Annual Bazaar 2024 announced

posted in: Events, News | 0

Annual Bazaar 2024St. Thomas’s will hold its Annual Bazaar on the following dates:

Friday, Nov. 8, 2024 from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024 from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024 from 9:00 a.m. – 1 p.m.

We will have crafts, vendors, bake sale, soup sale, and a white elephant sale. Lunch is available for sale on Saturday. There will also be a pre-order sale of pies by Desserts by Dana for pickup Nov. 23, 2024.

This event is open to the public and admission is free. Won’t you join us?

Volunteers may sign up to help!

For questions, contact he Parish Office at (302) 368-4644 or StThomassOffice@googlegroups.com.

Hope Dining Room volunteers needed Monday, July 15, 2024

posted in: Outreach, Service | 0

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

Monday, July 15, 2024, is our opportunity to serve at Hope Dining Room. Hope Dining Room where we serve “a midday hot meal with dignity, to those in need in the Greater Newark Delaware area.”

Guests at Hope are “dining in”, so we have 2 different short shifts for which you can volunteer. The setup and 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 a ball cap and an apron. 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 volunteer for the things we need for the meal and to volunteer. If you are donating one of those items, THANK YOU! You can bring it to St. Thomas’s, Monday – Thursday from 9 – noon, OR when you come to church on Sunday! Please put it in the kitchen and mark it for “HOPE DINING ROOM”.  If that doesn’t fit into your schedule, give me a call, text or email and I will pick it up at your house.

MANY Blessings to you ALL,
Madeline Johnson
mad1240@comcast.net

New online format for worship service booklets

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We are thrilled to introduce our new online format for service booklets, designed with our entire faith family in mind. This innovative approach not only enhances accessibility for those joining us on YouTube but also reaffirms our commitment to considering all virtual attendees as integral members of our congregation. The new format is optimized for various devices, including Kindles, phones, and tablets, ensuring a seamless reading experience.

Embracing Technology and Creation Care: By encouraging the use of digital devices during our Sunday services, we’re taking a significant step towards reducing paper usage, aligning with our dedication to “creation care.” This eco-friendly initiative allows us to minimize our environmental footprint while embracing modern technology.

Inclusive Features: Our service booklets will soon come with additional features to support the hearing impaired and multilingual members of our community, allowing everyone to fully participate in worship.

As we transition to this new program, we appreciate your patience with any initial hiccups. Your feedback is invaluable—please share your thoughts on this new format or the service booklets in general. Your input will help us continuously refine and enhance our offerings.

Thank you for being a part of our journey towards a more inclusive and sustainable worship experience.

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

Worship and weekly news for June 23, 2024

posted in: News, Worship | 0

Hello faith family! This the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost – June 30, 2024, Year B.

Weekly News

See our Carpenter’s Helper Weekly Newsletter. News items:

Our weekly Worship schedule

  • Sundays at 8:00 a.m. – Holy Eucharist, Rite I spoken, in-person and online at our YouTube channel.
  • Sundays at 10:30 a.m. – Holy Eucharist, Rite II with music, in-person and online at our YouTube channel.
  • Wednesday at noon – Intercessory Prayer with Holy Communion in-person.
  • Wednesday at 5:30-6:00 p.m. – Centering Prayer, in person only
  • Thursday at 7 p.m. – Compline Evening Prayer, live via Zoom.

This Sunday’s Schedule – accompanying worship booklets available on Sermons page.

Growth and Fellowship

  • Last Sunday of the month – Family Church Sunday
  • Last Sunday of the month – Coffee and Fellowship between services
  • Third Sundays at 9:15 a.m. – Novel Theology
  • 3rd Monday of the month – Hope Dining Room – volunteers needed Monday, June 17, 2024
  • Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. – lectionary bible study in the classroom

Other Parish Events

  • None at this 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, or YouTube.. 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

Summer Choir 2024

posted in: Choir | 0

On the last Sundays of June, July, and August 2024, we will invite anyone in the Parish who would like to take a whack at singing a simple anthem in a group to meet at 9:30 a.m. in the Church.

The only requirement is that you arrive at 9:30 a.m., and not later, and experience is not necessary.

This Sunday (June 30, 2024) the anthem will be This is the Day That the Lord has Made.

Come join in.  You might discover that you like it!  

Cheers!

Marc

St. Thomas’s Memorabilia Requested

posted in: News | 0

Dear Friends,

I’ve been working with the parish archives over the past several years and I’ve come to have a good idea of what we have and what we don’t have. It’s time to build up our collection. We have a lot, but so much is missing. I hope some of it is tucked away somewhere in your files, waiting to go to a good home!

We’re good on official documents like vestry minutes and records of baptisms, marriages, and funerals, but they tell only part of the story. We really need materials that tell what St. Thomas’s has been doing–parish activities. For example, we sponsored an Antique Show from the late 1940s to the late 1970s but somehow very little from that has been saved. In more recent times, we had a monthly newsletter called The Carpenter but we didn’t think to keep a copy of each issue as it was published. Some of us remember the Faith Journey trips to Eagle Butte, Episcopal Campus Ministry, and on and on. We have done a lot over the years and our archive should reflect that. Much of this material is from the pre-electronic era. 

