 The Lord be with you! Good morning, Cheviot Churches – and Good morning to those joining us in other places too! You are all very welcome. This is Colin, and I hope everyone is staying well. Come, people of God, let us worship together on this 1st Sunday of Advent.
Notices:
Passcode: 697547
Call to Worship The heavens are trembling with anticipation, And we wait for Jesus. The nights are long and the days are short, And we wait for Jesus. Our redemption is drawing near, And we wait for Jesus. Let us hope in God and worship as people ready to see the salvation of our God! Hymn 273 – O come, O come Emmanuel Prayers of Adoration and Confession Creator God, You made the heavens and the earth.You set the planets in their courses, lit the sun with fire, caused the stars to shine and the world to turn.Life springs up wherever your breath moves.In Jesus Christ, you brought hope into a world full of fear and despair.You sent your Spirit to enliven our hope and guide us on the way.We are waiting now in anxious times for the world to be made new.We wait for new life, and we wait with deep hope. Redeeming God,We confess that waiting is difficult for us.We want to be comfortable in this festive season,but the pandemic keeps us anxious and unhappy.We complain about our own troubles and close our eyes to the suffering of others,Forgive us for seeking our own comfort at the cost of others.Give us eyes to perceive the great need within our community.Give us eyes to see the deep need within our own lives. Turn our hearts to you again and again. There is nothing we have done, nothing we will ever do, that will separate us from the love of God made known in Jesus Christ. This love is yours! So live in love as forgiven and forgiving people and travel through Advent in hope. Lord’s Prayer Lighting of Advent Candle We light this candle for all God’s people, Struggling to be bearers of hope in a troubled world. As we wait for your promise, give light, give hope. Hymn 284 – Hope is the candle Readings – Isaiah 64: 1-9 Mark 13: 24-37 Hymn 339 -Sing of Andrew, John’s disciple Weekly Prayer Advent Lord, as we move into the new church year, draw near to us. Strengthen our faith, deepen our love for you and for our neighbours and open our eyes to the wonder of your creation, so that when our Saviour comes, he may find our hearts ready to receive him. Help us as we try to set an example of a true spirit of preparation for that incredibly precious gift of the Christ-child. Amen Reflection I always love Advent. It is a time of darkness and light. A time of preparing and anticipation. It is a time of waiting and watching. This year many things are going to be very different, but just as the trees are stripped of their leaves, this Advent and Christmas we can focus away from the fripperies and on the essentials, as we prepare to welcome Christ at Christmas. Of course, we want this year especially the comfort of the Christmas story, not that it is always very comfortable. But we begin Advent this year with readings of God rending over the heavens and stars falling and the heavens shaken and the Son of Man coming in clouds: a picture of the 2nd Coming of Christ. And the 2nd coming of Christ is part of Advent, and we will listen to hymns like ‘Lo. He comes with clouds descending’ in the weeks to come. It is appropriate that we should have readings like this, because they were readings written at times of crises. It is called apocalyptic literature, and it was written when people were down, were being persecuted, and they called on God to intervene – but they also re-evaluated their lives. When someone has been very ill, it can be a wake-up call and often they can re-evaluate their lives. They decide to look at their diet and live more healthily and responsibly. The Black Lives Matter movement over this summer has certainly had an impact on making us look at the inherent racism in society and the legacy of the slave trade in many of our towns and cities. The Covid crisis we are going through has made us reassess what the important things in our lives are, and certainly one crisis area which we have been made very aware of over this period has been the environment, and scientists and celebrities and David Attenborough are warning us to act now before it is too late. The message of the Bible is the same. Act now, but also be watchful, be alert, keep awake, for the Son of man will come when you least expect it. Tomorrow is St Andrew’s Day, and Andrew was very watchful. He was always in the background, but he noticed things. When a crowd of 1000s followed Jesus and were hungry, Andrew noticed a boy with fish and loaves of bread – the outcome was the feeding of the 5,000. When some Greeks wanted to see Jesus, it was Andrew who enabled them to do so, and in his early days when he was a disciple of John the Baptizer, Andrew noticed Jesus pass by and followed him. Andrew was awake to what was going on around him and to the needs of others and acted. We are encouraged to be awake to what is happening around us and to the needs of others – so many lonely, so many struggling over this time. We reach out to help. We have to be awake to the coming of Christ this Advent. Not just his coming as a