Liturgy: Worship Pieces from the Song of Faith (United Church of Canada, 2007)

(Please feel free to use these resources.  Credits:  "Song of Faith (2007)", adapted by Rev. Murray Speer.)

Call to Worship

We offer worship

as an outpouring of gratitude and awe

          as a practice of opening ourselves

          to God’s still, small voice of comfort

and to God’s rushing whirlwind of challenge.

Through word, music, art, and sacrament,

in community and in solitude,

          God changes our lives, our relationships, and our world.

          We gather with trust.

Opening and Unburdening Prayer

In and with God,

We can discover our place as one strand in the web of life.

          We can grow in wisdom and compassion.

Made in the image of God,

we yearn for the fulfillment that is life in God.

Yet we choose to turn away from God.

          We surrender ourselves to selfishness, cowardice, or apathy.

Becoming bound and complacent

in a web of false desires and wrong choices,

          we bring harm to ourselves and others.

We are all touched by this brokenness in human life:

the rise of selfishness that erodes solidarity;

          the concentration of wealth and power

          without regard for the needs of all;

the toxins of religious and ethnic bigotry;

          the degradation of blessed human bodies

          and human passions;

the delusion of unchecked progress and limitless growth

that threatens our home, the earth.

We lament our foolishness and weakness.

Yet evil does not—cannot—

undermine or overcome the love of God.

God forgives,

          and calls all of us to confess our fears and failings

          with honesty and humility.

God reconciles,

          and calls us to repent the part we have played

          in damaging our world, ourselves, and each other.

God transforms,

          and calls us to protect the vulnerable,

          to pray for deliverance from evil,

          to work with God for the healing of the world,

          that all might have abundant life.

We are reminded of grace.

          Amen.

Response to Scripture

Scripture is our song for the journey, the living word

passed on from generation to generation to guide and inspire.

God calls us to be doers of the word and not hearers only.

Prayer of Dedication

In grateful response to God’s abundant love,

  we bear in mind our integral connection

  to the earth and one another;

we participate in God’s work of healing and mending creation.

We send our love with these gifts,

and pray that they will be multiplied

until they become blessings upon blessings.

Amen.

Commissioning

We are God’s good news lived out,

a church with purpose:

          faith nurtured and hearts comforted,

gifts shared for the good of all,

          fierce love in the face of violence,

human dignity defended,

          members of a community held and inspired by God.

We are called together by Christ

          as a community of broken but hopeful believers,

loving what he loved and living what he taught,

          and striving to be faithful servants of God

          in our time and place.