World Council of Churches – Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Posted on May 10, 2013 by admin

World Council of Churches commemoration of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity runs from Friday, January 18 through Friday, January 25 (northern hemisphere) and Pentecost (southern hemisphere). It brings together Christians from diverse confessions and backgrounds from around the world, who organize special ecumenical worships, prayer services and events. Text for 2013 is Micah 6:6-8 “What God requires of us today is to walk the path of justice, mercy and humility.” Resources to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity are now available on the World Council of Churches (WCC) website in English, French, German and Spanish, and include: introduction to the theme; a suggested ecumenical celebration which local churches are encouraged to adapt for their own particular liturgical, social and cultural contexts; biblical reflections and prayers for the “eight days”; and introduction to Christianity in India.

“The search for visible unity cannot be disassociated from the dismantling of casteism and the lifting up of contributions to unity by the poorest of the poor,” states the introductory text for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2013.

The theme brings into focus the strong call for justice by the prophet Micah in the Old Testament. As the introduction says, “In many ways, the situation facing the people of God in the time of Micah can be compared to the situation of the Dalit community in India. Dalits also face oppression and injustice from those who wish to deny them their rights and dignity.”

The Student Christian Movement of India was invited to prepare the resource for the week of prayer, along with the All India Catholic University Federation and the National Council of Churches in India.

Since 1968, the liturgical and biblical material for the annual week of prayer has been jointly coordinated by the WCC’s Faith and Order Commission and the Roman Catholic Church (Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity).

 

 

 

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Easter 5C

Posted on April 24, 2013 by admin

A call to worship (in the aftermath of the 2013 Boston marathon bombs)
by Rev. Mantu Joshi

We come this morning, hoping for healing and rest.
Healing can be hard when the world seems harsh and cruel.
We come seeking peace after the blast, even among the shrapnel of images imbedded in our collective minds.
Peace can be hard when the world roars in chaos and pain.
We come to a God who knows what it is to have nails in flesh and bone.
We come to a God who knows our pain.
We come to you, O God, because you know how to change death into life and chaos into beauty. Anoint this hour with your peace as we worship in your name.

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Easter Day – Year C

Posted on March 26, 2013 by admin

Prayer for illumination
Living God, by your Holy Spirit,
open our eyes to see the new light of this day;
open our lips to tell of the empty tomb;
open our hearts to believe the good news;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
From Feasting on the Word – Worship Companion, edited by Kimberly Bracken Long

just one

I ask for just one miracle this weekend:
that I will no longer believe the impossible is.
That I will find the faith to believe
that liberation will come
for those who are imprisoned by their own
- or another’s -
fear and judgement.
That I will find the faith to believe
that the most intractable minds can be changed
– even my own.
That I will find the faith to believe
a different world will be born
from the empty hells of this one.
That I won’t stop living for the end
of all that would destroy us. (Cheryl Lawrie, Hold This Space blogsite)

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Palm Sunday

Posted on March 18, 2013 by admin

Readings: Readings Palm Sunday

A contemporary reading: Cosmic procession by Bruce Sanguin (from If Darwin prayed, pp56-57)

God of galaxies and gerbils,
and this ‘gay great happening illimitably earth’
with great hope and celebration
we join the procession of life
en route to Jerusalem,
honouring the Christ,
in Jesus,
as alpha and omega.

The palm branches we throw down -
the royal carpet for His passing -
are our own lives,
offered as hallelujahs
that it has all come to this:

Fourteen billion years it has taken
to come to this One,
arriving as servant, though honoured as King;
as peasant, though Lord of Compassion;
no formal education, though born as Wisdom;
dormant in the stars, gestating in the pregnant Earth;
and through Mary, Mother of God.

What joy is ours as we take our place
in the great procession of life,
heralding and blessing
this One who comes in your name,
and all who are coming
with a song of holiness on their lips
and a yearning for wholeness in their hearts.

Blessed,
blessed,
blessed,
is this one who comes in your name!

Contemporary reading: Jesus takes on the city (adapted, St Oswald’s)
It was on the Sunday that he took on the city.
Religious freaks usually appear in the desert
Urging folk to come into the open air
And find God through getting back to nature.
God, they seemed to say, doesn’t live in the city.
God, they seemed to say, prefers the smell of a garden to that of a gutter.
God, they seemed to say, prefers the gurgling streams, not trickles of urine from the bladder of a homeless person.
They saw the city as a place for sin. God doesn’t go there.
It was on the Sunday
That he took on the city.

Meekness and majesty, manhood and deity,
In perfect harmony. The eternal one dwells in humanity,
Kneels in humility and washes our feet.
O what a mystery, meekness and majesty.

The Unking

We call you ‘King’, Jesus,
but you’re not like any king we’ve ever heard of;
You don’t flaunt your power,
waving your hand dismissively
to change the lives of your subjects;
You don’t hoard your wealth,
and tax your people just to grow more comfortable
in your isolated palace;
You don’t exploit the weak and unconnected,
or use the ambition of ladder-climbers
to further your control.
No, you are the King who lays down his crown,
to walk among us as one of us;
You are the King who lays down his life,
to bring abundant, eternal life to all who seek it;
You are the King who draws the weak, the rejected, the poor, the child
into the centre of the conversation
and into the heart of where real power lies.
You, Jesus, are the UnKing – the King whose Kingdom,
redefines everything we know
and will continue to do so for eternity. Amen (John van de Lear)

Other resources for Palm Sunday on John’s website here.

