3 Feb 2023

Worship and weekly news – February 5, 2023

by | posted in: News, Worship | 0

Hello faith family! This Sunday is the Third Sunday after Epiphany – February 5, 2023, Year A.

Weekly News

See our Carpenter’s Helper Newsletter for this week.

Worship at St. Thomas’s

Services are held in-person and online via our YouTube channel. Please do not hesitate to contact the office or Fr. Howie with any questions or concerns about these options. We are listening to the experts and considering how to best keep our faith family safe.

Our weekly Worship schedule

Sunday’s Worship Schedule

Growth and Fellowship:

  • 1st Sunday of the month – Gospel in Spanish
  • Last Sunday of the month – Family Church Sunday
  • Last Sunday of the month – Coffee and Fellowship between services
  • 2nd Sundays at 9:15 a.m. – Novel Theology
  • 3rd Monday of the month – Hope Dining Room
  • Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m. – 2 Saint Readers
  • Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. – lectionary bible study in the classroom.

In this strange pandemic time, the church is aware that some of its members are struggling to make ends meet. If you are in this situation, please let the clergy know of your needs, pray for the church, and feel no guilt about your giving. But if you are able to give, options for giving include mailing a check to our church or online giving.

If you have anything to add to the Parish calendar or the Carpenter’s Helper newsletter, please email the office at StThomassOffice@googlegroups.com.

To see worship, events or news, see our website, FaceBook, InstaGram, YouTube, or the posted events on the board next to the name tag station. Recent Newsletters, Sermons, or Announcements are also available.

Regardless of whether we are together in-person or virtually, we are connected by the Holy Spirit:  Always together; never apart…maybe in distance, but never in heart.

Kind Regards,
Cana Hartman, Parish Administrator
StThomassOffice@googlegroups.com or (302) 368-4644

30 Jan 2023

Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper and Family Fun Night

by | posted in: Lent | 0

St. Thomas’s Parish will again be celebrating Shrove Tuesday (or Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras or Pancake Day) on Tuesday, February 21, 2023 from 5:30-7:00 p.m. There will be plenty of pancakes. sausages, and beverages for all who attend. Music, games and crafts will also be available. (Maybe a few pancake races??!!!)

In order to make the event the best it can be, volunteers are needed to plan the event, set up, clean up and cook. Please sign up to help and/or to let us know you are coming. Thank you!

Blessings, 
Belinda Young-Payne

20 Jan 2023

Worship and weekly news – January 20, 2023

by | posted in: News, Worship | 0

Hello faith family! This Sunday is the Third Sunday after Epiphany – January 22, 2023, Year A.

Weekly News

See our Carpenter’s Helper Newsletter for this week, which includes information on Family Church Sunday, How to make a flower dedication, as well as, several items mentioned below. For those who have requested pledge envelopes, they will be available this Sunday in the Great Hall.

Third Sunday after EpiphanyWorship at St. Thomas’s

Services are held in-person and online via our YouTube channel. Please do not hesitate to contact the office or Fr. Howie with any questions or concerns about these options. We are listening to the experts and considering how to best keep our faith family safe.

Our weekly Worship schedule

Sunday’s Worship Schedule

Growth and Fellowship:

  • 1st Sunday of the month – Gospel in Spanish
  • Last Sunday of the month – Family Church Sunday
  • Last Sunday of the month – Coffee and Fellowship between services
  • 2nd Sundays at 9:15 a.m. – Novel Theology
  • 3rd Monday of the month – Hope Dining Room
  • Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m. – 2 Saint Readers
  • Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. – lectionary bible study in the classroom.
  • Sunday, January 29, 2023 – Family Church Sunday
  • Sunday, January 29, 2023 between services – presentation from The Friendship House/Empowerment Centers hosted by our Outreach Ministry.

In this strange pandemic time, the church is aware that some of its members are struggling to make ends meet. If you are in this situation, please let the clergy know of your needs, pray for the church, and feel no guilt about your giving. But if you are able to give, options for giving include mailing a check to our church or online giving.

If you have anything to add to the Parish calendar or the Carpenter’s Helper newsletter, please email the office at StThomassOffice@googlegroups.com.

To see worship, events or news, see our website, FaceBook, InstaGram, YouTube, or the posted events on the board next to the name tag station. Recent Newsletters, Sermons, or Announcements are also available.

