Liturgies
Our inclusive language liturgies generally set the structure and theme of Sunday morning worship. Since announcements are an integral part of our life together, we offer some guidelines for those who make announcements towards the end of worship.
.wp-show-posts-columns#wpsp-4872 {margin-left: -2em; }.wp-show-posts-columns#wpsp-4872 .wp-show-posts-inner {margin: 0 0 2em 2em; } click here for a printable copy of the 2020 Easter Liturgy GATHERING ENTRANCE REFLECTION The Christian faith is one that does not pretend things aren’t bad. This is a faith that does not offer platitudes to those who lost children this week to suicide or a tornado. This is not a faith that produces optimism. It is a faith that produces a defiant hope that God is still writing the story and that despite darkness a light shines and that God can redeem our crap and that beauty matters and that despite every disappointing thing we have ever done or that we have ever endured, that there is no hell from which resurrection is impossible. Nadia Bolz-Weber, “Sermon on Why Hope and Vapid Optimism Are Not The Same Thing,” May 28, 2013 at https://www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber/2013/05/sermon-on-why-hope-and-vapid-optimism-are-not-the-same-thing/ click here for a printable copy of the 2020 Maundy Thursday Liturgy WELCOME AND INVITATION CALL TO WORSHIP Leader: Are you prepared to come to the feast of Jesus, the Christ, whose life was poured out for you? People: By the grace of God, we are. Leader: Are you able… click here for a printable copy of the 2020 Lent Liturgy GATHERING ENTRANCE REFLECTION Laura Martin, Associate Pastor REFLECTION Wisdom marks our foreheads with ashes as we begin the journey through Lent. She intuits what these forty days may hold in store for us and tries to prepare us. Remembering Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness, she knows the trials, temptations, and vulnerability one… ENTRANCE REFLECTION Genuine spirituality is not an individual pursuit, but must be anchored in one’s local community.… This means a constant struggle between freedom and obedience, listening and asserting oneself, possessing and letting go, clinging to stability and embracing change. Each individual rightfully seeks the freedom to develop God-given talents, but any selfish or narcissistic leanings are bruised in the give-and-take of community life. Kathleen Norris, Foreword to Seeking God: The Way of St. Benedict, 2020 Easter: Witnesses to Hope
2020 Maundy Thursday online
2020 Lent : How Can These Things Be?
For God so loves the world
That she gives us awe,
Shivers on our arms,
Shooting stars.
For God so loves the world
That God gives us
Chrysalis to butterfly,
Horizon lines,
The ability to feel sore
After good work.
For God so loves the world
That he gives us
The day’s first light,
Ancient stories,
The ocean inside a shell.
For God so loves the world
That they give us
Whimsy,
And attention,
Righteous anger,
Winged birds,
Our steps that
Can be heard
Together.
Rock Spring Congregational
United Church of Christ, Arlington, Va.
Used by permissionLent 2020: Ash Wednesday
2020 Epiphany : The Wholeness of What Is to Come
GATHERING
by Esther de Waal, The Liturgical Press: Collegeville, MN, p. 8