vulnerable baby born to poor parents in a Palestinian backwater. Not just to his coming in glory at the end of time. But Christ comes now and keeps coming in unexpected and unlooked for ways. Every time we reach out in love, God is there, as Emmanuel, God with us. A God who is committed to us. What is required of us is to be waiting and watchful, ready for Christ to slip in or to burst through and change the world. Hymn 509 – Jesus calls us o’er the tumult Prayers of Dedication and Intercession God of hope, we offer you our gifts with our thanks that your love never goes out of style, your presence is never beyond our budgets. Bless what we bring with your Spirit and enrich their impact in a world with desperate needs. May we shine as symbols of the unending hope we have in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Friend. Come Lord Jesus, into the darkness of our world; A world where there is injustice, racial tension and war; where many still lack the basics of food and clean water. Come Lord Jesus, into the uncertain future of refugees and migrants, who risk everything to escape atrocities or difficulties, but know that they could still pay with their lives. Come Lord Jesus, into our communities; Where many struggle with anxieties over Covid, over jobs, over their future. Come Lord Jesus, into our lives and the lives of those for whom we are concerned. Bring comfort to the bereaved and those struggling to cope for whatever reason. Come Lord Jesus, give reassurance where there is fear; confidence where there is doubt. Wherever people are hurting, let your light shine. Amen Hymn 291 – When out of poverty is born Benediction Go in eager expectation, awaiting and watchful for the coming of Christ. May the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with you and those whom you love and those whom we are called to love, this day and even forevermore. Amen
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 The Lord be with you! Good morning, Cheviot Churches – and Good morning to those joining us in other places too! You are all very welcome. This is Colin, and I hope everyone is staying well. Come, people of God, let us worship together.
Notices:
Call to Worship The Lord is the first and the last, our beginning and our end. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord our God, who was and is, and is to come. Blessing and honour, glory and majesty be to our God, now and evermore. Hymn 459 – Crown him with many crowns Prayers of Adoration and Confession God most holy, You are known to us as the Almighty, Powerful, Eternal, King and Lord. We call you our Shepherd and Guide. We praise you with many names, but you are beyond our imagination, so much greater than our words. We know you in the stories of Jesus and in him, we see your love in action, reaching out to the world. You move in us and through us by your Spirit, drawing us to you, sending us to live out your Word. God most holy, Three in One and One in Three, we praise you with our lips and with our lives to offer you honour and love. Mighty and merciful God, we come with a sincere desire to walk in your ways and live under your reign. Hear us as we confess to you our sins: We confess that we have failed to love fully, forgive wholly, and to share the joy of your presence day by day. You offer us freedom but we settle for the familiar. You offer risky love but we opt for safer choices. Teach us to abandon our selfish ways and cautious service, so that we can risk offering you our whole lives, committed to following Jesus and building your kingdom here on earth. Hear the good news. God’s compassion never fails. God’s grace is new every morning. Know that you are forgiven by the grace of Jesus Christ. Forgive each other, and live in peace and harmony. Lord’s Prayer Readings – Ezekiel 34: 11-16, 23-4 Matthew 25: 31-46 Hymn 462 – The King of love Weekly Prayer Loving God, we pray for your world, of which your Son is King. We pray for peace, reconciliation and healing in the places of war, hatred, terrorism and the Covid Pandemic. We pray that the nations may be united and subject to the rule of Christ the King, through whom and for whom all things were created. Help us to see you in the eyes of those most in need in our world and as we reach out to help, realise that "we do it for You". Amen Reflection ‘It will be all right in the end. If it isn’t all right, then it is not the end’. That is the message of the film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, in which a group of retirees decide to spend their retirement in an upmarket hotel in India. Except – the hotel isn’t quite up to advertisement blurb. But the young owner is brimming with optimism and says ‘It will be all right in the end. If it isn’t all right, then it is not the end’. At a time when half of Scotland has moved to Level 4 and other parts of the UK still in lockdown, and there is a lot of talk about what we may or may not be able to do at Christmas and the consequences if we do ease up, then perhaps it is reassuring to hear that ‘It will be all right in the end…’. Certainly the various governments are on a hiding to nothing, and leaders have to make incredibly difficult decisions. Some leaders