21 Mar 2024

Maundy Thursday 2024 Soup Dinner and Worship

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Let’s come together on Thursday, March 28, 2024, for a delicious soup dinner at 6:00 p.m. followed by the traditional Maundy Thursday evening worship service at 7:00 p.m., with foot washing, stripping of the altar, and begin the watch that will run continuously from 7 p.m.-9 a.m. the following morning, in-person and live on YouTube.

ALL are Welcome to come for dinner, for worship, or for both. Please feel free to share this invitation.

If you would like to contribute to the dinner (bread, set-up, clean-up), please sign up.

8 Feb 2024

Graceful Waves Podcast 2024

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Podcasts are a multi-task friendly medium, allowing you to listen to them while doing other activities such as doing housework, driving, or taking a walk. You can pause if needed and restart when you are ready. This is also a great format for you to share messages with others, by utilizing the share button available on each episode.

You will find many of your favorite past sermons from Fr. Howie, Fr. Clay, and Deacon Sheila. Re-listening can help you to find additional meaning and understanding and pick up details that you may have missed the first time around. Coming very soon, our daily Lenten Devotionals will be available through this podcast (as well as on YouTube). What else do you think that we should add? Please share your suggestions on how we can grow this ministry.

Our exciting new podcast is available on many platforms. Please see the links below and choose your favorite
Amazon/Audible
iHeartRadio
Spotify
Podchaser

Here are PodBean step-by-step instructions to follow Graceful Waves. If you are not a regular podcast consumer, subscribe to Podbean today to follow “Graceful Waves”! It is completely free.

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

Here are the daily Lenten 2024 podcasts:
Week 1: Feb. 14, Feb. 15, Feb. 16, Feb. 17,
Week 2: Feb. 18, Feb. 19, Feb. 20, Feb. 21, Feb. 22, Feb. 23, Feb. 24
Week 3: Feb. 25, Feb. 26, Feb. 27, Feb. 28, Feb. 29, March 1, March 2
Week 4: March 3, March 4, March 5, March 6, March 7, March 8, March 9
Week 5: March 10, March 11, March 12, March 13, March 14, March 15, March 16
Week 6: March 17, March 18, March 19, March 20, March 21, March 22, March 23
Week 7: March 24, March 25, March 26, March 27, March 28, March 29, March 30

3 Mar 2023

Interactive Stations of the Cross 2023

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When I was a girl the only thing I knew about The Stations of the Cross were vague references from my Roman Catholic friends. Sometimes I would see Roman numerals around the perimeters of Catholic or Episcopal churches and figured out they were for the purpose of marking the Stations.

When I arrived at St. Thomas’s I learned that on Good Friday a small group of folks would “walk the stations.” But I didn’t “get it” until I attended my first National Youth Workers Convention and visited an exhibit in a prayer space that provided INTERACTIVE Stations of the Cross, designed by Lilly Lewin. That’s when they became meaningful to me. Each stop of Jesus’ journey from where Pilate dismissed him by washing his hands to where he was laid in the tomb was interpreted with an action or space for reflection.

That’s when I started to make the connection. You literally wash your hands. You make a cross and carry it. You stop where Jesus stumbled and think on things that make you stumble. Where Jesus met his mother you remember things that are on your heart. You pray for folks who are ill or in trouble at another stop. You make an image of the cross where Veronica legendarily wiped Jesus’ face and where he left his image on her cloth. You mourn with the women of Jerusalem and stop to mark hurt places in the world. You drink vinegar and drive nails. You experience the torn curtain of the Temple. You imagine how it would feel to have your dead son laid in your arms. You smell spices at the Tomb. And there is a 15th Station that shows the promise of the Resurrection.

Interactive Stations of the Cross have been installed at St. Thomas’s and will remain until the evening of Good Friday. If this sounds like something that you would like to participate in, as a way to mark your Lent, or as a way to think about Jesus’ suffering on his way to his death, I urge you to visit them, placed around the edges of the sanctuary. There are ways that groups and individuals can experience this.

You can visit anytime the church building is open, before or after worship on Sundays, or during office hours: during Monday – Thursday 9-2. You can make arrangements for weekend or evening visits by calling the church office: 302-368-4644. You can also ask for someone to be there with you to answer questions or just to be present.

Sally Price, Parishioner

9 Feb 2023

Shrove Tuesday 2023 Pancake Supper

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Shrove Tuesday Pancake DinnerHello Church Family,

St. Thomas’s Parish will once again be celebrating Shrove Tuesday (or Fat Tuesday … or Mardi Gras ….. or Pancake Tuesday….) with a Pancake Supper, fellowship, and fun 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 part of the fun. 

In order to make this event the best it can be, volunteers are needed to set up, cook, plan activities, and clean up. A HUGE Thank You to those of you who have already volunteered.  We also need to have an estimate of how many people to expect.  (No worries!!  It’s absolutely ok to just show up, the more the merrier of course. But an estimate is always nice.)

Please RSVP if you can (even if it is just to say Maybe) or to volunteer to help with the event.

Thank you so much!  I am really looking forward to seeing as many of you as are able to come!

