With the steep decline in the number of people worshipping, it is becoming clear that congregations will not be able to afford the luxury of paying someone to conduct their worship. We have lived through an era when this was the case, when congregations of people contributed by way of an” offering” to sustain and promote the work of the Church, with a large proportion of this going towards meeting the cost of a “Minister” ordained by the Church to conduct and preach at services and to provide pastoral care. With the secularisation of our society, and diminishing numbers attending worship, this is fast becoming, and indeed has become, a non sustainable situation.
An alternative approach, and one successfully used by the Methodist Church over the centuries, has been to appoint “ Lay Preachers”, members of the Church, who are prepared to conduct worship and preach the sermon. The number of people prepared to be lay preachers has also dropped dramatically.
Another approach is that of the “part time” Minister – an alternative approach successfully used in my home town Church of Wembley Downs. This involves a person spending part of his or her time in secular employment, and part as a “Minister” in a local church. This has worked well but has a number of problems, the foremost being the allocation of hours. In our particular case, it has resulted in the so called half time Minister doing the work of a full time Minister for half the cost!
To me, and others, it is obvious that the present practice of worship is changing/ has changed and a new approach is required. The alternative form of worship that follows is but one suggestion.
It needs a few explanatory comments:
(1) It is envisaged that it be used about every four weeks or so. Similar services by other people could be similarly used.
(2) No one conducts the service. The full script is handed out to the congregation in booklet form with different passages highlighted. The person who receives a highlighted copy reads the highlighted words when appropriate.
(3) The “imported sermon” is either (a) one preached on the Net or (b) or one “inspiringly” read by one of the congregation. The duration should be no longer than 12 minutes – the period of concentration used by newspaper editors. To get some idea of the quality of sermons preached on the Net have a look at Lori Walke at the Oklahoma Mayflower Church. A portable modem and a lap top could meet the need of small congregations. Larger congregations could use a screen. Laughing Bird Liturgical Resources is also a significant resource.
World Sunday
One World
One People
One Future
About his Service of Worship
John Stainer’s “God so loved the world” is a classic piece of music composed in 1877. The reference is to John 3:16, the most well known passage of scripture. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who has faith in him should not perish but have eternal life. The Christian faith is about the life of the world – not just you and me! We are but a part of the world that is being offered a new way of life. The world and the future of homo sapiens is what the Christian faith is about.
What the gospel writer meant by “the world” is very different to what we mean today. He saw it as flat with heaven above and hell below, and something over which we have no control. The one known as “God” was the controller of the world and the task of humanity was to obey.
Our understanding of the world today is very different. A new view of the world has emerged: a blue marble in space with a thin layer of atmosphere distinguishing it from other lifeless planets. Our understanding of the world has changed dramatically, as has our understanding of the words “God” and “eternal life”, the latter being about quality rather than quantity of life. John 3:16, however, remains our fundamental imperative.
The Christian faith is primarily about saving the world.
This act of worship seeks to remind us of our place in and our responsibility for the world in which we live and move and have our being. As one of our number recently expressed it: “We are about one world, one people and one future. “ How true that is!
”I have come” said Jesus “that you may have life, and have it in all its fullness”. This, of necessity, involves us in attending to global warming, refugees, poverty, war and peace, etc.
The Christian faith is about life in this world, not some ethereal life in the heavens. Life in this world requires insight, understanding and action – and worship that continually reminds us of our place in, and our responsibility for, the world in which we live.
INTROIT
”God so loved the world” John Stainer
CALL TO WORSHIP
Let us express the worthship of God who is the ground of our being, the Spirit of Life, within and around us.
Whoever we are, and wherever in the world we live, we are offered fullness of life in Jesus of Nazareth
And so we come today, at this moment in the world’s history, to remind ourselves of the truth that the way we live affects, for good or for evil, the earth and all that lives on it.
(Picture of earth in space, and music)
THE LIGHTING OF THE CANDLE
(The Christ Candle is lit and held)
Herein lies the crisis: Light has come into the world, and the world prefers darkness to light. Our task is to so present and represent this light that the world may see and be saved.
HYMN 668 TIS
Touch the earth lightly,
use the earth gently,
nourish the life of the world in our care:
gift of great wonder
ours to surrender,
trust for the children tomorrow will bear.
