Entering Into Sacred Space

Call to Worship: I Want to Be With People by Dana E. Worsnop (adapted)

Welcome and Greeting: Michael Glenn

Chalice Lighting

Covenant:

Love is the heart of this church.
We commit to:
Being a diverse, welcoming community of mutual care and respect;
Supporting each other's spiritual journey and search for truth and meaning;
Promoting justice and serving the wider community.
We hold ourselves to this promise with compassion and understanding.

Hymn #360: Here We Have Gathered

Here we have gathered, gathered side by side;
circle of kinship, come and step inside!
May all who seek here find a kindly word;
may all who speak here feel they have been heard.
Sing now together this, our hearts’ own song.

Here we have gathered, called to celebrate
days of our lifetime, matters small and great:
we of all ages, women, children, men,
infants and sages, sharing what we can.
Sing now together this, our hearts’ own song.

Life has its battles, sorrows, and regret:
but in the shadows, let us not forget:
we who now gather know each other’s pain;
kindness can heal us: as we give, we gain.
Sing now in friendship this, our hearts’ own song.

Time For All Ages: Mimi Olivier

Building Beloved Community

Candles of Joys, Sorrows and Milestones: Michael Glenn

Hymn #318: We Would Be One

We would be one as now we join in singing
our hymn of love, to pledge ourselves anew
to that high cause of greater understanding
of who we are, and what in us is true.
We would be one in living for each other
to show to all a new community.

We would be one in building for tomorrow
a nobler world than we have known today.
We would be one in searching for that meaning
which bends our hearts and points us on our way.
As one, we pledge ourselves to greater service,
with love and justice, strive to make us free.

Prayer/Reading: Steve Schmidt

Homily/Welcoming New Members: Steve Schmidt

Sending Forth

Hymn #121: We’ll Build A Land

We’ll build a land where we bind up the broken.
We’ll build a land where the captives go free,
where the oil of gladness dissolves all mourning.
Oh, we’ll build a promised land that can be.

(Chorus)
Come build a land where sisters and brothers,
anointed by God, may then create peace:
where justice shall roll down like waters,
and peace like an ever flowing stream.

We’ll build a land where we bring the good tidings
to all the afflicted and all those who mourn.
And we’ll give them garlands instead of ashes.
Oh, we’ll build a land where peace is born.
(Chorus)

We’ll be a land building up ancient cities,
raising up devastations from old;
restoring ruins of generations.
Oh, we’ll build a land of people so bold.
(Chorus)

Come, build a land where the mantles of praises
resound from spirits once faint and once weak;
where like oaks of righteousness stand her people.
Oh, come build the land, my people we seek.
(Chorus)

Closing Words: A Benediction For New Members by Thomas Rhodes

Parting Music: Forward Through The Ages performed by Russell Tripp