Regardless of whether we are together in-person or virtually, we are connected by the Holy Spirit:  Always together; never apart…maybe in distance, but never in heart.

Kind Regards,
Cana Hartman, Parish Administrator
StThomassOffice@googlegroups.com or (302) 368-4644

20 Jan 2023

Family Church Sunday – January 29, 2023

by | posted in: Children's Ministries, News | 0

Join the excitement on Sunday, January 29, 2023. It’s Family Church Sunday with a breakfast between services hosted by members of Episcopal Campus Ministry (ECM) to present Blue Hen Bounty (BHB), a food pantry that provides supplemental nutrition to college-age students who are food insecure and cannot provide ample nutrition for themselves.

If you are a parent of a child who is interested in participating in the January 29, 2023, Family Church Sunday 10:30 a.m. service in any way (arranging flowers, reading, passing the plate, singing in Marc’s family choir, etc.) please let Fr. Howie, Cana, or Belinda know and we will make it happen!

Members of Episcopal Campus Ministry (ECM) will be around between services to talk about Blue Hen Bounty (BHB) and answer questions.

18 Jan 2023

Enriching our worship

by | posted in: Worship | 0

Have you noticed subtle differences in the wording of the 10:30 a.m. Rite II service on the fourth Sunday of the month? It’s not in your head; you are not forgetting the words. On these Sundays, we have been using some of the text from “Enriching Our Worship”.

“Enriching Our Worship” is a collection of supplemental liturgical materials prepared by the Standing Liturgical Commission (1997) and published by Church Publishing Incorporated. It includes resources and forms for Morning and Evening Prayer, Order of Worship for the Evening, the Great Litany, and the Holy Eucharist. These texts may be used in conjunction with Rite 2 liturgies of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP), or supplemental texts may be used to develop an entire liturgy. It is not intended to supplant the Book of Common Prayer, but rather to provide additional resources to assist worshiping communities wishing to expand the language, images and metaphors used in worship.

The major difference is the use of language for God that does not use familiar masculine terms. The liturgical texts reflect the influence of the prayer experience of women, and a desire to honor that experience while remaining faithful to the norms of liturgical prayer as received by the Episcopal Church.

Expanding our vocabulary of prayer and the ways in which we name the Holy One bear witness to the fact that the mystery of God transcends all categories of knowing, including those of masculine and feminine. One of the considerations in choosing or developing the texts included in this collection has been the prayer experience of women, and the desire to honor that experience while remaining faithful to the constituent elements and norms of liturgical prayer as The Episcopal Church has received and understood them.

The differences are quite subtle, and so if you are like me you may zone into worship and find yourself accidentally saying the “wrong” words. Has this happened to you? It can feel like sneezing into a silence, or at least akin to giving a loud Alleluia during Lent. As calming and meditative as familiar worship can be, these Sundays can be a refreshing opportunity to pay closer attention to the words we speak. However, if a mistake is made, let there be no feelings of embarrassment: as is printed on the welcome page at the beginning of every service booklet, “when you’re worshiping God, you can’t get it wrong!”.

For more info: Enriching Our Worship 1 (churchpublishing.org)

Kind Regards,
Cana Hartman, Parish Administrator
StThomassOffice@googlegroups.com or (302) 368-4644

13 Jan 2023

Worship and weekly news – January 15, 2023

by | posted in: News, Worship | 0

Hello faith family! This Sunday is the Second Sunday after Epiphany – January 15, 2023, Year A.

Weekly News

See our Carpenter’s Helper Newsletter for this week, which includes information on How to make a flower dedication, Events Committee Invitation, Homemade meals for college-age students, as well as, several items mentioned below. For those who have requested pledge envelopes, they will be available this Sunday. Please look for them in the Great Hall.

Second Sunday after Epiphany – January 15, 2023Worship at St. Thomas’s

Services are held in-person and online via our YouTube channel. Please do not hesitate to contact the office or Fr. Howie with any questions or concerns about these options. We are listening to the experts and considering how to best keep our faith family safe.

Our weekly Worship schedule

Sunday’s Worship Schedule

Growth and Fellowship:

In this strange pandemic time, the church is aware that some of its members are struggling to make ends meet. If you are in this situation, please let the clergy know of your needs, pray for the church, and feel no guilt about your giving. But if you are able to give, options for giving include mailing a check to our church or online giving.

