GPCSL to people who may be unfamiliar with New Thought. All of us that worked on this event agree that it was a very good first attempt. We learned a great deal and are already planning our next one for sometime in the spring.

A very encouraging sign at our Center is that our Practitioner Core is growing. Most of you know we added three new Practitioners to our Core this past July, but we also have a new Practitioner who comes to us from Medford. We welcome Shari Davis to our Practitioner Core. Many of you know Shari has already started teaching. She’s offering the class, Money and Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life on Sunday afternoon. I’ve heard rave reviews and maybe we can convince her to teach it again after the New Year begins.

The holiday season is just around the corner. Thanksgiving will be here soon and we’ll be celebrating with family and friends in our own homes. Then we’ll have our Christmas activities coming up. This is an unusual year in that Christmas lands on a Sunday. I’ll be facilitating a candle lighting ceremony on Christmas Eve for all those that would like to bring in Christmas in a meditative and reflective style. Then our Christmas Sunday service will be more upbeat and joyous. I hope you are able to attend one or the other, or both!

Our annual Christmas Party will be on Saturday, December 17, this year. We’ll be having a pot luck dinner; then our talented Jan Monroe has generously offered to lead us in Christmas Carols. We’ll be doing an ornament exchange, so if you’d like to bring a Christmas ornament to exchange please wrap it up and bring it along.

We’ll also be sharing our Christmas spirit with the local foster children again this year. There will be a tree with the names of thirty foster kids in our sanctuary right after Halloween. Please feel free to take a child’s name and purchase a gift for that child. The organizers have asked us to have all gifts ready to distribute by December 9th. It’s such a great way to make Christmas special for a local foster child.

As always, it’s my extreme honor to be in service to all of you at Grants Pass Center for Spiritual Living and I look forward to sharing this coming season of light and love with all of you.

Much love and many blessings,

Rev. Michelle Ingalls Rev. Michelle Ingalls
466 SW “I” St. • Grants Pass, OR 97526
Tel: 541.479.0007
www.grantspasscsl.org