October 25, 2020

WELCOME TO ST ANDREW’S ON THE TERRACE

Today’s service is led by Bronwyn White

GATHERING                                                                         Come down off the ladder

—David S Blanchard

 

PROCESSIONAL HYMN ‘Our city in the Spring’
Words © 2020 Bronwyn Angela White used by permission
Music: Leoni (The God of Abraham Praise) WOV 53

1. Our city in the spring is rich with kōwhai’s gold
and gardens glow with tulips after winter’s cold.
We rush outside to walk barefoot on new-mown grass
sparrows and tūī jubilate as we pass.

2. The oak tree’s vivid green, the rātā’s crimson red
roses come into leaf in their neat garden bed.
We ride the treehouse lift like angels on a cloud
when blossom falls in someone’s hair we laugh aloud.

3. Our city in the spring glistens with rain-washed glass
of windows into busy worlds. The underpass
echoes our quickening tread; graffiti’s spray-can pleas
remind us that our homeless are ‘the least of these’.

4. Our city in the spring—its chaos and its charm
Botanic Gardens, filthy gutters, nail-pierced palm.
The rainbow overhead reflected on the spire
symbol of justice, welcome, peace: our heart’s desire.

5. Our city in the spring, rich with geranium red
bright spear-thrust gladioli, toe-toe’s creamy head.
Beloved community for whom death’s lost its sting
Give thanks for city’s life, of resurrection sing!
WELCOME
Kia ora tatou.
Kia ora.
GREETING EACH OTHER—Please remain seated
We greet the people sitting beside us, without shaking hands, then listen in silence to the music
SOLOIST: Yeshani Sugunendran ‘What a wonderful world’
Bob Thiele and George David Weiss
PEACE OF CHRIST—PRAYERS OF HOMECOMING and A NEW PRAYER
Peace be with you
And also with you.
Peacefulness to the people
and peace to the land…
…We are forgiven. We are restored.
And so we pray together:

Creating, Evolving, Nurturing Spirit
We honour the mana of naming, describing and bringing-into-being
through the power of Breath and Word.

The ground on which we stand is holy, Whenua Tapu,
a place of mana tangata, where we show leadership
in care for the rights of all people;
a commonwealth of justice and liberation.

We are thankful for our resources:
we will be generous in sharing with others,
gracious in learning from others.
May we not offend when we mean to welcome,
not interject when we need to listen.

We let go of past hurts and memories which scar us—
things we have done, things done to us,
harmful attitudes we have absorbed.

We will be mindful, not falling back into negative patterns,
as we learn new ways of being,
a new appreciation of our full humanity.
We focus on things that are life-giving and true,
rejecting defensiveness and cynicism.

We live in the abundance of the universe:
the sustenance of our mother the earth,
the nurture of our father the sky,
the oxygen-breath of forest, the manaakitanga of land.

For this is our promise today, our aspiration for tomorrow
and our dream for the future.
Kia kaha te mahi!
Amen
LIGHTING THE RAINBOW CANDLE
TIME WITH CHILDREN Frank Cook
BLESSING THE CHILDREN (All stand)
We send you to the Rainbow Room programme, to learn stories of our faith – old and new – and to work with hearts and hands.
Go with our love. Amen.
HYMN ‘We plough the fields’ (adapted)
Words: Jane Montgomery Campbell, Matthias Claudius, Public Domain
Music: Johann Abraham Peter Schulz, Public Domain Tune: WOV 59

If you have a notice to share, please come forward during the last verse

1. We plough the fields, and scatter the good seed on the land
but it is fed and watered by nature’s mighty hand;
which sends the snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain,
the breezes and the sunshine, the soft refreshing rain.

Chorus:
All good gifts around us are given by nature’s hand;
then thank the Earth, oh thank the Earth, for all its bounty grand.

2. In Earth we see the goodness of all things near and far,
the colours of each flower, the shine of evening star;
the winds and waves refresh us, the birds are always fed;
and we, earth’s human creatures, shall make our daily bread.

3. We offer thanks, great nature, for all things bright and good,
the seed time and the harvest; our life, our health, our food.
We give back of the bounty that Mother Earth imparts—
our tribute and our labour, the work of hands and hearts.

