Woman Priest Lorraine Sharpe Meyer ARCWP Presides at Easter Sunrise Liturgy in Casselberry Florida

Lorraine Sharpe Meyer ARCWP(in white with stole)
presides at a Easter Sunrise Liturgy in Florida

GATHERING

Presider:  We gather in the belief that God’s Spirit, Who has energized all the galaxies and gives life to the smallest of creatures, to dinosaurs and dogs, to redwoods and radishes, to children, women and men, Who was seen most clearly in Jesus, is here with us now.

All:  We give thanks for the ways God’s Spirit is seen in who we are and what we do

Presider:  We are grateful that God’s gift of forgiveness is always waiting for us

All:  And we pray that we, will always be ready to forgive as God does.

Presider:  Our loving God, you are mother and father to us.  You fill us and act as us as we care for each other.  We know you hear our prayer as we strive to be one with you, with Jesus our model, with each other and with all those who have come to eternal life before us and those who will follow us.

All:  Amen

Reading 1:  1John 2:6-10  This is how you know you are in God: if you say you abide in Christ, you ought to live the same kind of life as Christ. Dear friends, this is not a new commandment that I am writing to tell you but an old commandment, one that you were given from the beginning…Those who love their neighbors are living in the light and need not be afraid of stumbling.

Psalm: 55: All: All the trees in the countryside will clap their hands for joy

As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts. All…

As the rain and snow come down and water the earth, making it fertile, giving seed to the sower and bread for food, so will My word be; it will carry out My will achieving the end for which I sent it.   All…

And you will go out joyfully and be led out in peace; the mountains and hills will break into cries of joy and all the trees in the countryside will clap their hands. They will stain as a memorial to God; an everlasting sign never to be destroyed. All…

This is the day that God has made; let us rejoice and be glad.

Gospel: Luke 24: 13-32

Homily Starter: (approximately) I chose this resurrection because, unlike some of the others that are like “ta-dah, I am risen,” this story, written 60-70 years after Jesus death, tells us what next? How are Christians to live out the resurrection?

All: Discussion

CREED:

All:  I believe in one God, the God who is love.  I believe that God’s Spirit, the 

energy of God, is expressed in all of creation and fills the earth. I believe that the beauty of a blade of grass or a rock, the strength of wind or wave, the warmth of sun and furnace, the love and intelligence of woman, man and child is God’s way of expressing beauty, strength, warmth, love and intelligence.

I believe that Jesus is our most understandable expression of God’s extension into the world. I believe Jesus when he said, “Greater things than I have done, you will do,” that he intended our humanity to continue awakening, becoming more inclusive respecting and uplifting the innate dignity of us all.

I believe that God is present with all, and that like Jesus  we are called to exclude no one when we celebrate eucharist or share the fruit of the earth and of our lives.

GENERAL INTERCESSIONS

1. That we have been given the gift of knowing Jesus, his life, resurrection and knowing that we share his life and resurrection with him and each other…Loving God,

All:  We are grateful

2.

PREPARATION OF GIFTS

(Alternate leading each prayer)

1.     Blessed are you gracious God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread and wine to offer. You have called us to be your co-creators.

2.     We thank you for the universe, for all the wonderful diversity and beauty of life around us and in us.

3.      We thank you for our freedom, for the dreams of the young and the visions of the elders.

4.     We praise you for your call to build the earth into a community of love rooted in justice.

5.     You have placed confidence in us, for you have made us and you know that we are good. In joy we join all creation as we say:

All: Holy, holy, holy God; we rejoice that heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Presider: When Jesus lived among us he challenged us to know you, God as parent, and taught us not to be afraid. He told us to forgive and showed us the strength of compassionate love.  He promised that the Spirit Who filled him would live in this world also, as us, and that, as bearers of his Spirit, we would do greater things than he did.

All: We ask that you send your Holy Spirit afresh upon us and our gifts that, like Jesus we may become for the world, the Body and blood of the Christ, who invites us all to be one with you.

Presider: On the night before he died, Jesus gathered for the Seder supper with the people closest to him. Like the least of the household servants, he washed their tired and dusty feet and said, “do this as I have done.”

All: Back at the table, he took the Passover bread, gave thanks, broke the bread and offered it to them saying, “take and eat this all of you. When you share your bread with one another, when you live your lives committed to one another, when you become bread for each other as I have done, do it in memory or me.”

(Presider breaks the bread and passes it for all to break and eat in silence.)

Presider: When dinner was over, Jesus took the cup of fellowship and passed it to all those present. He said,

All:  “Take and drink from this all of you. This wine is a sign of my covenant with you. Like my blood which will be poured out for you, so should you be committed to each other, be poured out for each other, continuing this sign in memory of me.”

(the wine is shared)  After a pause

Presider: We have shared the deep reality of universal communion, the bread and cup of life and love.

Alternate:

In thanksgiving for the power of this Eucharistic meal, we pray that Your Spirit may open our hearts, that we be receptive as You invite us into the fullness of life.

In union with all people living and dead, we unite our thoughts and prayers, asking wisdom and courage:

-to discern your call to us in the circumstances or our daily lives,

-to confront pain and suffering with justice

-to take risks in being creative and proactive on behalf of the poor and marginalized,

-to love all people beyond the labels of race, creed, gender, nationality and age

-to be alert to Your Spirit calling us to participate in the wonderful work of co-creation.

All: We pledge to give generously of ourselves, the life that has been generously given to us, so that one day bread may be on every table. Then Jesus will truly be risen.

All: (extend hands in mutual blessing) May our gracious God bless all gathered here as we minister to one another and to all. Amen

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