The Uniting Church of St James
Curtin, ACT
Minister-in-Placement: Revd Rex A E Hunt, MSc(Hons), GradDipCommMgt
eMail: rexae@optusnet.com.au
Web site: www.rexaehuntprogressive.com
LITURGY FOR THE
CELEBRATION OF LIFE
20 May 2007. Easter 7C. (White).
10.30am. Contemporary liturgical worship.
Celebrating community: Sacrament of Holy Communion
Acknowledgement of land
(An act towards reconciliation by the Church of St James, Curtin.)
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 Ngunnawal People and their stewardship
of this land throughout the ages.
St James is a safe place for all people to worship regardless of
race, creed, age, cultural background or sexual orientation
GATHERING
Music
Entry into worship
The gong is sounded three times
Each of us arrives from all the ordinariness of living.
We come to centre ourselves once more.
To touch again that place inside.
And to choose again our better selves. (M Young)
Let us celebrate the richness and diversity of life in the presentness of God.
Lighting of community candle
The candle is lit
The blessing of God
The shalom of God
The light of God
be among us and between us, now and always.
Hymn The people stand as they are able, to sing
“Gather us in…” (Tune: ‘Gather us in’) 474 (v1-3) TiS
Remain standing
Opening sentences
We come to re-weave the unraveling fabric of community
To re-connect once more with the larger human family
All To find once more that place of calm.
To remind ourselves that we belong.
And to remember what it is we belong to.
We come –
All To centre ourselves,
to open ourselves,
to remember ourselves.
And to celebrate the life we share together. (M Young)
Prayer
We pray:
We come to be opened by visions that can enlist us
in larger causes and more caring actions.
We come to hear stories that might take us
into a deeper kind of integrity, and reconnect us
with our better selves.
So may the warmer fullness that we seek
fill our hearts, our minds and our souls.
Amen.
Hymn “Gather us in…” (Tune: ‘Gather us in’) 474 (v4) TiS
The people sit after the hymn
Welcome
In your own words
A warm welcome is extended to all.
Especially those who are worshipping at St James 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.
Music of celebration
EXPLORING
Readings from our religious tradition
Let us now listen to some stories from our religious tradition.
Early church:
Acts 16:25-34 (NRSV)
• In Macedonia, Paul commands a spirit to leave a slave girl, who was a fortune-teller. Her owners not happy at the loss of income, has Paul and Silas arrested, beaten, and put in jail…
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God,
and the prisoners were listening to them.
Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent
that the foundations of the prison were shaken;
and immediately all the doors were opened
and everyone’s chains were unfastened.
When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open,
he drew his sword and was about to kill himself,
since he supposed the prisoners had escaped.
But Paul shouted in a loud voice,
“Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”
The jailer called for lights, and rushing in,
he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.
Then he brought them outside and said,
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved,
you and your household.”
They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds;
then he and his entire family were baptized without delay.
He brought them up into the house and set food before them;
and he and his entire household rejoiced
that he had become a believer in God.
Gospel:
John 17:20-21, 25-26 (NRSV)
Jesus is at prayer:
”I ask not only on behalf of these,
but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.
“As you, Father, are in me and I am in you,
may they also be in us, so that the world may believe
that you have sent me…
“The world does not know you, but I know you;
and these know that you have sent me.
I made your name known to them, and I will make it known,
so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Contemporary word
Silence for personal reflection
AFFIRMING
An affirmation of faith
In response to the word reflected on, let us stand and share an affirmation of faith.
The people stand
v1 The sky does it simply, naturally
day by day by day
v2 the sun does it joyfully
like someone in love
like a runner on the starting-line
v1 the sky, the sun,
they just can't help themselves
v2 no loud voices, no grand speeches
but everyone sees,
and is happy with them.
All Make us like that, Lord,
so our faith is not in our words but in our lives,
not in what we say but in who we are,
passing on your love like an infectious laugh:
not worried,
not threatening,
just shining
like the sun, like a starry night,
like a lamp on a stand,
light for life – your light for our lives. (K Galloway/pod)
The peace
God makes peace within us. Let us claim it.
