March 14, 2021

WELCOME TO ST ANDREW’S ON THE TERRACE

CALL TO WORSHIP

We can come here because we have received the gift of life.

Against all the odds, we were conceived, we survived and lived a wealth of experiences to be here.

We have been given ourselves, we have been given our community and our culture.

We have been given this time, now.

So we invest some of that time to enhance our lives so we can enrich those around us.

In faith and anticipation let us now open ourselves to our God.

 

PROCESSIONAL HYMN AA82 ‘Join hands in the Spirit’
Words and Music: © 1986 Radha Sahar (Admin. by Radha Wardrop)

1. Join hands in the Spirit,
the one holy name,
you are love and we Your children,
one and the same.
All glory to the Spirit,
all praise to Your name,
for Your love unites us
in peace once again.

2. Join minds in the Spirit,
the one source of life,
all are born in your image,
sparks of your light.
Oh joy that you call us
to love and forgive,
to trust beyond fear,
that in death we may live.

3. Join hearts in the Spirit,
the one holy peace,
your love is our union,
your touch our release.
Oh great heart! embracing
every creed, every race,
in gratitude we cry
at the gift of your grace.
WELCOME
Kia ora tatou.
Kia ora.
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 Sue McRae
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 Patricia Booth
Hebrew Bible Jeremiah 31:31-34
Christian Scriptures John 12:20-33
From beyond the Christian tradition by Kofi Annan
We may have different religions, different languages, different coloured skin, but we all belong to the same human race.
RESPONSE
For the Word in scripture,
for the Word among us,
for the Word within us,
we give thanks.
HYMN FOR LENT HIOS 8 ‘Autumn comes in all its fullness’
Words and Music: William L. Wallace Arr: Barry Brinson
© New Zealand hymnbook trust 2009, 3 verses
Reprinted with permission under One License A-623996. All rights reserved

1. Autumn comes in all its fullness
harvesting both land and hearts.
Autumn has its birth in winter
in the stillness where life starts.

Refrain: Every death brings hope of birthing,
every birth enfolds life’s end,
for the seasons of our living
mirror patterns nature penned.

 
2. Autumn gives us time for choosing
seeds which bear the richest fruits,
fragile life which we can nurture
into just or vain pursuits. Refrain

3. Buried in autumnal endings
lies the shoot that bursts the tomb,
for the letting go in autumn
sows the seed that births the bloom. Refrain
REFLECTION ‘Faithfully live our culture in love’ Norman Wilkins
HYMN AA106 O God, We Bear the Imprint of Your Face
Words: © 1987 Shirley Murray (Hope Publishing Company), Music: Orlando Gibbons

1. O God, we bear the imprint of your face:
the colours of our skin are your design,
and what we boast of beauty in our race
as man or woman, you alone define,
who stretched a living fabric on our frame
and gave to each a language and a name.

2. Where we are torn and pulled apart by hate
because our race, our skin is not the same,
while we are judged unequal by the state
and victims made because we own our name,
humanity reduced to little worth—
dishonoured is your living face on earth.

3. O God, we share the image of your Son
whose flesh and blood are ours, whatever skin,
in his humanity we find our own,
and in his family our proper kin:
Christ is the brother we still crucify,
his love the language we must learn, or die.
OFFERING HYMN Tune: Duke Street WOV 24
Willing hands, to lead the blind,
heal the wounded, feed the poor.
Love embracing all our kind,
charity with liberal store.

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.
REFLECTION ‘what happened two years ago’ Laura Roberts
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE Wendy Matthews
CIRCLE OF PRAYER
We think today of the people of Ecuador and organisations working towards trade justice in the Americas. 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 Rawiri Waititi (Waiariki) and Vanushi Walters (Upper Harbour). Here in the Central Presbytery, we pray for the leaders and people of Opunake Co-operating 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

HYMN AA 40 ‘For the man and for the woman’
Words: Colin Gibson © 1994 Hope Publishing Co.
Music: Lewis Folk Melody Ch 4 510
Reprinted with permission under One License A-623996. All rights reserved

1. For the man and for the woman,
for the body and the soul,
for the mind and for the spirit,
for the love that makes us whole;
for the person and the people,
for the many and the few,
for tradition and for custom,
for the fresh and for the new.

2. For the friendship,
for the suffering,
for the pleasure and the grief,
for the learning, for the listening,
for the doubting and belief;
for the sound and for the silence,
for the labour and the prayer,
for the rock and for the flower,
for the earth and for the air.
3. For the harmony of nations,
for the sounds of many lands,
for the rhythm, for the chanting,
for the language of the hands;
for the richness of the senses,
for the colour and design,
for the weaving of the pattern,
for the circle and the line.

4. In the dancer and the poet,
in the singer and the song,
in the artist and the actor,
on the flute and on the gong,
we will praise you, great Creator,
light of light and fire of fire;
make us one and make us many
your delight is our desire.

BLESSING
SUNG AMEN