 

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Lent 2C (24 Feb, 2013)

Posted on February 20, 2013 by admin

cluck, cluck
surely you meant an eagle, majestic and soaring above mountaintops, with an inscrutable eye on all below;
or maybe it was a stork, bringing good luck (even a baby?) to the house it visits;
perhaps a nightingale, singing to cheer our solitude;
an owl, imbuing us with wisdom;
the wild goose whose dignity belies its free spirit . . .
but a chicken?
squawking, clucking, scrabbling around in the dirt for food, gawkily flapping her wings, while scrabbling about to protect her chicks who are doing everything they can to get away from her . . .
. . . that’s your image of God?
(c) 2013 Thom M. Shuman

LUKE 13:31-35
A triangulated relationship,
Herod, Jesus, ‘some Pharisees’,
persecutor, victim, rescuer;
or so we might think.

This prophet will not be drawn:
so much to do
so little time in which to do it
and neither Herod
nor these ‘rescuers’
will be so easily rid of him.

They’ve dispatched his kind before
but Jerusalem the unpeaceful,
that clutch of frightened chickens,
will have to wait
until Jesus enters on a donkey.
© Jeff Shrowder, 2013
(More for Lent 2C at http://thebillabong.info/lectionary-2/year-c-luke/20c-lent-2c)

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Lent 1C (February 17, 2013)

Posted on February 13, 2013 by admin

LUKE 4:1-13
“He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.”
It’s a story probably not true on the outside, but true on the inside:about a journey of the heart, into the heart. Take it literally and we lose the story’s power.
Our place, south of the equator, means that Lent is not a lengthening of the light but a lengthening of the dark, of light fading to darkness: a journey into our inmost being, an echo of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and death, of warm air giving way to cold, of waiting for the autumn rains while the earth cries, “I thirst!”
It’s a story not just about Jesus wrestling with temptation and evil;
it’s also our story, the struggle in our lives, taking responsibility for our words, our actions.
“When the devil had finished every test he departed from him until an opportune time.”
Source: Jeff Shrowder, http://thebillabong.info/lectionary-2/year-c-luke/19c-lent-1c/

Music suggestions – Singing from the lectionary (Natalie Sims)

Textweek worship suggestions

Helpful reflections on the lectionary texts: Sharron R. Blezzard

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Epiphany 4C (Feb 3, 2013)

Posted on February 5, 2013 by admin

Spirit of the Lord – open our eyes to see with clarity and our hearts to fill with compassion,
Anointed us with your blessing, that we might be empowered to do good in the world.
Not only in our words but our actions and in a changing of our values may we proclaim good news to the poor.
Send us courage and insight that we might recognise those who are imprisoned by a sense of guilt or shame, those locked away by loneliness and mental illness, those restricted by social barriers that we might help them on the way to freedom.
Liberate us from apathy and empower us to work to set right injustice in the world which leads to oppression of the innocent and vulnerable.
God, open our eyes that we may no longer be so blind to the suffering and struggles of others, that we might see hope and proclaim your blessing for all.
This is asked in the name of Jesus. Amen

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Transfiguration – Year C (10th Feb 2013)

Posted on February 3, 2013 by admin

Transfiguration Sunday – last Sunday in Epiphany

(John Maynard’s coding: w7c-2013)

Introduction to prayers for others
From a cloud, and in a crowd, God speaks to us.
Calling us to be lovers of justice, to share hope with the broken.
On mountaintops and in the valleys, Christ calls to us.
To embrace the faint hearted and bind up the wounds of the hurt
In all the places we spend our days, the Spirit whispers in our hearts.
Gathering our hopes and fears, joys and concerns,
and offering them to God.
Let us pray for the world and for ourselves……

 

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Epiphany 3C (January 27,2013)

Posted on January 22, 2013 by admin

A reflection by Steve Garnaas-Holmes on the 1 Corinthians reading (we are the body of Christ):
Out running in the cold winter air, most of my body was warm, but my fingers were cold. Riding my bike, it’s my forehead that suffers. But they’re all a part of me. And while I deal with the winter cold I think of you who are in Australia, who have been living through this awful summer heat. We’re at different extremes, but we’re all part of the same planet. While we in the US celebrate the inauguration of our elected president, others suffer tyranny and repression. But we’re all part of the same humanity.
Paul says we’re all parts of one body. Somehow, even without our knowing, when one suffers we all suffer. When one rejoices we all rejoice. Our sadness and gladness mingle together into one joy. In prayer we enter a deeper consciousness, even if it’s beyond our knowing: the reality that we belong, that we are all one living being. We enter into the suffering, and the joy, of the world. We become one with all our body. Our joy is there for others, and our pain is not ours alone. We receive the gift of their happiness, and help them bear the weight of their sorrows. Our souls are woven with theirs. In this way, even sitting in our room in silence, by the mystery of God’s grace in us, we become part of the mending of the world. (source: www.unfoldinglight.net)

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Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr

Posted on January 16, 2013 by admin

Martin Luther King had a profound impact in his own country, and around the world. Stan Duncan has prepared an excellent resource, A Presentation for Two Readers and Choir of the Life and Words of Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. (the format of the resource provides a helpful framework to recollect his story with spoken word and music).  MLKService2013

Textweek has also compiled a list of great resources.

A prayerHoly God, may we hear your voice
In the stillness of night, in clatter of day
You call us, and we respond,
Here I am!
May we follow you and
May we love as you love.

Holy One, through trials and turbulence
Make us steady, your hands
Holding strong the fragile and weak
May we love as you love.

Gracious God, may the fruits of our lives
be food for the hungry, bread
clothing, shelter, fire, water, Word
May we love as you love.

God of justice, remove the barriers
Of our lives that keep us from
One another, barriers we construct
Based on skin color, religion, or gender
May we hear, and follow, graciously.
May we love as you love.

Loving God, take this day our fears our
Worries, distractions, and all
Turn them into grace and mercy,
And, following the example of Martin Luther King, Jr.
and all your Saints,
May we love as you love.

Amen (source: Terri on the RevGalBlogPals)

 

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