around the world seem to have come through this Covid period highly regarded, whereas others have done less well. There is nothing new under the sun, and Ezekiel in our first reading was reflecting on how the leadership of Judah had coped in a crisis period. The Babylonians had invaded, had installed a government in Jerusalem more amenable to their wishes and taken a group of the movers and shakers of Judean society into exile in Babylon as hostages. Ten years later, the Babylonians would be back and this time destroy the city and the temple and take more into exile. It was the ultimate catastrophe. The prophet Ezekiel was one of the first group taken into exile, and he had plenty of time to reflect on what had happened and why it had happened, and he came to the conclusion that the leaders were at fault (and in this he was condemning himself). He likened them to shepherds, looking after a flock of sheep, but they were out for their own interests and their own profit. They favoured the strong and neglected the weak and vulnerable. It is a picture of selfishness and disunity. But the prophet says that God will take control and be a true shepherd caring for all and providing justice for all, and if anything, having a bias towards the poor and vulnerable because they are most in need. I think that sometimes we wish that God would take control of our situation and right all the wrongs, but we are Christ’s representatives here on earth and have been empowered to live in his ways. Today is Christ the King Sunday, and it came about in the 1920s as a reaction to the growing totalitarianism in the world and the rise of fascism, as people took control and saw no place for Christian values in politics, and the weak and vulnerable were cast aside. The Church was recognising Christ’s kingship and affirming the Christian values that we see in our Gospel reading. It is the story of the Last Judgement and the separation of the sheep and the goats, and in Palestine the sheep and goats really do look very similar. The message is clear – to serve Jesus means loving the marginalised and disadvantaged, the needy and the lonely. But what always gets me is the surprise of both sheep and goats, the surprise to find Jesus, not on a throne in glory, but among the down and outs. I remember mentioning once before of the statue of Christ as a homeless person, stretched out on a bench in Glasgow’s Buchanan Street. It is a powerful image. We have to serve those who are overlooked, not out of duty but love. Augustine wrote ‘ Life is for love: time that we may find God’. So let us keep on loving, and it will be all right in the end. We may feel bewildered or weary or scared, but keep on loving, and the more we love, the closer we come to God who is love. Hymn 544 – When I needed a neighbour Prayers of Dedication and Intercession Generous God, you envisage a world where the hungry are fed and strangers are welcomed. We bring you our gifts to become part of your vision. Bless them and bless us, so that all our gifts bear fruit in Christ’s name, and honour him as Lord of our lives. You came as one who was hungry and thirsty. Where people live on the streets today, suffer from hunger, or beg for a meal: Your kingdom come. Your will be done. You came as a stranger in need of welcome. Where people live lonely lives or feel like strangers in a strange land; where love is lacking and people face rejection for the colour of their skin or the language they speak: Your kingdom come. Your will be done. You came as one who was naked. Where people lack enough clothing, shelter or life’s basic resources; where people live without dignity, exposed to every kind of pain and hardship: Your kingdom come. Your will be done. You came as one who was broken. Where people feel pain in body, mind or spirit; where someone grieves the loss of a beloved or the future they planned; in places where the pandemic has done its worst and desperation has moved in: Your kingdom come. Your will be done. You came as a Shepherd. Where people are led astray or nations are ruled by corrupt or greedy leaders and there is no peace in the land: Your kingdom come. Your will be done. You came as one who was in prison. Where people are treated unfairly, targeted or tortured; where justice has failed and people are punished with cruelty: Your kingdom come. Your will be done. Silence Amen Hymn 533 – Will you come and follow me Benediction So now we leave this space of worship And while so much of the road ahead is uncertain, the path constantly changing, we know some things that are as solid and sure as the ground beneath our feet, and the sky above our heads. We know God is love. We know Christ’s light endures. We know the Holy Spirit this there, found in the space between all things, closer to us than our next breath, binding us to each other. And may the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with you and with those whom you love, wherever they may be, now and always, Amen.  The Lord be with you! Good morning, Cheviot Churches – and Good morning to those joining us in other places too! You are all very welcome. This is Colin, and I hope everyone is staying well. Come, people of God, let us worship together.
