June 19th, 2022

We'd love for you to join us!

We would be pleased if you joined us in person or online from the comfort of your home for church services via Facebook Live at 9:30am.

https://www.facebook.com/StJamesEpiscopalChurchMillCreek/

Settling into the Gospels after the Great Fifty Days of Easter, Pentecost Sunday, and Trinity Sunday is like settling in to watch a movie that’s already halfway over. We hear a story, and we don’t always know the context or what’s happened prior or what the significance of it will be. This week’s story is no different as we encounter that unsettling moment when Jesus and the disciples go across “to the other side” and encounter a man who is possessed by demons and living amongst the tombs.

It’s a strange story for a few reasons. One reason is that it takes place in an area where the disciples were likely told never to enter. There’s a conversation between Jesus and the forces that are, apparently, occupying the man. And then, finally, there’s the casting of the demons into a nearby herd of swine that then fling themselves into a body of water, leaving the pig farmers without their primary form of income.

So much is happening that we miss that the disciples are witnessing another cosmic encounter between forces of good and evil and that Jesus is doing another bit of work in the form of liberating the oppressed from their oppressor, declaring freedom to the captive, and finding another disciple along the way. In our own world, there are still so many forms of oppression taking place, so many people still held captive by something else, or someone else, and we pray for the liberating power of Christ to set us free, to set them free, so that we might know His love instead of whatever the world is selling us.

I wonder, though, about those times when we are the oppressor and not the oppressed, when we’re the possessor and not the possessed. What do we hold in our grip, personally or communally, that Jesus is calling us to let go that it can be free to be what God wills it to be?

Monday Morning Bible Study Takes a Summer Break!

Our Monday Morning Bible Study will be taking a brief break during the month of July. We’ll resume our meetings on August 1. Enjoy your break, and we hope you’ll rejoin us when we resume!

Wednesdays at 10 AM - Off For July

Our Wednesday morning services will take a hiatus during the month of July. Wednesday services will resume on August 3 at 10 AM.

St. James’ Night at the Ballpark!

Are you a baseball fan? Would you like to spend the night at the ballpark with members of our St. James’ family? Or would you just like to see fun fireworks show one Friday evening?

If you’d like to join us for a night at the Blue Rocks, please contact the office at 302-994-1584 or Jerry Clark at 302-354-4839. Tickets will be around $14/person, and transportation will be dependent upon the number of people who sign up.

Please let us know by July 6 if you’d like to join us, and we hope to see you there!

Celebration of New Ministry

On Wednesday, June 22, 2022 at 6:00pm, we will come together to celebrate the new ministry between St. James’ Episcopal Church and our new Rector, the Rev. Ben Rockwell. At this celebration, the Rt. Rev. Kevin S. Brown will join us, along with visiting clergy from around our diocese, in a liturgical celebration. COVID willing, a reception will follow in the Parish Hall. Please mark your calendars, and we hope you’ll join us!

Summer Prayer Team UPDATE

During the summer months, the prayer team will continue to lift up prayer requests shared by parishioners through emails to the church office at 302-994-1584 or to individual members of the prayer team. We collect the prayer requests and other concerns of the parish, community, and world. Then these requests are lifted up in the daily prayers of the team members. All are welcome to share their prayer requests and we hope you will consider joining us when our monthly prayer services resume in the fall on Sunday, September 11th. More information to follow.

For those who have an immediate prayer need, we invite you to email your prayer needs/requests to Carolyn Mack at cdmack37@gmail.com or call 302-565-8675

Celebrating this Year's Graduates 

My name is Jordan Harrold-Mansk. In January I finished my Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education with a certificate in Special Education. I graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 3.93 GPA. A few weeks after completing my degree, I took a position teaching second grade to cover a maternity leave that lasted till mid-April. Since then, I have started my Master's degree in Applied Technology in Education and have been working as a substitute teacher in Red Clay Consolidated School District. I plan to continue to do so throughout the next school year until I complete my program next summer. From there I plan to look for a job teaching in Red Clay where I’ll have my own classroom.

My name is Joel Harrold-Mansk, I graduated from Delcastle Technical High School, with a 3.98 GPA. I chose to do technical drafting which dealt with mechanical and architectural engineering. In that class some of the things we did were redesigning a kitchen and building a model of it, using AutoCAD to make a water gear pump, modeling a house, and creating a puzzle. We also participated in ACE Mentoring which was after school program that had people from the construction industry work with us on a project for that term. In my sophomore year we redesigned our school's library. We also went to construction sites and fabricating firms that dealt with drafting. Now I plan to attend Del tech community college I have decided to go into digital media with the hope of learning 3d modeling. After that I plan to continue the rest of my 2 years with Wilmington university.

Samuel Alexander Manthorpe, who was named an Eagle Scout this March, is graduating from Saint Mark’s High School. He has been granted a scholarship to attend the Universal Technical Institute in Exton, Pennsylvania.

