7 Oct 2022

Worship and weekly news – October 7, 2022

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Hello faith family! This is the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost – October 9, 2022, Year C.

Worship this Week:

Services are held in-person with precautions 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:

This week’s Sunday Schedule:

Other Parish Events:

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 your 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

7 Oct 2022

Children’s Activities on October 30, 2022

by | posted in: Children's Ministries | 0

We have a day full of special activities coming up on Sunday, October 30, 2022.

BREAKFAST: Children’s Ministries will be hosting breakfast between the services. Children and/or their families are invited to donate food items and to help set up, serve, or clean up.

FAMILY CHURCH SUNDAY: Children and their families are invited to serve in the worship service on this day. Let me know what you may be interested in. The Carew family is already signed up to read all the readings in the 10:30 a.m. service!

TRUNK OR TREAT: Trunk or Treat will be happening after the 10:30 a.m. service. Anyone who wants is feeling creative is encouraged to create a fun themed car or table for the event. If you need ideas, there are lots of them on the Internet. The idea is to have fun while moving from “trunk” to “trunk” collecting candy or other treats. There will also be one or more crafts or games available.

UNICEFUNICEF: The last Sunday of October is traditionally Children’s Ministries day to collect for Trick or Treat
for UNICEF so of course those little orange boxes will be around!

And one more thing…….Movie Night at St. Thomas’s is on Saturday, October 15, 2022. My favorite movie will be playing:
Wizard of OZ!

I hope to see many of you or the children in your families participating in all or some of these great activities. There will be a link to Sign Up Genius for the breakfast jobs/donations and to sign up for Trunk or Treat coming soon!

Ms. Belinda
belmar43@aol.com

2 Oct 2022

Annual Giving Ministry Moment for Oct. 2, 2022

by | posted in: Stewardship Campaign | 0

My name is Joy Lynam and I am working with the Annual Giving ministry this October. Today starts St. Thomas’s Annual Giving campaign. (See YouTube version.)

What is Annual Giving?
Annual giving is when we reflect upon the gifts we have been given and the gifts we will give. It is the treasure in “time, talent and treasure.” The sharing of our financial gifts, our treasure, forms the basis of our parish budget. Our gifts enable our church to share the greater glory of God in our parish, in our community, and in the world.

What is expected of me, of each of us? 

Each of us is asked to prayerfully and thankfully pledge our financial gifts to our church.

As a child, we were taught that it is more blessed to give than to receive. 

Giving makes us feel good. 

It is an expression of our thankfulness. 

It is putting our faith into action.

This year, I will pledge my financial gifts to give thanks for the baptisms of my grandchildren who have been baptized in this church.

I will pledge my gift to give thanks for the baptism, confirmation, and marriage of my children in our faith.

I will pledge my gift to give thanks for Episcopal Campus Ministry (ECM), which includes our college students as part of our faith family at St. Thomas’s.

And, I will pledge my financial gifts in thanksgiving for the ministries we currently offer and in faith for the opportunities to come.

Hopefully this week in the mail, you received a packet from St. Thomas’s. During the month of October, we hope you will read these materials and prayerfully consider your financial gifts to St Thomas‘s and our ministries.

During October, we are collecting our thoughts and prayers for Annual Giving on our website for our reflection and thanksgiving. Annual Giving will take financial commitments from each of us. An opportunity before us is examining how much we give and whether we can do more.

Please prayerfully determine how to give back that which has been given to you. Won’t you please pledge your gifts using our pledge card and return it by October 30, 2022? Pledges may be left in the box in the church lobby or mailed using the self-addressed, stamped envelope included in the packet you received.

Joy Lynam, Annual Giving Ministry Chair

2 Oct 2022

October 2022 Children’s Ministry Activities

by | posted in: Children's Ministries | 0

Happy Saturday Everyone!

Even though it is a bit chilly out there, I hope everyone is enjoying the onset of fall. I know I am. 

