Throughout Scripture, people gave God names based on their experiences with
God. What name would you give God, based on what God means to you/how
you are relating to God these days?
Names of God
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Parish Newsletter for 18 March 2022
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Dear St. Thomas’,
My Lenten challenge to you this year was to pursue “20-1-4”: 20 minutes per day in prayer, 1 hour per week in worship, and 4 hours per month in service. During the last two weeks I have written about prayer and worship. Today we look at service.
It’s a little bit strange for me to write about service to St. Thomas’. This is a strength of St. Thomas’. As I type, there are people outdoors picking up fallen branches on campus, and someone else in the sacristy preparing for mid-week communion. Kitchen of Hope, Sunday School, Bible study leaders, Altar Guild, Tuesday Night Work Crew, Interfaith Hospitality Network, Vestry, Acolytes, Lectors, Choir & Musicians, Eucharistic Visitors, Campus Ministry hospitality: there are a seemingly endless number of different ways that the people of St. Thomas’ give of your time in service. Thank you for all you do!
And service doesn’t happen only at church. You may serve in community organizations like the Food Bank, the Lions Club, or Habitat for Humanity. Service can happen in less formal contexts, as you provide snacks for a children’s sports team, spend a few minutes to assist a neighbor in need, or just spend 20 minutes picking up the endless stream of refuse that blows across the St. Thomas’ campus between Main Street and Delsea.
Many of you reading this email already give much more than four hours per month to service. If you do, Lent is a great time to consider the spiritual aspects of service: you are channeling the power of the Holy Spirit in those activities. If you don’t, consider seriously this easy way to connect with God and neighbor. Service is one more way we live as disciples, following the example of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who came not to be served but to serve others.
Service is a gift that goes both ways, as important things are accomplished in the world and in our own hearts.
Faithfully,
Todd+
Join Sara Jordan as she leads Stations of the Cross in the nave at 7pm every Friday in Lent.
We’re planning another outdoor Easter Vigil (16 April, 6pm), telling our story around the campfire. Will you help tell our story in word or song? We’re looking for groups or individuals to tell the story of our faith in creative ways. The following scriptures are the basis of our story, and you could just read it. Even better, though, if you can act it, tell
it, evoke it, or otherwise convey each story in a manner authentic to all the colorful personalities of St. Thomas’! Please send an email to office@stthomasglassboro.org ASAP to let us know which scripture story your group is going to tell at the Easter Vigil!
Scriptures available:
– Genesis 1:1-2:4a
– Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18, 8:6-18, 9:8-13
– Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21
– Isaiah 55:1-11
– Baruch 3:9-15, 3:32-4:4
– Ezekiel 36:24-28
– Zephaniah 3:14-20
Our Easter Vigil wouldn’t be complete without music! Will you play or sing a hymn or sacred song for us at the Vigil? Any instrument is welcome! Sing alone or with a friend. Please send an email to office@stthomasglassboro.org ASAP with a title and the names of those performing so we can reserve you a spot on the schedule!
Our Covid protocol has changed! We will be following the CDC guidelines for Gloucester County, which will vary based on the local infection rate and, secondarily, the availability of our local hospitals to cope with current cases.
We will additionally wear our masks while singing whenever the daily new cases count for Gloucester county exceeds 15/100k.
The CDC has downgraded the “COVID-19 Community Level” for Gloucester county to “Low” and the new infection rate was at 6.50 mid-week. While these conditions persist, masks will be optional at all St. Thomas’ services and events.
You are encouraged to wear a mask if you are at all concerned about it. You will not be the only one!
Join us this Sunday night at 7pm on Zoom as we continue our Lenten series, “Growing in the Wilderness.” Each week we will begin with a video from the Diocese of Atlanta, followed by conversation in prayer. We will close with Compline at 8pm.
Thank you to everyone who came out for Kitchen of Hope! Our next giveaway is 9 April.
