From Rev Ben:
A week after we started sheltering in place for COVID-19 we were supposed to have had a Sunday celebration featuring four writers from our congregation sharing work they had done in response to climate change. I was really looking forward to the worship service, and was disappointed when the writers were displaced by the pandemic.
But six months into the coronavirus experience, the time seemed right to hear from our writers, and so this week, Jean Gregory, Sharon Noteboom, Gail Onion, and Bertha Reilly will bring their work to us. You are in for a wonderful treat.
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View September 20th Celebration online
- Marcia will present a Festival Prelude on the hymn tune “Beach Spring”, arranged by Craig Phillips
- Talitha will welcome us and call us to celebration,
- The opening hymn is “Wash, O God, your Sons and Daughters”; it is a new hymn to me but it is set to a familiar tune,
- The prayer for peace is adapted from a prayer by St. Theresa of Calcutta and is led by Crystal Dykstra,
- Saralinda Jackson will read Isaiah 40:12-15,
- The poets and storytellers will provide a sermon,
- Kim and members of the choir will sing “Dona Nobis Pachem”,
- MPC will celebrate the baptism of Hokala Waslólya Seigenthaler,
- I will be leading a prayer from the ecumenical swiss monastic community of Grandchamp,
- The closing hymn is “We Shall Not Give Up the Fight”, and
- The service will conclude with a family life video with a charge and benediction.
WASH, O GOD, YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS
- Wash, O God, your sons and daughters, newborn creatures of your womb.
Number them among your people, raised like Christ from death and tomb.
Weave them garments bright and sparkling; compass them with love and light.
Fill, anoint them; send your spirit, holy dove and heart’s delight. - Every day we need your nurture; by your milk may we be fed.
Let us join your feast, partaking cup of blessing, living bread.
God, renew us; guide our footsteps, free from sin and all its snares,
one with Christ in living, dying, by your spirit, children, heirs. - O how deep your holy wisdom! Unimagined, all your ways!
To your name be glory, honor! With our lives we worship, praise!
We your people stand before you, water-washed and Spirit born.
By your grace, our lives we offer. Recreate us; God, transform!
WE SHALL NOT GIVE UP THE FIGHT
South African anti-apartheid song
1. We shall not give up the fight; we have only started.
2. Together we’ll have victory, hand holding hand.
3. Never ever put to flight, we’re bound to win.
4. We shall not give up the fight; we have only started.
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.