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

What is liturgical worship?

stlc elements

Keeping each other safe during COVID
We are worshiping virtually now at 11 am Sunday mornings – you can find details and links at Worshiping In Place. Please visit our homepage and specific ministry pages to see how we are adapting our shared ministry to this challenge.


What’s it like to worship at Saint Thomas?
Sunday morning worship at St. Thomas follows the same pattern almost every week. We begin with prayer and praise, then hear three readings from the Bible and sing a psalm together. There’s a sermon, a hymn, a shared reading of the Apostles’ Creed, and a time of shared prayer, the Prayers of the People. These include prayers for the church, peace among nations, faithful care of creation, healing, and other matters of concern to the members. A list of people who have requested prayers is kept and all are lifted up in prayer.

At the end of the Prayers of the People, we greet one another with the Peace of Christ. Then comes the Offering. Some people make an offering of money. Some people make an offering of their hopes and intentions, or even their questions and doubts. There’s always an offering of music as well. After we give thanks together for all these offerings, we begin the service of Holy Eucharist.

The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. [1 Corinthians 11:23-26]

The bread and wine of Holy Communion are our sharing in this heavenly banquet. You are invited to share it with us. Through it we are connected to Christians all over the world and throughout time. After everyone who comes forward has received, there are a few more prayers and blessings, a hymn, a dismissal, and a postlude.

Worship that follows this pattern is usually called liturgical worship and the service itself is called liturgy . As liturgical churches go, St. Thomas is middle-range – our worship is dignified and orderly, but not starchy or formulaic. If liturgical worship is new to you, you may find it takes you a few weeks to become accustomed to it – but Christians have worshiped this way for many hundreds of years, so we hope you’ll take time to give it a chance.

About forty people work together every Sunday to realize this expression of worship. The presider, preacher, assisting minister, and acolyte are all easy to see – they’re wearing white albs. Don’t forget to count the readers, the choirs, the choir director, the children’s choir director, the organist, the ushers, the greeters, the servers. Behind the scenes, volunteers have washed and polished the altar dishes, arranged flowers, and looked after the candles, vestments, and the altar linen. Almost all these people are volunteers. And there’s also the congregation, everyone gathered together to be part of this holy experience. We do it because we love this liturgy. We are guests, like you, at Jesus’ table. We come to enter into the Body of Christ, to be fed by the Body of Christ, and to carry the Body of Christ into the world we live in every day.

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.