Are you interested in Confirmation? The Bishop will be in our neighborhood on Saturday, 9 April, at St. Stephen’s, Mullica Hill. Speak to Fr. Todd if you would like to undergo this rite affirming your mature decision to belong to the Episcopal Church.
The Easter Vigil (16 April 2022) is one of the four days set aside in the Episcopal calendar as especially appropriate for baptisms. If you would like to be baptized, or have a child baptized, please speak to Fr. Todd as soon as possible.
In honor of all our mothers, the ECW is supporting Mothers Matter, a nonprofit which aids moms in need. One of their projects is to give out lovely gift bags to moms at Ronald McDonald House, daycares, and cancer patients in hospitals. We are collecting toiletries to fill their bags and we invite you to help! There are collection boxes in the Nave and Parish Hall. Their Wish List includes: Liquid Hand Soap, Mini Hand Sanitizer, Small Hand Lotion, Facial Wipes, Chapstick, Lipstick, Emory Boards, Nail Polish, Nail Polish Remover Packets, Playing Cards, Puzzle Books, and Journals. These items can all be found at Dollar Tree! If you prefer to give a monetary donation, please put it in the collection plate in an envelope marked ECW/Mothers Matter. Thanks so much!!
If you would like to contribute to the work of Episcopal Relief & Development serving refugees from Ukraine, you can donate here.
Lectionary readings for this week: Exodus 3:1-15, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Luke 13:1-9, Psalm 63:1-8
Lectionary readings for next week: Joshua 5:9-12, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32, Psalm 32
Please continue in your daily prayers for: Dennis, Marge, Joann, Jennifer, Lou, Mary Esther, Chuck, Ethan, Mack Family, Don, Amelia, Andrea, Gene, Jerry, Joe, Larry
Daily Covid Cases can be found for Gloucester County here.
Announcements for the parish email are due via email by noon on Wednesday of each week. You can email them to announcements@stthomasglassboro.org
The church calendar can be seen at https://www.stthomasglassboro.
Are you serving in liturgy? Check the rota!
Watch us live on Twitch Saturdays at 5:30pm and Sundays at 10:30am!
Full-text of the liturgy is available at https://www.sharedprayers.net
Spring 2022 at St. Thomas’
- Holy Eucharist in the Parish Hall and Streaming online: Sundays, 10:30am
- Lenten Series “Growing in the Wilderness”: Sundays, 7pm
- Centering Prayer Online: Mondays, 4pm
- Holy Eucharist in the Nave: Wednesdays, 5.30pm
- Stations of the Cross in the Nave: Fridays, 7pm
- Holy Eucharist in the Nave and Streaming online: Saturdays, 5:30pm
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Parish Email for Friday, 11 March 2022
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This is the week to change your clocks and “Spring Forward” so you don’t miss church on Sunday!
Dear St. Thomas’,
My Lenten challenge to you is from the Rev. Christopher Martin’s suggestion of “20-1-4”: 20 minutes of prayer per day, 1 hour at worship each week, 4 hours of service each month. Last week I wrote a little about prayer, with some suggestions about how to engage that challenge.
This week I want to speak to worship. I’ll begin by asking, why do you come to worship? There are as many reasons for coming to church as there are people who come. What is it that gets you out of bed, out of the house, on a Sunday morning to gather with others?
We gather to be changed: to learn, to grow, to enjoy fellowship with one another, to encounter the mysterious presence of God.
We gather also to change the world: every time we celebrate the Eucharist or a prayer Office, we are lodging a sacramental protest against everything that is wrong in the world today, and faithfully enacting a vision of God’s promises for how things will be in the end.
I asked a local rabbi recently which is the most important Jewish holiday. She said, “the Sabbath.” That weekly gathering is the central practice of the Jewish faith. While I can clearly identify Easter as the central celebration of the Christian year, each Sunday is for us a “little Easter”: a celebration of that holy day.
