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Sample Services

Sixth Order of Service

Prelude

Please rise.

* Hymn - SLT #278 - "Praise be to God, the Almighty"

* Opening Sentence

And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
         -- John 8:32 NRSV

* Prayer of Aspiration

We are gathered together in this quiet house to seek strength and courage for the coming days. We would again possess our souls in patience and self-mastery, and be set free from inward turmoil, unworthy pleasures and low aims. Here the world's tumultuous clamor falls into silence; here the troubled heart finds rest; here is cool water from living streams. And here once more we commit ourselves to the high tasks that await our hands; to the fulfillment of duties seen in moments of vision; to the building of a nobler life for all humankind. And in that consecration of ourselves we shall find strength and peace and joy. Amen.
         -- Anon., in Services of Religion (Beacon, 1937)

* Affirmation of Faith - SLT #472 - Read in unison

In the freedom of the truth, and the spirit of Jesus,
we unite for the worship of God and the service of all.
         -- Charles Gordon Ames

* Doxology - "Old Hundredth"

From all that dwell below the skies
Let faith and hope with love arise;
Let beauty, truth and good be sung
Through every land, by every tongue.
         -- Isaac Watts; recast by Curtis W. Reese, in Services of Religion (Beacon, 1937)

Please be seated.

Anthem

Readings

Responsive Reading

Choral Call to Prayer

Prayer

Eternal God, Mother and Father, Spirit of life, we gather grateful for the companionship of hearts and minds seeking to speak the truth in love. We gather grateful for our heritage, for the women and men before us whose prophetic words and deeds make possible our dreams and our insight. We gather grateful for the gift of life itself, mindful that to respect life means both to celebrate what life is and to insist on what it can become.

May we always rejoice in life and work to cultivate a sense of its giftedness, but may we also heed the call to transformation and growth. May we find in ourselves the strength to face our adversities, the integrity to name them, and the vision to overcome them. May we honor in pride the heroines and heroes of our past, but may we also keep company with the fallen, the broken and the oppressed, for in the dazzling of noon day's heat, and in the star-studded shimmering of night's rich blackness, we are they. Amen.
         -- M. Susan Milnor

Announcements

Offering

Please rise

* Hymn - SLT #355 - "We lift our hearts in thanks"

Please be seated

Sermon

Please rise

* Hymn - SLT #295 - "Sing out praises for the journey"

* Closing Words

The worship of the gathered community is now ended.
Go in peace. Go in joy. Go in love to share
     in the ongoing worship of the community in dispersion.
Carry with you what is precious to us all:
     reverence for all life, beauty that displays itself in love,
         deep, abiding peace.
         -- Gordon B. McKeeman

Postlude

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Source: Based on an Order of Service by Fairfax Unitarian Church, Oakton VA; 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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