Sunday Hybrid Worship 15 June 2025

JUNE 15 2025

Rev Suzanna Bates

Dorothy Dittrich

Jacquie Parker Snedker

Words For Worship

Words in bold italics, please say together

A Pride Celebration Service

Prelude: The Circle Game                                                       Joni Mitchell

Gathering

Acknowledgement of the Land

For thousands of years, long before settlers arrived, First Peoples lived on and cared for this land. We are thankful to the Creator for this rich and beautiful island. We know this land is not ours alone, it is a reflection of all our histories, the stories of the past and the promises for the future.

We recognize how the Indigenous Peoples have shaped and cared for this region, the provinces, and Canada as a whole.

We commit as a community of faith to continue to work to build relationships that are just and equitable for us all.

Lighting the Christ Candle

As we light this candle today, we celebrate resurrection and life.

Christ is the light of our lives; spilling over into every space,

bringing new creation, breaking barriers, bringing light.

We are here.

God is here.

This place is sacred ground.

Hymn: There Is Room For All                                                     MV #62

Call to Worship: Forming the Rainbow

Let us celebrate who each of us is

Regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity,

all are made in the image and likeness of the Divine.

All of us may not be part of the rainbow community

but we are not apart from it either.

Let us celebrate holy love!

Opening Prayer

Holy One, who breathes life into each one of us,

and all of Creation,

we give thanks for the wonderful diversity of your Creation.

Help us to hold one another closely, in love, compassion

and celebration, that we may give thanks that we are all your children.

In the name of Jesus, we make this prayer. Amen

Hymn: I Have Called You by Your Name                                 MV #161

Lighting the Candle Rainbow

Jesus said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

Red symbolizes Life and Love.

Orange is the colour of Healing.

Yellow is the color of Light.

Green is a symbol of new beginnings and growth.

Blue symbolizes Harmony and Peace.

Violet symbolizes Spirit.

Brown & Black represents people of colour & marginalized communities

Pink & Baby Blue are the traditional colours of male and female gender.

White represents people who are transitioning, intersex or those who identify outside of the gender binary.

Let us pray:

Holy Spirit, help us to live in Christ’s greatest commandment.

 Open our hearts, our minds and our souls to love God and to love our neighbours. May we experience Christ in our worship

and in everyone we meet today and every day. Amen.

Hymn: My Love Colours Outside the Lines                            MV #138

Prayers For Forgiveness & Renewal

From fear and ignorance,

Holy One, deliver us.

From indifference and detachment,

Holy One, deliver us.

From prejudice and pity,

Holy One, deliver us.

From selfish and speedy judgements,

Holy One, deliver us.

From shallow and simple answers

Holy One, deliver us.

In this time of silence, we name our personal and societal regrets, challenges and sin in our lives...

(Time of silence)

With hope and wisdom,

Living God, inspire us.

With compassion and involvement,

Living God, inspire us.

With openness and love,

Living God, inspire us.

With full and prayerful generosity,

Living God, inspire us.

With courage to face the reality and complexity of life,

Living God, inspire us.

With joy to celebrate, nurture and express our diversity in sexuality,

Living God, inspire us. 

(Time of silence)

Assurance of God’s Grace

Living God, you inspire us with the depth of your love that we bear it on our lips and in our lives. Remind us that your love is wider than our regret, deeper than our sin, and carries us through all the challenges in our lives. Your love and mercy colours inside, outside and on the lines of our lives.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Prayer Before the Reading of Scripture

First Reading: Genesis 9:12–15 (The Message)                  Reader: Lisa Griffith

God’s Rainbow Covenant

God continued, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and everything living around you and everyone living after you. I’m putting my rainbow in the clouds, a sign of the covenant between me and the Earth. From now on, when I form a cloud over the Earth and the rainbow appears in the cloud, I’ll remember my covenant between me and

you and everything living, that never again will floodwaters destroy all life. When the rainbow appears in the cloud, I’ll see it and remember the eternal covenant between God and everything living, every living creature on Earth.”

