Revd Rex A E Hunt
MSc(Hons), GradDipCommMgt
eMail: rexae@optusnet.com.au
Web site: www.rexaehuntprogressive.com
LITURGY FOR THE CELEBRATION OF LIFE
1 March 2009. Lent1 B. (Purple).
Celebrating community: Sacrament of Holy Communion
Acknowledgement of land
(An act towards reconciliation)
For thousands of years Indigenous people have walked
in this land, on their own country.
Their relationship with the land is at the centre of their lives.
We acknowledge the (NN) People and their stewardship
of this land throughout the ages.
(NN) is a safe place for all people to worship regardless of
race, creed, age, cultural background or sexual orientation
GATHERING
Gathering music
Entry into worship
The gong is sounded three times
From season to season, this world, through its phases,
shows love has no dearth.
This love is for sharing,
to nurture well-being,
to echo God's call. (Adapt.APratt/hfw)
So let us celebrate this richness and diversity of life in the presentness of God.
Lighting of the candle
The community candle is lit
Hymn The people stand as they are able, to sing
“Praise to God, the world’s creator” (Tune: ‘Abbot’s Leigh’, 87 87D. 153 TiS)
Praise to God, the world’s creator,
Source of life and growth and breath,
Cradling in her arms her children,
Holding them from birth to death.
In our bodies, in our living,
Strength and truth of all we do,
God is present, working with us,
Making us creators too.
Praise to God our saving Wisdom,
Meeting us with love and grace,
Helping us to grow in wholeness,
Giving freedom, room, and space.
In our hurting, in our risking,
In the thoughts we dare not name,
God is present, growing with us,
Healing us from sin and shame.
Praise to God, the Spirit in us,
Prompting hidden depths of prayer,
Firing us to long for justice,
Reaching out with tender care.
In our searching, in our loving,
In our struggles to be free,
God is present, living in us,
Pointing us to what shall be. (JBerry/cw)
Remain standing
Opening sentences
As we gather to remember and share stories of faith,
let us rejoice in the presentness of God.
All Before our stories began, there was God;
through all our days, God walks with us.
God’s creative presence is moving among us.
All Let us sing praises and offer thanks.
Dance with the God who frees us for new possibilities.
All We seek to grow in faith and in love for one another.
Prayer
We pray:
Surprising God, as we move into new experiences,
help us to be open to your presentness
among us and within.
May we sense your glory
in the sights and sounds and breath of this Lenten day.
Amen.
Hymn “Help us to accept each other” (Tune: ‘Runnymede’ 76 76D) 648 TiS
Help us to accept each other
as Christ accepted us
teach us as sister, brother,
each person to embrace.
Be present, Lord, among us
and bring us to believe
we are ourselves accepted
and meant to love and live.
Teach us, O Lord, your lessons,
as in our daily life
we struggle to be human
and search for hope and faith.
Teach us to care for people,
for all - not just for some,
to love them as we find them
or as they may become.
Let your acceptance change us
so that we may be moved
in living situations
to do the truth in love;
to practise your acceptance
until we know by heart
the table of forgiveness
and laughter's healing art.
Lord, for today's encounters
with all who are in need,
who hunger for acceptance,
for righteousness and bread,
we need new eyes for seeing,
new hands for holding on:
renew us with your Spirit;
Lord, free us, make us one! FHKaan
The people sit
Welcome In your own words
A warm welcome is extended to all.
Especially those who are worshipping at (NN) for the first time,
or who have returned after an absence.
Your presence both enriches us and this time of celebration together.
Refer to printed liturgy.
Fellowship hour following worship.
Those visiting, please sign our Visitors book.
CENTERING
Silence
Come apart from the busyness of family and work,
and dwell in the presentness of God,
our dynamic source of being.
(Silence)
God calls us to renew ourselves and our life's purpose
as we gather with others who are searching.
(Silence)
EXPLORING
Readings from our broad religious tradition
Two readings from our broad religious tradition shall now be read.
The first is one of a series we will hear during Lent,
written by retired Uniting Church minister, Bruce Prewer.
The second is from the storyteller Mark, who's audience
was one of the early Jesus Movement communities.
Our reader is (NN).
In an Australian accent:
'Thoughts in the desert'
By Bruce Prewer. More Australian Psalms/135.
Those who dare to test their wits
in dry inhospitable territory,
where no-one is waiting
to receive them,
return with
a word:
The dire danger to the adventurer
is not demoralising gibber plains
nor ridge after ridge of sand,
but the distracting lure
of the shimmering
mirage.
To distinguish reality from the illusion
and to keep one's bearings and course
in spite of the mind's treachery -
this is the ultimate test
for the pilgrims
and prophets.