Blessings,
Belinda Young-Payne 

30 Jan 2023

Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper and Family Fun Night

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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

25 Feb 2022

Ash Wednesday and Lent 2022 worship schedule

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In addition to our regularly scheduled Sunday 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., and Wednesday noon worship services, here are Lenten opportunities.

  • Dessert PARTY on Shrove Tuesday, LIVE on Zoom at 7 p.m.  You will receive an email invitation the day of.  In the meantime, check out the Facebook event page to get excited!
  • Draw nearer to Jesus during this Lenten season with a daily devotional by Fr Howie: Kenotikon.  Each morning in Lent, you can expect an email at 6 a.m. with a daily reflection. These are designed to be done one entry each day, however we all know that when we are building our relationship with God, there is no wrong way.
  • Ash Wednesday, March 2, 2022: three services of Holy Eucharist and imposition of ashes at 7 a.m., (spoken), noon (spoken), and 7 p.m. with music.
  • Beginning March 6, 2022, Sundays at 5:00 p.m. during Lent – Sunday evening worship service with Holy Eucharist, in-person only with precautions.
    • A service of penitence and reconciliation. 
    • A service of readings and music with projected images (“Son et Lumiere”). 
    • A contemplative service with candles and the music of Taize. 
    • A service of prayer with some of the interactive stations of the Cross. 
    • A guided meditation through the Durufle Requiem. 

19 Feb 2022

Shrove Tuesday dessert party on March 1, 2022

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Shrove Tuesday/Fat Tuesday is right around the corner!  While we cannot get together for our traditional pancake dinner and games, we cannot let this celebration pass by without some fellowship.  So, this year, we will be gathering via Zoom for a DESSERT PARTY on Tuesday, March 1, 2022, at 7 p.m. Mark your calendar!

Part of the fun of this celebration is the preparation; let’s get excited!!! Here is a link to its Facebook event.  Please let us know you will be joining in the fun, and feel free to share this invitation with anyone who could use some community.

I found a copy of “The Feast is Ready”, the 5th edition of the St. Thomas’s Parish recipe book and it includes recipes from our congregation dating back to the 1920s.  I’ll be listing some of these recipes on the Facebook event page.  Please share some of your own!  What will you be preparing for our gathering?  Let me know if you are interested in providing a video tutorial of your recipe: do we have any Jeff Smiths or Gina Neelys out there?

And, finally, if you are just not into making a dessert – WE STILL WANT TO SEE YOU!!  Join us with a glass of water, and we will be glad to see your smiling face.  And, if you really enjoy preparing sweets and would like to share, post it in the Facebook event, and I’ll bet that someone out there would be ecstatic to receive your gift.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this FUN event.  I will be emailing out the Zoom link on the day of the party.  Friends are WELCOME: please let me know if there are additional email addresses to add to the invitation, or you are free to forward the link to your contacts.  HOORAY FOR FELLOWSHIP!

17 Feb 2021

Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday 2021

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Tuesday, February 16, 2021 is Shrove Tuesday.  It is a day to finalize one’s Lenten sacrifice, as well as, eat pancakes and other sweets.  I know I for one am looking forward to celebrating this feast with my faith family next year – oh what a sweet sweet celebration it will be!  

But, for 2021, we will be eating pancakes at home and enjoying scenes from New Orleans’ Yardi Gras!  Because they were not able to hold their annual parade with decadent floats, many New Orleans residents have decorated their yards in the style of floats.  The colorful and over the top decorations are not only fun to view and a boost to morale, but it is a much needed support to the hundreds of artists whose livelihoods revolve around this celebration that is famous around the world.  If you search for “Yardi Gras 2021,” you can see this year’s festivities.


Wednesday, February 17, 2021 is Ash Wednesday.  There will be three opportunities for you to join in prayer to begin this season of Lent: 7 a.m., noon, and 7 p.m. Here are service leaflets: 7 a.m. leaflet or Noon and 7 p.m. leaflet to accompany the services.  There are a few printed service leaflets in the lobby available to pick up.


You will receive invitation emails to all three services tomorrow.  The YouTube link is the same as always.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

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

11 Feb 2021

Lenten 2021 Book Study

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The Newark Parishes of Saints Nicholas & Thomas’s Adult Christian Education
Lent 2021: Thursdays at 11 a.m.

THE HOPE OF GLORY by Jon Meacham
Reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross
Lead by Fr. Bill Lane of St. Nicholas

Feb 18, 2021 : Prologue and First Word (Father Forgive Them; LK. 23:34)
Feb 25, 2021 : Second Word (You Will be With Me in Paradise; Lk. 23:43)
March 4, 2021 : Third Word (Behold Your Mother; Jn. 19:26-27)
March 11, 2021 : Fourth Word (Why Have You Forsaken Me; Mt. 27:46)
March 18, 2021 : Fifth Word (I Thirst; Jn. 19:28)
March 25, 2021 : Sixth Word (It is Finished; Jn. 19:30)
April 1, 2021 : Seventh Word (I Commend My Spirit; Lk. 23:46)

If you would like to take part and are not already participating in the Thursday Adult Study, please email
your request to wmblane@gmail.com and you will receive the sign on information.