And, I am looking forward to teaching our third Sunday School class of the program year. Tomorrow, Sunday, October 2, 2022, we will be learning about Jacob’s encounter with angels. And, we’ll be making a surprise that involves flour, sugar, and dairy products!! (Please let me know if you are bringing a child with allergies so I can modify the activity.) 

Here are the dates for Sunday School sessions this month:  October 2, October 9, October 16, and October 23, 2022.

We also have a day full of special activities coming up on October 30, 2022: 

  • Children’s Ministry will be hosting breakfast between the services. Children and/or their families are invited to donate food items and to help set up, serve, or clean up.
  • Children and their families are invited to serve in the worship service on this day. Let me know what you may be interested in.  The Carew family is already signed up to read all the readings in the 10:30 a.m. service!! 
  • Trunk or Treat will be happening after the 10:30 a.m. service. Anyone who wants is feeling creative is encouraged to create a fun themed car or table for the event. If you need ideas, there are lots of them on the Internet. The idea is to have fun while moving from “trunk” to “trunk” collecting candy or other treats. There will also be one or more crafts or games available.
  • The last Sunday of October — October 30, 3022 — is traditionally Children’s Ministries Sunday to collect for Trick or Treat for UNICEF so of course those little orange boxes will be around!

And one more thing…….Movie Night at St. Thomas’s is on October 15, 2022. My favorite movie will be playing:  Wizard of OZ!!!!

I hope to see many of you or the children in your families participating in all or some of these great activities. There will be a link to Sign Up Genius for the breakfast jobs/donations and to sign up for Trunk or Treat coming soon!

Blessings,

Belinda Young-Payne

2 Oct 2022

Children’s Ministries Trunk or Treat Event help needed

by | posted in: Children's Ministries | 0

Hello Everyone, 

UNICEFIt’s time to start preparing for our Trunk or Treat event on Sunday, October 30, 2022, which is intended to be both a fun activity and a service project for our parish and our community. Please consider how you would like to be involved-helping with the planning or advertising, decorating your vehicle, setting up or leading games and crafts, baking something yummy, donating money to the children’s chosen charity,  attending the event with a young person in your family or a friend or two or three, etc. After you are finished considering, PLEASE let me know what you are interested in. I will be sending out more information soon. 

Have a wonderful day!

Belinda Young-Payne

29 Sep 2022

Worship and weekly news – September 29, 2022

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Hello faith family! This is the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost – October 2, 2022, Year C.

Worship this Week:

Services are held in-person with precautions 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:

This week’s Sunday Schedule:

Other Parish Events:

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 your 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

26 Sep 2022

Annual Giving 2023

by | posted in: News, Stewardship Campaign | 0

Gracious and loving God, you have given us everything that we need.  Come now and do a new thing in us.  Help us to live with open hearts and open hands.  Awaken in us the gift of gratitude, that all our works may praise you.  Deliver us from the fear that leads us to horde your blessings.  And teach us to hold what we have reverently, but lightly.  Be with us as we seek to do your will.  And give us your blessing always.  Amen.

Annual Giving 2023During the last week of September 2022, an Annual Giving packet is being mailed to our homes. Annual Giving is when parishioners are asked to give thanksgiving and pledge their financial gifts for the coming year. Our parish budget is based on our gift giving. Our Vestry has determined that the goal for this year’s campaign is $290,000.

The Annual Giving packet includes an invitation letter, annual giving visual, and pledge card.

Throughout October 2022 during Sunday’s worship service, we will briefly share “Ministry Moments” of our blessings and ask how we might share our gifts with our church and others.

We hope you will use these weekly “Ministry Moments” to pray about your annual gift to our church and how our church might serve in our community.

Annual Giving pledgesThe Annual Giving theme this year is “Behold, I am doing a new thing!” Isaiah 43:19
An opportunity exists before us to examine how much we give and whether we can do more. Opportunities welcome us if we seek them.

Watch our poster bloom with flowers representing our gifts. Thank you for gifts given so far.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need more information.

Won’t you please pledge your financial gifts on your pledge card and return it by October 30, 2022?

