St. Thomas Tidings: January 16, 2025
There is no special commemoration in the calendar of saints. Our collect for the day is the collect from this past Sunday: Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
Epiphany Lessons & Carols This Sunday: We are invited to join our St. Gregory’s siblings for Lessons & Carols at 4pm Sunday. The service is free and open to all – no need to RSVP. A freewill offering will be taken and all donations will be gratefully accepted. There will be a reception afterwards in their parish hall. St. Gregory’s is at 6201 E. Willow St, Long Beach.
Annual Reports Due Sunday: In preparation for the Annual Meeting on February 2, we need to produce the Annual Report. All persons responsible for a ministry program or group (you know who you are) should submit written reports of the year’s activities to the church office, and to Allen Stout, no later than the end of day on January 19. Reports need to be in Word or Word-compatible format and emailed to stlb47@verizon.net and astout1176@gmail.com. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Annual Meeting Reminder: We will have one service at 9:00am, followed by our Annual Meeting in Larkin Hall. Please make every effort to attend the Annual Meeting as we begin to discern God’s call for us as we move forward as a community. Your voice needs to be heard!
Taizé January 22: Please come to the sanctuary at 6:15pm on Wednesday, January 22 for our service of prayer, Scripture, and chanting. If you’ve never come before, please join us – and bring a friend who might enjoy this short, simple service.
Wall Calendars are Here: The calendars that were donated by Luyben Dilday have arrived. There is a small stack in the narthex, and more in the church office. Please feel free to take them and give them to friends or keep them for yourself. They have our church information on them, so they make great evangelism tools.
Update on California Fires: We are heartbroken by the devastation caused by the fires in the Los Angeles area. Confirmed destroyed are St. Mark’s Church and School in Altadena; St. Matthew’s School in Pacific Palisades, and both rectories of St. Matthew’s Church; the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center in Pasadena; and countless homes of our siblings in Pacific Palisades, Altadena, Pasadena, and the Greater Los Angeles Area. Please pray for those killed and injured, and for those who have lost their homes. If you would like to contribute to the Diocesan relief efforts, you can donate to the One Body & One Spirit fund, which will be used for fire relief: https://diocesela.org/annual-appeal/ Also, Episcopal Relief & Development has established a “Wildfire Response Fund” to help with recovery in our diocese. You can donate to that fund at https://www.episcopalrelief.org/what-you-can-do/give/donate-now/individual-donation/
Checking In: While we at St. Thomas are currently physically safe from the fires, I’m well aware that many of us have friends and family who have been affected. We also may have people in our own community whose places of employment are affected. Please let Mother Sharon or Allen Stout know if you need financial or spiritual assistance. Please let us know as well if you would be interested in helping in other ways (opening your home to someone displaced by the fire, providing temporary shelter for pets, etc.) so that we can connect you with the right resources.
Prayers for those Besieged by Fire: Episcopal Relief & Development has a number of prayer resources on their webpage. Here is one: Almighty God, who is our strength and our refuge; be with those who are besieged by fire, guide those who evacuate so that they may find care and comfort in a safe place; protect their homes and their pets, their neighbors and their friends, so that they may return home to a loving community. We ask this in the name of Jesus your son, who abides with you and with the Holy Spirit. Amen. For more resources, go to https://www.episcopalrelief.org/church-in-action/worship-resources/let-us-pray/wildfire-prayers/
Offering Book Update: We’ve been told by the printer that we should have our books by the end of the month. If you have any 2024 envelopes left, you are welcome to use them and just cross out the old date. If you don’t have any old envelopes, please use any convenient envelope and make sure your name and your pledge number are on that envelope. We apologize for the inconvenience, and we give thanks for your help and for your support of our mission and ministries.
Service Reminder: All our services stay on our Facebook page so you can view them whenever it’s convenient for you. It’s always better to view a service later in the day than not at all! The link to the page for all our services is here: https://www.facebook.com/Saint-Thomas-of-Canterbury-Episcopal-Church-of-Long-Beach-CA-124554214274325
Share Our Services: Please feel free to share our Morning Prayer and Sunday services. The more people we reach, the better we do at evangelism. People are hungry for what we have to offer, and I encourage you to do your part to share our services with your friends and neighbors. Send them the link when you email them, invite them to join you on Facebook or in person… whatever way works best for you to share what we have to offer.
Episcopal News Updates: The email updates from the diocese are a great way to stay informed about what’s happening all over our six-county diocese. If you want to receive the Episcopal News, visit https://diocesela.org/episcopal-news/contact/ and enter your email address in the box provided.
In Case of Emergency: Notify your priests! With our combined ministry program comes additional coverage for pastoral emergencies. In the event of a hospital stay, illness, death in the family, or other pastoral emergency, please call Mother Sharon on her cell phone (562-833-3393) any day except Friday, her Sabbath day. Father Michael Fincher covers emergencies in both communities on Friday, just as Mother Sharon covers emergencies in both parishes on Monday, Father Michael’s Sabbath. Father Michael’s cell phone is 909-373-6478.