Notices:
Call to Worship You call us into your light Fill us with your peace You encourage us to face our fears Surround us with your love You call us to new paths Uphold us with your resurrection promise Hymn 124 – Praise to the Lord Prayers of Adoration and Confession Transforming God, you take the night and give us day. You take our strife and give us peace. You take our sadness and give us joy. You take our fear and give us courage. You take death and give us new life. You give grace beyond all expectation; you give love beyond all imagination; you give and you give and you give. So we praise and adore you as Creator, Christ and Holy Spirit, One God, Three in One. Merciful God, we look at our lives and our world and don’t like what we see. We are impatient, ungrateful and angry, far more ready to receive than to give. In this time of worship, remind us of Your promise never to leave us or forsake us. Help us to trust Your promise that You will be with us. Paul writes: ‘Neither death nor life, nor things present nor things to come can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus’. Let us rejoice that, no matter what is happening around us, no matter what we have done, God forgives us and will never let us go. Thanks be to God! Lord’s Prayer Readings - Judges 4:1–7 Matthew 25:14–30 Hymn 83 – I rejoiced when I heard them say Weekly Prayer Father God, we thank you for the gifts, talents and abilities you have given each of us, and we pray for a deeper understanding of how they can be used and shared within our church and our community. Set us free from the fear that makes us inward looking. Give us a renewed generosity with our time, our talents and our treasure. Give us a renewed concern for those who are struggling in our congregations and our communities. Give us a renewed vision of what it is for us to be your church, in this place, at this time. Amen Reflection Over this lockdown period, we have been developing new skills, and it seems a lot of us have been doing a lot of cooking and baking. On the television Nigella has started a new series, and she has obviously been experimenting, for in the first programme she made a banana skin curry. I never knew you could eat banana skins! I used to enjoy cooking very much, but my first attempt sticks in my mind. There had been a shortage of woodwork teachers in my first year at secondary school, and we were given some periods of cooking instead. I was quite enthusiastic, so much so that I told my parents that I would cook tea one night. You can imagine! It was something like Welsh rarebit, but it burnt. I made a very elementary sponge, but the inside didn’t cook. It was a disaster. My brother was scathing, but my parents were incredibly gracious. They had trusted me, and even though the meal was awful, they were full of praise. This has a bearing on the parable we read today, the parable of the talents, where the Master praises two of the servants for the efforts they had made. The word ‘talent’ can be confusing. It does not mean special ability, but is actually a ginormous sum of money. You could work for 15 years, and what you earned would still not make up a talent. In the story, the Master leaves for a trip abroad and entrusts his three servants with these enormous sums of money. Two invest the money and it doubles in value, but the third is terrified of the master and scared of losing everything, so digs a hole and buries it. But when the master returns, he praises the two servants, but condemns the one who had buried the cash. It is quite a difficult parable, because we sympathise with the third. He was terrified of the master; he froze. But the master’s reaction seems so harsh. There is no ‘Well done good and faithful servant’ for him. But then the story is not about money; it is about trust and faithfulness. I think that if the two servants had made a mess of their investments, the master would still praise them, because they made the effort, whereas the 3rd servant had made no effort, not even to put it into the bank to earn a little interest. As human beings, we have been entrusted with so much, not least the earth itself. We have been given gifts and talents, which we are encouraged to use to the glory of God and for the benefit of those around us. We all have different abilities; some can knit or make soup, some are good with repairs, others are good with people. We are encouraged to use what we have to the full. In Judges, we read of Deborah, who was a charismatic figure with a gift to inspire people, and she inspired the general Barak to confront the superior forces of Sisera and win. No hiding their heads in the sand. We have to use our gifts. Sometimes we get it wrong, but at other times we can surprise ourselves. So it is with the Church: at times of declining numbers and dwindling offerings, we are tempted to play it safe as a church, but Jesus never played it safe. Our resources are God’s and we must use them to spread the Good news. Certainly not bury them in a hole! One more thought: in the parable the 3rd servant froze, and it was due to fear. He had a terrible image of the master as someone harsh and cruel. It occurred to me that some people have a scary image of God. They consider God as judgemental and counting all our misdeeds. But the picture of God given to us in Jesus is one of love and grace, ready to forgive and empower us to be God’s people in the world. We respond by offering our very selves to be used to God’s glory until the day when we hear the words, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’. Hymn 502 – Take my life and let it be Prayers of Dedication, Thanksgiving and Intercession Loving Lord, we give what we have. We bring who we are. Knowing that it can