Re: the order of service @ Chemainus UC

Re: the order of service 

Welcome

Good morning. I would like to extend our warmest welcome to everyone who has come to worship together, this morning, with praise and prayers.

We are one and many. Our lives with all of our different stories, different colours and shades, all are intersected and join here, to be amazed and enlightened. May we share our yearning for a deeper connection with one another and with God in God's centering love.

Do we have anyone who is worshipping with us for the first time this morning?

Please introduce yourself to us. We welcome you and celebrate your presence among us; our church offers coffee and lunch in our hall following the worship. You are most welcome to join in our lunch table of laughter and stories; we hope you enjoy your time in our loving and caring community. (if the newcomers are not travelers but live in Chemainus or nearby.)

Celebrations

Do we have celebrations? Let us hear how the small and big gifts of life have touched us with delight and joy this week!

Thank you all for sharing your happiness with us. May love abound in you and in us who are lifted up by your joy. Giving thanks and gratitude for life, the gift of God, let us sing together with celebration: (Happy birthday...)

Announcements

Let us hear how the Spirit of God is working with us in our church family and beyond.

After hearing the announcements

We share the joy. We share the burden. We share the exciting moments we have enjoyed and those which are to come. Thank God and all those whose gifts and bright spirits strengthen our community to be a better place to grow in commitment to love and justice.  

Prayer Concerns

Can a small church make a difference? Yes we can.

In this time we share our prayer concerns.

We share our concerns in a community which is who we are and where God hears.

We will feel that people's hearts wrap around us and know that strength.

Do we have the names of those who are dear to us and need our prayers?

Do we have local or global issues which deeply concern us?

Do we have anyone who would be helped by addressing a burden, a lament, sadness or sorrow? We would like to be a hearing and healing circle and offer our prayers.

In this circle of prayers

we break our hearts with truth.

We gain deeper knowledge of the lives of others,

those close to us, and those who are not known to us but whose lives are affected by the way we live.

Thank you everyone for sharing these concerns and burdens with us.

Candle-lighting

This time for lighting a candle holds many meanings: those who choose to sit in the pews can have a time of quiet reflection or silent prayer. You are also welcome to 'be simply present' - being in the sheltering circle of a community of good spirit and music.   

And for those who come up, lighting a candle may mean lighting tears or laughter, remembering blessings or releasing burdens, praying and bidding shalom and healing for our loved ones. Please feel free to come up and light your stories.

Opening Prayer

Invitation: Let us open our hearts for one another in the presence of God, here and now, as we continue to worship together.

(For example,)

As a church family, we are

a banquet table - feeding the poor

a circle of sheltering love - caring for one another

a journey which is only at the halfway point - a milestone.

O God, keep our feet strong in our pilgrimage of love.

May the roots of our love reach deep into the ground of your being. Amen.

Prayer of Confession:

An image of sin: harming against another.

What we do in confessing: “Before God and every person here, in the company of all God’s people, we release anything we hold against another and regret the harm we have done to another and to creation and ask God’s restoration. Rev. Murray suggests, “we confess to God and in the company of all God’s people that our lives and the life of the world are broken by our sin.”

Assurance: canceling our debts: jubilee

Three Minute Meditation (after scripture reading)

May we aspire to be who we truly are in God's presence, our centre.

Let us have a quiet moment for opening ourselves to the words of scripture.

Or you may choose to 'simply be' as you trust that the centering love of God will touch you.   

Communion &Great Thanksgiving

L: May God’s transforming love be with us.

P: And also with our neighbours and the whole people of God throughout the earth.

L: We open our hearts.

P: We open our joyful hearts to the Lord and to one another, and stand in the presence of God and one another as thankful people.

L: Let us lift our voices in singing with men and women throughout the ages

our song of faith, with the hope that we draw the circle of love wider, deeper and higher.

Remembering the Community (by the leader)

On this table of the great sharing of God’s love,

Where bread is broken and juice is poured out,  

We also remember those who suffer in our midst, in our community, and in our world.

….intercessory prayers…

Held in Christ’s love, may we love as Christ loved.  

Knowing our own weakness, may we stand with all who stumble.

Sharing in Christ’s suffering, may we remember all who suffer.

Seeking Christ’s guidance, may we help restore their lives and their broken communities.

We gather these and all our prayers,

Thankful that we may turn to you, as  (Lord’s Prayer)