October 2 – World Communion Sunday
October 1, 2022 by Rich
Filed under Featured, Livestream Links and Order for Worship
Welcome to Ivy Chapel United Church of Christ, where all are invited to join us at Christ’s table on this World Communion Sunday. As you begin your virtual worship experience, please gather the communion elements so you may share in the experience with us.
Remember you may also join us in person in our sanctuary at 620 N. Woods Mill Rd. in Chesterfield, MO. Wherever you are on your journey through life, there is a place for you at Ivy Chapel.
Service will begin at 10 a.m. on Sunday on our YouTube Channel.
A joyous, warm welcome to our guest, the Rev. Dr. Mary Schaller Blaufuss (Vice President for Institutional Advancement, Eden Theological Seminary).
WELCOME
PRELUDE – A Hymn of Devotion – Brahms
*CALL TO WORSHIP
One: From the East and the West
All: From the North and the South
One: All will gather around the Table of Christ
All: Where the last will be first
One: And the first will be last.
All: So that all may be included, and all may receive God’s love.
*HYMN – In Christ There Is No East or West – #137
In Christ there is no East or West,
In Him no South or North,
but one great fellowship of love
In Him shall true hearts everywhere
their high communion find;
His service is the golden cord
close binding humankind.
Join hands then, brothers of the faith,
whate’er your race may be!
Who serves my Father as a son
is surely kin to me.
In Christ now meet both East and West;
In Him meet South and North.
All Christly souls are one in Him
throughout the whole wide earth.
*PRAYER OF INVOCATION
Giving God, we arrive weighed down by what we have been trying to carry alone. As we come into this sanctuary, may we leave at the door all that makes us reluctant to enter; and may we leave behind all that prevents us from living generously. We reject a mindset of scarcity. Instead, we embrace your perspective of eternal abundance. May our manner of living pave a way of blessing rather than a way of destruction. Let us say ‘Yes!’ to your Realm; and let us praise you together with all people as the diverse, spectacular human race whom you have made, Creator God! Amen.
*RESPONSE – Bread of the World, in Mercy Broken – worship booklet, p. 29
Bread of the world, in mercy broken,
Wine of the soul, in mercy shed!
By whom the words of life were spoken,
And in whose death our sins are dead!
Look on the heart by sorrow broken,
Look on the tears by sinners shed,
And be Thy feast to us the token,
That by Thy grace our souls are fed!
‘ B E H O L D ! ’ – Neighbors in Need
GOD’S WORD – Psalm 23
SPECIAL MUSIC – Praise Him – Paris/Hayes
GOD’S WORD – Luke 12:27-34 – Rev. Mary Schaller Blaufuss
SERMON – Rev. Mary Schaller Blaufuss
PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH – Rev. Mary Schaller Blaufuss
*HYMN – One Bread, One Body – worship booklet, pp. 72-73
Refrain
One bread, one body, one Lord of all;
one cup of blessing which we bless,
and we, though many throughout the earth,
we are one body in this one Lord.
Gentile or Jew, servant or free,
woman or man, no more.
Refrain
Many the gifts, many the works,
one in the Lord of all.
Refrain
Grain for the fields, scattered and grown,
gathered to one for all.
Refrain
THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY COMMUNION
*HYMN – Christ for the World We Sing – #545
Christ for the world we sing, the world to Christ we bring,
With loving zeal;
The poor, and them that mourn,the faint and overborne,
Sinsick and sorrow-worn, For Christ to heal.
Christ for the world we sing, the world to Christ we bring,
With fervent prayer;
The wayward and the lost, by restless passions tossed,
Redeemed at countless cost, From dark despair.
Christ for the world we sing, the world to Christ we bring,
With one accord,
With us the work to share, with us reproach to dare,
With us the cross to bear, For Christ our Lord.
Christ for the world we sing, the world to Christ we bring,
With joyful song;
The newborn souls, whose days, reclaimed from error’s ways,
Inspired with hope and praise, to Christ belong.
*BENEDICTION – Rev. Mary Schaller Blaufuss
*POSTLUDE – Laudes Domini – Young
Special Offering for Neighbors in Need Oct. 2
September 29, 2011 by Rich
Filed under Livestream Links and Order for Worship
Sunday, October 2 Ivy Chapel will observe World Communion Sunday. We will also have a special mission offering for Neighbors In Need fund—UCC that supports ministries of justice and compassion throughout the United States. One-third of NIN funds support the Council for American Indian Ministry (CAIM). Two-thirds of the offering is used by the UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries(JWM) to support a variety of justice initiatives, advocacy efforts, and direct service projects.
