of the United Church of Canada.
with Pastor Doug Ferris
Music Director: Jennifer Pearce-Chambers
March 19, 2023
PRE-SERVICE: WE PREPARE FOR WORSHIP
Pre-Service Reflection and Prayer: Breathe Deeply, Read Silently, Reflect Personally, Pray Thankfully.
Once you were darkness, but—in the Lord—you are light. Live as children of light, for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord….Everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. (Ephesians 5:8ff)
GATHERING AND WELCOME
Thus says the Lord: Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies. Walk in it, and find rest for your sous. (Jeremiah 6:16)
Acknowledgement of the Land
The East Central Ontario Regional Council (ECORC) of the United Church of Canada acknowledges that its buildings and ministries are on traditional territories of Indigenous Peoples.
One: God of winter’s cold, of clear sky and frozen river.
ALL: We praise your Holy Name.
One: God of spring’s warmth, April showers, waking life.
ALL: We praise your Holy Name.
One: God of summer sun, warming earth, sprouting seed.
ALL: We praise your Holy Name.
One: God of summer pasture and mountain stream.
ALL: We praise your Holy Name.
One: God of root and shoot, of harvest to come.
ALL: We praise your Holy Name.
One: Loving and Generous God, as the sun rises and as a new day unfolds with all of its promise and hope we commit ourselves and our community to you.
ALL: We commit to respond in Christ’s love, in whose love we are made whole. We commit to embody Jesus in whose Spirit we live, move, and have our being.
One: We commit ourselves as a community of believers to Your divine mission.
ALL: We commit to offer our generous best, to witness blessing, and to seize opportunities for gratitude.
One: We commit to change and to be changed, to regard ourselves with grace.
ALL: We commit to advocate for justice, to exercise compassion and to love others without reserve.
One: We commit to work toward peace, to extend understanding and to afford second chances.
ALL: We commit to, in whose compassion we arise and greet this day, every day, and for all our days. In Christ we pray, Amen.
HYMN OF APPROACH: Voices United #409 “Morning Has Broken“
One: Jesus taught us not to be anxious about our lives or about what tomorrow might bring. Are there anxieties that cause us to feel ashamed, anxieties that cause us to feel separated from others, and anxieties that cause us to feel separated from the love of God? Let us bring our anxieties and our shortcomings to God in prayer: God of mercy and grace, we lower our heads before you and admit that, too often, we forget that we are yours. Sometimes, we speak and behave as if there was no God at all.
ALL: Sometimes, we fall short of being credible witnesses to your love, your kindness, and your forgiving nature. For these shortcomings, we ask Your forgiveness, and we ask for strength. Give us clear minds to remember your voice, courage to follow your calling, and open hearts so that we may witness for You with compassion and understanding. Remind us of the honour that arises as we respond in faith to your high calling, and strengthen us to serve as Your ambassadors, regardless of where we are and who we are with.
One: Embrace us with your loving kindness O God, and soften our hearts so that we can reach out in the Spirit with compassion, understanding, and holy love.
ALL: In Christ we pray, Amen.
One: Friends, this is the Good News of the Gospel: God loves each one of us with a love deep and profound beyond our human understanding, and God delights in an honest and contrite heart. Paradoxically, it is through humility that we rise, through honesty that we are esteemed, and through contrition that we are loved. Thanks be to God for the paradox of love.
WORDS FOR THE YOUNG–AND EVERYONE: “Ancient Visions and Distant Memories, Bathed in Light”
HYMN OF DEVOTION: Voices United #642 “Be Thou My Vision“
MINISTRY OF THE WORD
Deuteronomy 30: 11-14 (Click on this link for today’s Scripture Readings)
John 9: 1–41
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:
ALL: (Sung Response): “What Can I Do?” More Voices 191
What can I do? What can I bring?/ What can I say? What can I sing?
I’ll sing with joy, I’ll say a prayer/ I’ll bring my love, I’ll do my share!
OFFERING PRAYERS AND THANKSGIVING FOR GIFTS TO THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY
OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE THY NAME.
THY KINGDOM COME, THEY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD, AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES
AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US.
AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL
FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER AND THE GLORY
FOREVER AND EVERY. AMEN.
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH IN THE SCRIPTURES, TRUTH, AND CREEDS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH:
One: With Christians through time we affirm our belief in the Old and New Testaments as primary standards of Christian faith and life. The United Church of Canada also affirms that these timeless truths are expressed for our day in the poetic expression “A Song of Faith.” Let us declare our faith together:
Scripture is our song for the journey, the living word passed on
from generation to generation to guide and inspire,
that we might wrestle a holy revelation for our time ad place
from the human experiences and cultural assumptions of another era.
God calls us to be doers of the word and not hearers only.
The Spirit breathes revelatory power into scripture, bestowing upon it
a unique and normative place in the life of the community.
The Spirit judges us critically when we abuse scripture by interpreting it narrow-mindledly,
Using is as a tool of oppression, exclusion, or hatred.
Carrying a vision of creation healed and restored,
we welcome all in the name of Christ.
We are commissioned to feed as we have been fed,
forgive as we have been forgiven, love as we have been loved.
Grateful for God’s loving action, we cannot keep from singing
of the One on whom our heats rely, the fully share life
at the heart of the universe. Amen.
SENDING FORTH INTO THE MINISTRY OF THE BODY OF CHRIST
HYMN OF COMMISSIONING: Voices United #716 “My Life Flows On”
BENEDICTION & BLESSING
CHORALE BLESSING (“Go Now in Peace”)
Go now in peace. Never be afraid.
God will go with you each hour of every day.
Go now in faith, steadfast, strong and true.
Know He will guide you in all you do.
Go now in love, and show you believe.
Reach out to others so all the world can see.
God will be there watching from above.
Go now in peace, in faith, and in love.
THE CONCLUSION OF WORSHIP & THE BEGINNING OF MINISTRY FOR ALL IN CHRIST
Hampton United Church 