Worship and weekly news – February 19, 2023

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Hello faith family! This Sunday is the Seventh and Last Sunday after Epiphany – February 19, 2023, Year A.

Weekly News

See our Carpenter’s Helper Newsletter for this week.

Worship at St. Thomas’s

Services are held in-person 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 Sunday’s Worship Schedule

Growth and Fellowship:

  • 1st Sunday of the month – Gospel in Spanish
  • Last Sunday of the month – Family Church Sunday
  • Last Sunday of the month – Coffee and Fellowship between services
  • 2nd Sundays at 9:15 a.m. – Novel Theology
  • 3rd Monday of the month – Hope Dining Room
  • Sundays from 4-6 p.m. – free dinners for ECM students. Eat in or take homemade dinners to go.
  • Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m. – 2 Saint Readers
  • Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. – lectionary bible study in the classroom.
  • Monday, February 20, 2023 – Hope Dining Room volunteers needed
  • Feb. 21, 2023 from 5:30-7 p.m. – Shrove Tuesday Pancake Dinner – for food, games, and fun. See dinner details.
  • Feb. 22, 2023 ASH WEDNESDAY: services at 7 a.m., Noon, 7 p.m. In-person and via YouTube.
  • Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023 – Family Church Sunday at 10:30 a.m. service. Ministry Breakfast between services (9:15 -10 a.m.)
  • Monday, Feb. 27, 2023 – adult inquirers class series begins. See Fr. Howie for more info.
  • Tuesday, April 11, 2023 at 4:00 p.m., 2 Saints Readers resumes via Zoom with “An Invisible Thread” by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski.
  • Sunday, April 16, 2023 at 12:30 p.m. – Annual Meeting and Vestry nominations

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 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, 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

Worship and weekly news – February 12, 2023

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Hello faith family! This Sunday is the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany – February 12, 2023, Year A.

Weekly News

See our Carpenter’s Helper Newsletter for this week.

Sixth Sunday after Epiphany Worship at St. Thomas’s

Services are held in-person 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 Sunday’s Worship Schedule

Growth and Fellowship:

  • 1st Sunday of the month – Gospel in Spanish
  • Last Sunday of the month – Family Church Sunday
  • Last Sunday of the month – Coffee and Fellowship between services
  • 2nd Sundays at 9:15 a.m. – Novel Theology
  • 3rd Monday of the month – Hope Dining Room
  • Sundays from 4-6 p.m. – free dinners for ECM students. Eat in or take homemade dinners to go.
  • Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m. – 2 Saint Readers
  • Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. – lectionary bible study in the classroom.
  • Feb. 21, 2023 from 5:30-7 p.m. – Shrove Tuesday Pancake Dinner – for food, games, and fun. See dinner details.
  • Feb. 22, 2023 ASH WEDNESDAY: services at 7 a.m., Noon, 7 p.m. In-person and via YouTube.
  • Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023 – Family Church Sunday at 10:30 a.m. service. Ministry Breakfast between services (9:15 a.m.-10 a.m.)
  • Monday, Feb. 27, 2023 – adult inquirers class series begins. See Fr. Howie for more info.

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 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, 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

Worship and weekly news – February 5, 2023

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Hello faith family! This Sunday is the Third Sunday after Epiphany – February 5, 2023, Year A.

Weekly News

See our Carpenter’s Helper Newsletter for this week.

Worship at St. Thomas’s

Services are held in-person 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

Sunday’s Worship Schedule

Growth and Fellowship:

  • 1st Sunday of the month – Gospel in Spanish
  • Last Sunday of the month – Family Church Sunday
  • Last Sunday of the month – Coffee and Fellowship between services
  • 2nd Sundays at 9:15 a.m. – Novel Theology
  • 3rd Monday of the month – Hope Dining Room
  • Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m. – 2 Saint Readers
  • Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. – lectionary bible study in the classroom.

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 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, 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

Worship and weekly news – January 20, 2023

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Hello faith family! This Sunday is the Third Sunday after Epiphany – January 22, 2023, Year A.

Weekly News

See our Carpenter’s Helper Newsletter for this week, which includes information on Family Church Sunday, How to make a flower dedication, as well as, several items mentioned below. For those who have requested pledge envelopes, they will be available this Sunday in the Great Hall.

