501 Duncan Road, Wilmington, Delaware 19809
Did you know the American Red Cross supplies about 40% of our nation’s blood needs? St. Mark’s wants to help with that effort by hosting a blood drive from 2 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 9.
A sign-up sheet to donate and/or volunteer is on the bulletin board in the gathering space. Read more about eligibility to donate on the Red Cross website.
We hope you’ll join us and bring your friends and neighbors!
If you have any questions, please speak to Sandy Pierson.
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.
On Sunday, Oct. 6, we will host a Service of Honor and Blessing, marking the Brandywine Hundred Fire Company’s 100 years of service to our community. This will be part of our worship service, starting at 10:30 a.m. A reception will follow the service.
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 RAW Tools’ “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 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.”
If you’ve lost a loved one — a spouse, a parent, a sibling, a co-worker, your dearest friend — you know the anguish of such a loss and the hollow place that once was filled with that precious person.
How does life even work when such a powerful bond is severed? Often, it includes searing pain.
Cecilia Cronk knows that feeling. She lost her husband, Homer, in 2018, after 54 years of marriage. Three months after Homer died, Cecelia decided to join a GriefShare support group. She knows the strength it provided for her and the value of the connections made in those meetings, with others who understood.
Now she is helping to start a GriefShare group at St. Mark’s. The group, which already has five co-leaders and one external registrant, will start its first 13-week session at St. Mark’s at 7 p.m., Monday, March 4.
“Going to GriefShare meetings was such a comfort after Homer died,” Cecelia said. “I learned that it is OK that my grief journey was not the same as everyone else’s. Whereas there is no set roadmap for grief, I came to give myself permission to grieve
in my own way and on my own timetable.
“I was already a Christian, but I came to have an even closer walk with Jesus — partially as a result of the knowledge and support I gained from attending the GriefShare sessions. It is now time for me to share this peace and comfort with others.”
Each session includes a 30-minute video and a time of discussion. The series explores many facets of the grieving process, including loneliness, fear, anger, regrets, relationships, hope and more. A participant’s guide will be provided to each person in the group.
To get more information or register for the group, visit the “Find A Group” link on the GriefShare website, enter St. Mark’s ZIP code — 19809 — and click on the link for St. Mark’s March 4 meeting. You can register online in advance or at the door. There is no cost to participate, but donations are welcome.
GriefShare is an international ministry, part of Church Initiative, a nondenominational, nonprofit ministry serving more than 20,000 churches worldwide.
To hear from some who have participated in the past, watch the video below:
What Is GriefShare? – Find a Group from Church Initiative on Vimeo.
Our Lenten Meal and Service series starts Thursday, Feb. 22 and continues each Thursday through March 21.
Each week we’ll gather in the Great Room. We’ll have a soup and salad supper, starting at 5:30. Our service will start at 6:15, with a message from Pastor Kelley Ketcham.
The services also will be live-streamed on our YouTube channel.
Drinks will be provided. Soup, salad, bread and desserts will be provided by congregational volunteers. If you’re willing to help with that, please sign up on the bulletin board in the narthex.
It’s one of the best nights of the year — St. Mark’s annual lasagna dinner! This year, it happens at 6 p.m., Friday, Dec. 1 so mark your calendars and come hungry!
The meal includes all-you-can-eat lasagna, meatballs, salad, bread, a dessert and drink. And — don’t forget — tickets also give you early-bird access to St. Mark’s popular Christmas Bazaar, which opens to the public at 9 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 2.
Tickets are $20 each. And you can also take home a full pan of lasagna for an extra $30. Tickets will be sold on Sundays through November.
Come for the food, the fun, the fellowship and — oh yes! — that early-bird access!
St. Mark’s will present a unity Service of Love at 10 a.m. Sunday, June 11, where God’s radical love — shown through philia (brotherly love), eros (romantic love), and agape (unconditional love) — will be featured through scripture and song.
Family and friends are invited and encouraged to come and be a part of this beautiful event.
Following the service, a reception and special exhibits encompassing the three types of love will be on display in the Narthex.
We hope to see you on this joyous day!
We continue our Holy Week journey at St. Mark’s, reflecting together on the life, work and sacrifice of Jesus, celebrating His triumph over death and considering His call to action.
Our schedule includes worship in our sanctuary as well as livestream options on our YouTube channel. To find a specific service, click on the underlined text for a link. Join us in person or online as we worship our Lord!
Join us Sunday, November 27, as we start the Advent season with a new study called “Hallelujah! The Bible and Handel’s Messiah,” led by Margie Dodson.
We’ll meet at 10 a.m. in the Great Room for this four-week study.
“Messiah” is a wonderful way into the Bible. We will listen to the voice of God through the prophet Isaiah and the genius of George Frideric Handel’s most-beloved oratorio as we study, discuss and celebrate the birth of Jesus.
These are the portions in focus throughout Advent:
Thanksgiving week is here — can you believe it? — and we hope you will make time to reflect on the many reasons you have to be grateful. It’s an important practice — best done daily or perhaps multiple times a day!
We face many challenges in our lives and in our world, it is true, but gratitude does not deny that or turn away from it. Rather, gratitude helps us put things into proper perspective, reminds us of the goodness of our faithful Shepherd and calls us to put our thanks into action.
In the words of the old hymn by Johnson Oatman Jr.:
“When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged thinking all is lost
Count your many blessings, name them one by one
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done!”
God has done so much — and way more than we ever notice or realize.
Here are just five brief examples of things God has done at St. Mark’s in the past year:
You could add many more examples, we know! Write them down and bring them up when we’re talking together! Problems are real and stressful and may seem insurmountable at times. But God’s faithfulness is new every morning and it’s a healthy, essential practice to stop and recognize the goodness, beauty and joy God pours into our lives and our world.
It is important, too, to remember God’s words to Abram, when He called him to leave his native country and go to a new land:
“I will bless you … and you will be a blessing to others.” (Genesis 12: 2)
We are blessed not only for our own good, but also to be a blessing to others.
And this is where gratitude goes into action!
Please remember the blessings God has poured into our lives and make a fresh commitment to share those blessings and resources with St. Mark’s, with our community and with those in need around the world.
We are thankful for you and we pray for God’s blessing on you and all of yours, that we may all be a blessing to our world.