April 8, 2018
WELCOME TO ST ANDREW’S ON THE TERRACE
GATHERING
What do you do after the world has ended?
How do you carry on?
What do we do now our world has changed?
Do we carry on?
What and who is calling us into the future?
Do we follow the call?
How will the church emerge from this transition?
We are the ones who will decide
PROCESSIONAL HYMN AA15 ‘Christ is alive!’
Words: © 1993 Shirley Erena Murray
Music: © 1993 Jillian Bray
Christ is alive, and the universe must celebrate,
and the stars and the suns shout on this Easter Day!
Christ is alive, and his family must celebrate
in a great alleluia,
a great alleluia
to praise the power that made the stone roll away.
Here is our hope: in the mystery of suffering
is the heartbeat of Love, Love that will not let go,
here is our hope, that in God we are not separate,
and we sing alleluia,
we sing alleluia
to praise the power that made the stone roll away.
Christ Spirit, dance through the dullness of humanity
to the music of God, God who has set us free!
You are the pulse of the new creation's energy;
with a great alleluia,
a great alleluia
to praise the power that made the stone roll away.
WELCOME
Kia ora tatou.
Kia ora.
PRAYER
JESUS PRAYER Jim Cotter paraphrase on card
LIGHTING THE RAINBOW ROOM CANDLE
TIME WITH CHILDREN Patricia Booth
BLESSING THE CHILDREN (All stand)
We send you to the Rainbow Room programme to hear stories, ask questions
and have fun together. We bless you. Amen.
PASSING THE PEACE
Feel free to pass the peace with those nearby or move to greet others further away. Passing the peace consists of shaking hands and saying “Peace be with you.” The response is “Peace be with you” or just “And with you.” Or, simply saying “Hello” is a good idea. Also feel free to simply observe if you wish!
THE WORD IN TEXTS Rosemary Lawrence
Hebrew Bible Psalm 133: 1-3
Gospel John 20: 19-31
Contemporary reading “The Great Emergence”
From by Fr Richard Rohr, OFM
https://cac.org/the-great-emergence-2017-11-26/
Protestants and Catholics recently honoured the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Reformation is the perpetual process of conversion that is needed by all individuals and institutions. We appear to be in the midst of another period of significant turmoil and rebirth, thus my focus on rebuilding Christianity “from the bottom up” in this year’s Daily Meditations.
… we are witnessing a dramatic increase in “Nones,” people who don’t identify with a particular faith tradition. While I ache for those who have been wounded by religion and no longer feel at home in church, the dissatisfaction within Christianity has sparked some necessary and healthy changes. Episcopal Bishop Mark Dyer (1930-2014) aptly called these recurring periods of upheaval giant “rummage sales” in which the church rids itself of what is no longer needed and rediscovers treasures it had forgotten.
As Phyllis Tickle (1934-2015) reflected, in the process of building necessary structure in institutions, we eventually “elaborate, encrust, and finally embalm them with the accretion of both our fervour and our silliness. At that point there is no hope for either religion or society, save only to knock the whole carapace off ourselves and start over again.” [1]
With each reformation, we don’t need to start from scratch but return to the foundations of our Tradition. We don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater, but reclaim the essential truths. And remember that truth anywhere is truth everywhere. With each rebirth, Christianity becomes more inclusive and universal, as it was always meant to be.
Tickle continues, describing how we might participate in shaping our history and present:
Called the Great Emergence, this time of radical shift is, like its predecessors, one of total and all-encompassing change. It is effecting and being effected as much by shifting cultural, economic, political, and intellectual circumstances as by religious ones. Yet it is the religious shifts that ultimately will inform and interpret all the others. . . . [It] is sufficient to say that this thing is a-borning, and it is we who must faithfully and prayerfully attend to its birthing. [2]
This emergence is not something we create or invent so much as name and join. “Two or three” gathered in deep truth create a whole new level of energy, collaboration, and interdependent life.
RESPONSE
For the Word in scripture,
for the Word among us,
for the Word within us,
we give thanks
REFLECTION ‘Why we need to shrug off the carapace’ Susan Jones
HYMN ‘ Let us reach down deep’
Words Susan Jones © 2016
Music: FFS 10(i) Gaelic Trad Melody arr John Bell
Let us reach down deep inside us
to the place where quiet reigns;
Find the Self who lives inside us
knows our joy and knows our pains:
Let our ego stand aside there,
shadow sharing space with light.
Let our inner selves rejoice at
how Love shines in darkest night. (Silence)
Wind and fire and earthquake pass
but Spirit is not found in them;
Still, small voice is hardly heard, but
brings Love which does not condemn.
In lives buffeted by windstorms,
rocked by quakes and scorched by fire,
stillness brings surprising solace
as we find there, hearts’ desire. (Silence)
Sacred calm means minds can settle,
hearts grow quiet, souls grow still;
Busy thinking slows its rhythm,
gives compassion chance to fill.
Even long-forgotten scars heal
as new balm brings a new way;
Every space and every crevice
warms as Love arrives to stay. (Silence)
OFFERING PRAYER (said together)
Amen
We recognise and bless the gifts brought to the table, and those which wing
their way electronically from our banks to the church’s account.
LIFE IN THE COMMUNITY OF ST ANDREW’S
People share notices and visitors are welcomed. If you have a notice not already in the order of service, please move to the front row, ready to speak briefly from the lectern.
For the benefit of newcomers, please introduce yourself before you begin.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE Lois Robertson
CIRCLE OF PRAYER
We think today of the people of Dominican Republic and Haiti and the Christian World Service partner organisations working in Haiti to support income generation, community education, training and strengthening of local organisations to fully engage in civil society and democracy. In New Zealand, we remember those in Parliament, and today we name Chris Penk (Helensville electorate) and Shane Reti (Whangarei electorate). Here in the Central Presbytery, we pray for the leaders and people of St Matthew's Co-operating Parish, Brooklyn.
PRAYER FOR ST ANDREW’S on card
HYMN ‘We shall go out with hope of resurrection’
Words: June Boyce Tillman © 1993 Stainer & Bell Ltd
Tune: Londonderry Air
We shall go out with hope of resurrection;
we shall go out, from strength to strength go on;
we shall go out and tell our stories boldly;
tales of a love that will not let us go.
We'll sing our songs of wrongs that can be righted;
we'll dream our dream of hurts that can be healed;
we'll weave a cloth of all the world united
within the vision of new life that sets us free.
We'll give a voice to those who have not spoken;
we'll find the words for those whose lips are sealed;
we'll make the tunes for those who sing no longer,
expressive love alive in every heart.
We'll share our joy with those who are still weeping,
raise hymns of strength for hearts that break in grief,
we'll leap and dance the resurrection story
including all within the circles of our love.
BLESSING
SUNG AMEN
THANK YOU Bruce Corkill
Our musician today