Eldad – Hampton Pastoral Charge
of the United Church of Canada.
with Congregational Minister:
Pastor Doug Ferris
Music Director:
Evan Funnell
May 12th, 2024
This weeks Service “live” will be posted here at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday
For previous services click here.
Pre-Service: We Prepare for Worship: Breathe, Read, reflect, Pray:
St. Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians: “I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe according to the working of his great power” (Ephesians 1: 16-19)
GATHERING AND WELCOME
Welcome! May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all
And also with you.
Jesus said, “the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship in spirit and in truth, for God seeks such as these to worship. God is Spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and in truth.” Today, we light this candle as the light of Christ, calling all to worship.
Thanks be to God, Amen.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge this land as the traditional lands of the Anishinabewaki, Haudenosaunee and Huron-Wendat First Nations, governed by the Williams Treaties and Treaty Number Twenty. We give thanks for the stewardship of the first people of this land. May we live within the agreements of truth and Reconciliation as we partner together.
CALL TO WORSHIP
One: People of God, Jesus called to his disciples, saying: “Love one another”!
ALL: We have come to worship God, who is love, so that we may learn to love one another.
One: Jesus said, “I no longer call you servants. Now, I call you ‘my friends.'”
ALL: We come to worship God, whose friend we are in Christ.
One: Let us sing praises to God and live in love and friendship through Jesus Christ.
ALL: Amen.
CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER OF APPROACH
One: Wonderous God, you touch our lives with healing and with justice. New life is your gift.
ALL: We praise you for the Good News, which is ours through Jesus, the Christ.
One: May this time of worship nourish us with meaning and purpose
ALL: That we may carry the light of your goodness to share with others this week. We pray in the name of Jesus and in the love of God, our source and saviour, Amen.
HYMN OF APPROACH: Voices United #238 “How Great Thou Art“
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION AND AFFIRMATION
One: Jesus said, “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Do we feel the yoke of hardship and the burden of loneliness, reproach, and shame? As we come together in the name of Jesus, let us bring our fears, worries and regrets before God in prayer. Let us pray:
ALL: Gentle God, you made us in your image, with a mind to know you, a heart to love you, and a will to serve you. But: our knowledge is imperfect, our love inconstant, and our obedience incomplete. Morning by morning, we fail to follow Christ. Day by day, we fail to grow into your likeness. In your tender love, O God, we ask that you forgive, heal, and restore, that we may grow more and more into the likeness of Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen.
One: Friends, this is the Good News: Anyone in Christ becomes a new person altogether, a new creation. The past is finished and gone. Everything has become fresh and new. Friends, believe the good news of the Gospel: In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Thanks be to God.
One: Jesus promised: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you so do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. In the love of Christ, may the peace of Christ be with you all.
ALL: And also with you.
One: Let us greet one another with the Peace of Christ.
WORDS FOR THE YOUNG–AND EVERYONE:
HYMN OF DEVOTION: Voices United #703 “In the Bulb There is a Flower“
MINISTRY OF THE WORD
One: Sophia, Spirit of Wisdom, in the reading of scripture, may your wisdom be heard. Jesus, Light of Christ, in the meditations of our hearts, may your word become flesh. Emmanuel, God with Us, in the faithfulness of our lives, may your word dwell within.
ALL: Amen.
Luke 24: 44-53 [link to today’s scripture readings]
Acts 1: 1-11
All: Thanks be to God.
RESPONSIVE PRAYER
ALL: God of Wisdom and the Word, we hear your words of life today. May the word implanted reconcile, save and make new as Christ the Living Word works in us and others by the Spirit. Amen.
THE CHURCH RESPONDS TO THE WORD
THANKSGIVING AND DEDICATION
Minute for Missions, Messages from Ministries, and receiving gifts offered to the work of the ministry:
OFFERING PRAYERS AND THANKSGIVING FOR GIFTS TO THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY
One: The Scriptures remind that, ‘the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. Therefore, let us pray, and let us do so asking that God will shape us in the image of our prayers. Let us pray:
O God: Creator, Saviour, and Spirit of the World, listen to your people praying. You hold all that you have created within your compassionate embrace. As you hold our lives, torn by pain, sorrow, or hatred, we call out for wholeness.
