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
18 November 2007. Pentecost 25C. (Green).
10.30am. Contemporary liturgical worship.
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
Gathering music
Entry into worship
The gong is sounded three times
The morning comes and now is!
Greet the day with gladness
and welcome the evening with praise. (Adapted)
Let us celebrate the richness and diversity of life
in the presentness of God.
Lighting of the community candle
The candle is lit
Hymn The people stand as they are able, to sing
“Everything in God” (Tune: ‘Lobe den Herren’, 111 TiS) 9 SNS
God is the One in whom we all have life-giving purpose.
Spirit encompassing all and yet present within us.
Breath of each birth:
Source of all beauty and worth:
Found in us all, yet mysterious.
Have faith in virtue, have hope in great beauty abounding;
Hear words of love, and then listen for laughter resounding;
When, with delight,
We turn the darkness to light;
God, we discern, is surrounding.
Home in our world amidst wonder of life with its splendour;
Movement and colour show nature's abundant agenda.
God is thus found
In air and sea, on the ground.
God is displayed by each gender.
Greet the creation, the magic of each constellation;
Stars without number and planets of unknown location
Whirling around,
Far beyond sight, sense and sound.
All share in God's incarnation.
God is the One in whom we live and move and have being:
Spirit within as we ponder our faith and believing:
Here and elsewhere,
Past, present, future to share,
God, the beginning and ending. (George Stuart)
Remain standing
Opening sentences
This safe and sacred place welcomes us this day.
Let us trust enough to open our ears and hearts.
All We have heard of God's deeds in other times;
our pioneers have kept the story alive for us.
Let us listen to God's word for today.
All We long for a faith that makes sense today.
We want to keep the story alive for new generations.
God's story is for all people.
All It is ours to receive and share.
Prayer of awareness
We pray:
Spirit of life and love, we have gathered in this place, again.
May we create here a circle of love, ever expanding, ever growing.
A place of wisdom.
A place of connection.
A place of hope.
Amen.
Hymn “In the singing” (Tune: Bread of peace/Carlton Young) 38 FFS
In the singing, in the silence,
in the hands expectant, open,
in the blessing, in the breaking,
in the Presence at this table,
Refrain:
Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ,
be the wine of grace:
Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ,
be the bread of peace.
In the question, in the answer,
in the moment of acceptance,
in the heart’s cry, in the healing,
in the circle of your people,
Refrain:
Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ,
be the wine of grace:
Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ,
be the bread of peace. Shirley Murray
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.
Reflection
“A God for all seasons”
By Kate Compston. Dare to dream/31.
Springtime God,
coming alive within us like pale shoots
thrusting through frozen earth,
we need your persistent love to disturb
the impacted soil of our hearts' rigidity.
Summer God,
growing luxuriously, blossoming with heady scents,:
holding us in your warm embrace,
we need these times of perceived presence
to draw upon in cooler seasons.
Autumn God,
falling and dying in Christ,
etched with the colours of vulnerability,
we need the fellowship of your wounds
to dignify our brokenness.
Winter God,
dormant and distant,
starkly challenging our self-absorption,
we need your austerity to nudge us
into a warm compassion for your suffering ones.
Silence
Let us open ourselves to the sacred silence of this place.
(Silence)
Generous God, enfold us in the depths of love and there hold us.
Renew.
Refresh.
Restore us.
Saturate us with unending peace.
(Silence)
EXPLORING
Readings from our religious tradition
Two readings from our biblical tradition shall be read by (NN).
Psalm:
Psalm 97 (Francis Macnab)
The psalmist looks around him and says, "Surely there are better ways to live".
Something calls us to step beyond our limited view to a larger view of life.
If only people all over the world would stop for a moment
- people along every coast and scattered across every island.
Let them look up through the smog and dust,
through the fumes and smoke,
and see there are better ways to live.
If only people could realize that the environment that gives them life,
the hills and the mountains,
are being turned into trash dumps;
the earth's resources are disappearing.
Surely there are better ways to live.
If only people would see that they are wearing themselves out,
and life is being lost to them.
They pursue the goals they think are important,
but they miss out on the joy of life and the glory of God's creation.
There is a power beyond us and within us
that draws us to a better higher humanity:
there is something that calls us to reach beyond the smaller view to the larger life;
that would have us step through and over our stress to find the joy;
that reminds us again that beyond our emptiness there is a new energy,
that after our losses there are seeds of a new tomorrow.
