WELCOME TO ST ANDREW’S ON THE TERRACE

PRELUDE

CALL TO WORSHIP

Come into the calm.

As we set our busy thoughts to one side,

we draw together as a Spirit community

to reflect on stories ancient and modern

Let us look around at our world.

Let us celebrate life in the presence we name God.

Let us trust in life itself.

SILENCE

PROCESSIONAL HYMN                                              AA89 ‘Light of Lights Beholden’

Indigo II—Words & music by Jenny McLeod ©1983

 

 

1. Light of lights beholden

we from days of olden

sang this song

for to understand

that peace upon this planet

was pledged to come.

Each to other, sister, brother,

born for life and song,

2. Darkness all around us,

light has always found us,

light will come

where the dark is deepest,

greater light will keep us

safe from harm.

Troubled times will always find

a voice of trouble doom,

 

 

(Chorus)     Look towards the light and carry on:

let the simple heart and hope among us

keep our family strong,

let the simple heart and hope among us

keep our family strong.

 

WELCOME 

	(English translation for information only)
Whakataka te hau ki te uru Whakataka te hau ki te tonga Kia mākinakina ki uta Kia mātaratara ki tai E hī ake ana te atakura He tio, he huka, he hau hū Tihei mauri ora!	Cease the winds from the west Cease the winds from the south Let the breeze flow over the land Let the breeze flow over the ocean Let the red tipped dawn come with a sharpened air A touch of frost, a promise of a glorious day The breath of life!

Tena koutou, Tena koutou, Tena tātou katoa

Kia ora

 

 

PRAYER
Protector God, we gather under this roof
mindful of 182 years of the St Andrew’s story here in Whanganui-a-tara.
We give thanks that soon we will enter a new chapter in our own story, with the arrival of our new minister.

Creator God, we understand our need to cast our minds more widely
to the whole country and the entire world to understand the stories
which have shaped our pathways to the present day.

Hopeful God, help us to recognise that the global change
needed to protect the earth and all its creatures and our societies is now part our of our 21st century story.
May we act as if our lives depended on it, because they do.

God of all life, hear our 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 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-19 is here we ask that you pass the peace without shaking hands.

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THE WORD IN TEXTS                                                                                              Marilyn Wallace

Hebrew Bible                                                                                     Jeremiah 17: 5-10

Contemporary reading
                       from ‘Maori Philosophy: indigenous thinking from Aotearoa 2020’

By GT Stewart

At the heart of the Māori world is Papatūānuku, the primordial mother earth deity. Above is Ranginui, the primordial father sky deity. Their many children are guardians of various domains, including Tangaroa, god of the sea, Tāwhirimātea, god of winds, Haumiatiketike, god of wild foods, and Rongomatāne, god of cultivated food, especially kūmara, hence ‘god of peace’. Tūmatauenga is god of war, but the most important brother for humans is Tānemahuta (also known as Tāne, or sometimes Tāne-nui-a-Rangi), ancestor of mankind and all the trees, birds, insects and other land animals and plants. It was Tāne who managed to separate their parents in the first place, to end their millennia-long tight embrace, with all their children crouched in the dark between them, and allow the light of day to enter the world. Tāne planted the trees of the forest and filled them with the birds and other living things. Tāne cloaked his father Ranginui with the night sky, adorned it with the stars, and begat humanity with Hineahuone, the primordial female ancestor god, whom he fashioned from clay. Tāne ascended to the heavens and returned with the three baskets of knowledge for humankind. The rain is likened to the tears of love from Rangi to Papa, and the mists her sorrowful sighs in return. The youngest unborn brother is Rūaumoko, god of earthquakes and volcanoes. When he moves inside his mother’s belly, the earth shakes and rumbles: perhaps in the twenty-first century his time draws near?

RESPONSE

For the Word in scripture,

for the Word among us,

for the Word within us,

we give thanks.

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REFLECTION ‘The stories we live by’ Ben Gray

HYMN: WOV 672 Where the road runs out
Words and Music: © 1992 Colin Gibson

1. Where the road runs out and the signposts end,
where we come to the edge of today,
be the God of Abraham for us;
send us out upon our way.

Lord, you were our beginning,
the faith that gave us birth.
We look to you our ending,
our hope for heaven and earth.

2. When the coast is left and we journey on
to the rim of the sky and the sea,
be the sailor’s friend, be the dolphin Christ;
lead us on to eternity.

Lord, you were……….

3. When the clouds are low and the wind is strong,
when tomorrow’s storm draws near,
be the spirit bird hov’ring overhead
who will take away our fear.

Lord, you were ……….
AFFIRMATION Rex AE Hunt (adapted)

Storytelling God, who speaks to us in
myths and legends and parables, may we find ourselves
in those stories and grow through them.
May our hearts be touched with wonder
so we can see ourselves more clearly
in our fullness and complexity.

A new year has begun. Life goes on.

Babies are born and we dedicate ourselves to them.
People die and we celebrate their lives, laughing and crying as we grieve our loss.
Marriages and partnerships are formed and blessed.

Our lives go on.

Through stories everywhere we understand that it is the task of humankind to protect the earth and all that live on it.
We hear constantly about plastic in our oceans, the plundering of earth’s riches, destruction of our forests and spoiling of our waterways.

We pray for life to go on for future generations and so we must act now.

Our time in this sacred place tries to hold it all together:
the joys and the sorrows,
the pleasure and the pain,
the fullness and the emptiness,
the challenges and the gains.

God of Life, may our coming together bear witness to the power of love, and the possibility of community to protect our future.

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OFFERTORY MUSIC

OFFERING HYMN AA 127 ‘Take my gifts’ verse 3
Words © 1992 Shirley Erena Murray, (Admin. by Hope Publishing Company)
Music: ©1992 Colin Gibson Hope Publishing Co.
Take whatever I can offer –
gifts that I have yet to find,
skills that I am slow to sharpen,
talents of the heart and mind,
things made beautiful for others
in the place where I must be:
take my gifts and let me love you,
God who first of all loved me.
OFFERING PRAYER
We say together
Take these gifts as a sign
that we value community.
We give what we can
in order to share what we have
in God’s name.
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.

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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 Pat Booth
CIRCLE OF PRAYER
We think today of the people of Myanmar and the Myanmar Council of Churches. We hold all refugees in our hearts. We pray in particular for those detained for many years in Papua New Guinea & Nauru. We give thanks for progress that has been made and pray that their calls for justice might yet find a compassionate response. In New Zealand, we remember those in Parliament, and today we name the Hon Jenny Salesa (Panmure-Ōtāhuhu) and the Hon Carmel Sepuloni (Kelston) list MPs. Here in the Central Presbytery, we pray for the leaders and people of St John's Presbyterian Church, Hastings.

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

HYMN AA 115 ‘Purea nei e te hau’
Words and music © 2018 Hirini Melbourne

(English translation for information only)
Purea nei e te hau
Horoia e te ua
Whitiwhitia e te rā
Mahea ake ngā pōraruraru
Makere ana ngā here.
Scattered by the wind
washed by the rain
and transformed by the sun,
all doubts are swept away
and all restraints are cast down.

E rere wairua, e rere
Ki ngā ao o te rangi
Whitiwhitia e te rā
Mahea ake ngā pōraruraru
Makere ana ngā here,
Makere ana ngā here. Fly O free spirit, fly
to the clouds in the heavens,
transformed by the sun,
with all doubts swept away
and all restraints cast down.
Yes, all restraints are cast down.

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SUNG AMEN
POSTLUDE March from “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”
by Richard Wagner (1813-1883)