Please join us for our In-Person and Virtual Worship Service today for our second service in Advent.
Please ensure you have read the updated entrance policy if planning to join us in person. https://portwallisunitedchurch.ca/port-wallis-news/entrancepolicy
If you know anyone who wants to register for the services, they can signup at https://portwallisunitedchurch.ca/virtual as everyone logging in needs their own registration. ALL are welcome!
During Advent ALL virtual services will be held in the same ZOOM webinar room as our regular Sunday Services. However, you will not get the Zoom reminder, so pleae be sure to save one of your weekly reminders with the links. More details are here. https://portwallisunitedchurch.ca/port-wallis-news/important-notice-advent-services
Service Documents to view/print at home.
Advent 2 05 December 2021
Port Wallis United Church
is an open Congregation
that affirms you as a child of God,
made in God’s Image,
and loved by God.
WORDS OF WELCOME / BIENVENUE / FAILTE / PJILA’DIK
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF LAND
We acknowledge that we are meeting in Mi’kma’ki,
the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People.
LIGHTING OF A CHRIST CANDLE (for use at home and together on Sunday morning)
You, O God, are light shining in the darkness of the universe,
guiding us onward from what was to what can be.
May this candle, whether lit or unlit,
remind me of your presence and bring me comfort in every day.
In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
CALL TO WORSHIP
In the midst of darkness, the Light of Christ is shining.
Faithful is our God.
In the midst of winter, we live with the promise of spring
Faithful is our God.
In the midst of anxious rushing, the peace of God is with us.
Faithful is our God.
God calls us now to worship, with Light, with Promise and with Peace.
Let us worship God.
GATHERING MUSIC (tune at # 37 in Voices United)
Gloria, gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, gloria, alleluia! alleluia!
Glory to God! Glory to God! Glory in the Highest!
Glory to God! Glory to God! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Gloria. Music: Jacques Berthier, arr. Darryl Nixon. Music copyright © 1978, 1980, 1981 Les Presses de Taize. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission under License # A-734202. All rights reserved.
PRAYER OF APPROACH and the LORD’S PRAYER
God of new birth, new hope, new dreams,
assuring us of your presence and giving us your calming peace,
gather us together
that with one voice, one heart and one mind,
we may peacefully and completely to worship You.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who taught us to pray before You, saying,
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father….. Notre Père….. Ar n-Athair…. 주님의 기도 Fader vår….
Ons Vader…. Onze Vader… Vater unser… Padre Nostro… Padre nuestro…
主の祈り 主禱文 أَبَانَا Isä meidän Πάτερ ἡμῶν Baba yetu
HYMN ~ O COME, O COME EMMANUEL
O come, O come, Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel shall come to you, O Israel.
O come, O Wisdom from on high, who orderest all things mightily;
to us the path of knowledge show and teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel shall come to you, O Israel.
O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer our spirits by thine Advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel shall come to you, O Israel.
O come, thou Key of David, come and open wide our heavenly home.
Make safe the way that leads on high and close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel shall come to you, O Israel.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Almighty and Eternal God, present to us in the Prince of Peace,
forgive whatsoever you see amiss within us,
within our Church,
and within the living out of our faith.
Pardon the sins we have committed,
the errors with which we continue to live
and the hard heartedness that refuses to change.
Show us your pathway home,
give us courage to follow in your steps,
and strengthen us to accept your will.
Hear now our silent confession that we make in the Presence of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
LIGHTING OF THE FIRST ADVENT CANDLE ~ PEACE
Peace doesn’t always mean ‘being quiet’.
Peace calls out to us to seek justice and resist evil.
Peace is not the absence of war but the presence of justice,
the presence of right relationships, and the presence of equity for all.
Peace is the absence of fear.
In the Presence of God there is peace
and our vision is changed from what was to what can be.
Peace is manifestation of God’s vision,
the realization of God’s vision,
and a present gift from the future.
Congregational Response as the Candle of Peace is lit:
The candle of peace shines bright with God’s plan;
The wolf will lie down and dwell with the lamb.
Our guns and our weapons, our hatred and war,
Will give way to gardens that heal and restore.
Sung response ( # 6 in Voices United)
A candle is burning, a candle for peace,
A candle to signal that conflict must cease,
For Jesus is coming to show us the way,
A message of peace humbly laid in the hay.
A Candle Is Burning. Words copyright © Sandra Dean 1986. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission under License # A-734202. All rights reserved.
SCRIPTURE LESSONS
First Testament: Malachi 3: 1 – 4
Responsive Lesson ~ Luke 1: 68 – 79
Reader, Congregation, Choir (and Congregation)
Blessed be the LORD, God of Israel,
who has come with us forever to dwell!
68 “Blessed be the LORD, God of Israel, who has visited and redeemed us.
69 God has raised up a ensign of salvation for us,
a descendant from the house of his servant, David
70 (this is to fulfill what has been said through the holy prophets of long ago),
71 God will bring salvation from our enemies & from the hand of all who hate us
72 God will vindicate our ancestors and will remember the holy covenant,
73 the oath he swore to our ancestors Abraham and Sarah:
74 “I will rescue you from the hand of our enemies,
and grant you peace to serve me without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness you will stand before me all the days of your life.”
