Our way of worship and communal prayer taps into the long 2,000-year-old traditions of the Christian Church. And, yet there is also a simplicity and connection to our own time and place which helps it feel contemporary and fresh.

We sing the old familiar hymns, but we also enjoy the music of our own century. The sermons here spring right from the Scriptures, illuminating what happened in ages past, but also looking towards what God is doing in our own day. We celebrate the Eucharist (Holy Communion, or the Mass) almost every time we gather together for worship, and we are aware that the Altar in this church isn’t “ours,” but rather it’s God’s – and so all of God’s Children are welcome to feast at this Table.

For those who are looking for ways to be involved, there is no shortage of opportunities here. You can sing in the choir, serve as an acolyte or usher, or become a member of the Altar Guild. You can arrange the Altar flowers for the weekend services, you can be a reader, or you can help serve Communion.

You can help out with our Keansburg Soup Kitchen ministry, by making food at home, or by serving the food in Keansburg. You can volunteer with the Giving Garden – which produces over 2,000 pounds of fresh food each year for local food banks – by volunteering to plant, weed, tend, water, or pick. You can go on our annual mission trip to Appalachia where we help make homes warmer, safer, and drier for the rural poor. You can work our twice-yearly rummage sale, you can serve on a committee, or you can help stitch blankets for our healing-blanket ministry.

Children, K-6, are introduced to the foundational stories and concepts of our faith. Our Sunday School Director of many decades is a scientist, and so he tends to “blow things up” to emphasize a lesson! For Fall 2021, there will be a Sunday School during the 10AM service, and there will also be an intergenerational lesson following the Sunday 5PM service.

For youth, 7-12, there are a series of youth groups, where we explore the most important spiritual issues that kids will face these days, as they wrestle with life and their faith. For Fall 2021, youth groups will meet at 6:15 on Sunday nights (after the 5PM service and a simple dinner).

We are Christians who believe in Jesus, and who seek to follow his way of life. We believe that God created everything and that God’s fingerprints can be found all over creation. We believe that the Holy Spirit is active in our world, and is always drawing us to live our faith with boldness.

The Episcopal Church is a place to bring your questions to – and we admit right up front that we don’t have all the answers. At St Mark’s there are a wide variety of Christians – who have diverse backgrounds and perspectives. And while we may have differences in position or opinion on various issues, we all pray together as one body, and kneel side-by-side with each other at the Altar rail each week.

For more detail, you may want to see the Catechism of The Episcopal Church.