His sister, Rebecca Margaret Manthorpe is graduating from Drexel University with a Bachelor of Science Magna Cum Laude in the Honors Program for Environmental Engineering. She has passed the Engineer In Training (EIT) Exam and has accepted employment with Churchill Consulting Engineers Company in Winslow Township, near Berlin, New Jersey.

Proud parents, Wendy and Clayton Manthorpe

Proud Grandparents, Eric and Fran Mayhew

Serving those in need with dignity and respect…

We are grateful for your support that enables us to

serve lunch at the Emmanuel Dining Room

and provide clothing, food, and other items

needed by those being served at the Hope Center.

St. James' Mission and Outreach updates

Sharing God’s gifts with others.

Thank you all for your generosity and caring that made and make these offerings possible. 

Emmanuel Dining Room

In the past, we have served from 140-200 lunches to our friends at Emmanuel Dining Room on the 31st of the month (7 times per year). Covid brought new challenges and we were able to provide the lunch “fixings”, but not help in the kitchen OR serve the meals. From March 2020 until April 2022, guests were provided a “take away” lunch that they picked up outside the dining room and had to eat elsewhere.

We are happy to say, WE ARE BACK in the kitchen and serving guests in the dining room.

On our next lunch date—Sunday, July 31st, our guests will enjoy tuna subs, chips, bananas, and homemade cookies and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to take away for later. 

• Please join us in the Parish Hall kitchen on Saturday, July 30th at 9 a.m. to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as an extra snack or meal for later for our guests being served the next day. (Masks and gloves, please.)
• If you'd like to provide some homemade cookies (or store-bought cookies), please bring them to the Parish Hall kitchen marked EDR by Sunday, July 31st. You are welcome to put homemade cookies into the freezer to keep them fresh.
• Questions: please text or call Pat Minor 302-983-6299 or Cindy Fauerbach 302-584-8053.
• 
  

Hope Center and Friendship House

We continue to provide clothing items, snacks, food, toiletries and hygiene items, children's books and toys, diapers, laundry detergent, etc. for those being served at the Hope Center and Friendship House. Collection boxes are inside the front door of the church and Monday-Thursday a box is outside the Parish Hall.

Meals on Wheels

Meals on Wheels volunteers deliver lunch and some evening meals to our neighbors in Murray Manor. Our next week to deliver meals is June 27-July 1.

Family Promise

Our next week offering meals and caring to families participating in Family Promise is August 7-14. At this point, guests continue to live in the cottages at the Jesus House off Milltown Road. We’ll let you know if that changes and we are able to return to providing our families with lodging, snacks, and dinners in our parish hall.

Prayer Team

One Sunday of every month, the members of the prayer team hold a “virtual” ZOOM prayer service (focusing on the prayer requests shared by parishioners through calls or emails to the church office 994-1584 or to individual members of the prayer team.) We lift up these prayer requests and other concerns of the parish, community, and world.

Also, weekly we share the prayers and petitions that have been given to us and they are lifted in the daily prayers of the team members. All are welcome to provide their prayer requests and participate in these services.

For those who have an immediate prayer need or would like to receive the ZOOM codes and join the prayer team service, we invite you to email your prayer needs/requests to Carolyn Mack at cdmack37@gmail.com or call 302-565-8675

NOTE: Our next ZOOM prayer team will be Sunday, September 11th at 5 p.m.

St. James' Pastoral Care Team

St. James' Pastoral Care Team continues to support our parish family and our community.

If you or someone you know is in need, we: 

·        send cards, make phone calls, and pray with you and/or for you.

·        For now, in an abundance of caution, our home, hospital, and Eucharistic visits are on hold.

Please call the office (302-994-1584) and leave a message. Someone will get back to you. Messages are retrieved daily, seven days a week.

Please let us know if you need us or someone you know needs us. We will not know if you do not tell us.

“Blessful” Meditations

We all know that life can be a little stressful and hectic sometimes. We hope that by reading this short bible passage and watching a relaxing video will help you take a moment and reflect on God’s gifts.  

Romans 15:7

"Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God."

Prayer for Today

O God:

Give me strength to live another day;

Let me not turn coward before its difficulties or prove recreant to its duties;

Let me not lose faith in other people;

Keep me sweet and sound of heart, in spite of ingratitude, treachery, or meanness;

Preserve me from minding little stings or giving them;

Help me to keep my heart clean, and to live so honestly and fearlessly that no outward failure can dishearten me or take away the joy of conscious integrity;

Open wide the eyes of my soul that I may see good in all things;

Grant me this day some new vision of thy truth;

Inspire me with the spirit of joy and gladness;

and make me the cup of strength to suffering souls;

in the name of the strong Deliverer, our only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Find more Morning Psalm and prayers please visit

https://delaware.church/psalms-and-prayers/