October 3, 2021
WELCOME TO ST ANDREW’S ON THE TERRACE
PRELUDE
CALL TO WORSHIP
Come into this gathering place!
Come in and find peace and rest,
inspiration and aspiration,
fellowship and love.
Come in and find light for your darkness,
a friend’s touch for your loneliness,
and music for your soul.
SILENCE
PROCESSIONAL HYMN ‘God is here as we God’s people’
Words: F Pratt Green; © 1979 Stainer and Bell Ltd
Music: WOV 165ii Blaenwern
Reprinted with permission under One License A-623996. All rights reserved
- God is here; as we God’s people
meet to offer praise and prayer,
may we find in fuller measure
what it is in Christ we share.
Here, as in the world around us,
all our varied skills and arts
wait the coming of the Spirit
into open minds and hearts.
- Here are symbols to remind us
of our lifelong need of grace;
here are table, font and pulpit,
here the cross has central place;
here in honesty of preaching,
here in silence as in speech,
here in newness and renewal
God in Spirit comes to each.
- Here our children find a welcome
in the Shepherd’s flock and fold,
here as bread and wine are taken,
Christ sustains us as of old.
Here the servants of the Servant
seek in worship to explore
what it means in daily living
to believe and to adore.
- God of all, of Church and Kingdom,
in an age of change and doubt
keep us faithful to the Gospel,
help us work its purpose out.
Here, in this day’s celebration,
all we have to give, receive.
We who cannot live without you,
we adore you, we believe.
GATHERING
Life arises in our midst –
sometimes hard-won life.
It surprises us when it blossoms forth
at unexpected times and in unexpected places.
It comes with power stronger than death.
Life born of faithfulness
Life born of courage
Life born of God
WELCOME
E te whānau a Te Karaiti
Ngā mihi aroha ki a tātou katoa.
Kia ora.
PRAYER
THE LORD’S PRAYER IN MAORI
E tō mātou Matua i te rangi
Our Parent in heaven
Kia tapu tōu ingoa.
Your name is holy
Kia tae mai tōu rangatiratanga.
May your leadership arrive here
Kia meatia tāu e pai ai
Your will be done
ki runga ki te whenua,
On Earth
kia rite anō ki to te rangi.
As in heaven
Homai ki a mātou āianei
Give us today
he taro mā mātou mō tēnei rā.
Food for this day
Murua o mātou hara
Forgive our sins
me mātou hoki e muru nei
As we also forgive
i o te hunga e hara ana ki a mātou.
Those who sin against us
Aua hoki mātou e kawea
kia whakawaia;
Carry us away from all that seduces us
Engari whakaorangia mātou
i te kino:
Save us from evil
Nou hoki te rangatiratanga,
te kaha, me te korōria,
Yours is the chieftanship, the power
and the glory
Ake, ake, ake. Amine
Forever. Amen
LIGHTING THE RAINBOW CANDLE
TIME WITH THE CHILDREN Frank Cook
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.” During level two we ask that you remain in your seats and greet those around you.
THE WORD IN TEXTS Lois Robertson
Hebrew Bible Exodus 12: 1-14
The First Passover Instituted
Gospel Mark 14: 12-16 & 22-26
Passover with the Disciples & Institution of The Lord’s Supper
Contemporary reading "Boroka Lookout - The Grampians"
by Richard Treloar
We arrived at the hilltop;
the sun shone despite the cloud,
invigorated,
delighted,
we paused, drew breath, drinking in
the beauty,
the wonder,
the vision splendid.
Briefly our hands touched,
grasped lightly
yet firmly.
There was beauty,
the beauty of life,
of birdsong,
of wildflower,
of panorama,
of togetherness.
We turned from the hilltop;
the cloud shadowed the sun,
the panorama disappeared,
the hilltop was but a brief glimpse of joyous beauty.
We could not stay,
but the memory remains.
RESPONSE
For the Word in scripture,
for the Word among us,
for the Word within us,
we give thanks.
HYMN ‘A Man of Ancient Time and Place’
Words: Brian Wren ©1991 Hope Publishing Company
Tune: Tallis’ Canon WOV 468
1. A man of ancient time and place
with foreign speech and foreign face,
reveals the glory, power and grace
of costly, unexpected love.
2. A rabbi, schooled in Moses’ Law,
a male, amending Herod’s flaw,
arouses wonder, rage and awe
with costly, unexpected love.
3. By teasing word and healing deed,
a leper touched, an outcast freed,
he bears the fruit and plants the seed
of costly, unexpected love.
4. The cost we barely can surmise
when, lifted up before our eyes,
the face of God we recognize
in crucified, unfathomed love.
5. May faith and hope within us grow,
the way of Christ to tell and show,
and may the Spirit breathe and blow
in costly, unexpected love.
REFLECTION ‘Re-membering’ Jim Cunningham
OFFERTORY MUSIC
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, 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 Ken Irwin
CIRCLE OF PRAYER
We think today of the people of Jordan and the Muslim people in Jordan and throughout the world. 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 the recent progress and pray that their calls for justice might continue to find a compassionate response. In New Zealand, we remember those in Parliament, and today we name Toni Severin and Hon James Shaw list MPs. Here in the Central Presbytery, we pray for the leaders and people of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Whanganui.
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
INVITATION TO 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 is God’s meal 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.
HYMN ‘Crowded table, urgent faces’
Words: Andrew Pratt
Music: Hymn to Joy WOV 92
1. Crowded table, urgent faces,
people longing for the bread,
bread of life and bread for living,
bread for rising from the dead.
Young and old, both men and women,
those for whom this life is hard,
those who live in warmth and comfort,
those whose life is stained or tarred.
2. All are welcome, wise or foolish,
at this table all are fed,
sharing wine in celebration,
eating Christ’s communion bread.
Then in costly life and giving
we will share what we receive,
demonstrate in daily living
all that we affirm, believe.
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.
When they gathered in this way it was 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.
We remember that on the night before his death
he shared the Passover Meal with his disciples
and gave the meal a new significance and purpose.
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;
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
(The bread and wine will be served in the pews. During this “Covid Time” we celebrate Communion using ONLY gluten free bread.
Wine is served in small glasses – the lighter colour is fermented wine –
the darker colour grape juice)
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
We give thanks, God
that we have gathered together
in this sacred place,
that we have been refreshed at this meal.
We thank you for each person here.
We recommit to being your community
for each other
for our city
and our world. Amine
HYMN WOV 450 ‘Now let us from this table rise’
Words: ©1968 Frederik Herman Kaan, Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Music: Robert Jackson Public Domain
1. Now let us from this table rise
renewed in body, mind and soul;
with Christ we die and live again,
his selfless love has made us whole.
2. With minds alert, upheld by grace,
to spread the Word in speech and deed,
we follow in the steps of Christ,
at one with all in hope and need.
3. To fill each human house with love,
it is the sacrament of care;
the work that Christ began to do
we humbly pledge ourselves to share.
4. Then give us courage, Loving God,
to choose again the pilgrim way,
and help us to accept with joy
the challenge of tomorrow’s day.
BLESSING
SUNG AMEN
POSTLUDE