God makes peace between us. Let us share it.
Let us greet another as a sign of God's 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
“Come and find the quiet centre” (Tune: ‘Sanctum/Jullian Bray) 10 FFS
Come and find the quiet centre
in the crowded life we lead,
find the room for hope to enter,
find the frame where we are freed:
clear the chaos and the clutter,
clear our eyes, that we can see
all the things that really matter,
be at peace, and simply be.
Silence is a friend who claims us,
cools the heat and slows the pace,
God it is who speaks and names us,
knows our being, touches base,
making space within our thinking,
lifting shades to show the sun,
raising courage when we're shrinking,
finding scope for faith begun.
In the Spirit let us travel,
open to each other's pain,
let our lives and fears unravel,
celebrate the space we gain:
there's a place for deepest dreaming,
there's a time for heart to care,
in the Spirit's lively scheming
there is always room to spare! Shirley Murray
CELEBRATING
Care candle
We are people of all ages who enter this space bringing our joys and concerns.
Joys and concerns shared.
The Care candle is lit
Prayers
Pastoral
Lord's Prayer
You are invited to pray this contemporary prayer in the spirit of the Lord's Prayer,
and in your original language, as that is appropriate
All God, lover of us all, most holy one.
Help us to respond to you.
To create what you want for us here on earth.
Give us today enough for our needs.
Forgive our weak and deliberate offences,
just as we must forgive others when they hurt us.
Help us to resist evil and to do what is good.
For we are yours, endowed with your power
to make our world whole.
Amen. (Lala Winkley/cw)
Stewardship renewal: “Unexplored tomorrows”
Stewardship hymn
“God of unexplored tomorrows” (Tune: ‘Marching’, 87 87. 165 TiS) 27 FFS
God of unexplored tomorrows,
of today and yesterday,
God of rock and flowing river,
be our refuge, be our way.
Guardian rock above, before us,
strong foundation where we build,
landmark through the haze of doubting,
shelter where our fears are stilled,
Be the cleansing, quenching water,
irrigate, disturb and move,
stir us from our easy shallows,
current of refreshing love.
God of rock and flowing river
now and ever with us stand,
to transform our land of promise
into each one's promised land. Beverley Jones
With the children
Children gather on the conversation mat
Conversation
"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)
CELEBRATING COMMUNITY: SACRAMENT OF HOLY COMMUNION
The 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.
The offering Offerings/bread and wine are presented
Let us bring our offerings and gifts of bread and wine.
The presentation The people stand as the gifts are brought forward
We pray:
God of splendour, your goodness sustains us,
and your graciousness gives us hope.
Use us and these gifts of bread, wine and money
to further your way of love, hope, and justice.
Amen.
Offerings/bread and wine placed on table.
Thanksgiving
God is the heart of life.
All And we are the heartbeat.
May our hearts be filled
with thanks and praise and songs of joy.
All We rejoice in the miracle of life
and delight in our participation. Sherri Weinberg
We give thanks for the wonderful gift of reflective awareness
that allows us to recognise and name
the presence of a Creative Spirit
beyond all imagining, in our universe.
All We give thanks.
Everything we have
Everything we see
Everything we do
Everyone we love and everyone who loves us
reveals this sustaining Presence
and our total dependence on it.
We marvel and wonder at the size and complexity of our universe.
We marvel and wonder at the development of life on this planet.
We give thanks for the creative Presence that 'energises' this life and all that exists.
We recognise that human life gives this Presence
a particular way of coming to expression, and that in us the Presence can
sing and dance,
speak and write,
love and create.
Conscious that we live, move, and have our being in this Presence,
we give thanks for people throughout history
who have affirmed this loving presence in all people.
For those who have invited people to give witness to this by lives characterised by
gratitude, compassion,
generosity and forgiveness.
Especially we give thanks for Jesus of Nazareth.
He loved so greatly and taught so clearly and courageously,
he was able to set people free
from images and ideas and religious practices that bound them into fear
and a false sense of separation from the Spirit of all Life.
