Little Village Church The second friday of every month at 5:45pm
A different kind of church service.
What if church could be a place where you didn’t have to worry quite so much about getting everything “right”? What if there were room for questions, conversation, movement, laughter, a little noise, and the occasional beautifully unexpected moment? What if children and adults could worship together—not simply sitting side by side, but actually participating, wondering, learning, and discovering together?
That’s the idea behind Little Village Church, a new monthly gathering at St. Thomas.
Little Village Eucharist grew out of a simple question: What might worship look like if we created more room for people of all ages to participate in their own way? We wanted to remain rooted in the richness of the Anglican tradition while experimenting with some new possibilities—worship that is playful and contemplative, thoughtful and joyful, intergenerational and inclusive.
We’re calling these our holy experiments. And experiment is exactly what we mean. Little Village Eucharist is not a polished production where you need to know all the right words or understand exactly what happens next. It is a gathering we are creating together, listening for where the Holy Spirit might be leading us and discovering along the way what worship can look like when we make a little more room for curiosity and participation.
Come as you are.
Come in jeans. Come in your gardening clothes. Come straight from the soccer field in your uniform. Come with a toddler who might make some noise. Come when you’re tired, curious, restless, joyful, or simply looking for a place to be. You don’t need to dress up. You don’t need to know the Episcopal Church. You don’t need to have everything figured out. You don’t even need to be sure what you believe.
You belong here. The heart of our gathering is the Eucharist, the ancient Christian practice of sharing bread and wine as a sign of God’s love and our life together. But the way we experience it will be a little different. There will be opportunities for questions and conversation, movement and action. Children and youth won’t simply be expected to sit quietly and watch. They’ll have opportunities to participate, lead, ask questions, and learn by doing. Because faith is learned not only by being told what we believe, but by experiencing what it means to pray, worship, serve, share, and belong.
There will be movement. There may be some noise. There will almost certainly be moments that don’t go exactly according to plan. And that’s okay. In fact, we think there might be something holy about it.
Stay for dinner.
Following the Eucharist, we’ll continue around the table with a simple dinner around 6:30pm. Worship and fellowship will flow together as we share food, conversation, laughter, and the gift of simply being together.
The name Little Village reflects a hope we share with many families: that church can become more than a place we attend. It can become a little village—a community of people who know one another, care for one another, and walk through life together. You don’t have to be a young family to be part of that village. Little Village Eucharist is designed with people of all ages and stages of life in mind.
We don’t know exactly what this new expression of worship will become. And that’s part of what makes it exciting. We’re not launching a finished product. We’re creating something together.
So consider this your invitation to join the experiment. Come worship. Come ask questions. Come bring your children. Come bring your curiosity. Come to the Eucharist and stay for dinner. Or simply come because you wonder what might happen when we gather in a different way. There’s a seat in the circle for you.
