St. Stephen's Lutheran Church sits on North Broom Street in Wilmington, Delaware, a few blocks from the city line with Brandywine Hundred. Its short motto, "To Love, To Invite, To Serve," is more than a slogan: the congregation is recognized around northern Delaware both as a Reconciling in Christ congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and as the home of the largest-volume Lutheran food pantry in the state.
Sunday mornings at 9:30
The congregation gathers for worship at 9:30 a.m. every Sunday. During the school year, services take place in the main sanctuary; in the summer the assembly moves to a smaller, contemporary chapel on the property. Holy Communion is celebrated every week, and gluten-free and alcohol-free options are always available at the Table. Worship follows an updated but traditional Lutheran pattern, honoring long-standing liturgical traditions while remaining open to new expressions of faith.
When the sanctuary is in use, services are livestreamed on the congregation's YouTube channel, and recordings remain available afterward for anyone who wants to revisit a sermon or watch from home. Each Sunday's bulletin can be downloaded in advance, and the lectionary readings (Old Testament, Psalm, Epistle, and Gospel) are available well ahead of time.
An open-door welcome
St. Stephen's makes a point of welcoming anyone who walks through the door. The language is direct: come as you are, dress up or dress down, and know that every visitor is welcome at Communion regardless of background or belief. Children are always welcome in worship rather than sent off to a separate space.
For those who use mobility aids, the building is wheelchair-accessible. Visitors needing the elevator should enter through the ground-floor entrance near the food pantry. Parking is available on the streets surrounding the church.
Reconciling in Christ
St. Stephen's identifies as a Reconciling in Christ congregation. In the congregation's own words, the gospel is "God's gift to all people, shared unconditionally and without regard to race, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, socio-economic or family status, age, physical or mental abilities, outward appearance, or religious affiliation." The church explicitly seeks racial equality and justice, and grounds that commitment in Ephesians 2:14: that Christ breaks down the dividing walls and makes us one.
The congregation is a member of the Delaware-Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Pastor Susan Loney
The Rev. Susan R. Loney serves as pastor of St. Stephen's. A nearly lifelong resident of Brandywine Hundred, she and her husband Kevin raised their three adult daughters nearby. She is an avid reader and gardener, and she makes a habit of long conversations on long walks, a fitting rhythm for a congregation built around invitation and welcome.
The LCS Food Pantry at St. Stephen's
The most visible expression of the church's outward-facing ministry is the LCS Food Pantry, operated in partnership with Lutheran Community Services. It is the largest-volume Lutheran food pantry in Delaware, providing three days of emergency food to roughly 800 to 1,000 families (about 2,500 to 3,000 people) each month.
The pantry is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 9 a.m. to noon, and on Wednesday evenings from 5 to 7 p.m. Clients register on site with a photo ID, proof of Delaware residency, and IDs for other household members; Medicaid cards, birth certificates, and school IDs are accepted for children. Each family may visit one LCS food pantry per week. The pantry closes on major holidays and whenever the local public schools close for inclement weather.
About 200 volunteers keep the operation running, stocking shelves, packing bags, unloading deliveries, and serving clients. They come from local churches, the wider community, local schools, and service programs, and donations of food and time are welcomed year-round.
Partners across Wilmington
St. Stephen's understands its mission as one that reaches beyond its own doors, and the congregation maintains relationships with several neighboring agencies.
- Peace Week Delaware. St. Stephen's hosts the Peace Week Delaware headquarters and sponsors Peace of Pizza each October, an annual, nonpartisan series of free community events that promote harmony, equity, and justice.
- Lutheran Community Services. LCS has served low-income families in Wilmington and New Castle County since 1959, offering help with food, housing stability, food prescriptions, and smoking cessation. St. Stephen's hosts LCS's stationary food pantry five days a week.
- Emmanuel Dining Room. Volunteers from St. Stephen's help serve a nutritious, no-cost lunch once a month at Emmanuel, which serves an average of 550 meals every day of the year with no questions asked.
- Hilltop Lutheran Neighborhood Center. Every year, St. Stephen's packs backpacks for Hilltop children and provides Thanksgiving baskets and Christmas gifts to families served by the center's educational and social programs.
- Family Promise of Northern New Castle County. St. Stephen's has hosted fundraising dinners to benefit the organization, which supports families experiencing homelessness.
Reading, music, and steady rhythms
Beyond Sunday worship, life at St. Stephen's moves through a few dependable rhythms. A book club meets every other month on Thursday afternoons at 2 p.m. at the church, choosing titles that range from inherited family trauma to the wider world of memoir and fiction; everyone is welcome. Music has long been part of the congregation's outreach as well, with concerts that bring neighbors through the doors for something other than a Sunday service.
Each week, the congregation sends out an email with the upcoming lectionary readings and a roundup of activities; an annual report, most recently for 2024, is published for members and friends who want a fuller picture of the year. Online giving is available through a secure portal for anyone who would like to support the congregation's ministries from a distance.
Worship, hospitality, and service come together at 1301 North Broom Street in a congregation whose small motto, To Love, To Invite, To Serve, is lived out one Sunday, one food bag, and one conversation at a time.