When you were baptized, and as you renew your baptismal covenant several times a year, one of the promises we make is to go to church. Church is where we find God’s presence “in the apostles’ teaching [reading Scripture in community] and fellowship, in the breaking of bread [Holy Communion], and in the prayers [everything else!]”.
The pandemic has made attending church complicated and sometimes difficult. At St. Thomas’ we have striven to make church as accessible to everyone as possible. We meet indoors on Saturdays and Sundays, outdoors on Wednesdays (weather permitting), and streaming online during the weekends. I invite you to commit to at least that one hour of
worship with the church per week in our Lenten challenge, engaging that hour in the way that makes the most sense for you.
I’ll look for you in Church!
Faithfully,
Todd+
Our Covid protocol has changed! We will be following the CDC guidelines for Gloucester County, which will vary based on the local infection rate and, secondarily, the availability of our local hospitals to cope with current cases.
We will additionally wear our masks while singing whenever the daily new cases count for Gloucester county exceeds 15/100k.
As of this past Monday, the CDC COVID-19 Community level was Medium and the daily new case count was 8.8. This means that masks are optional for those who are up-to-date on the COVID-19 vaccinations and who are not at high risk for severe illness.
You are encouraged to wear a mask if you are at all concerned about it. You will not be the only one!
Join us this Sunday night at 7pm on Zoom as we begin our Lenten series, “Growing in the Wilderness.” Each week we will begin with a video from the Diocese of Atlanta, followed by conversation in prayer. We will close with Compline at 8pm.
Kitchen of Hope is tomorrow, Saturday, 12 March. Contact Vivian H. (856-366-8461) if you’d like to help!
Are you interested in Confirmation? The Bishop will be in our neighborhood on Saturday, 9 April, at St. Stephen’s, Mullica Hill. Speak to Fr. Todd if you would like to undergo this rite affirming your mature decision to belong to the Episcopal Church.
The Easter Vigil (16 April 2022) is one of the four days set aside in the Episcopal calendar as especially appropriate for baptisms. If you would like to be baptized, or have a child baptized, please speak to Fr. Todd as soon as possible.
In honor of all our mothers, the ECW is supporting Mothers Matter, a nonprofit which aids moms in need. One of their projects is to give out lovely gift bags to moms at Ronald McDonald House, daycares, and cancer patients in hospitals. We are collecting toiletries to fill their bags and we invite you to help! There are collection boxes in the Nave and Parish Hall. Their Wish List includes: Liquid Hand Soap, Mini Hand Sanitizer, Small Hand Lotion, Facial Wipes, Chapstick, Lipstick, Emory Boards, Nail Polish, Nail Polish Remover Packets, Playing Cards, Puzzle Books, and Journals. These items can all be found at Dollar Tree! If you prefer to give a monetary donation, please put it in the collection plate in an envelope marked ECW/Mothers Matter. Thanks so much!!
Did you miss the Diocesan Convention live stream this weekend? Watch it here!
If you would like to contribute to the work of Episcopal Relief & Development serving refugees from Ukraine, you can donate here.
Lectionary readings for this week: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18, Philippians 3:17-4:1, Luke 13:31-35, Psalm 27
Lectionary readings for next week: Exodus 3:1-15, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Luke 13:1-9, Psalm 63:1-8
Please continue in your daily prayers for: Dennis, Marge, Joann, Jennifer, Lou, Mary Esther, Chuck, Ethan, Mack Family, Don, Amelia, Andrea, Gene
Daily Covid Cases can be found for Gloucester County here.
Announcements for the parish email are due via email by noon on Wednesday of each week. You can email them to announcements@stthomasglassboro.org
The church calendar can be seen at https://www.stthomasglassboro.
Are you serving in liturgy? Check the rota!
Watch us live on Twitch Saturdays at 5:30pm and Sundays at 10:30am!
