THE EPISTLE:

March 13, 2025

Stations of the Cross for Lent Returns TOMORROW, March 14

Every other Friday in Lent, beginning tomorrow, Friday, March 14th, the church will be open for anyone who'd like to walk through the fourteen Stations of the Cross. If you've never participated in the Stations, this is an opportunity to spend time in Lent enriching your soul with each Stations' powerful prayers, scripture readings, and physical movement in this special manner of following the Passion of Jesus. 



Join us tomorrow, Friday, March 14th, at 12:05pm, in the Nave, and make the Stations of the Cross a part of your Lenten season of devotion this year. And pray the Rosary for Lent next Friday, March 21st.

Holy Hike Rescheduled to Saturday, March 29

at 9 AM Due to Severe Weather Threat

Due to the threat of severe weather, our upcoming Holy Hike along the Tennessee Riverwalk Greenway has been rescheduled to Saturday, March 29th at 9am. This will be an out and back riverside hike approximately 3.75 miles roundtrip.

We’ll meet at the Kingston Pavilion parking lot at Ditto Landing which is on Ditto Landing’s southwest corner. There are restrooms onsite at the pavilion and at the marina office. Please contact Brett Byford with any questions at brettbyford59@gmail.com or 256.808.5776.

Ditto Landing: 293 Ditto Landing Rd SE, Huntsville, AL 35803. Map shown below.

Explore Greek Orthodoxy and Episcopalian Faith Together with Mtr. Katie

This Lent we move from Fr. Donavan’s class on orthodoxy to Mtr. Katie’s class about Orthodoxy — specifically, she will be talking about her life as an Episcopal priest married to a Greek Orthodox musician! We will continue our conversation in the parish hall THIS SUNDAY.

Spanish BCP's Needed for Honduran Medical Mission

Father David, the priest of Holy Trinity, La Ceiba, our partners for the March medical Mission, has asked for Spanish language prayer books. If you wish to donate, CLICK HERE for our Venmo or leave a check with the church office with "Honduras Prayer Books" in the memo line. The suggested donation is $25 per book. ¡Gracias!

This Sunday, we will commission our Honduran Medical Mission team as they prepare for their journey. Please join us in prayer and support as they travel to Honduras from March 22 to March 29.

UPCOMING

March 20 2025 Silver Saints Movie Matinee - Sully

With so many air events and near misses happening recently we though it might be good to show an air event with a happy ending. Please come join us at Silver Saints Movie Matinee to see the movie, Sully, starring Tom Hanks and others. Come join us in the St. Thomas Parish Hall at 1:00 PM on Thursday, March 20, 2025.

As always, the Silver Saints Movie Matinee offers fun and fellowship with our parishioners and visitors much like going to a theater, but free. We offer snacks and beverages, and we will even pick you up and return you home if you wish. We offer comfortable seating and a time-out break half way through the movie. Please bring your friends and ask people from our neighborhood. Call Jack or Becky Stokes at 256-881-4748, or the church office at 256-880-0247. Please call 24 hours ahead if you will need a ride. Please come join us and be happy.

Lenten Quiet Day - Five Ways FAITH can Free us from Anxiety & Worry -

NEW DATE,

Saturday, March 22nd

The entire parish is invited to join the Daughters of the King for a special Lenten Quiet Day led by Fr. Donavan on Saturday, March 22nd, from 9am - 2pm. Coffee and snacks will be available beginning at 8:30 AM in the Parish Hall, and Fr. Donavan will begin his timely program entitled "The Five Ways Faith can Free us from Anxiety & Worry" at 9am. A lunch will be provided at noon, and we will finish with open discussion, questions, and prayer.

In order to help us know how much food is needed for lunch, please let the church office know you plan to attend by RSVP'ing to stthomas@stthomashuntsville.org or calling the Kathie in the office. All who plan to attend, including DOK members, must RSVP by Wednesday, March 19. NO ONE WILL BE TURNED AWAY, but your RSVP ensures that we have lunch for you! 

Please plan on joining Fr. Donavan and the Daughters on Saturday, March 22nd, for this important discussion of how our faith can (and should!) be our greatest defense against worry, anxiety, and stress in the world and in our personal, day-to-day lives!

New Women's Group

New Ministry - Sisters in Faith

Are you in the mid portion of your life and looking for fellowship? Are you interested in getting to know your St. Thomas sisters better and have some fun? 

If so, please join us for a social/organizational meeting for a new ministry, Sisters in Faith, on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. in the Parish Hall. We envision this group meeting monthly for fellowship, spiritual renewal and other activities.  

If you plan to attend, please send an email to Donna Palumbo at dapal1961@gmail.com.  

Scrapbooking and Crafting Saturday, March 29

Scrapbookers and Crafters Event

Saturday, March 29

9 AM-3 PM, Parish Hall

Please join us Saturday, March 29, from 9-3 for fellowship and to work on your scrapbooking or crafting projects. Lunch will be provided. Contact Rebekah Callahan at 256-603-0219 if you plan to attend.