LIFE IN THE COMMUNITY OF ST ANDREW’S
If you have a notice, please be ready to speak briefly from the lectern.
For the benefit of newcomers, please introduce yourself before you begin.
OFFERING—Music Whose hands are these?
Neil Diamond
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.
OFFERING PRAYER & AFFIRMATION Bless the work of our hands
Diann Neu/Bronwyn White

LEADER: We give thanks for these gifts of money and food, time and love.
Blessed be the hands that bring these symbols—of our work, occupation, vocation; of our creation and craft.
LEFT: Blessed be these hands that have touched life.
Blessed be these hands that have nurtured creativity.
Blessed be these hands that have held pain.
RIGHT: Blessed be these hands that have embraced with passion.
Blessed be these hands that have become knotty with age.
Blessed be these hands that have tended gardens.
MEN: Blessed be these hands that have planted new seeds.
Blessed be these hands that have cleaned, washed, mopped, scrubbed.
Blessed be these hands that have tenderly stroked a face.
WOMEN: Blessed be these hands that have harvested ripe fields.
Blessed be these hands that have closed in anger.
Blessed be these hands that are wrinkled and scarred from doing justice.
LEFT: Blessed be these hands that play musical instruments.
Blessed be these hands that are gnarled with arthritis.
Blessed be these hands that have reached out and been received.
RIGHT: Blessed be these hands that dance over the keyboard.
Blessed be these hands that tie ribbons and neckties.
Blessed be these hands that love when words fail.
WOMEN: Blessed be these hands that have tended the dying.
Blessed be these hands that give to charities and to buskers.
Blessed be these hands that light a candle in darkness.
MEN: Blessed be these hands that have gestured in frustration.
Blessed be these hands that wave banners of protest and peace.
Blessed be these hands that have washed another’s feet.

ALL: Blessed be these hands that hold the promise of the future.
Blessed be the works of our hands. Amen.
THE WORD IN TEXTS Rosemary Lawrence
Psalm from Psalm 90—A Psalm of Moses, the man of God
Hebrew Bible Deuteronomy 34: 1 – 12 The Death of Moses
Gospel Matthew 22: 34 – 40 The Great Commandment
Contemporary reading A Spirituality of Work by Sr Joan Chittister
RESPONSE
We hear with our hearts and our minds
and respond with our hearts and our hands.
REFLECTION “It matters what we do” Bronwyn White
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE Lois Robertson
CIRCLE OF PRAYER
We think today of the people of Cameroon and the Council of Protestant Churches in Cameroon. We remember the detainees of Manus and Nauru Islands, yearning that their cases be resolved. In New Zealand, we remember those in Parliament, and today we name Damien Smith and Nick Smith list MPs. Here in the Central Presbytery, we pray for the leaders and people of Khandallah 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

HYMN ‘When Jesus set his table’
Words and tune © 2018 Amanda Udis-Kessler—used with permission

Music score is over the page (in the centre fold)

1. When Jesus set his table, no one was turned away.
That table was a promise of blessing and of grace
So set the table fully. Invite the whole world in.
If we would share love’s welcome then here’s where we begin.

2. No race, no creed, no nation, no love of heart and vow,
No gender is rejected. The table’s waiting now
So set the table fully. Invite the whole world in.
If we would share love’s welcome then here’s where we begin.

3. Whoever we find troubling and seek to keep outside,
That is the very neighbour who must not be denied
So set the table fully. Invite the whole world in.
If we would share love’s welcome then here’s where we begin.
BENEDICTION J Nelson-Pallmeyer (adapted) / Bronwyn White

May we awaken to the presence of that we name as God
here in the ordinary place.
May we awaken to the power of love
here in the ordinary crowd.
May we build a neighbourhood of justice for all
now in this ordinary time.
May we daily work to build a world at peace
now with these ordinary hands.

Go now in peace, to love and serve,
to plant and to harvest;
to bless each other and all of creation
with the work of your hands
And know that you are loved
this day and always—
SUNG THREEFOLD AMEN