All of you who search for the God of the bigger life -
The God that is in you and the God who lifts you out of yourselves -
All of you who have an awareness of the God
of the greater life, rejoice!
Rejoice that you are part of this greater life
and part of its expanded joy.
Hebrew scriptures:
Isaiah 65:17-25 (NRSV)
For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,
and its people as a delight.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress.
No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days,
or an old person who does not live out a lifetime;
for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity;
for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord,
and their descendants as well.
Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
the lion shall eat straw like the ox;
but the serpent - its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
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 as they are able
We believe in God who cares for all
All especially vulnerable and powerless people.
We affirm the right of all people
to decent living conditions:
All housing, health services, education,
food and clothing, fun and leisure.
We assert that God is with us in all that life brings us;
that God loves us as we are at any moment in our life:
All in our anger and rage, in our pain and grief,
our complaints and despair,
our joy and delight.
We hope for the day that will come
when God’s justice and mercy, love and peace,
will be realities in this world.
All We commit ourselves to show what we believe,
by the way we take care of God’s creation
and how we live together in community. (UCA Special resources)
The peace
This is a house of God. A place of peace.
A place where we befriend one another.
Let us greet another as a sign of God's peace and of our shared friendship.
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
“We laugh, we cry” (Tune: ‘Credo’, Irreg.) 354 SLT
We laugh, we cry, we live, we die;
we dance, we sing our song.
We need to feel there’s something here
to which we can belong.
We need to feel the freedom
just to have some time alone.
But most of all we need close friends
we can call our very own.
And we believe in life,
and in the strength of love;
and we have found a need to be together.
We have our hearts to give,
we have our thoughts to receive;
and we believe that sharing is an answer.
A child is born among us and
we feel a special glow.
We see time’s endless journey
as we watch the baby grow.
We thrill to hear
imagination freely running wild.
We dedicate our minds and hearts
To the spirit of this child.
And we believe in life,
and in the strength of love;
and we have found a time to be together.
And with the grace of age,
we share the wonder of youth;
and we believe that growing is an answer.
Our lives are full of wonder and
our time is very brief.
The death of one among us
fills us all with pain and grief.
But as we live, so shall we die
and when our lives are done
the memories we shared with friends,
they will linger on and on.
And we believe in life,
and in the strength of love;
and we have found a place to be together.
We have the right to grow,
we have the gift to believe;
that peace within our living is an answer.
We seek elusive answers to
the questions of this life.
We seek to put an end to
all the waste of human strife.
We search for truth,
equality, and blessed peace of mind.
And then, we come together here,
to make sense of what we find.
And we believe in life,
and in the strength of love;
and we have found a joy being together.
And in our search for peace,
maybe we’ll finally see;
even to question, truly, is an answer. (Shelley J Denham)
Care candle
We are people of all ages who enter this space
bringing our joys and concerns.
Joys and concerns shared.
In all our joys and in all our concerns, may we be ever mindful
of the presentness of God among us,
and to see the new possibilities of the now.
The Care candle is lit
And let us recommit ourselves to the inclusive ways of Jesus.
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 Life-Giver, Pain-Bearer, Love-Maker.
Source of all that is and that shall be.
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed
by all peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
now and forever. Amen. (UIW2)
CELEBRATING
With the children
Children gather on the conversation mat
Conversation
CELEBRATING COMMUNITY: SACRAMENT OF HOLY COMMUNION
Offerings
Our offerings and gifts of bread and wine, shall now be received.
Presentation The people stand, as they are able, as the gifts are presented
We pray:
God, we look for a gentler humanity, a kinder world:
with our money and with our hearts,
with our minds and with every good intention,
let this be our prayer. Francis Macnab
Amen.
Centering words
The earth has gone the round of seasons:
from the vibrant green of spring's new life
to the lush richness of warm summer,
to the brilliant fulfillment of riotous autumn,
to the generosity and self-giving of winter.
Now we stand once again, bathed in the
hope and the greening of spring.
Discernment and welcome to the Table
Thus it is fitting that as we celebrate the renewal of life and hope,
we also celebrate the presentness
of the Spirit of Life and Hope and Creativity,
everywhere around and within us.
(pause)
No matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey,
you are welcome at this table
with it's symbols of God's Creative Presence.
All In company with all who seek nourishment at this table,
we come to celebrate community,
and to share these life-giving symbols. (Jerry Stinson, L&L Seminar)
Thanksgiving
It is right and our joy to give
world-gazing, hope-cheering God, our cherisher.
