16 Oct 2024

Election Evening Vigil

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Election Eve VigilWe invite you to join us for an Election Vigil on November 5, 2024 from 7-8 p.m.

This event will be held in-person and live streamed on YouTube, in collaboration with our neighboring parishes. We will conclude in time to tune in to the national church’s vigil with our new presiding bishop: Bishop Rowe. See a YouTube message titled “Vote Faithfully 2024” by the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware The Rt. Rev. Kevin S. Brown.

This vigil is open to everyone, regardless of religious or political affiliation. Let us come together in peace to pray and reflect during this important time. Feel free to invite your friends and neighbors or share the link to our YouTube live stream.

16 Oct 2024

Hope Dining Room volunteers needed Monday, October 21, 2024

by | posted in: Outreach, Service | 0

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

Monday, October 21, 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

10 Oct 2024

Let’s stay connected!

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Hello Faith Family,

I hope this message finds you well. I’m reaching out to ensure everyone is receiving our weekly communications, such as our e-newsletter, The Carpenter’s Helper, and worship information.

Our newsletters and many of our email communications are sent through MailChimp. However, we also use our Google Group to send email. There is a possibility that MailChimp emails might end up in your spam folder, or you may have accidentally unsubscribed.

If you are experiencing any issues receiving our newsletters or worship information, please let me know. I’ll do my best to ensure you stay informed about all the exciting events and updates.

Let’s make sure we all stay connected!

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

10 Oct 2024

Annual Bazaar 2024 needs volunteers

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Annual Bazaar 2024St. Thomas’s Annual Bazaar is now only a few weeks away.  It is on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024 through Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. This year we have some new vendors including a non-profit that is raising money to provide comfort items for local homeless people, crafts made by our parishioners, as well as a bake sale, soups for sale and lunch on Saturday. The funds raised at the bazaar are used for a variety of Outreach Missions, including Blue Hen Bounty food pantry for college students, New Underground Railroad Initiative (NURI), Newark Empowerment Center, Newark Senior Center, and others.  Please consider supporting our efforts by attending and volunteering either your time or your talents.

Below are links to Sign-Up Genius forms for help at the bazaar, donating cookies and other baked goods, and soup to sell. Sign up to make this year a success by helping to set up, clean up, and work during the Bazaar!

Volunteer to help set up and clean up and work at the Bazaar:

Bake cookies for the Bake Sale:   https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050449ADAE29A6F49-50863246-cookies

Make baked goods for the Bake Sale:   https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050449ADAE29A6F49-50863670-baked

Make soup: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050449ADAE29A6F49-50863785-soup

Help set up, clean up or work the Bazaar:   https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050449ADAE29A6F49-52065594-bazaar

And don’t forget you have three more weeks to order Pies by Dana online at:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050449ADAE29A6F49-50903676-desserts

Then, go to St. Thomas’s Giving Page to pay.

Thank you for all your help in making helping us make the Bazaar a success.

The Bazaar Committee

4 Oct 2024

Annual Giving for 2025

by | posted in: News, Stewardship Campaign | 0

God’s EconomyGod of every blessing, we come before you strong in faith and with our hearts overflowing with thankfulness.  Pour into us the spirit of your abundance.  Remind us that what we have is only and always for your glory, and that what we give for the work of your church is our testimony to the blessings we have already received.  Guide us as we make the choices that will help build your kingdom now and in the future.  And sustain us always with the promise of the gift that endures forever, your presence among us.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

During the last week of September 2024, an Annual Giving packet was mailed to our homes. Annual Giving is when parishioners are asked to give thanksgiving and pledge their financial gift intentions 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 $280,000.

The Annual Giving packet includes an invitation letter, Why We Give brochure, and Intention Card. Your completed Intention Card may be brought to church and left in the gift box shown in the picture below or mailed to the Parish Office.

Annual Giving tableThroughout October 2024, we will share share the abundance of our blessings and our thanksgiving. When do you feel most thankful for God’s abundant blessings? How does your experience of God’s abundance inform your life? We hope you will pray about your annual gift to our church and how our church might serve in our community.

The Annual Giving theme this year is “God’s Economy: Rooted in Christ, Overflowing with Thankfulness” based on Colossians 2:6-7.

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

Won’t you please pledge your financial gifts on your Intention Card and return it by October 27, 2024? We will bless and give thanksgiving for these gifts at both services.

In thanksgiving,
Annual Giving Ministry
Fr. Howie, Joy Lynam, Helen Spence, Amy Keach, Marilyn Prime, Joan Bennett, Jinglan Redder

4 Oct 2024

Newark Empowerment Center needs Go Bags

by | posted in: Outreach, Service | 0

Hello St. Thomas’s! I received word today that the Empowerment Center is out of “Go Bags”. A “Go Bag” is a dinner-in-a-bag that they hand out at noon, so their homeless guests will  have a dinner at night.

Contents of a “Go Bag”    (In a gallon zip lock bag):
A shelf-stable entree  (stew in a can, mac & cheese, etc.)
Package of crackers
Fruit cup
Package of cookies
Bottle of water or pouch drink
Napkin with a plastic spoon or fork

There is a big box outside Cana’s office for the bags and I will take them over to the Empowerment Center as they come in. If you belong to a group (bridge players, musicians, etc.), it’s a wonderful and much-needed service project. If you prefer to take them over yourself, the Empowerment Center is on the second floor of the Methodist Church on Main St. (Use back parking lot) – only open from 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. and you have to ring the bell and be buzzed in.

If you have questions, feel free to contact me.

Bless you all,
Madeline Johnson

27 Sep 2024

Worship and weekly news for September 29, 2024

by | posted in: News, Worship | 0

Hello faith family! This the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 29, 2024, Year B.

Weekly News

See our Carpenter’s Helper Weekly Newsletter. You can stay informed through this newsletter, our parish calendar, the schedules printed in the back of the worship service booklets, running on the monitors around the church building, or by contacting the office. Please share your exciting events such as musical performances and sporting events with the office if you’d like to extend an invitation to your faith family.

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

Other Parish Events

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

20 Sep 2024

Worship and weekly news for September 22, 2024

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Hello faith family! This the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 22, 2024, Year B.

Weekly News

See our Carpenter’s Helper Weekly Newsletter. You can stay informed through this newsletter, our parish calendar, the schedules printed in the back of the worship service booklets, running on the monitors around the church building, or by contacting the office. Please share your exciting events such as musical performances and sporting events with the office if you’d like to extend an invitation to your faith family.

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

Other Parish Events

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

13 Sep 2024

Worship and weekly news for September 15, 2024

by | posted in: News, Worship | 0

Hello faith family! This the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 15, 2024, Year B.

Weekly News

See our Carpenter’s Helper Weekly Newsletter. You can stay informed through this newsletter, our parish calendar, the schedules printed in the back of the worship service booklets, running on the monitors around the church building, or by contacting the office. Please share your exciting events such as musical performances and sporting events with the office if you’d like to extend an invitation to your faith family.

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

Other Parish Events

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

13 Sep 2024

Delegate needed for Convention

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The 240th Annual Convention of the Episcopal Church in Delaware will be held on November 22-23, 2024 in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. HERE are some preliminary details.

Are you interested in representing St. Thomas’s as a delegate? If so, please speak with Fr. Howie soon to learn more about this important role that must be filled by the end of September 2024.