February 6, 2022
WELCOME TO ST ANDREW’S ON THE TERRACE
Write your welcome here
PRAYER ‘Source of all life and love’
From whom on different paths, Adapted from David Steindl-Rast OSB
Source of all life and love
from whom on different paths
all of us have come.
To whom on different paths
all of us are going.
Make strong in our hearts what unites us;
build bridges across all that divides us;
by your love may we rejoice in our diversity.
And as one in our witness to your peace,
a rainbow to your glory.
We pray the prayer Jesus taught us.
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 Graham Howell
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.
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 Lois Robertson
CIRCLE OF PRAYER
We think today of the people of Mozambique and the Presbyterian Church of Mozambique. 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 Chris Baillie and Camilla Belich list MPs. Here in the Central Presbytery, we pray for the leaders and people of St Andrew'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
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.
COMMUNION HYMN FFS 17 ‘For everyone born, a place at the table’
Words: © 1998 Shirley Erena Murray
Music: © 1998 Colin Gibson (Hope Publishing) 5 verses
1. For everyone born, a place at the table,
for everyone born, clean water and bread,
a shelter, a space, a safe place for growing,
for everyone born, a star overhead,
and God will delight when we are creators
of justice and joy, compassion and peace:
yes, God will delight when we are creators
of justice, justice and joy!
2. For woman and man, a place at the table,
revising the roles, deciding the share,
with wisdom and grace, dividing the power,
for woman and man, a system that's fair,
and God will delight when we are creators
of justice and joy, compassion and peace:
yes, God will delight when we are creators
of justice, justice and joy!
3. For young and for old, a place at the table,
a voice to be heard, a part in the song,
the hands of a child in hands that are wrinkled,
for young and for old, the right to belong,
and God will delight when we are creators
of justice and joy, compassion and peace:
yes, God will delight when we are creators
of justice, justice and joy!
4. For gay and for straight, a place at the table,
a covenant shared, a welcoming space,
a rainbow of race and gender and colour,
for gay and for straight, the chalice of grace,
and God will delight when we are creators
of justice and joy, compassion and peace:
yes, God will delight when we are creators
of justice, justice and joy!
5. For everyone born, a place at the table,
to live without fear, and simply to be,
to work, to speak out, to witness and worship,
for everyone born, the right to be free,
and God will delight when we are creators
of justice and joy, compassion and peace:
yes, God will delight when we are creators
of justice, justice and joy!
COMMUNION LITURGY (from Green Card)
AFFIRMATION You are invited to join in as much of this affirmation as you are able
Seeking to progress in my spiritual walk:
I believe diverse sources of wisdom are available to us;
and that following the Jesus Way
leads to awareness of the Sacred and the Unity of all life
I value community which includes
all types and styles of faith, belief and people;
questions more than absolute answers; and
the search for understanding which deepens awareness
I strive, as I am able,
for peace and justice among all people;
to protect and restore the integrity of our Earth;
I commit, as I am able,
to a path of life-long learning, compassion and selfless Love,
knowing the true expression of what I believe
is how I behave towards other people.
(adapted from the 8 points of Progressive Christianity by Susan Jones)
THE COMMUNION: GREAT PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
The peace of God be with you.
And also with you
In the presence of the living God
we lift our hearts in joy and give thanks.
Let us give thanks for the continuity of the universe;
for the sun rising day by day, and the moon rising night by night;
for all the life with which we share this planet;
for the interactions and connections that bind us to it,
and the elements of which all is composed. Let us give thanks
and seek to live in harmony with all about us.
Let us give thanks for the flow of human history;
for the events that have shaped and moulded us
and all our sisters and brothers;
for the ones who question that history;
for the ones who unearth the stories of the vanquished,
the oppressed, the forgotten, the unrecorded. Let us give thanks
and take our place in the human story,
struggling for the unity of humankind.
For prophets and martyrs and poets;
thinkers and preachers and healers;
for the ones who have linked thought and action;
for reformers and rebels and strikers. Let us give thanks
and join with them in the quest for justice.
Let us give thanks for all who have revealed or discovered
deep and lasting truths;
let us celebrate their lives and deaths, their thoughts and writings,
their continuing witness in the world today. Let us give thanks
and share in spreading this prophetic vision.
Today we give thanks for Jesus of Nazareth,
in whom Christians believe God was especially present,
one of the channels through which God
was made known to humanity.
On the night that he was betrayed,
he feasted with his followers;
he took bread, gave thanks and broke it
and gave it to his disciples, saying words like
‘Take this and eat it, broken for you.
Do this whenever you eat it in remembrance of me’.
In the same way, after supper,
he took the cup of wine, gave thanks,
and gave it to them saying words like
‘Drink from it all of you, the wine of the new covenant,
poured out for you and for many.
Do this whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’
For all that Jesus of Nazareth means to us,
We give thanks.
So today we share bread and wine together
as a sign that we are one humanity,
as a pledge that we will work for justice,
as a foretaste of that which can be
despite what is and what has been.
May the Spirit that guides us all
be present in this feast, taking this bread and wine,
the concerns that we have expressed and the lives that we lead, transforming them all for the unity of all creation
and the service of love.
God, whose body is all creation,
may we come to know you in all the earth
and feel you in our blood.
So will no part of us, or the world,
be lost to your transforming grace.
Thanks be to God, say all who worship in spirit and truth.
Thanks be to God, for the gift of life.
We say to each other….
The bread of life broken for you
The cup of blessing poured out for you.
THE DISTRIBUTION
Communion is served by intinction. Please remain in your seat and the bread and wine will be brought to you.
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
The feast is ended and the work of the world lies before us.
Many who work for change suffer resistance.
So make us strong.
Many who do new things sometimes feel afraid.
So make us brave.
Many who challenge the world as it is, arouse anger.
So grant us inner peace.
Many who live joyful lives are envied.
So make us generous.
Many who try to love encounter hate.
So we trust in you, O God of gracious love. Amen.
HYMN ‘Where Does Compassion Start?’
Words © 2009 Shirley Erena Murray
Tune: Love Unknown by John Ireland WOV 257 (i)
(A response to the ‘Charter for Compassion’)
1. Where does compassion start?
How does compassion grow?
Her seed is at the heart
of every faith we know:
compassion honours others' place,
dethroning self with willing grace.
2. How does compassion thrive
in worlds of greed and grief?
Her goodness stays alive
through those of strong belief:
compassion, luminous and clear,
outshining wastes of war and fear.
3. Where is compassion's role
in cultures, or in creeds?
At centre, with the soul
who feels another's needs:
compassion brings the touch of friend,
a bandage that will bind and mend.
4. Dynamic is the power
that heals, restores and gives,
connecting at the core
with everyone who lives,
transcending culture, colour, race,
compassion builds the house of peace.
BLESSING
Kia tau ki a tātou katoa
Te atawhai o tō tātou Ariki, a Ihu Karaiti
Me te aroha o te Atua
Me te whiwhingatahitanga
Ki te wairua tapu
Ake, ake, ake
Amine
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all
Forever and ever.
SUNG AMEN
POSTLUDE
THANK YOU
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