October 2020 – St. Mark's Online

October 21, 2020October 20, 2020

Midweek Extra: Joseph Wisniewski of Bellevue Community Center

Interim Pastor David Mueller and Joseph Wisniewski, executive director of the Bellevue Community Center

One of our closest neighbors, the Bellevue Community Center — located across Duncan Road from St. Mark’s — has served the community for more than 40 years, offering educational, recreational, self-enrichment, athletic, cultural and family support services and programming.

In this week’s Midweek Extra, Interim Pastor David Mueller talks with Joseph Wisniewski, executive director of the center, about its programs and plans.

Among the topics: Bellevue’s community garden, athletic programs, drug and alcohol abuse recovery programs, video production studio and (coming soon) an annex of the Wilmington Public Library. They also discuss how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the center and the plans to reopen the newly renovated front entrance, which has a new hydraulic elevator instead of the previous long, winding ramp.

You can watch their conversation on our YouTube channel, using the link below.

October 17, 2020

All Saints Day

All Saints Day falls on the first Sunday of November, a solemn occasion to remember loved ones we have lost and also to remember and recognize Christ’s victory over death. At St. Mark’s, the names of those who have died within the last year are read during the worship service. It is also our tradition to light candles at this time.

We invite you to submit the names of loved ones and friends who have passed away in the past year. so that we may include them during our service on November 1.

You may submit these names by submitting the form below, sending them by mail to St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 501 Duncan Rd., Wilmington DE 19809, by email to the office or by calling Cheryl in our office at (302) 764-7488. Please include your name, the name of the person you wish to remember and that person’s relationship to you.

Please respond by October 28.

October 17, 2020October 17, 2020

Praying together for St. Mark’s

Join us for real prayer in a virtual context, as we launch a new series of prayer meetings for our church, St. Mark’s Lutheran.

We’ll meet by way of the Zoom video conferencing software on the first Saturday of the month, starting November 7. We’ll pray from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. If you can’t join us online, we hope you’ll pray with us wherever you may be.

All are welcome. To get your Zoom link, fill out this form to contact organizer Margie Dodson.

October 10, 2020

The votes are in! We have a Call Committee!

Leadership Council President Kitty Dombroski

We have a Call Committee! Praise God!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Congregational Meeting on Sunday, Oct. 4. Using remote technology ensured that everyone had an opportunity to vote.

It was great to see all the members in person and also those who drove to St Mark’s and placed their paper ballot in the plastic bowl attached to the paint roller extension. I am sure it was quite a sight and it definitely added some levity to the inconvenience of not being able to all meet in person!

We needed 36 for a quorum and had 81 ballots. The Committee was elected with 75 votes.

Our Call Committee will start meeting with the Delaware-Maryland Synod Representative this month.

Please continue to pray for St Mark’s, the Call Committee and our new Pastor.

The Holy Spirit is at work!

Kitty Dombroski

President, St. Mark’s Leadership Council

News & People

Historic photo of Brandywine Hundred Fire Company No. 1

Celebrating the centennial of Brandywine Hundred Fire Company No. 1!

September 21, 2024

Did you know St. Mark’s has strong ties with Brandywine Hundred Fire Company No. 1, stretching back more than 80 years? Our first service was held on the second floor of the company’s fire house on Jan. 11, 1942. We moved to our current site almost a decade later, and our first service was held in our new building on Christmas Eve 1951. When a disastrous fire broke out in our building in May of 1969, our firefighting neighbors rushed to our aid. You can read more about that fire and our history on our website. This year, Brandywine Hundred Fire Company No. 1 marks its 100th anniversaryand we have plans to join their celebration and honor these first responders.

Get into something good with us this summer!

June 1, 2024

Join us as we launch our new summer schedule and get into something good together! Our summer schedule starts Sunday, June 2, with adult education at 9 a.m., fellowship at 10 and a single worship service at 10:30 a.m. Pastor Kelley will lead our first adult education class of the summer (9 a.m. on June 2), as we discuss the recent visit of Shane Claiborne, a Christian activist from Philadelphia who works for peace and non-violence in local, national and international initiatives. He demonstrated the work of the RAW Tools project during his visit on May 25, using the hammer and anvil in the photograph above to show how lethal weapons can be transformed into useful tools. God does transformative work in us, too, as we connect for study, prayer, worship and service. We also have plans to get together at community events this summer, using those opportunities to get to know each other better and get to know our neighbors better, too. We hope you’ll join us as this new summer journey begins!

Swords to Plowshares: ‘Youtherans’ host Shane Claiborne at St. Mark’s May 25

May 22, 2024

Join us Saturday afternoon, May 25 for a very special event as the “Youtherans” and Lutheran churches (ELCA) in Delaware and Maryland welcome Shane Claiborne and the “Swords to Plowshares: Forging Peace. Disarming Hearts” project to St. Mark’s. Using a forge and a hammer, Claiborne will demonstrate how weapons of violence — guns that were donated, broken down and decommissioned — can be turned into garden tools and other instruments of peace. The public event will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. at St. Mark’s parking lot. The Raw Tools project draws its inspiration from a Scripture passage in Isaiah: “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, they will train for war no more. Everyone will sit under their own vine and fig tree. No one shall make them afraid.” Also participating Saturday will be the Rev. Raymont Anderson, a survivor of gun violence and a representative of the Newark chapter of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence. Claiborne is the co-author of “Beating Guns: Hope for People Who are Weary of Violence.” He worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India, and is the founder of The Simple Way in Philadelphia and the leader of Red Letter Christians, a movement of folks committed to living “as if Jesus meant the things he said.” In 2023, he received The King Center’s Beloved Community Award for Social Justice from Dr. Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. “We do more than turn guns into garden tools. We are turning violence into peace. We are turning fear into trust. Through relationship, dialogue, and resources, we are welcoming neighbors with loving arms rather than bearing arms. Join us.”