St. Thomas ELCA Lutheran Church

Menu

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Mission, Vision, and Values
    • History
    • Staff
    • Governance
    • Building use by outside groups
    • Ecumenical and interfaith relationships
  • Visit
    • Newsletters
    • Useful information
  • Worship
    • Worshiping In Place
    • Sermons
    • What is liturgical worship?
    • Welcoming Children in Worship
    • Prayer Ministry
    • Music Ministry
    • Visual Grace
    • Worship & the Arts Concert Series
  • Learn
    • Children’s Formation
    • Youth Formation, Youth Group, Confirmation, and Worship Leadership
    • Adult Formation
  • Connect
    • Sociability
    • Lovingkindness – circles of care and affection
    • Spiritual Growth Groups
    • Blessed remembrance
  • Act
    • Our Congregation is a Mission Center
    • Doing justice – support, accompaniment, and advocacy
    • Loving mercy – helping our neighbors
    • Walking humbly with God – creation care and eco-justice
  • Community Garden

Loving mercy – helping our neighbors

What could it mean to love mercy?
We could grow more aware of the sufferings of others –
We could find greater compassion growing in our hearts –
We could look for ways to help without hurting or shaming –

Our neighbors are hungry. How do we help? Support for ELCA World Hunger and Monroe County United Ministries are budgeted items for us, a commitment by the Council on behalf of the whole congregation. Members bring food for the MCUM food pantry and the New Hope for Families shelter every Sunday. The annual Church World Service Crop Walk has broad support in the congregation – we’ve had a walking team every year since 1990. We have an annual collection for Bread for the World, and individual members support many more relief agencies.

Our neighbors are homeless. How do we help? Support for local shelters is a budgetary commitment and individual members serve as volunteers in Bloomington’s Interfaith Winter Shelter. We have a member on the board of Middle Way House, and a liaison with New Hope Shelters.

Gathering winter coats for refugees

Our neighbors are in need. How do we help? In many ways, great and small. Our Sunday School children work each year on a child-size mission project; recent projects have been malaria nets and a preschool in Chile. A group of St. Thomas members works with the local chapter of St. Vincent de Paul – also a budgetary commitment – to help sustain households in need. And members are involved in a multitude of community efforts.

Could we do more? Of course we could. If your heart is calling you to the work of mercy, make it known! The Mission Committee meets monthly to sustain and develop this congregation’s work in the world and can help you find allies and structures at St. Thomas to support your vision.

fruit treesThe Creation Windows: God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” (Genesis 1: 29-30)

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • More
  • Email
  • Print
  • Search

    Generic selectors
    Exact matches only
    Search in title
    Search in content
    Search in posts
    Search in pages
  • Community Life at St. Thomas

    • Grieving In Place
    • Newsletters & Letters to the Congregation
    • Sermons
    • St. Thomas Community Garden
    • St. Thomas Facebook Page
    • Worshiping In Place
  • Local and Regional Mission Partnerships

    • Beacon – Solutions for People In Poverty
    • Community Kitchen of Monroe County
    • Earth Care
    • ELCA Lutheran Campus Ministry at Indiana University
    • Hoosier Interfaith Power & Light
    • Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Indiana/Kentucky
    • Middle Way House
    • Monroe County United Ministries
    • Mother Hubbard's Cupboard
    • New Hope For Families
    • Shalom Center
  • National and Global Mission Partnerships

    • ECHO – Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization
    • Indiana/Kentucky Synod Global Missions
    • KIVA
    • Lutheran Church of Living Waters, Cherokee, NC
    • Public Health Education for Health, Chile (EPES)
    • Sister Parish
    • The Water Project
  • Wider Lutheran Connections

    • Augsburg Fortress Press
    • Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
    • Indiana-Kentucky Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church
    • Living Lutheran Magazine
    • Lutheran World Relief
    • Reconciling Works – Lutherans for Full Participation
  • Support Our Missions


    Donate to St. Thomas
  • Meta

    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org
  • Contact Us:

    3800 E. Third St.
    Bloomington, IN 47401
    812-332-5252
    Office Hours:
    Monday - Friday, 9am to 5pm

    Send us a message:

    Email the Church Office
    Email the Webmasters

  • RIC logo

    St. Thomas is a Reconciling in Christ congregation. We welcome lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender believers.

  • Safe Sanctuaries

  • Powered by WordPress.com.
Go to mobile version
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.