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.
2020 Lent : How Can These Things Be?
click here for a printable copy of the 2020 Lent Liturgy
GATHERING
ENTRANCE
REFLECTION
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.
Laura Martin, Associate Pastor
Rock Spring Congregational
United Church of Christ, Arlington, Va.
Used by permission
Lent 2020: Ash Wednesday
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…
2020 Epiphany : The Wholeness of What Is to Come
GATHERING
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,
by Esther de Waal, The Liturgical Press: Collegeville, MN, p. 8
Christmastide 2020
GATHERING
ENTRANCE
REFLECTION
Love came down at Christmas, Love all lovely, Love divine;
Love was born at Christmas; star and angels gave the sign.
Worship we the Godhead, love incarnate, love divine;
Worship we our Jesus, but wherewith for sacred sign?
Love shall be our token; love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and neighbor, love for plea and gift and sign.
Christina Rossetti
2019 Advent liturgy: “What do you hear? What do you see?”
GATHERING
ENTRANCE
REFLECTION
Our God is an expert at dealing with chaos, with brokenness, with all the worst that we can imagine. God created order out of disorder, cosmos out of chaos, and God can do so always, can do so now―in our personal lives and in our lives as nations, globally. … Indeed, God is transforming the world now―through us―because God loves us.
― Desmond Tutu, from the introduction to God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time