faith! - Gordon Thomas
For Gordon Thomas, Sunday mornings evoke fond memories of being hurried out the door with his three siblings to get to Sunday school on time at St. Martin’s. “Sunday school was big with 10 to 15 kids in your class,” Gordon said. “Every Sunday you were going to Sunday school.” And after that, church, and then home for a big family lunch.
“We ate in the dining room and used the ‘good china.’ Of course, this was way before any of the electronic distractions we have today, so we actually had conversations with each other,” he said, recalling Sundays with his parents (charter members of the parish), two older sisters and younger brother (the late Bill Thomas, whose widow is also featured in this edition).
Gordon knows life is very different for young parents today, but he continues to believe people need what the church has to offer. “There’s so much pulling at kids these days. Baseball used to be something you did on Saturdays. Now you have travel teams and Sundays kind of take a back seat.”
He’s not sure how to tackle that issue beyond staying steady, keeping the door open and always being a place of welcome so that people have the opportunity to experience what being part of a community of believers feels like. “Church can be a safety net, a comfort,” he said.
Gordon has experienced that comfort himself many times over the course of his lifetime. Soon after a blind date with his wife Adele, he learned she had been attending St. Martin’s. They later married here, and their two children were baptized here. Adele’s son by a previous marriage also joined them at St. Martin’s, and hopes to have his daughter baptized here in the new year. Those are all comforts during happy times that the church offers, but last spring, Gordon encountered the care of the church in a new way. After heart surgery, he suffered a mini-stroke, and was the recipient of pastoral care from St. Martin’s parishioners and clergy throughout his challenging recovery.
“Caitlyn brought the Eucharist to me while in the hospital, and Mitch brought me a walker to use when I got home. There were many prayers sent with cards, texts, phone calls and very appreciated meals.”
The health scare left him feeling he still had things to do, and so he has opted to retire a couple of years earlier than he had planned.
Among those things he had considered doing – in addition to a long list of projects at home – was serve again on the vestry. (Gordon was part of St. Martin’s vestry during construction of The Commons.)
“Adele and I had talked about my possibly serving again when I retired, but I wasn’t planning to retire when I did,” he said. And then, within a week of having made his decision to retire early, and telling no one beyond Adele, he was approached about serving now. He considered it a God-sent request, pondered it and said he would.
He’s looking forward to helping the parish continue to come out of COVID, which he firmly believes will happen.
“The youth are coming, Kanuga is back on the schedule and the youth trip this summer – these are big things,” Gordon said.
Of course, “getting rid of COVID would help tremendously,” he said. But in the meantime, reinforcing the habit of church is what may be required.
He admits he enjoyed church via YouTube while drinking his coffee on the couch, but, ultimately, he wanted to see people he loved again.
“And without Communion, you feel like you’re missing something,” he said.
Admittedly, exchanging The Peace right now can feel a little awkward as you navigate who is comfortable with a handshake and who prefers a peace sign, but Gordon feels it’s a more meaningful moment when it is exchanged in person. The awkwardness reminds him of the initial uncertainty Episcopalians felt when The Peace was introduced with the 1979 prayer book. And that, too, was overcome.
“I was a little hesitant then, but then, when you do it, it makes you feel good, and you hope the person you’re interacting with, you hope it makes them feel good, too.”
The church’s greatest strength is the community it offers, Gordon believes, and is best experienced in person. With the warmth and welcome shared with those who enter St. Martin’s doors, he is confident this parish is going to be fine, but encourages those who have been away to come back to experience church again in a personal way.
St. Martin’s is like home,” Gordon said. “You always see someone you have known for many years, but I also look forward to meeting new people and families at St. Martin’s. I want their experience and memories to be just as good as mine.”
Gordon Thomas Jr. became a member of St. Martin's upon his baptism in 1956. Gordon is married to Adele Thomas, and they are parents to Tripp, 32, Sladyen, 27, and Joseph III, 22.
