Prelude
KHAYA | Beautiful & Deep African Meditation Music
Steve Higgins – “Fe mi love a lion heart”[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqDcx7qsoPY
Gathering Music
En La Lucha
Words/Music: Mark A. Miller
En la lucha hay vida
En la lucha esperanza
En la lucha hay vida
Siempre hay siempre hay esperanza
Cantamos en la lucha
Cantamos por la justicia
Cantamos por nuestras vidas
Siempre hay siempre hay esperanza
Call to Worship
Marcel Okito
Excerpted from the WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES (WCC) Week of Prayer for Overcoming Racism and Xenophobia March 19 – 25, 2023
ONE: Creator of the Universe The whole world is yours; the entire universe is yours and yours alone.
ALL: You, God, see the entire humanity as one big family of yours. In you there is no division or partiality in your response to our needs and in the provision and protection of your own because you are a God of inclusiveness, and not of exclusiveness.
ONE: You are not selective in your grace towards us humans, as your air is available without discrimination to all, and your desire is for all of us to be part your Oneness.
ALL: Obliterate favoritism, partiality and ethnocentrism. Let us all commune with you. We will persevere in overcoming our shortcomings and our predicaments. We pray with hope believing, because your steadfast love endures forever. Amen
Opening Song
“Canticle of the Turning” vv. 1&2[3]
Words: Rory Cooney
My soul cries out with a joyful shout
That the God of my heart is great
And my spirit sings of the wondrous things
That you bring to the ones who wait
You fixed your sight on your servant’s plight
And my weakness you did not spurn
So from east to west shall my name be blest
Could the world be about to turn?
My heart shall sing of the day you bring
Let the fires of your justice burn
Wipe away all tears for the dawn draws near
And the world is about to turn!
Though I am small, my God, my all, you
Work great things in me
And your mercy will last from the Depths
Of the past to the end of the age to be
Your very name puts the proud to shame
And to those who would for you yearn
You will show your might
Put the strong to flight
For the world is about to turn
My heart shall sing of the day you bring
Let the fires of your justice burn
Wipe away all tears
For the dawn draws near
And the world is about to turn!
Videos for Meditation
Hon. Nanny of the Maroons
https://youtube.com/shorts/jwWkWeKoVqs?si=MmOkx4aMEjHXrz9b The entire video
Hon. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, President of Namibia https://youtu.be/uemdNI2wQz0?si=eX7NKiblKX1fhnAv Beginning to 3:52
Scripture Litany
Adrian Mendoza & Janice Marie Beauchamp
ONE: John 17:20, 22
I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one.
ALL: That they all may be one.
ONE: 1 John 4:18, 20
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars, for those who do not love a sibling whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.
ALL: That they all may be one.
ONE: 1 John 2:9-11
Whoever says “I am in the light,” while hating a sibling, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever HATES ANOTHER BELIEVER is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.
ALL: That they all may be one.
ONE: 1 John 2:18-19; 2 John 7, 8a, 10-11
Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. . . They went from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist! Be on your guard . . . Do not receive into the house or welcome anyone who comes to you and does not bring this teaching; for to welcome is to participate in the evil deeds of such a person.
ALL: That they all may be . . .
Sermon
“That We All May be One – Love’s Quandary”
Rev. Dr. Althea Spencer-Miller
Hymn
“Help Us Accept Each Other”
Words: Fred Kaan, Music: Doreen Potter
Music Pdf: https://hymnary.org/hymn/PH1990/358
Love Feast
Beth Quick
An Ecumenical Affirmation of Faith
Yaheli Vargas-Ramos
Excerpted from the WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES (WCC) Week of Prayer for Overcoming Racism and Xenophobia March 19 – 25, 2023
We do not believe in exploitation of the earth for the sake of economic profit
But we believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
We do not believe in the obscene accumulation of power,
But we believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord.
We do not believe in the increasing distance between those who make the decisions and those who suffer from them,
But we believe that God became human and was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
We refuse to give our consent to militarization and the making of weapons of mass destruction, For we believe that our Lord Jesus Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
We do not believe that the forces of death will prevail,
But we believe in the resurrection of Jesus, his ascension and that he is seated at the right hand of the Father.
We do not believe that the world is at the mercy of the powerful,
But we believe that Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead.
We do not believe in the ideology of the predominance of market forces, consumerism or materialism,
But we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord the giver of life.
We do not believe in hierarchy, prejudice and discrimination,
But we believe in the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints.
We do not believe in revenge or the annihilation of the oppressor,
But we believe in the forgiveness of sins.
We do not believe that death is the end, But we believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen[4]
Blessing
Rev. Dr. Althea Spencer-Miller
Sending Song
“Canticle of the Turning” vv. 3&4
From the halls of power to the fortress tower
Not a stone will be left on stone
Let the king beware for your
Justice tears ev’ry tyrant from his throne
The hungry poor shall weep no more
For the food they can never eat
There are tables spread, ev’ry
Mouth be fed
For the world is about to turn
My heart shall sing of the day you bring
Let the fires of your justice burn
Wipe away all tears
For the dawn draws near
And the world is about to turn!
Though the nations rage from age to age
We remember
Who holds us fast
God’s mercy must deliver us from the conqueror’s crushing grasp
This saving word that our forebears
Heard is the promise which holds us bound
‘Til the spear and rod can be
Crushed by God
Who is turning the world around
My heart shall sing of the day you bring
Let the fires of your justice burn
Wipe away all tears
For the dawn draws near
And the world is about to turn!
My heart shall sing of the day you bring
Let the fires of your justice burn
Wipe away all tears
For the dawn draws near
And the world is about to turn!
Worship Notes:
[1] “Fe mi love a lion heart” (My love is like a lion’s heart, Trans.) Steve Higgins, in echoes of jamaica: a journey with authentic Jamaican songs 2019.
[2] Excerpted from the WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES (WCC) Week of Prayer for Overcoming Racism and Xenophobia March 19 – 25, 2023
[3] “Canticle of the Turning” Canticle of the Turning is a song written by Rory Cooney based on the Magnificat (Song of Mary). The melody is the popular Irish tune “Star of the County Down” which first appeared as the song “Gilderoy” from Pills to Purge Melancholy by Thomas d’Urfey, published between 1698 and 1720.
[4] Excerpted from the WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES (WCC) Week of Prayer for Overcoming Racism and Xenophobia March 19 – 25, 2023
Drew Theo Chapel 