Imogene & Michael Rigdon Presiding
Mindy Lou Simmons, Music Minister
Welcome!
Gathering Song: Always Remember, v1&2, refrain; v3&4, refrain
Presider: In the name of God our creator, and of Jesus our brother, and of the Holy Spirit our wisdom. All: Amen.
Presider: God is with you. All: And also with you.
Opening Prayer. All: Mary Mother of Jesus, first woman priest, pray for us as we offer the gift of a renewed priestly ministry to our beloved church. Amen
Song of Praise: Glory to God, glory. O praise him, alleluia.
Glory to God, glory. O praise the name of our God. (x2)
Glory to God, glory. O praise the name of our God. (x2)
Readings: Two excerpts from Portrait of a Woman.
Response to both readings: #381 Celtic Alleluia
Shared homily
Profession of Faith. I believe in God, the creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, child of God, born of Mary, human like us.
I believe Jesus came to teach us God’s love and to show us how
to live in the fullness of grace.
Jesus called for God’s people to focus on the kin-dom within.
I believe Jesus was condemned to die because this
message threatened the establishment.
Jesus was crucified and buried in a borrowed tomb.
I believe that the women, faithful to Jesus, went to the tomb to
anoint his body.
I believe that Jesus’ body was gone, and Jesus overcame death through
the resurrection. I believe in the Holy Spirit,
living in our hearts and present in our world.
I believe the holy Catholic Church is
the people of God gathered in worship and song.
I believe that all God’s children will one day be with
God experiencing life everlasting. Amen.
I believe in Jesus Christ, child of God, born of Mary, human like us.
I believe Jesus came to teach us God’s love and to show us how
to live in the fullness of grace.
Jesus called for God’s people to focus on the kin-dom within.
I believe Jesus was condemned to die because this
message threatened the establishment.
Jesus was crucified and buried in a borrowed tomb.
I believe that the women, faithful to Jesus, went to the tomb to
anoint his body.
I believe that Jesus’ body was gone, and Jesus overcame death through
the resurrection. I believe in the Holy Spirit,
living in our hearts and present in our world.
I believe the holy Catholic Church is
the people of God gathered in worship and song.
I believe that all God’s children will one day be with
God experiencing life everlasting. Amen.
Prayer of Intercession.
(Response: Mary, be our channel of God’s grace)
(Response: Mary, be our channel of God’s grace)
Voice 1. May we have compassion to rescue victims of violence
in our world.
in our world.
Voice 2. May we continue to build a church where all are equal.
Presider: We thank you, O God, for hearing our prayer
brought to you by Mary Mother of Jesus.
brought to you by Mary Mother of Jesus.
All: Amen Collection and Procession of Gifts to the table.
We sing: #361 Seed Scattered and Sown, verses 1&3
Eucharistic Prayer. We invite all to gather around the table for our community meal.
We sing : We are holy holy holy (x3) We are whole. You are holy (x3)
You are whole. I am holy (x3) I am whole. We are holy (x3) We are whole.
You are whole. I am holy (x3) I am whole. We are holy (x3) We are whole.
All: Merciful God, send your Spirit now to settle on this bread and wine,
and fill them with the fullness of Jesus We remember Jesus .
All (hand extended in blessing):
On the night before he died, while at supper with his friends,
Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread
and gave it to them saying, “Take this, all of you, and eat.
This is my body which will be broken foryou.” ( Pause)
In the same way, Jesus took the cup of wine.
He said the blessing, gave the cup to his friends and said,
“Take this all of you and drink. This is the cup of my lifeblood.
Do this in memory of me.”
and fill them with the fullness of Jesus We remember Jesus .
All (hand extended in blessing):
On the night before he died, while at supper with his friends,
Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread
and gave it to them saying, “Take this, all of you, and eat.
This is my body which will be broken foryou.” ( Pause)
In the same way, Jesus took the cup of wine.
He said the blessing, gave the cup to his friends and said,
“Take this all of you and drink. This is the cup of my lifeblood.
Do this in memory of me.”
All: May the Spirit rest on us, converting us from the patterns of this
passing world, until we conform to the shape of Jesus whose
food we now share.
passing world, until we conform to the shape of Jesus whose
food we now share.
Voice 3. Remember, gracious God, your Church throughout the world.
Make us open to receive all believers. We join with all God’s people, with Bridget Mary our Bishop, and with Francis our Pope.
Make us open to receive all believers. We join with all God’s people, with Bridget Mary our Bishop, and with Francis our Pope.
Voice 4. In union with all people, may we strive to create a world where suffering is diminished, where justice and peace are restored, and where all people can live in health and wholeness.
All: Thru Christ, with Christ, in Christ, in union with the Holy Spirit, all glory is yours, gracious God. Amen (sing)
Prayer of Jesus (Sing “Our Father and Mother”)
Group Sign of Peace: #532 Let there be peace on earth
Presider: This is Jesus who liberates, heals and transforms us and our world. All are invited to partake of this banquet of love.
