Updated December 11, 2025

WORSHIP

Upcoming Major Holy Days and Special Services
Our custom at Good Shepherd is to celebrate Mass on all Major Holy Days of the Church year. Allowing God’s extraordinary time to break into our ordinary time is a hallmark of the Anglo-Catholic tradition. You are encouraged to make these feast days a part of your regular rhythm of prayer, if at all possible. Join us for Low Mass at 12:05 p.m. on Tuesday, December 23 for the Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle (transferred).

Livestream Assistance
We are in need of a few more volunteers to help run our Mass livestreams (Sundays and other special services). These livestreams are an important part of our witness to public prayer and are also a way of extending our virtual parish community. If you are interested in helping out, please contact Father Kyle.

Advent Lessons and Carols
Mark your calendars for our annual Service of Advent Lessons and Carols sung by the Parish Choir and Good Shepherd Choristers on Sunday, December 14, at 3 p.m. A reception will follow. Sign up here to bring a dish.

Christmas Decorating
Stay after Sung Mass on Sunday, December 21, and we will green and decorate the church for Christmas! We will need as many helping hands as possible.

FORMATION

Online Adult Formation Series 2025–2026
Our monthly online adult formation series for the 2025–2026 program year continues on January 8, 2026 at 7 p.m. Join us for “Trust When Arrows Sink into You: Psalms 23 & 38" with Ellen Charry, Ph.D., Margaret W. Harmon Professor of Systematic Theology Emerita at Princeton Theological Seminary.

We hope that parishioners and Friends of the parish alike will join us for these stimulating presentations! Email the parish office for the Zoom link.

MUSIC

Music Notes
Please join us this Sunday, December 14, not only for Sung Mass but also for Advent Lessons & Carols at 3 p.m., at which the Good Shepherd Choristers will join the adults of the choir. There is a veritable musical feast planned, with choral works by Kerensa Briggs, Eleanor Daley, Edward Elgar, David Hurd, Paul Manz, Robert McCormick, Palestrina, Craig Phillips, and André Thomas, with organ music of J. S. Bach, Andrew Carter, and Aaron David Miller, all offered to the greater glory of God. (Some might be interested to know that there are three British composers, one Canadian, one Italian, one German, and six Americans represented!)

The Good Shepherd Choristers
Our chorister program for children ages 7 and older is going strong, but it’s never too late to register to participate! If you know of a child who might be interested in joining, please contact Robert McCormick, and please help us share information on this program with others in the local community.

OUTREACH

Support the Clare Project
Our recently confirmed youth, Lydia Dee and Sanjay Jebamalaidass, are working with the Social Concerns Committee to collect items to make “sock rollups” for the Clare Project, a ministry of our diocese that is serving the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. We are collecting the following items, from November 30 through January 6:

White tube socks
Beef jerky (Slim Jims)
Hot Hands (chemical warmers, two each)

You can either bring any of these items to church and place them in the baskets in the Tower entrance and retreat house, or you can purchase them online through our Amazon wishlist, and they will be shipped directly to the church. Items will be blessed at Sung Mass on the Feast of the Epiphany, assembled, and then given to the Clare Project for distribution to those living on the streets of Kensington. Thank you for your support!

Campus Ministry
Good Shepherd’s campus ministry is open to all students at local colleges and universities. The group meets bimonthly on the campus of Bryn Mawr College for an LGBTQ+/Allies Bible Study. The list of meeting dates may be found on this website. Our next meeting is on Friday, December 12 at 4 p.m. at Bryn Mawr College (Old Library, Room 102). Please contact Father Kyle for more information.

COMMUNITY AND FELLOWSHIP

Donations for Christmas Flowers
You may donate towards Christmas flowers by using this link and selecting the dropdown option for “flowers.” Thank you!

Parish Prayer List

In the Anglican Communion cycle of prayer for In the Anglican Communion cycle of prayer for Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil (Sunday), The Diocese of Saint Helena – The Anglican Church of Southern Africa (Monday), The Diocese of Saint Mark the Evangelist – The Anglican Church of Southern Africa (Tuesday), The Diocese of Saldanha Bay – The Anglican Church of Southern Africa (Wednesday), The Diocese of Salisbury – The Church of England (Thursday), The Diocese of El Salvador – Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America (Friday), and The Diocese of Sambalpur – The Church of North India (United) (Saturday).

For Sarah, Archbishop of Canterbury-designate, Sean, our Presiding Bishop, and Daniel, our bishop, and in the diocesan cycle of prayer for The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia (Sunday), Diocese of Arkansas (Monday), Diocese of Atlanta (Tuesday), The Church Foundation (Wednesday), Incarnation Holy Sacrament, Drexel Hill (Thursday), St. Andrew's, Yardley (Friday), and Church of the Redeemer, Andalusia and Non-Parochial and Retired Clergy (Saturday).

For peace across the world; for this nation and its elected leaders; for all who live and serve in this local community; for the poor, the homeless, the hungry, the lonely, the oppressed, those in vulnerable communities, immigrants, and refugees; for those in prison, especially Dwayne and Michael, and all those who are suffering; for an end to injustice of all kinds, especially racial and economic injustice; for an end to gun violence, especially in our local community; for the good creation that God has entrusted to our care, that we may be faithful stewards of it; for this parish church, for all who worship and serve here: for our staff and vestry, for our Advancement, Finance, Music Search, and Social Concerns Committees, for our pledge campaign, for our campus ministry, for our chorister program, for our retreat house, for those who share space with us on this campus, for all yet unknown to us whom God will draw to this place to come to know and love our Lord Jesus, and for the growth of ministry here for the sake of the Gospel.

In our parish cycle of prayer: Claudia Johnson (Sunday), Kate Geiger, Shawn, Riley, and Harrison Moore (Monday), Gregory Martin (Tuesday), Sean Gould (Wednesday), Kevin Loughrey (Thursday), Christopher Feltham (Friday), and John Seither (Saturday).

In our Friends of Good Shepherd cycle of prayer: Ralph and Nancy Penland (Sunday), Davis d’Ambly and Nick Johnson (Monday), Glenn Deibert (Tuesday), Linda Leighbody (Wednesday), Holly Lloyd (Thursday), Jimmy and Avan Moore (Friday), and RD Slough (Saturday).

For those in need, especially for Holly, Robin, Debbie, Sean, Diane, David, Linda, Connie, Nanette, Gary, Kile, Leslie, Fred, Rita, Signe, Paul, Bradley and family, Drew, Susannah, Kathy, Phil, Jane, Bruce, Barry, Pat, Jesson, August, Angela, Doug, Gilbert, Marcille, Charles, Carol, Alex, Frank, Lizzie, James, Doug, Sue, Peter, Rebecca, Haviland, Molly, Carolyn, and Brandon.

To add names and requests to the prayer list, please complete this form.