Blessed be the LORD, God of Israel,
who has come with us forever to dwell!
76 And you, my child, will be called the herald of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare the way for God,
77 You will give the people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 forgiveness that springs from the tender mercy of our God, the love of God,
and the Compassion of the Most High –
mercy by which Light will come to us from God.
79 Light that will shine on those living in the darkness of ignorance
and in the lands of the shadow of death,
And God will guide our feet into the path of peace.”
Blessed be the LORD, God of Israel,
who has come with us forever to dwell!
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, amen.
Epistle Lesson: Philippians 1: 3 – 11
Gospel Lesson: Luke 3: 1 – 6 (a voice crying in the wilderness)
A TEACHING TIME (a time of learning for younger folk)
TEACHING PRAYER
In peace, dear God, I come to You through Jesus Christ who makes me new
And while I run or play or rest, be with those whom I love best,
Guide me in your Holy Way, as You walk with me each day, AMEN.
HYMN # 18 (VU) THERE’S A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS CRYING
There’s a voice in the wilderness crying, a call from the ways untrod:
Prepare in the desert a highway, a highway for our God!
The valleys shall be exalted, the lofty hills brought low;
Make straight all the crooked places where God, our God, may go!
O Zion, that bringest good tidings; get thee up to the heights and sing!
Proclaim to a desolate people the coming of their King.
Like the flow’rs of the field they perish; like grass our works decay.
The pow’r and pomp of nations shall pass like a dream away.
But the Word of our God endureth; whose arm is ever strong.
God stands in the midst of the nations, and soon will right the wrong.
God shall feed the flock like a shepherd, the lambs so gently hold,
To pastures of peace will lead them, and bring them safe to fold.
There’s a voice in the wilderness crying, a call from the ways untrod:
Prepare in the desert a highway, a highway for our God!
The valleys shall be exalted, the lofty hills brought low;
Make straight all the crooked places where God, our God, may go!
There’s a Voice in the Wilderness Crying. Music copyright © 1938 Henry Hugh Bancroft. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission under License # A-734202. All rights reserved.
REFLECTION
STATEMENT OF FAITH
We are not alone. We live in God’s world.
We believe in God:
Who has created and is creating,
Who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh,
To reconcile and make new;
Who works in us and others by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the Church;
To celebrate God’s Presence,
To live with respect in creation,
To love and serve others,
To seek justice and resist evil,
To proclaim Jesus,
Crucified and risen, our judge and our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
ANTHEM ~ ONE STAR
OFFERTORY PRAYER
Almighty and ever-present God,
receive the gifts we offer, both visible and invisible,
and use them and us
for Your Glory and the good of all people.
In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
PASTORAL PRAYER
HYMN # 25 (VU) LO, HE COMES WITH CLOUDS DESCENDING
Lo, he comes with clouds descending, see the Lamb for sinners slain!
Thousand thousand saints attending join to sing the glad refrain:
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah! God appears on earth to reign.
Every eye shall then behold you, robed in awesome majesty;
All who jeered, and mocked, and sold you, pierced, and nailed you to the tree,
Deeply grieving, deeply grieving, deeply grieving, shall the true Messiah see.
Now redemption, long expected see in solemn pomp appear;
All the saints, by us rejected, thrill the trumpet sound to hear:
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah! See the day of God appear!
Yea! Amen! Let all adore you, high on your eternal throne;
Crowns and empires fall before you, claim the kingdom for your own:
O come quickly! O come quickly! O come quickly! Everlasting Christ, come down.
PARTING PRAYER (in unison)
Bless to us, O God, this day,
The doors we open, the thresholds we cross, and all the roads that lie before us.
Go with us always as we go and,
at the close of our day, welcome us home.
EXTINGUISHING OF THE CANDLE
We are reminded that the Light of Christ is not in candles nor institutions
but within each of us. We are the Light of the World
BENEDICTION
May the blessing of the Maker be yours,
Encircling us, above us and within us.
May the blessing of the Son be yours,
The Wine and the water, the Bread and the stories,
to feed us and remind us.
May the blessing of the Spirit be yours,
The wind and the fire, the still small voice of calm,
to comfort us & disturb us.
May the blessing of God, Three-in-One and One-in-Three,
be yours, this day and every day,
To protect us, defend us, encourage us and strengthen us.
And may we bless each other,
A blessing rooted in our common pilgrimage,
the blessing of a friend.
EXCHANGING OF THE PEACE OF CHRIST
Mention someone’s name and hold them in your heart.
CHORAL PRAYER (Singing – Tune is at # 298 in Voices United) (Canada)
When you walk from here,
When you walk from here,
Walk with Justice, walk with Mercy,
And with God’s Humble Care. Linnea Good 1991
Permission to podcast / stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE,
License # A-734202. All rights reserved.