Might there be something in your attic or basement or that pile of papers you’ve been meaning to go through? If you come across things, and you’re ready to part with them (any only then), let me know and bring them to church. Or if you have a large amount of material, I’m willing to come to your house to pick it up. When in doubt let me see it. 

Let me hear from you!    

Thanks!

Connie Cooper

Worship and weekly news for June 23, 2024

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Hello faith family! This the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost – June 23, 2024, Year B.

Weekly News

See our Carpenter’s Helper Weekly Newsletter. This week, a postcard from our parish should have arrived in your mailbox. If it hasn’t, consider contacting the office to confirm your directory information. In the church lobby, you’ll find several extra postcards available for you to use. Feel free to take one or two and mail them to our extended faith family. Whether they are adult children, former parishioners, or members of the wider faith community who attend other churches, let them know they are loved and remembered. It’s a simple way to spread joy and remind them that they always have a home at St Thomas’s. There are postcard stamps available from the office.

Similarly, you’ll find numerous Flat Traveling St. Thomas’s figures located next to the postcards, beneath the photos of our vestry in the lobby. I encourage you to take not just one for yourself but also a couple extra to send to friends and family across the country and around the globe. Invite them to snap photos with Thomas wherever they are and share them with us here. Watching this journey unfold has been delightful, and it’s only the beginning of summer! What will be the next destination for Traveling Thomas?

Other news:

Fifth Sunday after PentecostOur weekly Worship schedule

This Sunday’s Schedule

Growth and Fellowship

  • Last Sunday of the month – Family Church Sunday
  • Last Sunday of the month – Coffee and Fellowship between services
  • Third Sundays at 9:15 a.m. – Novel Theology
  • 3rd Monday of the month – Hope Dining Room – volunteers needed Monday, June 17, 2024
  • Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. – lectionary bible study in the classroom

Other Parish Events

  • None at this 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, or YouTube.. 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

Blue Hen Bounty need volunteers

posted in: Uncategorized | 0

Blue Hen Bounty need volunteersSt. Thomas’s Blue Hen Bounty (BHB), our student/community food pantry, is looking for volunteers. We need both monitors and stockers.  Monitors are needed Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. until noon – or any time you are available.  Duties include re-stocking the shelves after each client visit and recording the number of client visits on the calendar in the storage area. You can sign up for one day a month, one day a week – or whatever suits your schedule.  Monitors are encouraged to bring something to read, knit, etc. as there is a considerable amount of down time.

Stockers are needed to come in and restock the shelves.  Cana generally is in the office Monday-Thursday 9 a.m. until noon so she can give you a key for the storage area – or if you want she can issue you a key to the church and/or storage area so you can come in at your convenience. We try to limit the number of items on the shelves at one time so we can serve more clients.  Training is available.

The church building is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. – noon. There is a bin by the name tag station marked for Blue Hen Bounty donations or put donations on the tables or counters in the great hall classroom.

For questions, email StThomassOffice@googlegroups.com or contact Teresa Coons email tlcoons411@comcast.net to volunteer.

Code Orange heat relief for unhoused in Newark

posted in: Outreach, Service | 0

St. Thomas’s will host Code Orange on the following Saturdays between 1:00-5:00 p.m.: July 20, August 3, and August 24, 2024. The exact times are still to be determined. Madeline and Amy will both be out of town on July 20, 2024, so we will need additional help that Saturday.

What is Code Orange?

Last year, Friendship House found it challenging to predict the feels like temperature during the summer months. Because of this, we are offering Code Orange every Saturday July and August afternoon in Newark. This would provide heat relief for people unhoused in Newark every day, assuming they can visit a faith community on Sundays. 

How can I help?

We need three to five people to host our friends.  We will provide cold water, a place to sit, and an opportunity to use the bathroom. Light snacks would also be wonderful to offer and Friendship House can offer go-bags if we are not able to provide snacks. We hope to offer packaged snacks, ice water, lemonade and popsicles to cool our guests.

Please sign up to help. You may bring your items to St. Thomas’s between Monday – Thursday from 9 – noon OR when you come to church on Sundays.  PLEASE mark them “Summer Hospitality” and leave them in the  kitchen. If you bring ice or popsicles, please put them in the freezer, which is out on the porch, next to the kitchen.

Training is available via Zoom on Tuesday, June 18, 2024, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. and again on Friday, June 21, 2024 at 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.  Please let Madeline or Amy know if you are interested in attending a training session so we can send you the link.

Please let us know if you have any questions.  We look forward to helping our friends in town this summer!  Thank you for your consideration.

Worship and weekly news for June 16, 2024

posted in: News, Worship | 0

Hello faith family! This the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost – June 16, 2024, Year B.

Weekly News

See our Carpenter’s Helper Weekly Newsletter. Have you been enjoying the daily Acts of the Apostles readings? Also, see info on Traveling Thomas Summer 2024 Adventure. Share your adventures!

Our weekly Worship schedule

Fourth Sunday after PentecostThis Sunday’s Schedule

Growth and Fellowship

  • Last Sunday of the month – Family Church Sunday
  • Last Sunday of the month – Coffee and Fellowship between services
  • Third Sundays at 9:15 a.m. – Novel Theology
  • 3rd Monday of the month – Hope Dining Room – volunteers needed Monday, June 17, 2024
  • Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. – lectionary bible study in the classroom

Other Parish Events

  • None at this 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, or YouTube.. 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