See the worship service leaflet for this Sunday, May 3, 2020. This service will be LIVE online at YouTube at 9 a.m. from St Thomas’s.  Next week’s service will be live online from YouTube from St. Nicholas. If you have not already done so, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and hit that notification bell (twice to receive notifications EVERY time) ? to receive alerts every time we go LIVE.

In this strange 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. While Delaware remains under a “shelter in place” order through at least May 15, 2020 and services are broadcast on YouTube, please consider continuing your giving to St. Thomas’s. See our Giving page.  Contributions can also be mailed to the church at 276 S. College Avenue, Newark, DE  19711.  The mail is collected daily so checks do not remain in the mailbox for long.

As always, please share your thoughts: what did you find meaningful, and what suggestions do you have for the next service?  Thank you for all of the suggestions and comments sent- they are very helpful.

Kind Regards,
Cana Hartman, Parish Administrator

Please join us Sunday, March 29, 2020 at 9 a.m. online and LIVE on YouTube. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and click the notification bell so you never miss a service. Here is the accompanying service leaflet for 3.29.20.

Please share this with friends and neighbors looking for a way to worship during these unusual times of COVID-19.  If you need a printed copy of this leaflet or any worship materials, please let me know and I will do my best to deliver.

Kind Regards,
Cana Hartman, Parish Administrator

Dear Friends,

I hope you are all doing well in these strange times due to COVID-19. Isolation may have physical health benefits, but it leaves much to be desired mentally and spiritually.  Please do what you can to stay connected- and let the church know how we can help.

One thing we can do is return to Sunday worship.  After a week of silence, Sunday worship will return this week, though in a different form.  We will gather virtually at 9:00 a.m.for the service of Holy Eucharist.

To abide by the conditions of the present state of emergency, those present in church will be limited to the small number needed to conduct the service.  Everyone else is encouraged to join by tuning in on YouTube Live.  If you have not already done so, the steps to get ready for this are simple:

1)  Click on this link to Deacon Cecily’s sermon from last Sunday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mippg8Ny5tY

2)  Just below the video, click on the red Subscribe button.

That is all you have to do!  Once you are subscribed, you will receive electronic notifications whenever we are broadcasting.

See the service for Fourth Sunday in Lent – March 22, 2020 via video from YouTube and also see the accompanying service program.

This is clearly not our normal way of doing church.  Nor is it ideal.  Please be assured that the Bishop, the clergy, and many others are churning away on creative ways to keep up united as the Body of Christ.  We have all received the blessing of cleverness – we just have to find ways to apply it!  Expect to see us try more new things and please bear with us as we find our way through unfamiliar territory.

And as always, please keep the sick and those who care for them in your prayers.  I will be very glad to be with you again – even virtually – this Sunday.

Peace – and be well,
Howie+
Rev. Dr. Howell Sasser, Jr., Rector

Dear Friends,

I hope you and those you care about are managing well in this time of “self-quarantine” and “social distancing.”  Remaining connected to people and routines is challenging, but all the more important in a time when feelings of worry – and even fear – are all around and within us.

As you have already heard, church services will be suspended from now until at least March 22, 2020.  Other non-essential church activities at St Thomas’s, like committee meetings and Bible study, are also being postponed or moved to telephone/Internet conferences. 

But there are ways you can keep some of your Sunday morning routine intact.  You have already received the worship booklets for this Sunday in email.  Deacon Cecily, who was scheduled to preach, is working on recording her sermon, which will be made available as soon as possible.  I am also attaching the booklet that would have been used at the Sunday evening service.  And, it is our hope to have some more sophisticated way of worshiping together electronically in place by next Sunday.

For this week, you may also have seen email news that the Bishop will be at St Peter’s, Lewes, tomorrow and that that service will be broadcast live.  The service will be at 9:00 a.m., and you see it by going to the Diocese’s website or to St, Peter’s website.  Other churches, including the National Cathedral, will be broadcasting via their websites (where more information can be gotten).

Please do not self-isolate even as you do what you can to avoid illness.  Christians through the centuries have encountered God in solitude, and I commend that to you.  But we also have the benefit of many more ways of staying in touch than our ancestors had.  We can and will remain a community while we remain apart as an act of love and concern.

Grace, peace, and good health to you all.
Howie+