All: We are the Body of Christ.
We sing: Holy gifts for holy people; come, you hungry, and believe. Come and take Christ’s body offered, come and be what you receive. (x2)
During Communion: Instrumental music (Mindy)
Prayer of Thanksgiving, Didache (Instruction), 100 CE
Voice 5: For the thanksgiving, give thanks this way: First, for the cup: We thank you, Abba God, for the sacred vine of David your son, whose meaning you made clear to us through our brother Jesus, yours ever be the splendor.
Voice 6: And for the bread fragment: We thank you, Abba God, for the life and wisdom whose meaning you made clear to us through Jesus, yours ever be the splendor.
Voice 7: As this fragment was scattered high on hills, but by gathering was united into one, so let your people from earth’s ends be united into your single reign, for yours are splendor and might through Jesus Christ down the ages.
Announcements
We sing the final blessing: You are the face of God, I hold you in my heart, You are a part of me, You are the face of God. You are the face of God, I hold you in my heart, You are my family, You are the face of God.
Presider: Go in the peace of Christ, may our service continue! Alleluia!
All: Let it be so! Alleluia!
Closing song: Always Remember, v5&6, refrain; v7,refrainExcerpts from Portrait of a Woman, Herbert O’Driscoll.
Toronto: Anglican Book Centre, 1981.
1st Reading: The Breaking of Bread
Acts 1:14. These all joined together in prayer, with the women and
with Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
Sometimes she felt amazement when she looked at some
of the people around her, especially the men. They came from
one of the hardiest livelihoods in existence,
subject to all the insecurities of seasonal weather,
highly competitive, often dangerous.
Lake fishing for a living did not encourage the gentler virtues.
Yet here they were, haunted and held by something
they had encountered on that lakeshore and
had sacrificed endless time over,
during the last few years.
The extraordinary thing was that now
there seemed to be no end to it.
They had become a community,
and she herself had survived and been given strength
by the immense affection shown to her.
She found herself thinking of all this again
as she watched the piece of home-made bread pass
from hand to hand toward her. She had got used to this
moment now. They did it whenever they were
together, any small gathering of his followers.
They were not all here in this house;
others had gone to find shelter either with friends or
relations or at an inn. Some had gone into Jerusalem
hoping to stay with various families.
In the Bethany house she had been welcomed
by those whose friendship had meant so much to her son.
John and a few others had stayed here.
The bread came near to her. Suddenly it was in John’s hand, and
he was hesitating before turning to her.
She had not so far been able to take part in
this simple but terrible action.
Even in symbolism her whole being rebelled against this
eating and drinking of the body and blood of him
who was of her own body and blood. Again she felt
conflicting feelings sweeping over her, taking away
her ability to think and act. She realized that every
eye around the table was on her. She became aware of the
circle of faces. Once they had been strange and often resented
because of the close friendship they had had with him,
the kind of friendship she had longed for so desperately.
But now she saw them differently.
She realized the love and support this circle, and
even a greater circle not with them at the
moment, had given her. The depth of all this
love entered into her. It seemed to her swimming eyes
that all their faces became one, and she knew that the
single face was his, and that the love in their
faces and the love in his face was one and the
same love. She found herself eating and drinking,
the rough bread melding with her body and the wine stinging its way into the center of her being.
Suddenly she was aware of absolute silence, and she
knew she was with him again. She could never be
sure later if any words were spoke. She often tried to
capture his appearance, as indeed they all did,
but she found it impossible. She and they could only
say that it was him, yet more intensely and more
vividly him than at any moment of encounter
she had ever known. And then he was gone, and in
some way they were released. Yet they felt released
for a purpose.
This too is the word of God. All: Thanks be to God.
2nd Reading. The Roadway to the Stars
While Mary disappears from us as a woman of flesh and blood,
living somewhere through the eventful first years of
those growing communities which would one day
in far away Antioch be called Christian, she
remains in the forefront of Christian history. Whatever be our
particular stance toward a concept such as her
bodily assumption into the heavenly realm, an
unarguable fact remains: in the consciousness of
Christians, Mary never died. For the twenty centuries of
our history we have remembered her in innumerable ways.
This awareness has existed on many levels,
from thankful recollection of her role in the
divine drama as described in the New Testament to
claims of her power so extravagant that more than
once in history a responsible voice has had to
counsel carefulness, and to call a retreat from
ultimate claims about her. …
We begin to realize that the legend of the angels bearing
Mary’s tired and worn body to her Creator is a
human attempt to express something impossible to
explain yet equally impossible to deny.
This “something” is the fact that, at least in some sense,
Mary does not die, and that she has proved in countless
lives to be a channel for the grace of her son.
This too is the word of God. All: Thanks be to God.
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