Our inclusive language liturgies generally set the structure and theme of Sunday morning worship.
GATHERING
ENTRANCE
REFLECTION
I often notice that there’s a real difference between saying I have enough and actually experiencing the truth of it. But I don’t want the beautiful sufficiency I’ve cultivated in any area of my life to simply be a declaration — I want to feel that enoughness way down in the depths of my body, my nervous system, my spirit, my every day life.
— Nicole Antoinette, Wild Letters blog, Jan. 13, 2025 (https://nicantoinette.substack.com/)…
GATHERING
ENTRANCE
REFLECTION
Blessed are you
who bear the light
in unbearable times,
who testify
to its endurance
amid the unendurable,
who bear witness
to its persistence
when everything seems
in shadow
and grief.
Blessed are you
in whom
the light lives,
in whom
the brightness blazes—
your heart
a chapel,
an altar where
in the deepest night
can be seen
the fire that
shines forth in you
in unaccountable faith
in stubborn hope
in love that illumines
every broken thing
it finds.
Jan Richardson,
“Blessed Are You Who Bear the Light”
in Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons, p 47.…
GATHERING
ENTRANCE
REFLECTION
Hope is not wishing: no, not that tentative.
Hope is not wanting: no, not that self-centered.
Hope is trust in grace unseen,
already there, already unfolding,
the seed beneath, the child within.
Hope is surrender to a greater movement,
acceptance that I am the thread
and the tapestry is vast.
Hope is confidence in spring as winter approaches.
Hope is belief in the fullness of time.
Hope is knowing in death and suffering
there is a healing presence.
Hope is patience, letting grace take its time.
Hope is planting ourselves in a future
that exists only in our acting:
raising children, loving enemies, planting trees.…
GATHERING
ENTRANCE
REFLECTION
You can’t get to any of these truths by sitting in a field smiling beatifically, avoiding your anger and damage and grief. Your anger and damage and grief are the way to the truth. We don’t have much truth to express unless we have gone into those rooms and closets and woods and abysses that we were told not go in to. When we have gone in and looked around for a long while, just breathing and finally taking it in – then we will be able to speak in our own voice and to stay in the present moment.…
GATHERING
ENTRANCE
REFLECTION
That day I saw beneath dark clouds
the passing light over the water
and I heard the voice of the world speak out,
I knew then, as I had before
life is no passing memory of what has been
nor the remaining pages in a great book
waiting to be read.
It is the opening of eyes long closed.
It is the vision of far off things
seen for the silence they hold.
It is the heart after years
of secret conversing
speaking out loud in the clear air.
It is Moses in the desert
fallen to his knees before the lit bush.…