Save the Date: April 5 for a Racial Healing Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage for The Scottsboro Boys

Saturday, April 5, 11 AM - 2 PM

The fight for civil rights began in this state much earlier than most folks think. This 1931 trial, held in Scottsboro, where nine young black men were falsely accused and then convicted of raping two white women, became international news, highlighting the need for jury reform, and leading to two landmark Supreme Court rulings that established rights for criminal defendants. 

Our brothers and sisters in the southern part of our diocese invite folks to come walk the Jonathan Daniels pilgrimage in August. We would love your support and to invite folks here, to the "Northern Kingdom", to walk the way of a pilgrim, on a moral pilgrimage April 5. 

If you would like to join, please register HERE or visit https://www.dioala.org/event-details-id19/?id=310

Volunteers are needed for this event to be successful. Please consider ways you can help and CLICK HERE to sign-up or copy and paste the following link in your browser https://forms.office.com/r/7v11sNU40H.

Lenten Series on The Great Divorce Continues in Lent

We'll continue our Lenten Series every Wednesday in Lent at 6:15 PM in the Parish Hall with a deep dive into C.S. Lewis' classic, The Great Divorce. This short novel follows the tale of an observer who steps onto a bus in the "Gray Town" of Hell to travel with troubled souls to the possibility of entrance into Heaven! In the masterful way for which C.S. Lewis is known, Lewis opens up the struggles all of us have with sin and faith; he completely turns the traditional Christian ideas of Heaven and hell on their head without ever turning away from the Bible and the church's teachings. A special Taize Worship Service will begin each Wednesday program at 5:30 PM in the Nave, and a Lenten supper of homemade soup and salad will begin being served in the Parish Hall this year at 5:45 PM. There will be a concurrent Children's Lent program on the Parables that will meet in the Parlor.

The book is available for purchase in any format in your favorite online bookstores, or at the local Barnes & Noble. OR download a PDF eBook version of the book by clicking HERE. If you have any questions, call the church office or speak to Mtr. Katie this Sunday!

Taizé Prayer

Wednesdays in Lent 5:30 PM

Taizé Prayer is a distinctive style of meditative prayer developed by an ecumenical community of monks in rural France. This quiet, moving, reflective prayer combines elements of the Church's traditional Liturgy of the Hours with elements of contemplative meditation. A typical Taizé prayer service incorporates periods of silence with meditative readings from Scripture, prayers of praise and intercession, and the frequent repetition of simple, contemporary chants based on the Psalms or other parts of Scripture. Short songs or chants, repeated over and over, create a meditative environment and express fundamental realities of faith that the mind and the heart can easily grasp. The result is to move prayer from the head to the heart gradually.

LENT IS HERE!

Rite I 8am Eucharist Every Sunday

Go deeper into our Lenten worship at St. Thomas this year with the older liturgy of Rite I from the Book of Common Prayer every Sunday morning during the 8am Holy Eucharist. Rite I uses traditional English language and can help our worship together focus more profoundly on repentance and God's mercy during Lent. Mtr. Katie & Fr. Donavan and our 8am worship bulletins will help everyone at 8am make the changes in the prayers and responses this year, so get ready for the return of "The Lord be with you. And with THY SPIRIT!”

If you've never experienced the more traditional language and Anglican worship of the Rite I Holy Eucharist in the Episcopal Church, this is your opportunity to step back into the history of our church and follow Jesus more deeply into the desert over the forty days of Lent this year at St. Thomas.

Children's Chapel and Christian Formation Returns

Children and Youth Christian Formation Returns March 16

See the regularly scheduled Children and Youth Sunday School offerings by simply clicking the link below. You can also find both Adult and Treble Choir rehearsal times and times for Bell Choir rehearsals with just a simple click of the button below!

Sunday "Come As You Are" Eucharist

"Come As You Are"

5pm Holy Eucharist

This Sunday, and every Sunday, at 5pm in the Nave, you are invited to the "Come As You Are" Holy Eucharist at St. Thomas. The 5pm Holy Eucharist features joyful hymns from the Alleluia III hymnal, special gospel music chosen by our amazing pianist and organist, Sam Wright, and casual sermons preached from the floor.

Habitat for Humanity House

Calling all volunteers! Volunteers are needed for construction of this year’s Habitat house. The address is 4305 Blue Spring Rd NW. Please join in if you are able. Please contact George Harriman at 256-509-6666. We are also looking for a new lead contact person for Habitat for Humanity at St. Thomas, as our dedicated past leader, Elouisa Stokes, has stepped down after many years in that role.

First Stop Volunteers Needed!

St. Thomas serves a hot breakfast at First Stop on 206 Stokes Street in downtown Huntsville on the first and second Friday of each month to First Stop clients. We need more helpers to assist with preparing food and serving for the first Friday breakfast team. We serve from 8:15 – 9:00 a.m.

If you are interested in helping, please call Patty Moy 256-655-2756. Thank you!

Phone: 256.880.0247

Email: StThomas@stthomashuntsville.org