If you have anything to add to the Parish calendar or the Carpenter’s Helper newsletter, please email the office at StThomassOffice@googlegroups.com.

To see worship, events or news, see our website, FaceBook, InstaGram, YouTube, or the posted events on the board next to the name tag station. Recent Newsletters, Sermons, or Announcements are also available.

Regardless of whether we are together in-person or virtually, we are connected by the Holy Spirit:  Always together; never apart…maybe in distance, but never in heart.

Kind Regards,
Cana Hartman, Parish Administrator
StThomassOffice@googlegroups.com or (302) 368-4644

13 Jan 2023

How to make a flower dedication

by | posted in: News | 0

Flower Dedications are Beautiful symbols of our offerings to God.

The flowers on our altar are a beautiful symbol of our offerings to God. It’s a way that we praise Jesus for the life and hope that he gives us and a way that we honor loved ones and give thanks for our blessings.

At St Thomas’s, we invite all members of the parish to contribute flowers in offering. If you’d like to donate altar flowers in memory, thanksgiving, or celebration, please do so in one of these ways:

• Sign up in the lobby and fill out a blue sheet with your details. Then, turn your blue sheet in on the office door mailbox.
• Email the office directly with your dedication: cana.hartman@gmail.com
• Print out the linked form, and mail it in to the church: 276 S. College Ave Newark, DE 19711

There is a suggested donation of $40, though any gift is appreciated. Donations can be made through the website, a check through the mail, or stopping by or calling the office.

On the week of your dedication, the office will reach out to you to see if you have any specific flower or color requests to pass along to the floral arranger. Such requests can also be noted on the dedication form. Our talented flower guild’s designs are always stunning.

Your flower dedication will appear in the service booklet on your requested Sunday.

13 Jan 2023

Events Committee Invitation

by | posted in: Events, News | 0

A new committee is coming together at St Thomas’s. This “Events Committee” will be responsible for commissioning events. So many brilliant ideas never come to fruition. This group will help to organize ideas and put together smaller commission groups to bring these events to life.

What ideas do you have? What events would you like to see happen at St. Thomas’s? More movie nights? Another NARCAN training? A potluck dinner? Many hands make light work.

If you are interested in joining this new committee or if you have event ideas, please reach out to Kristin: kristin.sausville@gmail.com. This group will communicate primarily through google groups with occasional in-person meetings. ALL are Welcome to participate.

Upcoming events you can be a part of:
• Confirmation celebration
• Newark community Spring Crocus photo contest
• A trip to the Glencairn Museum in Philly
• …what fun ideas do you have?

13 Jan 2023

Homemade meals for college-age students

by | posted in: ECM | 0

Episcopal Campus Ministry (ECM) is providing homemade meals for students, every Sunday. Share the news with students!

Who: Students (UD, DelTech, Cecil Community College)
What: Hot dinner served to go or stay to eat in person
Where: St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church, 276 South College Avenue, Newark, DE 19711
When: Sundays from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.

These free dinners are hosted by the Episcopal Campus Ministry at St. Thomas’s. Call
302.368.4644 or email StThomassOffice@googlegroups.com with questions. Rides home are
available.

10 Jan 2023

Hope Dining Room volunteers needed Monday, January 16, 2023

by | posted in: Outreach, Service | 0

Dear Families of St. Thomas’s and St. Nicholas,

Monday, January 16, 2023, is our opportunity to serve at Hope Dining Room.  Guests at Hope, are now “dining in” so we have 2 different short shifts that you can volunteer for. The cooking shift goes from 10 – 11:45 a.m. The serving and cleanup shift, goes from 11:45 – 1:30 p.m.

If you’d like to help, please bring an apron and a ball cap.  We would LOVE to see you! All of this takes place at Kingswood Methodist Church kitchen on Marrows Road in Brookside Park. It is a team effort, lots of fun and it makes you feel so good to feed people who really appreciate it.

Please sign up to donate things we need for the meal, which may be brought to St. Thomas’s on Monday – Thursday between 9 and noon OR when you come to church on Sunday.  If that doesn’t work for you, give me a call and I will pick it up at your house.

BLESSINGS to you ALL,

Madeline Johnson