Hybrid Worship

14 May 2023

Sunday Morning Spiritual Formation

No matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here. 

Adult Spiritual Formation in May is inspired by by the All-UCC Book Club selection How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram Kendi. While readers of Kendi's book will be well-prepared for our Sunday morning discussion, all participants are welcome, whether you're reading or not. For this week, we're learning from and appreciating Black feminism, especially the Combahee River Collective.

For questions, suggestions, and all ponderings about spiritual formation, please reach out to Karen.

GATHERING IN THE SPIRIT’S PRESENCE

Centering Affirmation:

Breathing in, I know I am breathing in.

Breathing out, I smile.

Welcome and Announcements

Lighting of the Community Candle

One: We clasp the hands of those who go before us,

And the hands of those who come after us.

All: We enter the little circle of each other’s arms,

And the larger circle of earth’s creatures, whose hands are joined in a dance,

One: We are dancing in and out of life, a dance so rich and so diverse that we pause in awe. 

All: We light this flame to honor our past. We light this flame to endorse our community’s present. We light this flame to symbolize our future.

Singing Our Faith ~ "All Are Welcome"

Let us build a house where love can dwell

And all can safely live

A place where Saints and children tell

how hearts learn to forgive

Built of hopes and dreams and visions, 

Rock of faith and vault of grace

Here the love of Christ shall end divisions:

All are welcome, all are welcome,

All are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where prophets speak

And words are strong and true

Where all God's children dare to seek

to dream God's reign anew

Here the cross shall stand as witness

And a symbol of God's grace

Here as one we claim the faith of Jesus:

All are welcome, all are welcome,

All are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where love is found

In water, wine and wheat

A banquet hall on holy ground

where peace and justice meet.

Here the love of God, through Jesus

Is revealed in time and space

As we share in Christ the feast that frees us:

All are welcome, all are welcome,

All are welcome in this place.

Sharing Peace

One: May a heart of peace rest with you. 

All: And also with you.

You are invited to share the peace with your neighbors.

STILLING OURSELVES

Pastoral Prayer and Silence

We end praying in unison: 

The Spirit of Creativity is all around us.

We are grateful for the possibility of being ever more aware, human and alive. 

Our world touches us in so many ways.

May we consider all that is - the beautiful and joyous,

and that which we don't want to read of and think about.

May the joys and the concerns of this present day

move and jolt us to our greater selves.  

May it be so. Amen.

LISTENING TO GOD AND TO ONE ANOTHER

Celebrations

At this time, we share moments from our lives: birthdays, 

anniversaries, works of peace and justice. We celebrate even sorrows and grief as part of a comprehensive view of life.  

Celebration Song

Celebrate your heart and your spirit.

Celebrate your life while you live it.

Even when it’s hard to do, celebrate the best of you!

Celebrate your dreams and your visions.

Celebrate the love you’ve been given.

Cherish all that you’ve been through.

Celebrate the best of you!

Invitation to Give

One: We give thanks to God for our life and the courage we are given to live it.

All: Let our gratitude for life be expressed in our generosity. Let our trust in life’s goodness be expressed in giving. 

One: Let our belief in life’s ultimate possibilities find full 

expression in our day-to-day compassion.

All: We give in joy. Amen.

Offering and Offertory 

ATTEND TO MYSTERY

Word About Life - Acts 17: 22-31

Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely spiritual you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all 

peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps fumble about for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,

'For we, too, are his offspring.’

“Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Sending Forth

One: We extinguish this candle, knowing the light of the Human One is within us,

All: and we carry it forth from this place.

One: May God the heart of life be deep within us and God experienced as transformation be present in our history,

All: and God the Spirit empower us to sing and dance and celebrate.

One: These are the times!

All: We are the people!

One: All of Creation is blessed!

All: May we love all and serve all!

One: May God be with you.

All: And also with you.

One: Amen.

All: Amen.

Sending Forth Song ~ "Trees of the Field"

You shall go out with joy

And be led forth with peace

The mountains and the hills

Will break forth before you

There'll be shouts of joy

And all the trees of the field

Will clap, will clap their hands

And all the trees of the field will clap their hands

The trees of the field will clap their hands

The trees of the field will clap their hands

While you go out with joy

Repeat (second time at a faster tempo)

Sermon Reboot is happening!

Join the discussion in the Narthex (we'll gather online and by the couch). This informal talk explores themes of the day's sermon and how these relate to our lives and settings in real ways.