Please wear a mask into and out of the church.
If you do not bring a mask with you, one will be provided. FROM THE OFFICE Staff will be working in the office and from home. If you
need immediate assistance during our absence, please contact Pastor Jeff at 570-220-3631 or Sarah Young 570-932-1753. We will respond to your emails and calls as soon as possible, from the office and remotely. Thank you.
NEW WORSHIP TIME We moved to one weekly in-person worship service, at9:30AM. For those continuing to worship online, a recorded service will also be broadcast at 9:30AM. The reason for the change is twofold: 1) In-person attendance has been lower than expected; 2) Finding help for two services (music,lectors, communion helpers) is proving difficult. This is intended to be a temporary change, but will be in effect through at least the end of August or until otherwise announced. Thank you for being patient as we adjust to extraordinary
times!
ORGANIST/CHOIR DIRECTOR St. Luke Lutheran Church, Williamsport, PA
seeks a part-time organist/choir director for playing Sunday morning and other services along with leading the church choir. Those interested in the position should contact St. Luke Church office at info@stlukeweb.com or 570-323 -7309 for an application and full job description.
VISITING? If you’re not a member or regular attendee of St Luke Church but
have been “visiting” us during this time of online worship, we’d love to connect
with you! If you’ve been watching from afar or have just been using this time to “check us out” online, please send us an email at info@stlukeweb.com !
LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF SCHOOL KITS contain essential supplies that
help children, and in some cases, adults, continue learning in the face of serious obstacles. Learning leads to a better life for them, their families and their communities. With our help that goal can be reached. The collection basket is located in the in the Bell Hall glass vestibule (across from the office entrance) for your donations. Look for office supply sales where you can find the best prices for the needed items:
- 70 sheet notebooks of ruled paper, 8”x 10 ½”
- 30 centimeter ruler or a ruler with centimeters on one side and inches on the other.
- Pencil sharpeners
- Blunt scissors (safety scissors with embedded steel blades)
- Unsharpened pencils with erasers
- Black or blue ballpoint pens (no gel ink)
- Box of 16 or 24 crayons
- 2 ½” eraser
FOOD PANTRY Please read carefully as instructions have changed.
The St. Luke Service Ministry invites you to join your fellow members, family and
friends during these difficult times to fill “disposable” grocery bags with grocery
items for the Food Pantry. The food collection basket is now located in the Bell
Hall glass vestibule (across from the office entrance) for your donations. Please do
not use our St. Luke canvas bags, due to the COVID19. Thank you. Trish
Whelan and her son, Danny will check the basket and deliver the food to the
United Churches Food Pantry, as needed. The pantry can always use any kind
of: soup, ramen noodles, pasta, macaroni and cheese, granola bars, canned
chicken or tuna, tea bags, hot chocolate packet, coffee, pop tarts, saltines, oatmeal
packets, sugar, flour, ketchup, mustard, and all canned fruits and vegetables.
BLOOD DRIVE St. Luke Blood Drive Friday, August 14 th from 1:00PM-
6:00PM in Bell Hall. Please schedule an appointment at 1-800-733-2767 or visit
RedCrossBlood.org and enter: Williamsport to schedule an appointment.
Return to Worship Plan: St Luke Lutheran Church
What we’re asking you to do:
Please wear a mask into and out of the church. If you do not bring a
mask with you, one will be provided.
Please do not sing upon our initial return. This was as hard a decision to
make as it is to hear, but most experts are saying that group singing increases
the chances of transmission exponentially. It is believed that singing was the
major factor in those instances where churches in other states have opened
and re-closed due to multiple cases of the virus among their members who
were in attendance.
Please socialize outside of the church building. Perhaps one of the things
we are all looking most forward to is the opportunity to greet and fellowship
with one another. During the first few weeks, we ask that you do most of
your socializing outside of the building. You can certainly continue to talk
once inside, but we ask that you proceed directly into the Nave and not stand
around in hallways or other spaces. For socializing, feel free to catch up in
the courtyard, prattle on in the parking lot, or fraternize on the front lawn!
Once inside, proceed to your seat and sit only in places marked by a
bulletin. Bulletins will be placed at a six feet distance from each other,
every other pew. This restriction does not apply to members of the same
household, who may sit closer together. However, we ask that they not sit in
pews with no bulletins and give ample room for others to sit in the
remaining designated spaces.
Please use non-touch means of passing the peace. As we did in the weeks
leading up to quarantine, please use gestures like the peace sign, bowing,
etc. Bonus points may be offered for creative greetings.
Please leave nothing in the pews. Take your bulletin and anything else
with you. This will help in the efforts to sanitize the space between services.
It’s kind of a shame that we won’t get to see your bulletin-doodles, though.
This may seem like a lot, but please know that these measures are intended to be
temporary, until there is more evidence that the risk of infection has significantly
decreased.
Other measures that are being taken:
Because it involves the sharing of food, the practice of communion will
be adapted.
o Servers will use gloves.
o We will use communion wafers rather than sharing a loaf of bread.
o There will be no common cup. The elements will be served in
disposable cups for the wine/juice and condiment cups for the wafer.
o Distribution of the elements will be done differently – please note the
instructions at the beginning of the service.
The hymnals will be removed to avoid having additional items to clean
between services. The bulletin will include the entire service.
Children should remain in their seats during the children’s message,
rather than coming forward. Pastor Jeff believes that we’re all children at
heart anyway, so he’s looking forward to giving the children’s message to
the entire congregation.
The service will be shortened to reduce the amount of time spent indoors.
The focus will be on the essentials: Word, prayers, and communion.
The restrooms in West Hall will remain open, but all will be encouraged
to wash thoroughly after use.
The offering plates will not be passed. Instead, plates will be placed in the
aisles and at the back of the church for you to place the offering either before
or after the service.