In thanksgiving,
Annual Giving Ministry
Fr. Howie, Joy Lynam, Kristin Sausville, Helen Spence, Jinglan Redder

22 Sep 2022

Worship and weekly news – September 22, 2022

by | posted in: News, Worship | 0

Hello faith family! This is the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 18, 2022, Year C.

News for this week:

See the news for this week in the Carpenter’s Helper Weekly news for September 25, 2022 regarding volunteering for stocking Blue Hen Bounty food pantry, attending our fellowship breakfast, and getting your Covid and flu shots.

Worship this Week:

Services are held in-person with precautions 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:

This week’s Sunday Schedule:

Other Parish Events:

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 your 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

22 Sep 2022

Sunday, September 25, 2022 — you’re invited!

by | posted in: News | 0

Hello all,

I’m writing to personally invite all of you to join us this Sunday, September 25 2022 — we’ve got some important events happening!

Please be here with us in the Great Hall at 9:15 a.m., between the services, for a delicious breakfast and an opportunity to learn more about the work of the strategic planning committee. We are beginning to implement some of their recommendations, and are excited to share that with you, as well as, answer your questions.

At the same time, we will be offering a flu and covid vaccine clinic in the classroom (so you’ll still be able to hear the discussion!). Hillcrest Pharmacy of Elkton will be doing both flu and updated covid booster vaccinations. For flu, both the regular and higher dose for seniors will be available. For covid, both Moderna and Pfizer will be available for ages 12 and up. (You can’t have had another covid booster within the last two months, or a covid infection within the last three months to receive the updated booster on Sunday).

It is VERY important that you sign up for the vaccine clinic ahead of time. If there are fewer than twenty people signed up, the clinic won’t be able to happen. Please sign up as soon as you can!

Last, but not least . . . it’s Family Church Sunday! We’re so excited to see everyone!

See you all on Sunday!

Thanks,

Kristin Sausville, Senior Warden

22 Sep 2022

Choir News for September 2022

by | posted in: Choir, News | 0

Hello Everyone!

It is time to gather people who are interested in choral singing at St. Thomas’s.  This year I am trying something different:

St. Gregory’s Choir:  This is the traditional name of our Choir.  This year I would like this group to be composed of those who can, and are willing to, make a commitment to sing on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month, with rehearsals the Thursdays prior to those Sundays.  The first rehearsal of this group will be on Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. Please let me know if you are interested in this group.

Family Choir:  Since the last Sunday of each month will be designated as Family Sunday, we will have a Family Choir composed of any and all families and any others who would like to gather at 9:30 a.m. to rehearse a simple anthem and then sing it in the service.  This group will not have a Thursday rehearsal prior to the Sunday, so it is VERY important that those interested be ready to go at that time.  

EXCEPTION:  This coming Sunday seems to be busy with all sorts of other activities, so I would like meet anyone interested at 9:45 a.m.  I have planned a lovely unison anthem with 3 verses, all with identical music.

The 2nd Sundays of each month will be for any solos, duets, trios, instrumentalists, etc. who wish to perform.It will be a challenge for many churches to bring people back to the pews after they have had such a long period of worshiping at home via the Internet.  A greater challenge still will be to attract singers and other participants in liturgy to make a commitment to come back to communal in-person worship.

I am hoping that long-established singers will find the re-structured St. Gregory’s Choir a more ‘comfortable’ commitment to maintain. I am also hoping that singers ‘in the wings’ will find a 2-weekends-a-month commitment easier to fit into the busy rhythms of their lives.

The Family Choir will be an enjoyable outlet for parents to enjoy with their children once a month; rewarding but not overly demanding. I hope it will encourage those singers who are nervous about singing or their ability to ‘get their feet wet’ without fear of drowning.To review:

 This coming Sunday, September 25, 2022, the Family Choir will gather at 9:45 a.m., not 9:30 a.m.  St. Gregory’s Choir will have their first rehearsal next Thursday, September 29, 2022, at 7:30 p.m., and will sing at the 10:30 a.m. service on October 2, 2022.

Thank you for your prayerful consideration.

Marc Cheban, Organist and Choir Director