never be perfect and never enough. Yet We bring our talents. The gifts You have given us, the people You have made us. Knowing that You accept us and love us. Use our lives and our living to build Your people. Use Your people to build a better world Use this world to show the beauty of life with You. God of loving kindness: we give you thanks for moments of joy and celebration in our lives, even amidst the ongoing pandemic: for love given and received, for friendships which bring us meaning and happiness, even at a distance, and for family members who show us glimpses of unconditional love. In all our relationships and interactions, keep us mindful of your call to see you in one another. God of the nations, we pray for our country and the countries of this world, as we all struggle to face the choices COVID-19 sets before us. Guide our leaders that they may govern wisely. We thank you for the news about the vaccine and give thanks for all who have used their skills to develop it. We pray for our Church, and especially today we think of all involved at Crossreach, as they work on the frontline– that Christ might use their hands and their hearts as they offer help, support and a willingness to listen. Help all who experience the care that CrossReach offers: from elderly residents of care homes, to those struggling with emotional well-being, poor mental health or addiction, to children and families facing educational and disability challenges. God of healing: we pray for those who are suffering in these difficult days of pandemic and for those who mourn the loss of someone or something dear. Draw close to all who fear the future. Surround each one with your love and show us how to bring comfort and support into situations of hurt and pain. God of life: you hold all souls in your loving care, the dead as well as the living. We thank you for your saints of every age who continue to inspire us, and for all who have meant the world to us and now live with you. Keep us in communion with them and, at the last, bring us all to dwell together in your light. Amen Hymn 518 – Lift up your hearts Benediction Now may God send us forth to use our gifts in the service of the Kingdom, and may the blessing of God, Creator, redeemer and Sustainer, be with you and with all whom you love, wherever they may be, now and always, Amen  The Lord be with you! Good morning, Cheviot Churches – and Good morning to those joining us in other places too! You are all very welcome. This is Colin, and I hope everyone is staying well. Come, people of God, let us worship together for Remembrance Sunday.
Notices:
Call to Worship From the darkness of death, God calls us into glorious light. From the tumult of war God call us into the beauty of peace. Children of light, God calls us today to remembrance. In light and in peace We will remember them. Hymn 161 – O God, our help in ages past Prayers of Adoration and Confession God of yesterday, today and forever, You are the God of every generation, and your love endures forever. You have protected us during difficult times, for your compassion is everlasting. In this time of worship, we declare our love and loyalty to you, and offer you our service in prayer, in praise, and in practice, this day and every day. At this solemn season of Remembrance, we are aware of how much war has cost the world you love. In spite of fighting between nations and neighbours, you have come to us in Jesus Christ and want us to experience life in all its fullness. Renew in us the hope that you will turn our swords into ploughshares, and lead the world from the study of war to the promise of peace with justice for all your peoples. God of mercy, with sorrow we confess that in our hearts we keep alive the passions and pride that lead to hatred and war. We are not worthy of your love, nor of the sacrifice made by others on our behalf. Forgive us we pray. Christ died so that we might live. Through his undying love, we have been forgiven. Rejoice in the forgiveness God offers us. Be at peace with God and yourself, and make peace with your neighbours, for Christ’s sake. Amen. Lord’s Prayer Will the congregation please stand, if you are able Let us remember the courage, devotion to duty and self-sacrifice of the men and women of the armed forces and the toil, endurance and suffering of those who were not in uniform. Let us remember those who fell in battle, those buried at sea or in some corner of a foreign field; and especially those we have known and loved, whose place is forever in our hearts. Let us remember those who were our enemies, whose homes and hearts are as bereft as ours. Let us remember those who came back; those whose lives bear the scars of war; who have lost sight or limbs or reason; who have lost faith in God and hope for humanity. Let us remember the continuing grace of God, whose love holds all souls in life, and to whom none is dead but all are alive for ever. They shall grow not old As we who are left grow old; Age shall not weary them Nor the years condemn In the going down of the sun And in the morning We shall remember them. (Silence) Hymn 712 – What shall we pray for those who died Readings – Isaiah 25: 1-8 Matthew 25: 1-13 Weekly Prayer Merciful God, we pray for those fallen in battle who gave their lives in the cause of freedom and in defence of peace and justice. Sovereign Lord as you swallow up death forever, wipe away the tears from all faces; and wash away the wounds of war, violence, and hatred. Help us to remember that Jesus blessed the peacemakers and also that if we really wish for a peaceful world we should honestly pray – “Let it begin with me.” Amen Reflection In the film ‘The History Boys’ by Alan Bennett, a teacher takes the 6th Year boys to a war