Full-text of the liturgy is available at https://www.sharedprayers.net
Winter 2022 at St. Thomas’
- Holy Eucharist in the Parish Hall and Streaming online: Sundays, 10:30am
- Lenten Series “Growing in the Wilderness”: Sundays, 7pm
- Centering Prayer Online: Mondays, 4pm
- Holy Eucharist in the Nave: Wednesdays, 5.30pm
- Holy Eucharist in the Nave and Streaming online: Saturdays, 5:30pm
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Notices for 6 March 2022
St. Thomas’ is following the county-level guidance of the CDC for Gloucester County regarding the wearing of masks and other Covid precautions. (Masks will also be required while singing whenever the daily new cases rate for our county rises above 15/100k people.) Masks are always welcome.
Indoor services can be viewed online by going to https://twitch.tv/stthomasglassboro.
Lenten Study: Join us on Zoom Sunday nights in Lent at 7pm as we consider Growing in the Wilderness. We conclude each week with Compline at 8pm.
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Notices for 4 March 2022
The Covid-19 infection rates for Gloucester county are dropping dramatically, but the virus remains dangerous. Please only come to church if you are fully vaccinated and have no sign of a sniffle or cough. Indoor services can be viewed online by going to https://twitch.tv/stthomasglassboro.
Weekend services meet indoors (Saturday 5.30pm, Sunday 10.30am). Masks are required regardless of vaccination status. During February and March our Wednesday (5.30pm) Eucharist is also meeting indoors.
Lenten Study: Join us on Zoom this Sunday night at 7pm as we begin our Lenten study, Growing in the Wilderness. We will conclude with Compline at 8pm.
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Parish Email for Friday, 4 March 2022
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Dear St. Thomas’,
I wish you a holy lent! I hope that most of you received my Lenten letter in the mail already. If you did not, please let me know so we can add you to the mailing list.
In that letter, I suggested adopting or re-affirming a set of practices for Lent, calling them “20-1-4“. This is not my clever invention, but a suggestion from the Rev. Christopher Martin, author of The Restoration Project: A Benedictine Path to Wisdom Strength, and Love. These practices suggest:
20 minutes of prayer per day
1 hour of worship per week
4 hours of service for month
This is not a moon-shot project. Its demands are modest. But if you are like me, even these modest suggestions can prove difficult in our over-scheduled lives. That’s why Lent is the perfect time to slow down, make some hard choices, and protect time to rest and remember the God who loves you without regard to “productivity.”
This is like fasting — from activity.
This is like tithing — from our time.
20 minutes of prayer is just a little piece of your day. But if you don’t decide ahead of time which piece, and where it will be, and hold firm to your purpose, it may just slip away until you find yourself falling asleep without having prayed. I speak from experience!
How do you pray for 20 minutes? We have a whole book about that! If you don’t have a copy of the Book of Common Prayer in your home, please let me know so we can fix that. If you are new to using the BCP by yourself, I suggest you start with page 136, “Daily Devotions for Individuals and Families.” These are simple, on-page guides to prayer in the Morning, at Noon, in the Early Evening, and at the Close of Day.
If you are more familiar with the BCP, you might prefer to use Morning Prayer, Noonday Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Compline.
You don’t need a prayer book to pray, though. You can pray with Scripture, maybe starting with the Gospels or the Psalms. You can pray extemporaneously, talking with God as you would talk with a close friend or loved one.
Some people prefer to structure their prayer by following patterns like ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. Likewise the Rosary or Anglican prayer beads can be faithful companions in prayer.
You can even pray just by quieting your mind with an intention to listen to the silence of God.
Finally, there are various podcasts that will walk you through praying in all sorts of ways, from formal prayer-book liturgies to simple times of scripture and conversation with God. My two favorites right now are:
Morning Prayer at St. Thomas’
20-30 minutes, six days a week, prayer book optional
Pray as You Go
10-13 minutes, six days a week music, scripture, and reflection
Whatever method or practice you choose, it is just that: a practice. Relationships take effort and attention. Our relationship of God likewise invites effort and attention in order to receive the good things God wants for us. What could be move worthwhile than that?
