November 1, 2020

WELCOME TO ST ANDREW’S ON THE TERRACE

Today’s service is led by Fionnaigh McKenzie

GATHERING

“Those who are bent by the wind

shall rise again when the wind softens.” – Te Whiti

 

This is a time to honour those who walked before us,

to hear the voice of God in the story of those resisted oppression

To understand our place in the continuing story.

Let us keep alive the vision of peace.

Let us celebrate God’s passion for justice.

 

PROCESSIONAL HYMN AA 85 ‘Let justice roll down like a river’
Words and Music © 1994 Colin Gibson Hope Publishing Company (3 verses)
Refrain:
Let justice roll down like a river,
let justice roll down like a sea,
let justice roll down like a river,
let justice begin through me.

1. Justice for all who go hungry,
crying to God to be fed,
left in a world of abundance
to beg for a morsel of bread. Refrain

2. Justice for those who are homeless,
victims of warfare or need,
trapped on the borders of no-where,
lost in the canyons of greed. Refrain

3. Justice for all who are powerless,
yearning for freedom in vain,
plundered, and robbed of their birth-right,
silently bearing their pain. Refrain
WELCOME
E te whānau a Te Karaiti
ngā mihi aroha ki a tātou katoa.
PRAYER
JESUS’ PRAYER Jim Cotter paraphrase

Eternal Spirit
Life-Giver, Pain-Bearer, Love-Maker,
source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
loving God, in whom is heaven:
the hallowing of your name
echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed
by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done
by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test,
strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory
of the power that is love, now and for ever.
Amen.
LIGHTING THE RAINBOW CANDLE
TIME WITH THE CHILDREN Ellen Murray
BLESSING THE CHILDREN (All stand)
We send you to the Rainbow Room to hear stories, ask questions and have fun together.
We bless you. Amen.
PASSING THE PEACE
Traditionally we shake hands to pass the peace and say “peace be with you. Now that Covid is here
we ask that you pass the peace without shaking hands.
THE WORD IN TEXTS Barrie Keenan
Hebrew Bible Micah 3:5-12
Gospel Matthew 23:1-12
RESPONSE
For the Word in scripture,
for the Word among us,
for the Word within us,
we give thanks.
REFLECTION ‘Healing soul wounds’ Fionnaigh McKenzie
OFFERING PRAYER (said together) Prayer for Justice and Peace, Iona
We long for the time
when the meek shall inherit the earth
and all who hunger and thirst after justice
shall be satisfied,
and we believe that, despite the persistence of evil,
now is always the time
when more good can be done
and we can make a difference.
May it be so, through the offering of these gifts
and the offering of our lives. 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, 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 Jim Cunningham
CIRCLE OF PRAYER
We think today of the people of Sweden and the Christian Council of Sweden. In New Zealand, we remember those in Parliament, and today we name Steffan Browning and Cam Calder, List MPs. Here in Wellington, we pray for the leaders and people of Wadestown Presbyterian Church.

PRAYER FOR ST ANDREW’S

Renew your people, God,
and renew our life in this place.
Give us a new spirit of unity
with all who follow the Way of Jesus
and new bonds of love
with people of other faiths.

Bless the city in which we live
that it may be a place
where honest dealing,
good government,
the desire for beauty,
and the care for others flourish.

Bless this church
that what we know of your will
may become what we do,
and what we believe
the strong impulse
of our worship and work.

Amen
COMMUNION

St Andrew’s is an open community and all are invited to Christ’s table.
Wherever you are on your faith journey, wherever you have come from and wherever you are going to, whatever you believe, whatever you do not believe, you are welcome to participate in the communion. This sacred meal is for all people.

WELCOME TO THE TABLE

At this Table we give thanks for justice, love, peace and freedom.
At this Table we give thanks for friends and strangers together in community in this safe place.
For everyone born a place at the Table.
We are all invited.

COMMUNION HYMN ‘Walls mark our boundaries’
Words: Ruth Duck from Circles of Care © 1996 The Pilgrim Press

1. Walls mark our bound’ries and keep us apart,
walls keep the world from our eyes and our heart.
Tables are round, making room for one more,
welcoming friends we had not known before.

