What forms do your communion elements take during this time of Shelter In Place? See mine, below this entry... from Palm Sunday. Mt Hollywood Church is urging people to take pix of their home-made communion elements - whether wine and bread, milk and cookies, juice and cereal - and posting them on social media
From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Held Evans comes a book that is both a heartfelt ode to the past and hopeful gaze into the future of what it means to be a part of the Church.
Reminding us symbolically of this union of body and spirit, Jesus took a loaf of bread, broke it like we are often broken in our relationships with one another, and showed us the way to reconciliation by asking us to share our bread with one another in remembrance of his own example.
Against or Through? With or For? But or And? Skits for worship
O God, our Divine Parent, may your presence be ever revered. May your peace and justice dwell among us. May your love and compassion live within and between us. Nourish us daily with the necessities of life; sustenance for our bodies, and inspiration for our spirits.
I was . . . suddenly so uncomfortable with the words I have always known to say during communion
Written with David N. Johnson
Banquet of God, inclusive table, All are invited to dine with the Lord. All here are guests, honored and valued; Come and break bread and drink wine: be restored.
From the Celebrating Mystery collection
Behind the words the actions, behind the actions the mystery. The Eucharist is a prism through which we can view the painful and joyful realities of life.
Celebrant: God, you are with us. People: You are always with us. Celebrant: May we open our hearts. People: May we know your presence. Celebrant: In thanksgiving, People: And in deepest honor.
From the Festive Worship collection
The mystery of the Eucharist (Holy Communion, Mass) is only fully perceived when all flesh is seen as embodying both the suffering and the delight of God.
As Christians we are called to love one another above all else, but what happens when we unwittingly bring in elements that illicit feelings of exclusion, rather than loving inclusion, among those at our worship services? Monette Chilson explores two practices with the potential to ostracize and calls us to reexamine them.
The butterfly lives in a seamless realm, a matrix, poetically in the palm of God/dess’s hand, not alien or estranged. Is it possible for us to find that kind of confidence, or trust in the nature of the Universe itself? Let’s take a moment or two to think about Wisdom, and our place in the Universe. What kind of liturgy, or worship experience, would celebrate the kind of inclusive, nurturing community the butterfly knows without thinking about it?
Taste and see how gracious the Christ is, Taste and see the wonder of life; Take the bread, the body of Jesus, Break the bread, the flesh of the world; Taste and see the wonder of life.
From the Boundless Life collection
O golden cup of life, A chalice full of love, The space beyond all strife You form our sacred home, Your ways produce delight, Your life becomes our own.
From the Boundless Life collection
Can bread and wine transform our minds With all their complex modes? Can sharing festive liturgies Unlock empowering codes?
31 August 2014
Celebrant: God be with you People: And also with you Celebrant: Lift up your hearts. People: We lift our hearts to God
St John’s Church, Norton Summit, Australia
We aim to present a service that offers accessibility to real Christian understanding and faith for people in today's society who come with a broad range of needs.
From the Boundless Life collection
O golden doors now open wide Revealing myst'ry's grace, The grace beyond the imaged word; Beyond all time and space.
This body knows what it is like to have a nice house and a good job It knows what it is like to feel uneasy about being wealthy
For deeper love we spread the bread I won’t be full till all are fed Till every soul has home and bed The rest of us can’t move ahead
Here is bread and here is wine, Food and drink we savor with delight; Now upon this altar blessed, Moving us beyond our taste and sight.
For deeper love we spread the bread I won’t be full till all are fed Till every soul has home and bed The rest of us can’t move ahead
The invitation is announced To greatest and to least; For all are welcome; “Come with us; Share this symbolic feast.”
We are here to praise and enjoy God with body and soul, mind and heart, with song and word, with hands and feet. We are here to give because of the abundance God has given us, to share with each other, and to receive, because God has created us to depend on each other. We are here to celebrate the differences that otherwise might divide us: differences of age, of body, of culture, of opinion, of ability, of religious conviction. We are here to put things in perspective: to celebrate what matters, to laugh about things we take too seriously, to cry about things that truly touch our hearts. So may it be this morning: Amen!
Presider: God be with you People: And also with you Presider: Open your hearts People: We open our hearts to God
The image of a scapegoat recalls a ritual performed by ancient Israel on their holiest day of the year—Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. A goat was chosen by means of casting lots. Actually there were two goats chosen, one was killed as a sin offering to make atonement for the holy place, the other was allowed to live to make atonement for the sins of the people.
Presider: God be with you. People: And also with you. Presider: Open your hearts. People: We open our hearts to God.
From St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Washington D.C.
Presider: It was a dull, tasteless thing; People: This life, before salt.
Presider: God be with you People: And also with you Presider: Open your hearts People: We open our hearts to God
In the midst of the liturgical progression from Epiphany to Lent, tradition calls the church back to the mundane details of Jesus' infancy. Luke's Chapter 2 fills in the story from birth to circumcision to presentation as the first-born son to the coming-of-age of a gifted religious leader anointed by God. In The First Christmas (HarperOne, 2007), Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan suggest that Luke's purpose was to set up the birth of the Jewish Messiah as a counter to the birth of the Roman Caesar - also hailed as the "Savior, Redeemer, Son of God." The scene in the temple in Jerusalem confirms the child Jesus as the expected one who would redeem Israel from bondage to imperial injustice and oppression.