This Lent, I encourage you to devote at least 20 minutes per day to prayer. Thus may Lent be a season of grace for you.
Faithfully,
Todd+
Blessings for Birthdays & Anniversaries are offered the first Sunday of each month. Come to church this Sunday to receive a birthday blessing!
March Birthdays
2 Susan C.
3 Andrea R.
15 Bill M.
18 Marie J.
20 Brandon D.
26 Lois M.
27 Tom V.
30 Kate A.
30 Matthew O.
31 Dot B.
March Anniversaries
17 Chuck and Valerie S.
29 Dcn John and Vivian H.
Join us this Sunday night at 7pm on Zoom as we begin our Lenten series, “Growing in the Wilderness.” Each week we will begin with a video from the Diocese of Atlanta, followed by conversation in prayer. We will close with Compline at 8pm. See the video preview/invitation.
To all the Ladies of St. Thomas’:
We will be having an ECW meeting on Zoom on Monday, March 7th at 7 pm. There will be a little bit of business and a lot of fellowship and reconnecting! To join the meeting, go to stthomasglassboro.org and click on the Zoom button. (Ask a fellow member for the password!)
Covid protocols are changing in New Jersey and across the nation as infection rates sink. This weekend we will continue wearing masks, covering mouths and noses, and we will announce changes planned for later weeks.
Diocesan Convention is this weekend beginning at 9am. This convention will be all-online and you are invited to watch at https://youtu.be/PA-lrD2aKdc
The survey for the Bishop Search closes on 8 March! Your opinion matters! The Bishop Search and Nomination Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey invites you to complete this assessment in order to help us find our next Bishop. We ask you to prayerfully respond to the questions and seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance as you do. Thank you for your contribution to building the future of our diocesan family. Please continue to pray for the Search Committee and Diocesan Leadership.
Many of us are deeply concerned about Russia’s violent aggression in Ukraine. How can you help? One personal connection we have is through Father Todd’s previous parish, Epiphany, Seattle, which has shared its worship space with Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Church for more than 60 years. Holy Trinity is collecting relief funds for the people of Ukraine. You can donate to them here.
Pledge Report for February
Feb pledge: $13,766.33
Feb given: $11,745.00 85%
YTD pledge. $28,786.66
YTD given. $29,119.00 101%
January Attendance
Saturdays: 6 9 15 11 3 (Total 44)
Sundays: 35 47 33 50 45 (Total 210)
Daily Covid Cases can be found for Gloucester County here.
Lectionary readings for this week: First Sunday in Lent – Deuteronomy 26:1-11, Romans 10:8b-13, Luke 4:1-13, Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Lectionary readings for next week: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18, Philippians 3:17-4:1, Luke 13:31-35, Psalm 27
Please continue in your daily prayers for: Dennis, Marge, Joann, Jennifer, Lou, Mary Esther, Lois, Deborah, Joe, Josh, Chuck, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Nancy, Ethan, Mack Family, Don, Amrila, Andrea, Gene
Announcements for the parish email are due via email by noon on Wednesday of each week. You can email them to announcements@stthomasglassboro.org
The church calendar can be seen at https://www.stthomasglassboro.
Are you serving in liturgy? Check the rota!
Watch us live on Twitch Saturdays at 5:30pm and Sundays at 10:30am!
Full-text of the liturgy is available at https://www.sharedprayers.net
Winter 2022 at St. Thomas’
- Holy Eucharist in the Parish Hall and Streaming online: Sundays, 10:30am
- Lenten Series “Growing in the Wilderness”: Sundays, 7pm
- Centering Prayer Online: Mondays, 4pm
- Holy Eucharist in the Nave: Wednesdays, 5.30pm
- Holy Eucharist in the Nave and Streaming online: Saturdays, 5:30pm
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