So build us a table and tear down the wall!
Christ is our host. There is room for us all!

2. Walls make us sure who is in and who’s out,
walls keep us safe from all question and doubt.
but at a table in open exchange
new ties are formed as our lives rearrange.

3. Once we were strangers, divided, alone.
Hate and distrust built a wall stone by stone.
Now at a table the bread that we share
joins us to Christ in a circle of care.
COMMUNION LITURGY

Communion today, because of Covid-19 is served by using individual communion glasses. You are invited to come to the front of the church and receive bread, , and then a communion glass, and having partaken of the elements, place the glass in the “basket” held by the “receiver” and make your way back to your seat.
Or, remain in your seat to be served if mobility is difficult. If you don't wish to receive communion, please remain in your seat – we’re glad you are here with us.
THE STORY...
We remember the stories from our tradition....
How on many occasions Jesus would share a meal with friends.
Bread and wine, the very basics of life, shared in community.
How bread would be taken, a blessing offered, and then shared amongst them. And all ate.

How some wine would be poured out, a blessing offered, and then passed amongst them. All of them drank.

A time of concern, conversation and celebration.
The bread and the wine symbolised
human lives interconnected with other human lives,
and the power of giving and receiving.
May the passion for life as seen in Jesus and in the lives and struggles of many other committed and faithful people then and now, enable us to dream and to risk....

Together may we re-imagine the world.

Together may we work to make all things new.

Together may we celebrate the possibilities and hope
we each have and are called to share.

For everyone born, a place at the Table.
THE BREAD IS BROKEN
We break the bread for the broken Earth,
ravaged and plundered for greed.

May there be healing for our beautiful blue and green planet.

We break the bread for our broken humanity,
for the powerful and the powerless
trapped by exploitation and oppression.

May there be healing for humanity.

We break the bread for those who follow other paths:
We break the bread for those who travel on a different road from us:
those who think and act differently;
those whose belief system is different to ours;
those who see our world through different eyes
of ethnicity and culture

May there be healing where there is pain and woundedness.

We break this bread for the unhealed hurts and wounds
that lie within us all.

May we, too, be healed.

THE WINE IS POURED
This is the cup of peace and of new life for all.
A sign of love for the community of hope.

A reminder of the call
to live life fully,
to love wastefully,
and to be all that we can be.

Come then, life-giving Spirit of our God,
brood over these bodily things,
and make us one body with Christ;
that we may no longer be in bondage
to the principalities and powers that enslave creation,
but may know your liberating peace
such as the world cannot give.
THE BREAD AND THE WINE ARE SHARED

To eat and drink together
reminds us
of the deeper aspects
of human community.
From time immemorial
the sharing of bread and wine
has been the most universal
of all symbols of community.

CALL TO SERVICE (standing) KmcIlhagga - Minister,Iona Community

Spirit of God brooding over
the waters of our chaos,
inspire us to generous living.
Wind of God dancing over
the desert of our reluctance,
lead us to the oasis of celebration.
Breath of God inspiring
communication among strangers,
make us channels of your peace.

HYMN ‘Out of Strange Unlikely Places’
Music: Lim Swee Hong © 2012 Hope Publishing Company
Words: Shirley Erena Murray © 2009 Hope Publishing Company

Music score is over the page

1. Out of strange unlikely places at an unexpected hour,
prophet people raised their voices called to speak the truth to power;
now with in our generation who among us dares to speak,
passionate to plead for justice, to withstand the word’s critique?

2. By the charter of compassion, by the Way that Jesus showed,
we are called to claim the vision, live the Gospel, walk the road,
not from postures of perfection, but from common human clay,
like the hands that hold our rice bowls, through the work of every day.

3. As the lotus blossom opens secret petals from its pod,
rising out of muddied water reaching to the light of God,
so may be respond in growing, find the beaty of our role,
raise the shoots of green abundance through the life force of the soul.

4. Out of strange unlikely places God will call, and God will ask
answers of our heart’s commitment, faith to follow up the task:
willing feet to change direction, feel the harshness of the Way,
yet be witness to the kingdom for the questions of our day.
BLESSING
SUNG AMEN
POSTLUDE