ALL: May your holy presence gently transform the places of our lives where we hold pain.
One: May your loving presence be a comforting reality for all who suffer loss, loneliness, and despair.
ALL: O God, lover of the world, may your holy presence comfort, console, and inspire.
One: And, from the silence of our own hearts we remember before you the names of these people and places that need the liberating release of your spirit. We silently bring their names to mind or share our requests aloud in the assembly as the Spirit leads.
[ALL: A moment of quiet reflection or spoken intercession can be shared by the congregation.)
One: Gracious, Loving, and Living God, we pray for the faithful all over the world, that all who love you may be united in your service.
ALL: Loving God, hear our prayer.
One: We pray for the church both here at home and throughout the world that your people will share your good news with the poor, and liberation for the captives, and witness that the day of the Lord has come near.
ALL: Loving God, hear our prayer.
One: Loving God, receive, we pray—in communion with an unnamed scribe of the eight century known only to you, whose faith and wisdom inspires uor own—receive, we pray, the prayers of your people. Grant that we may not only understand the things we ought to do but have the grace and power faithfully to do them. This we pray, in unity with the universal Church of Christ across time and throughout history that taught us to pray saying:
ALL: Our father heaven, hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and for ever. Amen.
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH IN THE SCRIPTURES, TRUTH, AND CREEDS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH:
One: With Christians ….. Let us declare our shared faith together:
God is Holy Mystery, beyond complete knowledge, above perfect description.
Yet, in love, the one eternal God seeks relationship. So God creates the universe and with it the possibility of being and relating.
God tends the universe, mending the broken and reconciling the estranged.
God enlivens the universe, guiding all things toward harmony with their Source. We sing of God the Spirit, faithful and untameable, who is creatively and redemptively active in the world.
The spirit challenges us to celebrate the holy not only in what is familiar, but also in that which seems foreign.
We sing of the Spirit, who speaks our prayers of deepest longing and enfolds our concerns and confessions, transforming us and the world. Grateful for God’s loving action, we cannot keep from singing of the one on whom our hearts rely, the fully shared life at the heart of the universe. Amen.
One: Friends, welcome. This is an open table, freely available to all. You are welcome to celebrate without hesitation. Welcome, one and all in joy and in spirit. This is the table of the risen Christ. In this feast comes the root of our joy.
ALL: In this feast gleams the promise of the earth and the glory of all creation.
One: Just as there is one bread, we who are many are one body in spirit.
ALL: We share in this one loaf just as we abide together in the one spirit and body in Christ.
One: In this feast come the Christ, Saviour and friend to all. Let us pray as one:
ALL: Spirit of unity, bind us together as we celebrate as one.
One: We remember that, on the night he was betrayed, Jesus took the bread and after giving thanks, he broke it, saying, “Take, eat; this is the bread of life, shared with all.
Jesus also took the cup and poured it, saying, “the wine of the spirit poured out upon all.”
Let us share together with the words:
The Bread of Life, shares with all
(Response: “Thanks be to God for the Bread of Life”)
The wine of the Spirit, poured upon all
(Response: “Thanks be to God for the wine of the Spirit”)
THE CELEBRATION OF COMMUNION SHALL BE OBSERVED
(Instrumental music during communion, Musician’s choice from any of: VU 457, 459, 461, 465, 480)
ALL: Life-Giving God, May the broken bread of life shared as one strengthen our community. May the wine of the spirit poured out on all renew our lives and relationships. May the Spirit present with us today in the bread and wine give strength for the journey, light for the path, and joy for the companionship. In the all-loving Spirit of Christ we pray, Amen.
SENDING FORTH INTO THE MINISTRY OF THE BODY OF CHRIST
BENEDICTION & BLESSING
THE CONCLUSION OF WORSHIP & THE BEGINNING OF MINISTRY
FOR ALL IN CHRIST
Hampton United Church 