St Thomas Blog
Keep up to date with news and views from St Thomas Church!
God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and its Aftermath by Tom Wright.
Wednesday 17th June 2020
Book Review God and the Pandemic by Tom Wright So here’s the thing. While the world and life around our Christian Church and personally became a whirlpool, a maelstrom of uncertainty, confusion and unpredictability due to the coronavirus; while globally the relative stability of the fabric of international affairs has been severely disrupted: while those who have direct power over the quality of our own personal and national lives have been caught off guard in this crisis, compounding that with knee-jerk, impoverished decision-making with all its now devastating effects - Tom Wright’s book can be an enormous help to us personally, and corporately as the Church, in understanding how we should see our place now and the attitude, the character…
Trinity 1
Sunday 14th June 2020
Ian Totterdell, Churchwarden
This week Ian talks about how God is active to heal people and bring them to Himself, and how He wants His followers (i.e. us!) to join Him in that task. Read what he has to say here
Corpus Christi 2020
Thursday 11th June 2020
Following our practice for Ascension Day, we have recorded a simple Mass for Corpus Christi. You can read the talk here.
St Thomas Lockdown Library
Wednesday 10th June 2020
Jenny Tuckett
St Thomas Library is shut for the duration. So is the City Library. And we have all this extra time to read! Spotting a 'niche need' Ann in Wardrew Road started a small lockdown library by popping a few spare books on the wall outside her house, with a notice: ‘Take or swap a book and enjoy!’. Thus began St Thomas' Lockdown Library, now an established cultural feature and go to walking destination in these bleak days when libraries, bookshops, cinemas and theatres are all closed. Ann's venture has taken off, with many regular visitors including - most importantly – children, their parents, carers, neighbours and people from afar who have heard about it. Everyone has a story to…
Extracts from Karen William’s submissions to the Exeter ‘Coronavirus Community Diaries’ 2020
Tuesday 9th June 2020
Karen Williams has been kind enough to send a couple of her diary entries from the Facebook page for a Community Diary during this strange time. I hope she will send a few more! 8 April Here is a little something I wrote at the end of my first week of working from home, 27 March: Blog of the Week of Change Sipping my coffee in the warm sunshine, I reflected on how much better I was feeling. My eyes were not strained and dry, I did not feel stiff from sitting for long periods of time and I was comfortably warm: not too hot, and not too cold. My finances may be taking…
A Time to Mourn
Monday 8th June 2020
Rev Sarah Cumming
'A Time to Mourn' is a way of responding to the losses and disappointments many of us have experienced over the past few months of the pandemic. I invite you to join me tomorrow, Tuesday 9 June from 11am to 12 to mark what has happened in your life and family by bringing a ribbon to tie to the railings outside St Thomas Parish Church as a memorial to your own personal situation. I will have some ribbons with me if you need them I'll look forward to meeting you there tomorrow. With love and blessings Rev Sarah
Trinity Sunday
Sunday 7th June 2020
Susannah Cornwall
Read Susannah's words here as she helps us understand the Trinity and what it means to us today. You can also listen to it below.
Grant from Devon County Council
Thursday 4th June 2020
David Nixon
I am very pleased to report that we have been successful in a small grant application to Devon County Council's Covid19 emergency grant programme. We applied for help to pay postage and stationery for our mail-outs to support those who do not have internet connections. We have received £429. Thank you Devon
Thoughts about Bob Mounce
Thursday 4th June 2020
Mary Daunton
Here is an an ode to my “Right Hand Man” written by Mary
Judith works for 'Thy Kingdom Come'
Tuesday 2nd June 2020
Judith Southam
I have a couple of chronic conditions so I have some limitations in order to stay well. When the Covid19 lockdown occurred, I went quite mad volunteering for all kinds of nursing-related jobs; unfortunately, I was turned down or not called back. I felt useless, frustrated and angry! Then I was reminded from a Facebook page that I had another potentially useful skill: I can sew! I found out that the NHS, care homes, local surgeries, volunteer groups, neighbours and friends were desperate for scrubs, face masks, headbands with buttons, and scrub caps. I couldn’t sew up 3 sets of scrubs in a week as other sewers could but I could make smaller items like face masks, headbands and scrub…