We who endanger,
who create hunger
agents of death for the creatures that live,
we who would foster,
clouds of disaster,
God of our planet, forestall and forgive
Let there be greening,
birth from the burning,
water that blesses and air that is sweet,
health in God’s garden,
hope in God’s children,
regeneration that peace will complete.
God of all living,
God of all loving,
God of the seedling, the snow and the sun,
teach us, deflect us
Christ re-connect us
using us gently and making us one.
Shirley Erena Murray
PRAYER
We have forgotten who we are.
We have alienated ourselves
from the unfolding of the cosmos.
We have become estranged
from the movement of the earth,
We have turned our backs
on the cycles of life
We have forgotten who we are
We have sought only our own security
and failed to attend to those
who live in insecurity.
We have exploited the earth
for our own ends
forgetting others
with whom we share the earth.
We have distorted our understanding.
We have abused our power.
We have forgotten who we are
And now, much of our land is barren,
water is scarce,
and air is polluted.
Forests are dying.
Creatures are disappearing
and humans are despairing.
We have forgotten who we are
We have forgotten
the power of forgiveness,
the ability to begin again,
the significance of changing one’s mind,
the putting to an end
that which could go on endlessly
until the earth reaches its end.
We have forgotten who we are
We have fallen far short of the mark.
We seek forgiveness,
the gift of beginning again,
the gift of Jesus of Nazareth.
Elisabeth Mackie
READINGS
(a) A reading from the first century
(Selected verses from Ephesians)
“God has allowed us to know the secret of the plan, and it is this: God purposes that all human history shall be consummated in Christ, that everything that exists shall find its perfection and fulfillment in him.
And here is the staggering thing: we, who are the first to put our trust in Christ, have a part to play in the working out of God’s purpose
I beseech you then, live up to your calling
Spare no effort to make fast with bonds of peace
the unity that the Spirit gives.
(b) A reading from the twenty first century
(Elisabeth Johnson “Quest for the living God”)
“In photographs taken from space, our home planet looks like a bright blue marble, swirling around with white clouds. Floating against a background of endless black space, it is a precious little spot that alone among all the planets, moons and asteroids we have explored to date, is covered with a membrane of life. Astronauts who have seen this view with their own eyes speak of its power to change their deepest feelings “The first day we all pointed to our own countries. The third day we were pointing to our continents. By the fifth day we were all aware of only one earth”. “The earth is so small you can block it out with your thumb. Then you realize that on this beautiful warm blue and white circle, is everything that means anything to you, nature and history, birth and love. And then you are changed forever.”
HYMN MHB 805
“Christ for the world” we sing!
The world to Christ we bring
to make love real:
the poor and those who mourn,
the faint and overborne,
sin sick and sorrow worn
whom Christ can 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
in one accord:
with us the work to share,
with us reproach to dare
with us the cross to bear
for Christ our Lord.
SERMON
(We use the Internet to listen to the good news of Jesus being preached throughout the world)
OFFERING
Let us worship God with an offering to support the work of the Church in this place and elsewhere
(as offering is placed on the table)
Not only what we say and do
this too, Lord, is what we think of you.
THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT
(In the light of Simone Weil’s great definition of prayer as “attention taken to its highest degree”, the congregation uses newspapers and other media to highlight a need of the world to which we should attend.)
PRAYER
Spirit of Life,
In the light
of what we have seen and heard
may it be
that we may be
loving people loving people,
loving the world
as you would have it loved
and as it was loved
in Jesus of Nazareth.
Amen
HYMN
Love, love changes everything:
hands and faces, earth and sky.
Love, love changes everything:
how you live and how you die.
Love can make the summer fly,
or a night seem like a lifetime.
Yes, love, love changes everything,
now I tremble at your name.
Nothing in the world will ever be the same.
Love, love changes everything:
days are longer, words mean more.
Love, love changes everything:
pain is deeper than before.
Love will turn your world around,
and that world will last forever.
Yes, love, love changes everything,
brings you glory, brings you shame.
Nothing in the world will ever be the same.
Out into the world we go,
planning futures, shaping years.
Love bursts in and suddenly
all our wisdom disappears.
Love makes fools of everyone:
all the rules we make are broken.
Yes, love, love changes everything:
live or perish, in its flame.
Love will never ever let you be the same.
Love will never ever let you be the same!
(The candle is extinguished)
