Order of Service – 12th May 2024

The Order of Service follows below.

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Brougham Place Uniting Church
Kardlayirdi Karnungga
A Light on the Hill

12 May 2024. 10.00 am
Easter 7
Preacher: Rev Linda Driver
Liturgical colour: White

We acknowledge the Kaurna people as the traditional carers of the land on which our church is built.

As you wait for worship to begin, please turn your phone to silent.

Prelude

Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
J. S. Bach. Piano Duet: Jacob Wilson and Helen Angove

Welcome and Acknowledgment of Country

Niina marni!
Marni’ai!

Introit and Lighting of the Candles

I Will Worship the Lord
Rutter

Call to Worship

God has given us life through Christ.
It is in the love and life of Christ we gather together.
This is what we have in common;
We are united by the love of God.

It is in this unity we worship God.
It is in this unity we praise God.
Come let us worship.

We Sing: All Are Welcome

Let us build a house where love can dwell
and all can safely live,
a place where saints and children tell
how hearts learn to forgive.
Built of hopes and dreams and visions,
rock of faith and vault of grace;
here the love of Christ shall end divisions:

Refrain:

All are welcome, all are welcome,
all are welcome in this place.
Let us build a house where prophets speak,
and words are strong and true,
where all God’s children dare to seek
to dream God’s reign anew.
Here the cross shall stand as witness
and as symbol of God’s grace;
here as one we claim the faith of Jesus:

All are welcome, all are welcome,
all are welcome in this place.
Let us build a house where hands will reach
beyond the wood and stone
to heal and strengthen, serve and teach,
and live the Word they’ve known.
Here the outcast and the stranger
bear the image of God’s face:
let us bring an end to fear and danger:

All are welcome, all are welcome,
all are welcome in this place.
Let us build a house where all are named,
their songs and visions heard
and loved and treasured, taught and claimed
as words within the Word.
Built of tears and cries and laughter,
prayers of faith and songs of grace,
let this house proclaim from floor to rafter:

All are welcome, all are welcome,
all are welcome in this place.

Opening Prayer

God, one in spirit, blessed trinity. Today we open ourselves in unity to you as we worship, whether in this building, online with us now or online at a later time. Jesus who prays for us, come near. Help us to build a life of prayer. Amen.

Prayer of Confession

Today we confess that these hands of ours are used for many things that keep us separated from the love of God and from each other.

Hands can build creatively and also tear things down.
Forgive us, God of faithful love.

They can hold and heal, slap, pinch and punch.
Forgive us, God of faithful love.

Hands open to give and offer, also grab and clutch.
Forgive us, God of faithful love.

Fingers tap buttons to connect with others and later swipe to ignore.
Forgive us, God of faithful love.

Fingers also bear rings as tokens of fidelity and never ending love yet grasp greedily at other consuming pursuits.
Forgive us, God of faithful love.

The hand that holds a scalpel to heal can so easily hold the knife to wound.
Forgive us, God of faithful love.

Hands that applaud and clap readily today then tomorrow get busy pointing the finger of blame.
Forgive us, God of faithful love.

We are mercurial beings longing for the fruit of the Spirit to inhabit our souls, hands and lives. Forgive us, God faithful love and fresh starts.
Forgive us, God of faithful love, as we open our hands and hearts to you.

Words of Grace

Today is a new day. May you rise up and know that you are loved, confident in God’s forgiveness.
Amen

Passing of the Peace

May the peace of God be with you.
And also with you.

Community News and Notices

Current or previous BP E-news and to sign up to receive BP E-news

Children’s Time

Children may go downstairs for Sunday School. Parents, you are welcome to join your child in Sunday School if you feel your child may need your assistance. Alternatively, you may wish for your child to remain with you for the duration of worship. Activity packs are available at the entrances.

Anthem

Rejoice the Lord is King
Archer. RSCM 41a. Chimes

Scripture Reading: John 17:6-23

“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

“I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

The Gospel of Christ, Light of the world.
Thanks be to God.

Message

We Sing: One

One
Make us one
Make us one, one in love
Make us one, one in prayer
Make us one,
one in You, God, Holy One
One
Make us one
That the world, Lord, will believe
That the world, Lord will receive
That the world through us Lord will know
You, the One

May we be one in peace
May we be one in Christ
Hands and hearts, in unity
In Your love, O Holy One
One
Make us one
Make us one, one in love
Make us one, one in prayer
Make us one,
one in You, God, Holy One
Holy One
Holy One

Prayers of the People

We give thanks today for all who have offered us love and nurture in our lives.

We remember with love those whose kind loving touch we have cherished, whose interest and time have given us stable lives, space to grow, provision of food and shelter, freedom to exercise our imagination, to grow in faith, to be our true selves and to know love.

  Silent space

Now we think of those situations we know where love and nurture are far from home and hard to come by. We intercede for place and spaces we live along side in our schools, neighbourhood and city where love and nurture are in short supply.

  Silent space

We offer prayer for global hotspots where nurture is far from what humanity is busy heaping upon one another, we seek justice to be wielded along side healing and nurture to bring real lasting peace.

  Silent space

We lastly pray for the peoples nearest to us as this moment, those in our hearts and home if we are worshipping online or those seated near to us today.

  Silent space

Gather us up in prayer this week, our God that we may build our week on prayer.
Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

And now with the confidence of the children of God, let us pray the prayer Jesus taught us saying…

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be Your name,

your Kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in Heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins,

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial

and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours

now and forever. Amen.

Offering

To give electronically please go to bpuc.org/give

Alternatively, there is an offering bowl near the lectern on the left-hand side as you exit the church.

Alleluia.
Together in Song 390. Chimes

Offering Prayer

We Sing: Now Thank We All Our God

Now thank we all our God
with hearts and hands and voices,
who wondrous things has done,
in whom the world rejoices;
who from our mothers’ arms
has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.
O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessèd peace to cheer us.
Lord, keep us in your grace,
and guide us when perplexed,
and free us from all harm
in this world and the next.
All praise and thanks to God
who reigns in highest heaven,
to Father and to Son
and Spirit now be given:
the one eternal God,
whom heaven and earth adore,
who ever was, is now,
and shall be ever more.

Together in Song 106. Martin Rinkart 1586-1649 tr. Catherine Winkworth 1827-78 alt. Public Domain.

Sending Forth and Benediction

And so we go in joy and in gratitude for the love of God, the care and compassion of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Let us go into the world
to share that love and joy
with all whom we meet.

Blessing

May the Lord, Gracious God
Pao-chen Li

Postlude

Prayer of St. Francis. Chimes

Come and share morning tea together, in the basement. There are stairs behind the organ and a ramp between the church and the car park. You are welcome.

This service has been prepared by Linda Driver and Karan Hudson

with assistance from
Michelle Eastwood (L3 Liturgical Resource – MediaCom Education)
Mediacom Education (Words for Worship)
Roddy Hamilton (Spill the Beans)

Bible Reading: New Revised Standard Version (Updated Edition)

Cover Photo by Jeremy Yap on Unsplash