City prophets have a variation on this word:
Deserts take victims swiftly, savagely,
but urban mirages work slowly,
day by day diverting prey
and destroying souls
still smiling.
Gospel:
Mark 1: 12-15 (Inclusive Text)
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness and Jesus remained there for forty days,
and was tempted by Satan.
Jesus was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after him.
After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee
and there proclaimed the Good News of God, saying,
'The time has come and the reign of God is close at hand.
Repent, and believe the Good News.'
Silence for personal reflection
AFFIRMING
A litany for Lent
In response to the word reflected on, let us stand and share a special litany for today
as we begin the Season of Lent.
The people stand as they are able
Jesus invites us to a way of celebration,
meeting and feasting with the humble and poor.
All Let us walk his way with joy.
Jesus beckons us to a way of risk,
letting go of our security.
All Let us walk his way with joy.
Jesus challenges us to listen to the voices
of those who have nothing to lose.
All Let us walk his way with joy.
Jesus points us to a way of self-giving,
where power and status are overturned.
All Let us walk his way with joy.
Jesus calls us to follow the way of the cross,
where despair is transformed
by the promise of new life.
All Let us walk his way with joy. (JBerry/bot)
The peace
This is a house of God. A place of peace.
A place where we befriend one another. (Adapt.RMitchell/bb)
Let us greet one another as a sign of God's presence and peace.
The peace of God is here... to stay.
All Thanks be to God.
You are invited to share the peace with your neighbours
Hymn of the Month
“Imagination of the heart” (Tune: ’Imagination’, 88 86) 104 RP
Imagination of the heart
will rise on soaring wings of song;
will elevate our bland desires,
transcend our human wrong.
The spirit will inspire, define
the love that gives this passage worth,
the pain we gather on the way,
the trust of love's new birth.
We emulate that wild design,
the flaunting serenade to peace
that brought a saviour to his knees
that brought a thief release.
High-handed love, incarnate hope,
that freed our stony hearts by grace;
we offer praise, it is your due,
from all the human race. (APratt)
Reflections and prayers
Care candle
We are people of all ages who enter this space bringing our joys and concerns.
Joys and concerns shared.
Listening response
Holy God, as you have touched us
All May we now touch others
with your love in us. (Adapt.KGalloway/cw)
And so we take this flame and light our special care candle.
The Care candle is lit
In all our joys and in all our concerns, may we be ever mindful
of the presentness of God among us,
and to see new possibilities of the now.
Pastoral prayer
Lord's Prayer
You are invited to pray in the spirit of the Lord's Prayer, and in your original language, as appropriate
All God, who cares for us,
The wonder of whose presence fills us with awe.
Let kindness, justice and love shine in our world.
Let your secrets be known here as they are in heaven.
Give us the food and the hope we need for today.
Forgive us our wrongdoing
as we forgive the wrongs done to us.
Protect us from pride and from despair
and from the fear and hate which can swallow us up.
In you is truth, meaning, glory and power,
while worlds come and go.
Amen. (MFurlong/nwi)
Conversation with the children
"Somewhere someone"
The kingdom of love is coming because:
All somewhere someone is kind when others are unkind,
somewhere someone shares with another in need,
somewhere someone refuses to hate, while others hate,
somewhere someone is patient - and waits in love,
somewhere someone returns good for evil,
somewhere someone serves another, in love,
somewhere someone is calm in a storm,
somewhere someone is loving everybody.
Is that someone you? (jke)
CELEBATING
Offerings
Our offerings for the celebration of life in this place and beyond,
and our gifts of bread and wine, shall now be received.
Presentation People stand as gifts are presented
We are called to make real the sharing of the gifts God has given to us.
We offer what we have for the good of all.
People sit
CELEBRATING COMMUNITY: SACRAMENT OF HOLY COMMUNION
Invitation
Jesus invited all to the feast of peace and new life.
Jesus risked everything in compassion.
Jesus promised to make himself known in the breaking of the bread.
Thanksgiving
We give thanks and praise for all that is good in the world.
For the love we name Creativity God, and all that is.
For the person we name Jesus
and his message of peace, justice and inclusiveness that is the realm of God.
For the renewing strength and freedom of the Spirit
always present on the breath of life.
All We give thanks for the presentness of God in the midst of life.
Celebration
We remember the stories…
How Jesus gathered with friends and foes
to tell them of a re-imagined way of living and being.
A way that did not conform
to the standards of the Roman Empire
or any other system of governance
that suppressed people
until starvation and deprivation resulted in death. SWienberg
In this way, the issues of life and death,
justice and injustice,
conflict and peace,
goodness and evil
were talked through and made real to ordinary people. RJones
Bread and wine
So in our time and in this place, with today’s issues before us,
let us continue the tradition: to break bread together.
