Parish Email for Friday, 4 September 2020 | St Thomas' Episcopal Church

Dear St. Thomas’,

Labor Day recognizes the American labor movement: women and men who fought for safe conditions and a just and equitable return for their efforts. The Christian view of labor goes even further: we labor not just to earn money to meet our needs (though that’s important, too), but to further the common good.

This Labor Day there are more people out of work than normal. We are fortunate, in the United States, to find this phenomenon unusual. We have sisters and brother around the world, and even in our own communities for whom unemployment is a perennial, generational challenge.

So if you have work that meets your needs, or reasonable provision in your retirement, please join me in giving thanks. And let us continue in prayer for those who do not yet enjoy this blessing, asking that God will provide for each according to our need.

Almighty God, you have so linked our lives one with another that all we do affects, for good or ill, all other lives: So guide us in the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but for the common good; and, as we seek a proper return for our own labor, make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of other workers, and arouse our concern for those who are out of work; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 261: For Labor Day)

Faithfully,

Todd+

Coffee Hour on Tuesday, 8 September, has been canceled. Look for us next week, on 15 September, online at noon!

Youth Game Night for Sunday, 6 September, has been pushed back to the second Sunday, 13 September at 6pm, so as not to interfere with Labor Day. Game night will continue to be held online.

Sunday School for children at St. Thomas’ is taking the summer off, as is our normal rhythm. However, the Diocese of New Jersey is continuing to offer an online option: check it out!

Diocesan Approval for our re-opening plan has come! Many thanks to our Stay Safe Committee (Eric C., Maryann S., Barbara C., Wayne R., Sid D.) for carrying out this important work! Vestry is now at work preparing to put it into action: stay tuned!

Kitchen of Hope’s mission of combating food insecurity is more important than ever during this time of mass unemployment. Therefore we will be offering food distributions on two different Saturdays in August: the second and the fourth (12 September and 26 September). Volunteers are needed but you must sign up with Vivian H. and come only during your assigned shift so that we may continue to comply with state and Diocesan guidelines on social distancing!

Our turn to host Family Promise is coming up: 20-27 September. Our guests will not be staying in our building, but we will still be providing meals. Please communicate with Tal K. about helping out!

Pledging Report

	August	YTD
Pledged	$17,346.50	$127,174.50
Given	$13,387.65	$115,475.65
Fulfillment	77.2%	90.8%

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.

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 12:1-14, Psalm 149, Romans 13:8-14, Matthew 18:15-20

Lectionary readings for next week: Exodus 14:19-31, Psalm 114, Romans 14:1-12, Matthew 18:21-35

Please continue in your daily prayers for: Dennis, Marge, Brad, Joann, Ruth, 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

September Birthdays	September Anniversaries
3 Kelly R.	5 Gretchen and Tom O.
4 Nicole S.	7 Joan and Elvin D.
6 Bill C.	14 Wendy and Nathan S.
8 Deacon John H.	15 Kristin and Matt W.
9 Brandon K-H	16 Linda and Carl K.
10 Marie D.	18 Chrissy and Bill M.
11 Tina L.	20 Donna and John B.
14 Lenore L.	23 Sandy and Bill B.
16 John F.
21 June E.
21 Sandy B.
21 Bonnie D.
21 John T.
22 Olivia R.
22 Donna B.
24 Deacon Ken C.
25 Joan P.
27 Linda B.
30 Trudy G.

This Weekend Online

Saturday, 5.30pm: Evening Prayer
With Sunday lessons & homily.
Sunday, any time: Morning Prayer (pre-recorded)
Sunday, 9.00am: Online Sunday School with the Diocese of NJ
Sunday, 11.15am: Holy Eucharist with Spiritual Communion
at the Washington National Cathedral

Weekdays Online

Daily Morning Prayer (Monday through Saturday)
Monday, 4pm: Centering Prayer
Wednesday, 6.30pm: Prayer in the Evening
Check-in and a brief (5-minute) service of prayer.
Wednesday, 7.00pm: Bible Study with Bishop Stokes

Events hosted by St. Thomas’ are accessed via Zoom: instructions here.

The Diocese of NJ is offering Anti-Racism Training that you can pursue from home via a combination of live and recorded sessions. See the Diocesan website for more information or register now! Demand for the Diocese’s online Anti-Racism Training has been extraordinary and these sessions have filled very quickly.

The Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey Anti-Racism Ministry invites you to take advantage of time at home to enroll in 20 hours of virtual Anti-Racism Training streamed to your computer, tablet or mobile phone. The training takes a historical approach to help participants understand systemic racism and empower them to confront and organize against racism, inequality, and injustice. Lecture and discussion topics include “What is Race?”, “Systemic Racism and White Privilege,” “Internalized Racism,” “The Role of the Church,” “Settler Colonialism,” “Racism in Immigration and Naturalization Legislation,” and “The Prison Industrial Complex”.

The training begins on Sept 11 by Zoom videoconference, 7:00 to 9:00 PM. The training also includes Friday evening discussions and presentations (7:00 to 9:00 PM) Sept 18, Sept 25, and Oct 2, and participants receive reading assignments and recorded lessons throughout the course on Moodle, an online teaching platform.

The class will take place from 11 September through 2 October. There is a $50 fee, but scholarships are available. This course is open to everyone!

Notice from the Diocese of New Jersey

(Want to read this in your web browser?)

We’ve received reports from a number of churches/clergy/vestry people today of a new round of fake emails looking like this:

If you reply to the email, you’ll receive a followup, usually asking you to purchase gift cards for the bishop to give away. Neither the bishop nor the diocese will ever make such a request via email. Any such requests are fraudulent and should be ignored and deleted.

The FBI is warning about a rise in “phishing” scams–fake emails attempting to secure your personal or financial information–from criminals taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Churches are a particular target. Typically, scammers create a fake email similar to that of your priest or bishop, and then send out a request to a broad range of people in the church or diocese. Often, the person pretends to be the priest or the bishop and asks the recipient to buy gift cards and then email the numbers to them.

Other email scams involve offers to sell COVID-19 cures, or fake emails from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with links designed to install harmful software on your computer or get personal information from you.

Always ensure that email is from the named person before you share any information or make any purchases. Look closely at the email. Is it really from the stated person? Call the person to make sure.

Kathy I. passes along a lovely historical video of Glassboro. As you might imagine, both St. Thomas’ and Rich D. feature prominently! See it on YouTube.

We celebrate the saints:

Katharina Zell
Church Reformer and Writer, 1562

This Week at St. Thomas’

SINCE FRIDAY, MARCH 13 BUILDINGS CLOSED – NO EVENTS ON CAMPUS
MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY DAILY OFFICE The Daily Office is the cycle of prayers traditional to Christians (and Jews before us!) that we see hinted at in the Psalms and elsewhere. Join St. Thomas’ as we pray, Monday through Saturday. Morning Prayer is posted online each morning at 5am. You can listen to it at whatever time suits you. Compline (bed-time prayers) is at 9pm.

See a list of upcoming events or check them out on a calendar.