For Mar 9/08 -- Lent 5, How are we the Church?

NOTE: THis year's Lenten liturgies will not be based on the lectionary readings for YEar A. Instead they will be following a series called The 5 W's of Church (the link shows what themes and readings are being used)

CALL TO WORSHIP
The world is a place of uncertainty, a place of questions.
We bring our questions here to the church,
In this place we lay out our wonderings before God and neighbour
In this place we trust that we can find clues that will help us find some answers
Some of the answers we find are those things that encourage us
We come to celebrate those things we do that make us a community of faith.
Let us pray together as a community, as a part of the worldwide church, singing together the words Jesus taught his friends…

PRAYER OF CONFESSION/ASSURANCE OF PARDON
We are called to be the church
But God sometimes it is challenging to know how best to do that.
To live with respect in creation
And we confess that as faithful communities we sometimes forget that we are but part of that creation.
To love and serve others
We try but we admit that there are times when we prefer to love and serve ourselves.
To seek justice and resist evil
In the face of competing definitions, help us to sort out what Your justice is.
We are called to be the church
In our successes and our struggles we live out that call to the best of our ability and with your help God.
God calls us to be the church and gives us the support and encouragement we need to respond. We are forgiven and empowered as a community of faithful people.
Thanks be to God. Amen.

COMMISSIONING AND BENEDICTION
We have been called together
Here we have gathered to worship, to pray, to be refreshed.
Now we are called to go out
To be the church in the world, to share the Word of hope, of life, of light with all we meet
As we gather, as we go out, as we live our lives, we do so held in the hand of God, who shall never forsake or forget us. Go with God’s blessing and in God’s care.
Amen.