Dear St. Thomas’,
This week we added two more opportunities to celebrate the Holy Eucharist to our schedule. Please use your own careful discernment to decide if these opportunities are appropriate to your needs! We are all making difficult decisions with limited information at this time.
Wednesdays at 5.30pm we are celebrating a brief outdoor Eucharist honoring a Feast Day from our calendar for the week. This liturgy is intended for those who want to gather, but not be around as many people as we have on Sundays.
Saturdays at 6pm we will celebrate the Eucharist in our nave. Only 17 persons or 9 households (including clergy) will be allowed in. If you try to attend and are turned away at the door, please understand we are doing this to care for you and for those already inside. Also, if you are willing to give up your seat and depart in order to make room for a visitor or someone else, please let the Safety Coordinator know as you enter.
All of our services on campus will have Safety Coordinators whose job is to take attendance (for the purposes of contact tracing) and to help us comply with the protocols that enable us to meet. More volunteers are needed either to serve as Safety Coordinators or to assist those already serving with a variety of simple tasks! Please speak to one of them if you are willing to help out.
The Saturday service will be recorded and posted online for those who want to watch from home.
Also, on Sunday at 8am we will offer Morning Prayer live online.
Finally, we will continue our now-popular Sunday at 10.30am outdoor celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Attendance is capped at 250 people, six feet apart!
It may be months, or even a year, before we can return to what we considered a “normal” schedule last year. In the meantime, we continue to strive to offer a variety of options to enable St. Thomas’ to continue to fulfill our purpose as a worshiping community, living into God’s love for us and showing that love to all our neighbors.
Faithfully,
Todd+
Sunday School for children and teens meets on Sundays at 9am, and for adults on Saturdays at 4.30pm. All of these take place online.
Sacred Ground is a film-based online adult formation opportunity being planned for Thursday nights beginning on 8 October (exact times TBD). Stay tuned for more information!
This week we have been hosting Family Promise. Thank you to our organizers and volunteers for helping St. Thomas’ continue to make God’s presence manifest to our neighbors in tangible ways!
Our schedule of liturgies will continue to be in flux as we adapt to the conditions around us. More than ever, volunteers are needed in order to enable us to continue using our campus. Cleaning, setting up, and maintaining supplies are all tasks that you could help with. Please contact a member of the Vestry or a Safety Coordinator if you would like to participate. The more volunteers we have, the more often we can meet together safely without burning anyone out!
The Funeral for Mary Tyers will be in the St. Thomas’ Memorial Garden on Saturday, 17 October, at 11am. (Mary died on 11 May.) In lieu of flowers, donations in Mary’s memory may be made to the American Cancer Society.
Help support St. Thomas’ on Oct. 14th and 15th with the Boscov’s “Friends Helping Friends Fundraiser”. This year, NO shopping pass to buy! Shop Boscov’s in the store, or online, on Oct. 14th & 15th & everything is 20% off their sale prices. At checkout designate St. Thomas’ as the recipient, and St. Thomas’ receives 5% of the cost of your purchase! Thanks!
A message from Episcopal Relief and Development: While the pandemic claims our attention both in the US and abroad, we find ourselves nearing the height of the Atlantic hurricane season. Already, we’ve seen the Gulf Coast devastated by Hurricane Laura, and we’ve also witnessed the tragic wildfires as they rage in California. The weeks and months ahead hold a great deal of uncertainty, and they ask one thing of us: Be ready. So that we can continue to provide relief in communities across the country — and be ready to act in the weeks ahead — I ask you to make a donation to Episcopal Relief & Development’s Disaster Fund.
Amid all the challenging news of 2020, some tragedies linger on from years past. One of these is the Opioid crisis, unabated. The Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse of the Diocese of New Jersey is holding an online workshop entitled The Intersection of COVID-19 and the Opioid Crisis: How Can the Church Respond? with special speaker, Dr. Arnold Washton, MD. The workshop will be held online on Saturday, October 3, from 9:30AM to 1:30 PM. To Register, call 609-921-2420 or e-mail ParishAdmin@allsaint.org
The Bishop George E. Councell Memorial Golf Tournament will take place this year on Monday, October 12, 2020 at Mercer Oaks Golf Club in West Windsor, New Jersey. It includes 18 Holes of Golf; Continental Breakfast, Box Lunch and Plated Dinner; Fabulous Prizes, Raffle, Silent Auction and what promises to be a day of Great Fellowship and Fun! The cost is $175 per person, which includes meals, green fees and cart. Read more.