Third Sunday after EpiphanyWorship at St. Thomas’s

Services are held in-person 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

Sunday’s Worship Schedule

Growth and Fellowship:

  • 1st Sunday of the month – Gospel in Spanish
  • Last Sunday of the month – Family Church Sunday
  • Last Sunday of the month – Coffee and Fellowship between services
  • 2nd Sundays at 9:15 a.m. – Novel Theology
  • 3rd Monday of the month – Hope Dining Room
  • Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m. – 2 Saint Readers
  • Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. – lectionary bible study in the classroom.
  • Sunday, January 29, 2023 – Family Church Sunday
  • Sunday, January 29, 2023 between services – presentation from The Friendship House/Empowerment Centers hosted by our Outreach Ministry.

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 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, 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

Enriching our worship

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Have you noticed subtle differences in the wording of the 10:30 a.m. Rite II service on the fourth Sunday of the month? It’s not in your head; you are not forgetting the words. On these Sundays, we have been using some of the text from “Enriching Our Worship”.

“Enriching Our Worship” is a collection of supplemental liturgical materials prepared by the Standing Liturgical Commission (1997) and published by Church Publishing Incorporated. It includes resources and forms for Morning and Evening Prayer, Order of Worship for the Evening, the Great Litany, and the Holy Eucharist. These texts may be used in conjunction with Rite 2 liturgies of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP), or supplemental texts may be used to develop an entire liturgy. It is not intended to supplant the Book of Common Prayer, but rather to provide additional resources to assist worshiping communities wishing to expand the language, images and metaphors used in worship.

The major difference is the use of language for God that does not use familiar masculine terms. The liturgical texts reflect the influence of the prayer experience of women, and a desire to honor that experience while remaining faithful to the norms of liturgical prayer as received by the Episcopal Church.

Expanding our vocabulary of prayer and the ways in which we name the Holy One bear witness to the fact that the mystery of God transcends all categories of knowing, including those of masculine and feminine. One of the considerations in choosing or developing the texts included in this collection has been the prayer experience of women, and the desire to honor that experience while remaining faithful to the constituent elements and norms of liturgical prayer as The Episcopal Church has received and understood them.

The differences are quite subtle, and so if you are like me you may zone into worship and find yourself accidentally saying the “wrong” words. Has this happened to you? It can feel like sneezing into a silence, or at least akin to giving a loud Alleluia during Lent. As calming and meditative as familiar worship can be, these Sundays can be a refreshing opportunity to pay closer attention to the words we speak. However, if a mistake is made, let there be no feelings of embarrassment: as is printed on the welcome page at the beginning of every service booklet, “when you’re worshiping God, you can’t get it wrong!”.

For more info: Enriching Our Worship 1 (churchpublishing.org)

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

Worship and weekly news – January 15, 2023

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Hello faith family! This Sunday is the Second Sunday after Epiphany – January 15, 2023, Year A.

Weekly News

See our Carpenter’s Helper Newsletter for this week, which includes information on How to make a flower dedication, Events Committee Invitation, Homemade meals for college-age students, as well as, several items mentioned below. For those who have requested pledge envelopes, they will be available this Sunday. Please look for them in the Great Hall.

Second Sunday after Epiphany – January 15, 2023Worship at St. Thomas’s

Services are held in-person 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

Sunday’s Worship Schedule

Growth and Fellowship:

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 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, 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

The Epiphany Chalk Blessing

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The Church has a custom of blessing homes on the Feast of the Epiphany and the week following. Family and friends gather to ask God’s blessing on their homes and those who live in or visit the home. It is an invitation for Jesus to be a daily guest in our home, our comings and goings, our conversations, our work and play, our joys and sorrows. See details of the Epiphany Chalk Blessing.

A traditional way of doing this is to use chalk blessed during the Epiphany liturgy and write above the home’s entryway. If you miss the service in-person this Sunday, there will be extra blessed chalk in the church for you to pick up Mon-Thur. from 9 a.m. – noon, or you can email a request to have some mailed to you.

Worship and weekly news – January 4, 2023

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Hello faith family! This Sunday is Sunday of the Baptism of our Lord – January 8, 2023, Year A.

