Summer 1999: Pioneering Faith: Into The Unknown

 

Seekers Church:
A Christian Community
In the Tradition of the Church of the Saviour

Summer 1999

Pioneering Faith: Into The Unknown 

SILENT REFLECTION

The Church is that part of the human community which responds first to God-in-Christ and Christ-in-God.  In its relations with God, it is the pioneer part of society that responds to God on behalf of the whole society, somewhat, we might say, as science is the pioneer in responding to pattern or rationality in experience and as artists are the pioneers in responding to beauty.

H. Richard Niebuhr, quoted in The Sycamore Book, pg 33

 

PRELUDE

 

CALL TO WORSHIP

Leader:             We gather as those

who have heard the call of the Spirit.

 

Community:      We join together

as the many streams from different valleys merge,

pulled by the sea.

 

Leader:            Yet we know that the Beyond which calls,

and the Beyond which is our destiny is one and the same.

 

All:                  May this common call and common destiny unite us,

even now, into one body —

one small part of the Body of Christ.

 

INVOCATION

 

HYMN

 

SILENCE

 

LITANY

Leader:             Spirit of God,

you are the source of life who sets us free.

 

Voice 1:           You are both promise and uncertainty,

poverty and hope,

comfort and challenge.

 

Voice 2:           Inspire us with the courage to proclaim truth

and the strength to work for justice and peace.

 

Leader:             Waken in us a spirit of joy,

that we may celebrate all that is good and human.

 

All:                   Send your Spirit, O God,

to make us whole, to make us know

that you have created all of us in your image.

 

SILENCE

 

PRAYERS

COMMON CONFESSION         

Leader:             Holy Steward of Creation,

as pioneers of faith, we have some learning to do.

 

Voice 1:           You made us a part of nature,

but we exercised our dominion over it,

and put no bridle on our greed.

Now look where we are.

 

Voice 2:           You gave us egrets and eagles; seals and snakes,

but our selfishness made us so shortsighted

that we threaten them with extinction.

 

Leader:            You put us to live among others in fellowship and peace,

but we have grabbed the best for ourselves

and shut up our hearts to the wailing of the world.

 

All:                  We do not even know that it is our very souls

that are dying of starvation, cut off from your Creation.

 

INDIVIDUAL PRAYERS OF CONFESSION

ASSURANCE   

Leader:             Our hope is secure,

for it depends not on our love for God,

but on God’s love for us.  Amen.

 

PRAYERS OF THE COMMUNITY

 

HYMN

 

THE WORD

FIRST LESSON

SILENCE

GOSPEL LESSON

SERMON

SILENT REFLECTION

 

OFFERING

 

The first Sunday of each month we switch to a Communion Liturgy here.

SHARED REFLECTIONS

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

HYMN

 

BENEDICTION

Leader:             Gentle Holder of the Future,

teach us to walk softly on your lands,

to use with care your gifts,

to love with tenderness all our brothers and sisters

who have been born of your goodness.  Amen.

LITURGY RESOURCES

 

 

Inspired by The Sycamore Book