Registration for the Soles for the Harvest 5K and Fun Run/Walk is now open. This year it will be a virtual run, at a time and on a course of your choosing between 1-7 November. Sign up online and choose “St. Thomas’ Church – Glassboro” as the recipient for your donation or fund-raising efforts: that way, 100% of your gift will go to Kitchen of Hope!
Announcements for the bulletin or parish email are due into the office by noon on Wednesday of each week. You can email them to office@stthomasglassboro.org or call the office at 856-881-9144. Announcements are subject to editing due to limited space.
Lectionary readings for this week: Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16, Philippians 2:1-13, Matthew 21:23-32
Lectionary readings for next week: Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20, Psalm 19, Philippians 3:4b-14, Matthew 21:33-46
Please continue in your daily prayers for: Dennis, Marge, Brad, Joann, Medical Personnel threatened, sickened, and dying from their service to patients with Covid-19, Joan, Sandy, Rona, Kathy, Tony, Phyllis, James, Debbie, Virginia, Diana, Alberto, Smith Family, Vasu, Joe, Zachary, Randy, Janet, Connie, Andrea, Joseph, Kelly, those impacted by Hurricane Laura, Janine, Lemmerman family, Livingstone, Lois, Jonnell, Handell, Jimmie, Rich, Sandy, Christopher
This Weekend Online and at St. Thomas’
- Saturday, 4.30pm: Online Adult Formation
- Saturday, 6.00pm: Holy Eucharist (limited capacity)
- Sunday, any time: Holy Eucharist recording (online)
- Sunday, 9.00am: Online Sunday School by St. Thomas’!
- Sunday, 10.30am: Holy Eucharist Outdoors at St. Thomas’
Weekdays Online
- Daily Morning Prayer (Monday through Saturday)
- Monday, 4pm: Centering Prayer
- Tuesday, Noon: Coffee Hour
- Wednesday, 5.30pm: Holy Eucharist outdoors
- Wednesday, 7.00pm: Bible Study with Bishop Stokes
Online events hosted by St. Thomas’ are accessed via Zoom: instructions here.
Bishop Curry offers a A Word to the Church on the role of the church in voting and in political and social reconciliation. Watch the video here and read the text online.
During this season of coronavirus infections, when attending events on campus at St. Thomas’, please demonstrate your love for your friends and neighbors by:
- Wearing a mask (covering both mouth and nose)
- Remaining six feet apart from anyone you don’t live with
- Refraining from touching, hugging and shaking hands – even during the Peace
- There will be no singing
- Service bulletins you have touched must be taken home
- After the service everyone must disperse with no lingering
- No sharing of common objects such as pens, paper, etc.
Dear People of God in The Episcopal Church,
At baptism, we promise to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being. Today, Episcopalians are turning out in cities and towns across the United States to make that promise real by demanding an end to systemic racism. With a gift to the BLESS Annual Appeal, you can support their ministry and The Episcopal Church’s witness for justice at this pivotal time.
If your income is uninterrupted during the coronavirus pandemic, we invite you to join us in supporting Episcopalians working against racism with a gift to the BLESS Annual Appeal.
You can make a gift online or you can call 212-716-6002 and make your gift over the phone. Thank you.
In Christ,
The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings
President, House of Deputies of The Episcopal Church
Mr. Byron Rushing
Vice-President, House of Deputies of The Episcopal Church
See a calendar of Saints of the Episcopal Church.
Which Saint will you remember today?
See the official St. Thomas’ calendar or a list of upcoming events.
Are you serving in liturgy? Check the rota!
Saturdays, 4.30pm: Adult Formation
online: Sunday School for adults – on Saturday!
Saturdays, 6.00pm: Holy Eucharist
in the Nave: limited to 9 households or 17 people
Sundays, 8am: Holy Eucharist
online: recording
Sundays, 9am: Sunday School
online: for children & teens
Sundays, 10.30am: Holy Eucharist
outdoors, rain or shine
Mondays, 4pm: Centering Prayer
online
Tuesdays, Noon: Coffee Hour
online
Wednesday, 5.30pm: Holy Eucharist
outdoors, rain or shine
Wednesdays, 7.00pm: Bible Study with the Bishop
online
Daily on Weekdays: Morning Prayer
online: recorded
https://www.stthomasglassboro.org/
OFFICE:
office@stthomasglassboro.org
Office telephone:
856-881-9144
Emergency Pastoral Care:
856-881-2841
Call this number if you have a pastoral emergency, such as an alert about an ailing parishioner, a hospital stay, a death in the family, or to request last rites. Leave a message and with a phone number for your call to be returned.