Weekly News

See our Carpenter’s Helper Newsletter for this week, which includes information on our Epiphany Potluck Gathering and Epiphany Chalk Blessing, as well as, several items mentioned below. For those who have requested pledge envelopes, they will be available this Sunday. Please look for them in the Great Hall.

Worship at St. Thomas’s

Services are held in-person 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

Sunday’s Worship Schedule

Growth and Fellowship:

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 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, 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

Worship and weekly news – December 30, 2022

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Hello faith family! This Sunday is Sunday of the Holy Name – January 1, 2023, Year A.

News for the Week

See the Carpenter’s Helper Weekly news for January 1, 2023, Annual Bazaar update, Epiphany Potluck Gathering, as well as, the many activities below.

ONE SERVICE ONLY THIS SUNDAY AT 10 A.M.

Worship at St. Thomas’s

Services are held in-person 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

Sunday’s Worship Schedule

  • Sundays at 8:00 a.m. – Holy Eucharist, Rite I spoken, in-person and online at our YouTube channel (8:00 booklet).
  • Sundays at 9:15 a.m. – Adult Education via Zoom or in-person in the Great Hall classroom. Fr. Howie will lead an Advent themed, spiritually inspired discussion of artworks by John August Swanson.
  • Sundays at 10:15 a.m. – Children’s Ministries program
  • SUNDAY OF THE HOLY NAME at 10:00 a.m. – Holy Eucharist, Rite II with music, in-person and online at YouTube (10:00 a.m. booklet)

Growth and Fellowship:

  • 1st Sunday of the month – Gospel in Spanish
  • Last Sunday of the month – Family Church Sunday
  • Last Sunday of the month – Coffee and Fellowship between services
  • 2nd Sundays at 9:15 a.m. – Novel Theology
  • 3rd Monday of the month – Hope Dining Room
  • Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m. – 2 Saint Readers
  • Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. – lectionary bible study in the classroom.
  • Saturday, January 7, 2023 at 6 p.m. – Epiphany Potluck Gathering
  • Sunday, January 8, 2023 Novel Theology
  • Sunday, January 8, 2023 at noon – Vestry meeting
  • Tuesday, January 10, 2023 at 4 p.m. – 2 Saints Readers resumes. Parishioners of St. Nicholas and St. Thomas’s book discussion group over Zoom. “The Book of Longings” by Sue Monk Kidd. Everyone is Welcome to participate in this friendly and engaging sharing of ideas with our neighbors at St. Nicholas’s Parish.
  • Everyone is Welcome to participate in this friendly and engaging sharing of ideas with our neighbors at St Nicholas’s Parish.
  • Sunday, January 29, 2023 between services – presentation from The Friendship House/Empowerment Centers hosted by our Outreach Ministry.

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 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, 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

Worship and weekly news – December 23, 2022

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Hello faith family! This Sunday is Christmas Day – December 25, 2022, Year A.

News for the Week

See the Carpenter’s Helper Weekly news for December 25, 2022, Christmas Letter from the Rector, as well as, the many activities below.

Worship at St. Thomas’s

Services are held in-person 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

Christmas Worship Schedule

  • CHRISTMAS EVE – Dec . 24, 2022
    • 4:00 p.m. – Holy Eucharist, Rite II with music, in-person and online at YouTube (4:00 booklet)
    • 8:00 p.m. – Holy Eucharist, Rite II with music, in-person and online at YouTube (8:00 booklet)
  • CHRISTMAS DAY – Dec. 25, 2022
    • 10:00 a.m. – Holy Eucharist, Rite II with music, in-person and online at YouTube (10:00 booklet)

Growth and Fellowship:

  • 1st Sunday of the month – Gospel in Spanish
  • Last Sunday of the month – Family Church Sunday
  • Last Sunday of the month – Coffee and Fellowship between services
  • 2nd Sundays at 9:15 a.m. – Novel Theology
  • 3rd Monday of the month – Hope Dining Room
  • Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m. – 2 Saint Readers
  • Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. – lectionary bible study in the classroom.
  • Saturday, January 7, 2023 at 6 p.m. – Epiphany Potluck Gathering
  • Tuesday, January 10, 2023 at 4 p.m. – 2 Saints Readers resumes. Parishioners of St. Nicholas and St. Thomas’s book discussion group over Zoom.
  • Sunday, January 29, 2023 between services – presentation from The Friendship House/Empowerment Centers

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 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, 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