For Oct 7/07

October 7 is Worldwide Communion Sunday. In Canada it also happens to be Thanksgiving Sunday. Wanting to be ahead of the game (since Monday may be spent recovering from Presbytery) I did up the Order of Service early. Here are some Liturgy bits should you want them. We will be using the Deuteronomy and John passages for Thanksgiving Day with Psalm 137.

CALL TO WORSHIP
From street to street, town to town, nation to nation,
God’s people gather together in praise and worship.In familiar surroundings and in foreign surroundings,
God’s people gather to sing and pray.In a changing world,
We gather to give thanks to God who is constantly there.
OPENING PRAYER
God of harvest, God of life, we gather here to say thank-you for many things.
God of presence in times of change and times of stability, we gather here to seek the comfort of knowing you are with us.God of bread, product of seeds scattered over the fields, fill us with hope in this hour.
God of the cup, fill our souls with the Spirit of Life. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen

PRAYER OF CONFESSION/ASSURANCE OF PARDON
God, you challenge us to give thanks throughout our lives.
But sometimes we find it hard to remember what we have to be thankful for.As the world changes we find ourselves strangers in a strange land, more ready to lament than to sing songs of praise and thankfulness
Forgive our short-sightedness, our tendency to focus on what we have lost, our blindness to our abundance.…time of reflection…God has gifted us with many things. One of them is great, free-flowing forgiveness. We are reminded always of God’s ever-present and all-forgiving Love.
Thanks and praise to God! Amen.

COMMISSIONING AND BENEDICTION
Here we have eaten and drunk, here we have been reminded that God is present.
Now we go out refreshed and energized to share God’s love with all we meet.
As you move from worship back into the world remember that the Triune God: Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, is with you always and all ways.
Thanks be to God! Amen.