Through him we have learned
how our loving is a sharing in the life of this Spirit.
All In him we see this Presence urging all of us
to make its creativity on earth more visible. (Adapted/M Morwood)
We also remember the night before he died
Jesus again shared a meal with his friends.
Through grain and grape, bread and wine, and in fellowship together,
Jesus spoke of his enduring love for each of them.
So we take this bread and this wine
mindful of the Presence at work in our lives,
in the ordinary,
in the everyday,
and in our desire to love as generously as Jesus loved.
And all the people shall reply.
All Amen.
Bread and Wine
Bread is broken.
We break this bread in celebration of the great truth
that on this tiny planet, hurtling through cold, empty space,
death is made the servant of life,
and out of death life is forever resurrected.
Wine poured out.
This cup with its fruit of the vine,
is a celebration that things are not always as they seem:
that out of faithfulness and steadfastness,
out of suffering and sorrow,
may come unsought blessings. (Adapted/D Bumbaugh)
Bread... the very stuff of life. Broken.
Wine... fruit of the vine. Cup full.
Communion
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 The people stand as they are able, to sing
“All of humanity” (Tune: ‘Russia’, 11 10 11 10, 89 AHB) 101 (v1-3) SNS
All of humanity, now and for ever
Glows with the beauty we're favoured to share;
Each race and culture, unknown or familiar,
Brings with it treasures both complex and rare.
Stories and liturgies, sacred and holy
Tell of the cosmos, of virtue and life;
Some tell of evil, of hell and of glory;
Guiding the faithful through conflict and strife.
Peace and equality, freedom and justice,
We would confirm these as values we hold.
Sharing our faiths with discretion and with frankness;
Open to learn so new truth may unfold.
Remain standing
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
And now we take our leave.
All Before we gather here again:
may each of us bring happiness into another's life;
may we each be surprised by the gifts that surround us;
may each of us be enlivened by constant curiosity.
And may we remain together in spirit til the hour we meet again. Barbara Cheatham
Blessing words
May the love of our abundant God,
the grace of the Son
and the communion of the Holy Spirit
enter our hearts this day, and for ever more.
All Amen.
Hymn (Cont.) “All of humanity” (Tune: ‘Russia’, 11 10 11 10, 89 AHB) 101 (v4-5) SNS
We must repudiate all of the conflicts
Caused in the name of some pious intent;
Let us denounce and dismiss hateful edicts;
Let love abound. For the past we repent!
With deep sincerity, honour all goodness,
Kindness and courage, all mercy and grace,
Patience and loyalty, both love and forgiveness;
Found in each culture and found in each race. George Stuart
The people sit after the hymn
'This week' at St James
Notices
Birthdays and anniversaries
Significant events
Journey candles
Recessional 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.
The contemporary hymns used in this liturgy,
in addition to those from Together in Song,
are reproduced with permission under license #A1197.
LicenSing - Copyright cleared music for churches.
Some of the resources used in shaping this liturgy:
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.
Faith forever singing. Songs for a new day. 2000. NZ: Raumati. New Zealand Hymnbook Trust. Galloway, K. (ed). 1996. The pattern of our days. Liturgies and resources for worship. Gt. Britain: Glasgow. Wild Goose Publications.
Holy Bible. NRSV. 1989. Ten: Nashville. Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Iona Community. 2001. Iona abbey worship book. Scotland: Glasgow. Wild Goose Publications.
Morwood, M. 2003. Praying a new story. VIC: Richmond. Spectrum Publications.
Seaburg, C. (ed). 1993. The communion book. MA: Boston. UUMA.
Stuart, G. 2006. Singing a new song. Traditional hymn tunes with new century lyrics. Second edition. NSW: Sydney. CPRT Sydney.
The St Hilda Community. 1996. The new women included. A book of services and prayers. Gt. Britain: 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. Gt. Britain: London. SPCK.
Web sites:
UUA Worship Web. MA: Boston. UUA.
Sherri Weinberg. St Paul's Presbyterian Church. NZ: Devonport.