501 Duncan Road, Wilmington, Delaware 19809
Join us for our 24th annual St. Mark’s Christmas Bazaar, which will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7.
This popular community event offers unique handmade gifts and crafts, gift baskets, floral arrangements, soups and baked goods, a selection of “white elephant” items and a fun Christmas Lionel train display! Check it out and find something that suits you and yours!
No matter what the circumstances, grief is a painful process. If you are in the midst of this, we invite you to join our GriefShare support group for people dealing with the death of a family member or friend. We meet at 7 p.m. Mondays through December 9 in the Seminary Room.
GriefShare is a safe, welcoming place where people understand the difficult emotions of grief. We provide relief and comfort as those grieving learn what to expect during the grief process and how to navigate their personal grief processes.
Topics include how to manage grief-related emotions such as loneliness, anxiety, sadness, anger and regret, how to cope with the changes to life and relationships and how to recognize what’s normal in grief.
If you have questions or would like more information, please contact Cecelia Cronk or check out the GriefShare website.
GriefShare is an international ministry, part of Church Initiative, a nondenominational, nonprofit ministry serving more than 20,000 churches worldwide.
Learn more by watching this GriefShare video:
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.
Join us as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Brandywine Hundred Fire Company No. 1, with which we have historic ties! We have two plans to mark this special year:
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.
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.
St. Mark’s will host an Ash Wednesday service starting at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 14. Our neighbors at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant will join us.
If you can’t be with us in person, you can join us remotely on YouTube.
For those unable to attend the evening service, Pastor Kelley Ketcham will also offer “Ashes to Go” in the church parking lot from noon to 1 p.m. Pull up outside the main entrance and Pastor Kelley will come to your car, offer ashes, prayer and a short litany. There is no need to leave your car.
St. Mark’s 22nd annual Christmas Bazaar returns Saturday, Dec. 2, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
As in years past, you’ll find crafts of many kinds, an assortment of homemade soups, baked goods, floral arrangements, gift baskets and — oh yes! — the fun Lionel train display that so many have enjoyed.
Admission is free!
A special season is fast approaching! Here are our plans for worship throughout Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve — please join us!
7 p.m., Tuesday, November 21: Pastor Kelley will participate in the Community Thanksgiving Service at Holly Oak Calvary Methodist Church, 1511 Philadelphia Pike, Wilmington. Let’s join in this thanksgiving gathering!
8:30 a.m. to noon. Set apart time in our beautiful sanctuary to prayerfully meditate on Advent, the coming of the Christ, and to know him as Emmanuel — the “God-with-us” — who has the power to transform our hearts, our lives and even this broken world in which we live. Meditative Advent music will enhance the experience and an Advent Prayer Guide will be supplied. (More details below.)
10 a.m. — Joint worship service with our neighbors at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant (503 Duncan Road).
4 p.m. — Contemporary Family Worship at St. Mark’s
8 p.m. — Traditional Candlelight Worship at St. Mark’s
10 a.m. – Joint worship service at St. Mark’s