St. Thomas Tidings: March 13, 2025
St. Thomas Tidings: March 13, 2025
A collect for the Second Sunday of Lent: O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
March 13 is the memorial of Bishop James Theodore Holly, 1829-1911. He was the first Afro-American bishop in the Protestant Episcopal Church and spent most of his episcopal career as a missionary bishop of Haiti.
2025 Church Wall Calendars: 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.
St Martha’s Guild: Please join us at St. Martha’s Guild. We are a very friendly group that gathers each Tuesday morning. We crochet, knit and handcraft items. We would love to give free lessons in knitting and crocheting. This is also a great opportunity to build community and have a nice chat. We meet Tuesdays in Larkin Hall from 9:30-11:30 am.
Easter Floral Decorations: Please consider donating for our Easter Decorations in honor, memory or thanksgiving. Donation envelopes will be in the narthex. Please respond by Palm Sunday April 13, 2025 for your message to be in the Holy Week Bulletin.
Lenten Schedule
Stations of the Cross
Noon - Every Friday in Lent including Good Friday
Palm Saturday April 12, 2025: The Altar Guild is veiling crosses, decorating and making Palm crosses, for Palm Sunday, on Saturday April 12th at 9am. All Parishioners are welcome to help decorate or learn and or make Palm crosses.
Palm Sunday-Episcopal Rosary Making
Sunday, April 13 - 9:00-10:00 am (between Services) and 11:30am -12:30 pm (after 10:15 service)
Thursday, April 17 - Agape Meal (TBD)
Maundy Thursday
Good Friday
Friday, April; 18 (at St. Gregory’s)
Great Vigil of Easter
Saturday, April 19 – If there is sufficient interest in having this liturgy
Episcopal Relief & Development is offering Lenten Meditations with deep reflections from Jerusalem Jackson Greer on the divine gifts we find in community. Here are some ways your congregation can participate. Subscribe to daily email meditations Daily email meditations will be delivered to your inbox every day (except Sundays) starting March 5. These emails will include thoughtful questions to inspire your own reflections. Download the full booklet If you don’t want to receive meditations one at a time, you can download the full booklet of meditations at once, print it out or view it digitally at your own pace. This option is great for groups or for making printed versions available to your worshiping community.
April Canterbury Tales: We are in need of articles for the St. Thomas Canterbury Tales publication. Please send all article information to Bill Henderson at whender808@yahoo.com and Rick Fridrick at stlb47@verizon.net, or call the Church office. Articles should be submitted no later than noon on Monday, March 24, 2025.
St. Thomas Tiding: If you have any article/announcement for the tiding please send to Rick Fridrick at stlb47@verizon.net or call the Church office.
Update on California Fires: 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/
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/
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 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: These 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.
Reminder the Church office is open Monday-Friday: If you have any need, Rick Fridrick is in the Church office Monday-Thursday from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm and Friday from 9:00 am – Noon. 562-425-4457
Pastoral Care: If you have normal “every day” pastoral concerns, contact Rick in the office, or Allen at (714) 381-5910. But if you have more profound concerns (serious illnesses, deaths in the family, significant problems in coping with life’s challenges, etc.), please feel free to contact Fr. Michael Fincher (Rector at St. Gregory’s). Fr. Michael’s cell phone is (909) 373-6478.
We hope to have a more detailed pastoral care plan soon.