Second Reading: Acts 8:26–39                                    Reader: Lisa Griffith

Later God’s angel spoke to Philip: “At noon today I want you to walk over to that desolate road that goes from Jerusalem down to Gaza.” He got up and went. He met an Ethiopian eunuch coming down the road. The eunuch had been on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and was returning to Ethiopia, where he was minister in charge of all the finances of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. He was riding in a chariot and reading the prophet Isaiah.

The Spirit told Philip, “Climb into the chariot.” Running up alongside, Philip heard the eunuch reading Isaiah and asked, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” He answered, “How can I without some help?” and invited Philip into the chariot with him. The passage he was reading was this: As a sheep led to slaughter, and quiet as a lamb being sheared, He was silent, saying nothing. He was mocked and put down, never got a fair trial. But who now can count his kin since he’s been taken from the earth? The eunuch said, “Tell me, who is the prophet talking about: himself or some other?” Philip grabbed his chance. Using this passage as his text, he preached Jesus to him. As they continued down the road, they came to a stream of water. The eunuch said, “Here’s water. Why can’t I be baptized?” He ordered the chariot to stop. They both went down to the water, and Philip baptized him on the spot. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of God suddenly took Philip off, and that was the last the eunuch saw of him. But he didn’t mind. He had what he’d come for and went on down the road as happy as he could be.

This is God’s Word.

May God’s Spirit raise us to life.

Gospel Reading:                                                            Reader: Lisa Griffith

As is your custom, please stand or sit for the reading of the gospel.

God be with you.

And also with you

The Good News of Jesus the Christ according to John.

Glory to you, Christ Jesus.

 

John 16:12–15                         (New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition)

The Spirit of truth.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

This is the Gospel of Christ.

We give thanks for Good news today!

Word: There is room for all

Hymn: For Everyone Born                                  Then Let us Sing #23              

¹For everyone born, a place at the table,

for everyone born, clean water and bread,

a shelter, a space, a safe place for growing,

for everyone born, a star overhead.

²For all who share life, a place at the table,

revising the roles, deciding the share,

with wisdom and grace, dividing the power,

for all who share life, a system that’s fair.

Refrain

And God will delight when we are creators of justice and joy, compassion and peace:

yes, God will delight when we are creators of justice,

 justice and joy!

⁴For all who have breath, a place at the table,

a covenant shared, a welcoming space,

a rainbow of race and gender and colour,

for all who have breath, the chalice of grace.  [R]

⁵For you and for me, a place at the table,

though wounded and sore, with need to forgive,

in anger, in hurt, a mindset of mercy,

for you and for me, a new way to live..  [R]

 

Offertory

Prayer of Dedication

Holy One, in the diversity of these gifts is reflected the wondrous diversity of Creation.

As all of us are made in your image and likeness,

we offer these gifts that all may be affirmed in their place

in your Creation.

In the name of Jesus, who affirmed the marginalized,

we make this prayer.

Amen

Life & Work of the Church

Prayers of the People                                                              Tim Leadem

We pray to our God,

            Hear our prayers.

 

The Prayer of Jesus                                                                (VU #916)

Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed

by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope

 and come on earth.

With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another,

forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,

now and for ever. Amen.

 

Hymn: Draw the Circle Wide                                                     MV #145

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sending Forth

Let us go into the world to show our colours of diversity, pain and joy.

We go to live love in the world.

Let us go into the world knowing that wherever we go,

the Holy One calls us there.

We go to find the holy in the ordinary,

Let us go into the world being touched by the grace of God.

Let us go knowing we are all unconditionally and deeply loved.

 

Blessing (to each other)

May God bless you;

May God enfold you in the love of Christ.

May God guide you in the Spirit’s care.

May God’s peace abound,

this day and always.

 

Postlude: Shower the People                                                James Taylor

 

 

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