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Sample Services

Second Order of Service

APPROACH Prelude

Please rise

* Opening Words - Read Responsively

For our community gathered here, for the spirit that called us together and drew us to this place:
     We give thanks this day.

For moments we have shared with others; for times when we have reached out across barriers of distance and fear; for times when others have reached out to us; for moments when we have discovered another along our path:
     We give thanks this day.

For this community of celebration and growth, introspection and solitude, and for those moments of "that peace which passes all understanding":
     We give thanks this day.

For our gathering together out of distant places; for our weaving together out of many separate selves this hour of celebration and worship:
     We give thanks this day.
         -- Jane Mauldin, adapted

* Opening Hymn - SLT #21 - "For the beauty of the earth"

Please be seated

Invocation

Spirit of life, be present with us this hour. Join us today as we gather in a wider search for truth and purpose. In this quest, may we greet one another with open hearts and minds; may we inspire each other to consider new questions and seek deeper meaning; and may we cultivate wisdom and compassion. Let all who enter this sanctuary see a welcome face, hear a kind word, and find comfort in this community. And may all that is done and said here today be in service to love and justice. Amen.
         -- Kathy Huff

CENTERING Introduction to Meditation

Let us join in the exercise of silence for reflection, repose, meditation, or prayer.
         -- Greta W. Crosby, In reflecting upon the dispiriting time

Silent Meditation

Words of Connection

How does one address a mystery?

Cautiously -- let us go cautiously, then, to the end of our certainty, to the boundary of all we know, to the rim of uncertainty, to the perimeter of the unknown which surrounds us.

Reverently -- let us go with a sense of awe, a feeling of approaching the powerful holy whose lightning slashes the sky, whose persistence splits concrete with green sprouts, whose miracles are present in every place and moment.

Hopefully -- out of our need for wholeness in our own lives, the reconciliation of mind and heart, the conjunction of reason and passion, the intersection of the timeless with time.

Quietly -- for no words will explain the inarticulate or summon the presence that is always present even in our absence.

But what shall I say?

Anything -- any anger, any hope, any fear, any joy, any request, any word that comes from the depth of being addressed to Being itself -- or, perhaps, nothing, no complaint, no request, no entreaty, no thanksgiving, no praise, no blame, no pretense of knowing or of not knowing.

Simply be in the intimate presence of mystery, unashamed -- unadorned -- unafraid.

And at the end say -- Amen.
         -- Gordon B. McKeeman

Musical Interlude

EXPLORATION Readings

Please rise

* Hymn - SLT #209 - "O come, you longing thirsty souls"

Please be seated

Sermon

Response

CONNECTION Sharing of Concerns

Prayer

Creator God, we always ask before we thank, for we are asking creatures.

We ask for love and thank you for the love you have inspired in us. We ask to be closer to you and thank you for our capacity to pray. We ask for understanding and thank you for bringing us the light of your presence. We ask for happiness and thank you for the joy of life. We ask for strength and thank you for the courage you have given us to hope. We ask for your presence and thank you for living in our hearts.

We ask, and we have already received. Blessed be your name, O God, our Creator. Amen.
         -- P. M. Traunstein

Offering

Please rise

* Affirmation - Read in unison

With faith to face our challenges,
With love that casts out fear,
With hope to trust tomorrow,
We accept this day as the gift it is --
A reason for rejoicing.
         -- Gary Kowalski

* Benediction - SLT #713

Keep alert, stand firm in your faith; be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
         -- 1 Corinthians 16:13 NRSV

* Sung Response - SLT #400 - "Shalom, havayreem!"
     Congregation joining hands

Postlude

      Back to the top

Source: Based on an Order of Service by Westminster Unitarian Church, East Greenwich RI; in Commisson on Common Worship, Leading Congregations in Worship: A Guide, UUA 1983. Hymns from Singing the Living Tradition, UUA 1993.

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