Worship Resources

A Liturgy Developed By Inerela+

Leader: From all parts of the world gather us in! The lost and the lonely, the broken and the breaking, the tired and the aching who long for the healing found in this place!

All: Gather us in!

Leader: The done and the doubting, the wishing and the wondering, the puzzled and the pondering who long for the company found in this place!

All: Gather us in!

Leader: The proud and the pretentious,  the sure, the superior, the never inferior, who long for the levelling found in this place!

All: Gather us in!

Leader: The bright and the bustling, the stirrers, the shakers, the kind laughter makers, who long for the deeper joys found in this place!

All: Gather us in!

Leader:
From corner or limelight,
from mansion or campsite,
from fears and obsession,
from tears and depression,
from untold excesses,
from treasured successes,
to pray, to meet, to be given a seat,
to be joined to each other,
both stranger and lover,
to become like the least,
to be found at the feast!

All: Gather us in!

Love our health, and love our healing,
hear our sisters’, brothers’ plea.
Strengthen us in faith and feeling,
set our bodies, spirits free.
Lustre to all flesh revealing,
love our sure immunity!
Love our health, and love our healing,
hear our sisters’, brothers’ plea.

Speak of love that dares be nameless,
love that calls us to this place.
Nor shall fever still inflame us
save the ardour of your grace.
Love, your paths are pure & blameless.
Love, attend us all our days!
Speak of love that dares be nameless,
love that calls us to this place.

Love for now and love for ages,
love that lives in plague and pain.
Love that lasts and is courageous,
love that dies shall ever reign!
Love alive and love contagious,
love long lasting, come again!
Love for now and love for ages,
love that lives in plague and pain.

What can we say to you?
Shall we collect together?
all the words that praise you?
Shall we give you?
All the names of this world,
You the Un-nameable?

Shall we call you?
‘God of my life,’
‘Hallowing of my acts.’
‘Meaning of my existence?’
Shall we call you?
‘Our journey’s end,’
‘Home of our loneliness,’
‘Bitterness of our bitter hours?’

Shall we say?
‘Creator,’
‘Sustainer’
‘Pardoner?’
‘Near One,’
‘Distant One,’
‘Incomprehensible One?’

‘God of both flowers and stars,’
‘God of gentle wind
And of terrible battles?’
‘Wisdom,’
‘Power,’
‘Loyalty and truthfulness?

Yes, we call you all of these things… and more… we call you Love.

In the name of Allah,
Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah,
the Cherisher and Sustainer
of the worlds.
Most Gracious, Most merciful.
Master of the Day of Judgement.
Thee do we worship
and Thine aid we seek.
Show us the straight way.
The way of those on whom thou hast bestowed thy grace.
those who portion is not wrath and who go not astray.

The story of the guests invited to the party. Luke 14: 12 to 24

Jesus said to them:
“When you give a dinner party, or a supper, do not invite your friends or your brothers, your relations or your rich neighbours in the hope that they will invite you back again and you will be repaid. No! When you give a feast invite the poor and the lame, the maimed and the blind; and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Now when one of those who sat at table with him heard these things, he said to him

“Blessed are those who shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God!”

Then Jesus said to him:
“A certain man gave a great supper and invited many guests. And at supper time he sent his servant to those who were invited saying Come! For everything is now ready! But with one accord they all began to make excuses. The first said to him I have bought a piece of ground and I must go and see to it. I ask you to have me excused. The second said I have bought five yolk of oxen and I am going to feed them. Please excuse me. And still another said I have just got married, and therefore I cannot come! So the servant came and reported these things to his master and then the master of the house, being angry said to his servant Go out into the streets and the lanes of the city and bring in the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind. And then the servant said to him Master, it is done as you commanded. But there is still room! And so the master said to the servant Go out into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house might be full. For I tell you the truth – none of those who were invited shall eat at my supper!

Leader: Where love is, God is!
Left Row: I saw him, in the love between two people.
Right Row: I saw him when a woman shook hands with her sister after a quarrel.

Leader: Where patience is, God is!
Left Row: I saw her, when a mother spoke gently to her child after a tantrum.
Right Row: I saw her, in the exercises of a man who had suffered a stroke.

Leader: Where health is, God is!
Left Row: I saw him, in the men and women healed in our hospitals.
Right Row: I saw him, in the joyful leaping of healthy children.

Leader: Where suffering is, God is!
Left Row: I saw her, in the anxiety of the sick and the bereaved.
Right Row: I saw her, in the faces of the parents who had lost their children.

Leader: Where suffering is, God is!
Left Row: I saw her, in the anxiety of the sick and the bereaved.
Right Row: I saw her, in the faces of the parents who had lost their children.

Leader: Where beauty is, God is.
Left Row: I saw him, in the coming of the bud in springtime.
Right Row: I saw him in the entwining of lovers’ hands.

Leader: Where self-giving is, God is!
Left Row: I saw her, in the unpaid help of the volunteers.
Right Row: I saw her in the pastor caring for her people.

Let us pray

Leader: In the beginning…

All: there was only pain and anger.

Leader: In the beginning…

All: there was only denial and humiliation.

Leader: In the beginning…

All: there was only loneliness and destruction.

Leader: In the beginning…

All: What else was there? Tell us, and we will listen!

Leader: In the new beginning…

All: there is the support of community.

Leader: in the new beginning…

All: there is the courage to speak truth to power.

Leader: In the new beginning…

All: there is the compassion of friendship.

Leader: In the new beginning…

All: What else is there? Tell us, and we will listen!

Leader: In the new beginning, there is love!

1. I’m going to shine like the sun in the Kingdom of Heaven,
Shine like the sun in the Kingdom of Heaven,
I’m going to shine like the sun in the Kingdom of Heaven and no-one will ever be the same!

Chorus
And it’s all in God’s name, and it’s all in God’s name,
Yes it’s all in God’s name, that no-one will ever be the same!

2. I’m going to learn from the poor in the Kingdom of Heaven,
Learn from the poor in the Kingdom of Heaven,
I’m going to learn from the poor in the Kingdom of Heaven and no-one will ever be the same

3. I’m going to walk with the weak in the Kingdom of Heaven,
Walk with the weak in the Kingdom of Heaven,
I’m going to walk with the weak in the Kingdom of Heaven and no-one will ever be the same

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