memorial. He claims that memorials helped people to forget rather than remember, though the boys disagreed with that, and I certainly would too. But it made me wonder how often we stop and look at the names on the memorials here in the church or in our villages. But certainly today is a day to remember. I find it tremendously poignant to read the names, reflect on the stories behind the name and imagine the suffering of these soldiers and indeed of their families. Some are from our own families, and it still hurts, the pain of separation still cuts to the core. The names talk to us of the horror of war which has continued in Korea or Malaya, in Ireland or Afghanistan, and the effect on armed forces and on the local population. JJ Chalmers’ appearance on Strictly Come Dancing reinforces our consciousness of the horrors of war, as he had been badly injured in Afghanistan. In Linton Kirk the memorial to those who fell in the WW1, the names are mentioned but also the places where they died, and that included Gallipoli in Turkey, three died in Gaza in the Middle East, Italy, as well as the Western Front. Boys from the countryside here in the Borders finding themselves in strange places, and dying there. I have been at the commonwealth cemetery in Gaza, where neat rows of white crosses stand in green grass amid the chaos and suffering of life around. The prophet Isaiah talks of war and how the city becomes a heap, a fortified city a ruin. The prophets were used to war – the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians came in waves to conquer Palestine, a never-ending cycle of war, from the time of Cain and Abel, emphasising our failure to co-exist peacefully. But Isaiah also goes on to give a vision of a better future and paints a picture here of a divine banquet, where all the nations will come and be reconciled, and death and suffering will be no more. And it is that vision which we have to hold on to. In the Gospels we read the story of the 10 bridesmaids, waiting for the groom to arrive, and only 5 had enough oil to light their lamps to welcome him. Of course, it was all the groom’s fault for arriving far later than anticipated, and I always felt it was rather churlish of the 5 with the oil, not to share what they had with their friends. But of course, the point was to be watchful. It was for the early Christians to be watchful, ready for Jesus’ coming again, but equally it is for us today to be ever ready to work for peace and reconciliation. We have been blessed with peace, but the world is a volatile place. The elections in America this week show a divided nation, and people prepared for violence in the aftermath. We must be ever-vigilant to see peace and understanding prevail for the flourishing of humanity. One final thought. I was in a home last week and saw a picture on the wall by David Shepherd, who usually paints wildlife scenes. But this was of Christ on the battlefield. It was a scene of utter carnage and the horrors of war, but also of a chaplain holding a service with soldiers kneeling in prayer and right in the middle was Christ. It was so powerful. Christ is in the midst of our deepest suffering and pain, and can still speak to us, for he bears the signs of his own suffering on the cross. His is a love that transcends death. We gather this day and we remember the fallen and those who returned but who would ever be changed by their experiences. But we also commit ourselves ever to work that peace might prevail. Hymn 528 – Make me a channel Prayers of Intercession God of each life and all lives, in every generation you have been present with your people: in times of poverty and prosperity, in times of sorrow and joy, in times of health and pandemic, in times of war and peace. Today, we remember your gracious care in times of crisis, and give thanks for the courage and sacrifice of the women, men and families of the armed forces who have worked for peace, justice and protection in so many different times and places. Support those who have finished their time of service and still face challenges in civilian life. God of mercy, Hear our prayer. God of promise and peace, we thank you for the places where conflicts have ended, peace has been restored and where citizens can enjoy secure freedoms and human rights. Where people are oppressed and dissent restricted, encourage those who witness and work for justice to be established. Give us such creativity that we can shape a brave new world out of the scars of war, give vision and courage to leaders and the United Nations who seek to resolve conflict. God of mercy, Hear our prayer. God of wholeness and hope, we thank you for those called to serve others in their home communities. Especially we give thanks for those in our communities working hard in the face of COVID-19. May they know your protection and show your love in all they do. God of mercy, Hear our prayer. God of Christ in community, we thank you for the dedication of those who serve in the church. May your church always be a place of hope, healing and welcome. Guide our congregation and denomination through these challenging days so that those who turn to us will find us faithful. God of mercy, Hear our prayer. We give thanks for all who have gone before us and who now are with you in your nearer glory. Amen Hymn 192 – All my hope on God is founded Benediction Let us go from this place with minds that never forget, with hearts that grow in hope, with lives that shine Christ’s light. Let us go to serve, to reconcile, to bring peace, and to stand united as children of the light. And may the blessing of God, Creator, Peacemaker, Peacebringer, go with you all, this day and every day. Amen |
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