We celebrate the changing mood of nature:
for sunshine and showers of a spring day,
for the nesting and cheerfulness of birds,
and the flowers of bush and garden... wattle, heath, and bottle brush.
We who hold all such good things in trust,
in the company of each other,
and in company with people throughout the world
declare as generations before us have declared:
All Holy, holy, holy, hope-breathing God,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of God.
All Hosanna in the highest.
And we celebrate our knowledge of the one called Jesus,
who taught all to care for the birds of the air,
and the grass of the paddock;
living expressions of the Spirit of Life in our midst.
Through his sayings and parables,
Jesus broke down existing biases and opened a way
for more humane ways of living.
Jesus at supper is a demonstration of this teaching.
He urged his followers to include a wide variety of folks
in what he called the realm of God,
and he encouraged them to be open to the insights and understandings
that come from honest and respectful dialogue among
those who seek a worthy way of life.
We are here to carry on this tradition
of seeking for truth and recognizing goodness
wherever they may be found. (R Jones, L&L Seminar)
Bread and Wine
Bread is broken, wine poured out
Wheat grains crushed provide our food.
Grape full bunches pressed become our table drink.
Because they do not cling to what they were,
a wonderful new happening…
We who are hungry – fed.
We who are thirsty – satisfied. (Michael Moynahan/gs)
Communion
Bread and wine served
After communion
We give thanks that we have
gathered together in this sacred place,
and been refreshed at this table.
We rejoice in the giftedness of each person here.
We are grateful for who we are for each other.
May we go forth into the world in courage and peace.
SCATTERING
Hymn The people stand as they are able, to sing
"The majesty of mountains" 139 AA
The majesty of mountains,
the sovereignty of skies,
the regal rock that arch above
where veils of vapour rise,
are gifts of God, the Lord of love,
the worshipful, the wise.
The running of the river,
the surging of the sea,
the grass that grows high on the hill,
the flower and fruiting tree,
our Saviour sends us, by whose will
all creatures came to be.
Remain standing
Words of mission
Let us take on this week’s life with renewed hope and imagination...
The candle is extinguished
May we leave this place seeking an uncharted,
but freely chosen, way to wholeness
All Knowing we have companions along the way. Bets Wienecke
Blessing words
May Creativity God be with you on the smooth paths.
May Jesus the Companion be with you in the storms.
May the Empowering Spirit be with you at all times.
All Amen!
Hymn (Cont) "The majesty of mountains" 139 AA
The Glory of the Godhead,
the Spirit and the Son,
the Father, faithful down the days:
to them, the Three-in-One,
while life shall last, be perfect praise
and highest honour done! Michael Perry.
The people sit after the hymn
'This week' at St James
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.
The hymns used in this liturgy
are reproduced with permission under license #A1197.
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.
Duncan, G. (ed). 1995. Dare to dream. A prayer and worship anthology from around the world. Gt. Britain: London. Fount/HarperCollins.
Faith forever singing. Songs for a new day. 2000. NZ: Raumati. New Zealand Hymnbook Trust.
Holy Bible. NRSV. 1989. Ten: Nashville. Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Iona Community. 2001. Iona abbey worship book. Scotland: Glasgow. Wild Goose Publications.
Jones, Robert V. 2005. “Liturgy: The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper”. In private circulation from the author. L&L Seminar.
Macnab, F. 2006. A fine wind is blowing: Psalms of the bible in words that blow you away. VIC: Richmond. Spectrum Publications.
Moynahan, M. E. 1980. God of seasons. CA: Saratoga. Resource Publications.
Singing the living tradition. 1993. MA: Boston. UUA.
Special resources. UCA National Assembly. (Issued from time to time).
Stinson, J. 2006. “The encounter of progressive christian theology with the language of prayer and ritual on Sunday morning”. In private circulation from the author. L&L Seminar.
Stuart, G. 2006. Singing a new song. Traditional hymn tunes with new century lyrics. Second edition. NSW: Sydney. CPRT Sydney.
Uniting in Worship 2. 2005. NSW: Sydney. Uniting Church Press.
Ward, H.; J. Wild, J Morley. (ed). 1995. Celebrating women. New edition. Gt. Britain: London. SPCK.
Withrow, L. 1995. Seasons of prayer. Resources for worship. Gt. Britain: London. SPCK.
Web sites:
UUA Worship Web. MA: Boston. UUA.