We remember what that tradition says...
At the end of a journey, among friends, gathered round a table...
Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it:
v2 'This bread is broken, as my body will be'.
And he handed it to his friends, and invited them to eat:
v2 'Remember all that I have been to you'.
We remember...
Jesus poured a cup of wine, offered thanks for it,
and gave it to his friends:
v2 'This wine is poured out as my life will be.
As you drink give thanks for all I have given'.
Bread... the stuff of life.
Wine... the fruit of celebration.
May the Spirit of Life within us
All be a source of healing and consolation
May the Spirit of Love within us
All strengthen us when we feel weak,
warm us when we are cold-hearted,
bend us when we are stubborn,
move us when we are uncaring,
guide us in the way of love.
May the Spirit of Peace within us
All shine in all we do.
Communion
By eating this bread and drinking this wine we become one in hope.
The bread and the wine will be served.
After communion
God of love, God of compassion, may the celebration of the wonder
and the mystery of your presence,
strengthen and enable us
to be your body the church.
SCATTERING
Hymn "Where the road runs out" 156(v1-2) AA
Where the road runs out and the signposts end,
where we come to the edge of today,
be the God of Abraham for us,
send us out upon our way.
Refrain:
Lord, you were our beginning,
the faith that gave us birth.
We look to you, our ending,
our hope for heaven and earth.
When the coast is left and we journey on
to the rim of the sky and the sea,
be the sailor's friend, be the dolphin Christ,
lead us in to eternity.
Refrain:
Words of mission
Time has now come for us to leave this sacred place.
As we do, may we embrace the challenges
of our lives and our world...
The candle is extinguished
Go out from this place to your daily journey through life.
All As we do, may we fashion relationships of inclusion
and reconciliation, and a life-style that loves
and treats people and the earth gently, as God does.
And may the Holy One surprise us all on the way.
Blessing words
May the God you see in all the colours of creation
arouse in you a sense of awe and wonder.
May the God who is a sacred presence be real to you.
May the God who is a source of inspiration and courage
keep calling you forward.
May your God go with you, and bless you. (FMacnab)
All Amen.
Hymn (Cont). "Where the road runs out" 156(v3) AA
When the clouds are low and the wind is strong,
when tomorrow's storm draws near,
be the spirit bird hovering overhead
who will take away our fear Colin Gibson
Refrain:
Lord, you were our beginning,
the faith that gave us birth.
We look to you, our ending,
our hope for heaven and earth.
The people sit
'This week' at (NN)
Notices
Birthdays and anniversaries
Significant events
Journey candles
Music
Fellowship
Morning tea is now served.
You are invited to share in the moment of fellowship.
You are invited to keep this copy of the liturgy and take it home with you
to share with another member of your family, or with a friend.
I recommend the use of
LicenSing - Copyright cleared music for churches.
Some of the resources used in shaping this liturgy:
Alleluia Aotearoa. Hymns and songs for all churches. 1993. NZ: Raumati. New Zealand Hymnbook Trust.
Binkley, C. G.; J. M. McKeel. 2001. Jesus and his kingdom of equals. An international curriculum on the life and teaching of Jesus. CA: Santa Rosa. Polebridge Press.
Duncan, G. (ed). 2003. Harvest for the world. A worship anthology on sharing in the work of creation. GtB: Norwich. The Canterbury Press.
Inclusive readings. Year B. 2005. Qld: Brisbane. Inclusive Language Project. In private circulation.
Iona Community. 2001. Iona abbey worship book. GtB: Glasgow. Wild Goose Publications.
Mitchell, R. C; G. A. Ricciuti. 1992. Birthings and blessings. Liberating worship services for the inclusive church. NY: New York. Crossroads.
Morely, J. (ed). 1992. Bread of tomorrow. Praying with the world’s poor. GtB: London. SPCK/Christian Aid.
Pratt, A. 2006. Reclaiming praise. Hymns from a spiritual journey. GtB: London. Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Prewer, B. D. 1996. More Australian psalms. SA: Adelaide. OpenBook Publishers.
The St Hilda Community. 1996. The new women included. A book of services and prayers. GtB: London. SPCK.
Together in song. Australian hymn book 2.
1999. NSW: Sydney. HarperCollins Religious.
Ward, H.; J. Wild, J Morley. (ed). 1995. Celebrating women. New edition. GtB: London. SPCK.
Web sites:
UUA Worship Web. MA: Boston. UUA. < www.uua.org/spirituallife/worshipweb/>
Francis Macnab. St Michael’s Uniting Church Web site. VIC Melbourne.