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Seekers Church

A Christian Community

In the Tradition of the Church of the Saviour

Faces of God - Trinity 2007

 

CIRCLE TIME

 

ENTRANCE

 

REFLECTION

Because a trinitarian divinity unleashes much power in our imaginations, it can heal or redeem us in this critical time of the planet's life...Classical Christian theology... is guided by three basic articles of faith: creation, redemption, and sanctification.  In many respects these articles parallel the persons of the Trinity: the Creator, parent God; Jesus the Liberator; the Holy Spirit who sanctifies.

Creation Spirituality,  Matthew Fox, p. 55

 

CALL TO WORSHIP

Leader:      Come, let us gather together to worship the God of all.Faces of God Altar

 

All:     We look around.

                  Even though we’re very much alike,

                  We show different faces to the world.

 

Leader:       Let us celebrate the rich wildness

                  that is at the heart of God’s creation.

All:             We are one part of the Body of Christ,

                  gathered to worship God –

                  Creator, Liberator and Holy Spirit.

 

INVOCATION

 

HYMN

 

SILENCE

 

RESPONSIVE READING

Leader:        We see faces in meditation,

                   a hundred faces carved above,

                   eye lines wrinkled in the hand held light.

Voice 1:       If only our own faces would allow

                   the invisible carver's hand

                   to bring the deep grain of love to the surface.

Voice 2:       If only we knew

                   as the carver knew, how the flaws

                   in the wood led his searching chisel to the very core.

Leader:        If only we could give ourselves

                   to the blows of the carver’s hands,

All:              Our faces would fall away

                   until we, growing younger toward death every day

                   would gather all our flaws in celebration.

 

SILENCE

 

PRAYERS

COMMON CONFESSION

Leader:         Despair rises up from the depths

                    and we are blind to your presence.

People:         Holy Spirit, we need you to

                    rekindle the light of hope.

Leader:         We are bowed down with remorse.

People:         Jesus, our Savior, we ask you to

                    heal us with your tender touch.

     

Leader:         Too long have we lived with guilt,

                    our shame blinding us to your love.

All:               Merciful One, lift us up from the mire

                    and bestow your forgiveness upon us.

 

INDIVIDUAL PRAYERS OF CONFESSION

 

ASSURANCE

Leader:    God says to us:

                I desired you before the world began.

                I desire you now as you desire me.

                Where our desires are joined

                There love is, I in you and you in me. 

 

All:             Amen.

 

PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION

JESUS PRAYER

All:                               Eternal One, Father and Mother of us all,

                                    Holy is your name.

                                    Let justice and mercy fill all Creation

                                    and let us recognize

                                    that every thought and thing belongs to you.

                                    Feed us with the bread we need for today.

                                    Forgive our sins

                                    as we forgive those who sin against us.

                                    Stand with us in trial and temptation.

                                    Free us from the grip of all that is evil.

                                    For you invite us into creation with you,

                                    now and forever.  Amen.

HYMN

THE WORD

SCRIPTURE

SERMON

SILENT REFLECTION

OFFERING 

SHARED REFLECTIONS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

HYMN

BENEDICTION

Leader:            As we go out to love and serve the world,

                       May the One Who is Three guide us and bless us.

                       May we become the face of the Holy One

                       to all who meet us,

                       and see the face of the Holy Three

                       in all that surrounds us.

                       May the peace of Christ and the love of God

                       and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us

                       and among us and within us, always.  Amen.

 

 

WORSHIP RESOURCES

Responsive Reading based on “The Faces of Braga” by David Whyte in

          Where Many Rivers Meet, pp 25-27.

Confession based on Psalm 120  from Psalms for Praying by Nan C. Merrill p. 268

Assurance based on the poem “God Speaks to the Soul” by Mechtild of Magdeburg

          translated by Oliver Davies and found in Women in Praise of the Sacred

          edited by Jane Hirshfield p.88

Jesus Prayer adapted by Seekers Church from New Zealand Book of Common Prayer

 

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