All Saints Day
November 1, 2021

The Church of the Good Shepherd in Scranton, Pennsylvania, is a parish in the Diocese of Bethlehem of the Episcopal Church, a part of the worldwide Anglican Communion headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Anchoring the Green Ridge residential neighborhood, Good Shepherd balances worship with community service.

We offer the Holy Eucharist with Hymns every Sunday at ten-thirty. All baptized Christians are welcome to receive Holy Communion. Corporate worship was suspended in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. We resumed services in May, 2021, and the Vestry and the Priest together decided to continue celebrating the Holy Eucharist with Hymns while requesting worshipers to practice social distancing in the pews and at the altar rail, and to sign a Contact Tracing Log in the Narthex. Masks are optional, but worshippers are expected to be fully vaccinated.

Sunday School for children aged six to twelve has resumed and meets on Sundays at ten-thirty through Mother’s Day. One Sunday a month, Family Sunday, the Sunday School attends the Eucharist together while members of the Sunday School serve as Lectors, Ushers, and Oblation Bearers. Sunday School includes preparation by the priest for children to receive first Holy Communion and, later in their development, Confirmation. In the Episcopal Church, administering Confirmation is reserved to bishops usually when they make their Visitation to a parish. The last Visitation and Confirmation at Good Shepherd was Trinity Sunday (June 16), 2019.

Prior to the pandemic, twice a month we offered Seasons of Love Dinners, hot meals and the distribution of clothing for those who want them. Onc Dinner was sponsored by the Church of the Epiphany in Glenburn. Volunteers prepared and served the Dinners and distributed clothing in the Parish House. Secondary school and college students performed their community service at our Dinners. And, donors provided food and supplies for them. As the pandemic continues, gifts of money to Seasons of Love continue to provide meals prepared elsewhere and delivered where they are needed. Some volunteers and donors are communicants of the parish, but many are not. All are welcome to participate in this ministry.

Two groups of Alcoholics Anonymous continue to meet weekly in our Parish House.

Founded in 1868, Good Shepherd’s first services were conducted in the Green Ridge home of The Reverend John Long, a missionary of the Diocese of Pennsylvania to the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valleys. The Parish purchased the present property in 1910 and accepted the designs for a church and parish house of Henry Vaughan, architect of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Washington (the “National Cathedral”).

To volunteer or to contribute to Seasons of Love, or for information about Holy Baptism, membership, stewardship, Confirmation, or Alcoholics Anonymous, telephone us at (570) 347-1760.

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