Eternal Not Everlasting Remembrance: Reflections on Remembrance Sunday (10 November 2019)

Eternal Not Everlasting Remembrance

Reflections on Remembrance Sunday

10 November 2019

Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral

New Westminster BC

         I have a great deal of sympathy for people who learn English as a second language.  They have to navigate the deep currents of our Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Norman French heritage which can give us two or three different words for the same person, place, thing or action.

         This is hard enough, but we then have to deal with our colonial history and its shameless habit of kidnapping words from other languages and making them at home in English.  Just think of tepees, igloos and pow-wows to mention a few of the thousands of ‘borrowed’ words to be found in our dictionaries.

         Because of this complex history of the contemporary English language, even native English-speaking people can be excused for sometimes using the wrong word when talking or writing about important ideas.  On this Remembrance Sunday two words come to mind that have quite different meanings but are often used as if they describe the same idea.

         The two words are ‘eternal’ and ‘everlasting’.  ‘Everlasting’ means an unending duration of time.  It is a word that describes a ‘quantity’ of time.

         ‘Eternal’ is not about duration.  It is a way of describing a quality of time rather than its quantity. ‘Eternal’ is the adjective we often use to express our experience of timelessness.  Past, present and future co-exist in the same moment and time seems to stand still.

         ‘Everlasting’ describes a painful dental procedure which seems to go on without end and without the numbing benefits of anesthesia.  ‘Eternal’, on the other hand, describes the experience of being with a loved one or some other experience that leaves us feeling free from the relentless passage of time.

         We who are disciples of Jesus of Nazareth believe that our faith in the God to whom Jesus leads us opens the door to eternal rather than everlasting life.  Eternal life is more than our hope in life beyond death, more than our hope in the world to come.  Eternal life is our present experience of a living hope in the present, a hope that inspires us to work with God towards the promised future reign of justice and peace --- despite the painful or troubling or disappointing realities of our past.

         When we remember those whose lives have been given for the sake of others, we bring them into ‘eternal’ remembrance.  Their deeds and choices shaped our present.  Their past and our present are the building blocks for the future.  The mortar that binds past, present and future together is the eternal life Jesus speaks of in today’s reading from the Gospel according to John.

         We sometimes speak and act as if those who came before us are a different species, but they are not.  We share more than the biological DNA that unites us as humans.  We share a spiritual and an ethical DNA that stirs us to make difficult choices that have the potential to bring us and all creation closer to the future God lays before us.

         Today we do not simply ‘remember’ the past and the sacrifices of our forebears as if we are simply reassembling various memories such as the stories told us by members of our families or our own explorations of history, a nostalgic jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces missing but the picture still recognizable.  Today we remember that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who are alive in us and through us and who continue to build God’s future. [1]  Today we give thanks that all that has been good in the lives of our forebears is of benefit to the world. [2]  Today we pledge that through the gift of eternal life God has given to us through our faith in Jesus of Nazareth our forebears go on living with us and in us, in our hearts and minds, in our courage and our consciences. [3]

         Christians know how to remember in this way.  Each time we break the bread and share the cup of eternal life we make the power and meaning of the past present in us and through us to bring God’s future one step closer to its fulfillment.  After the poppies are no longer worn, after the wreathes have been removed from the cenotaphs and after leaves cover the graves of our veterans and the fallen, Canada will return to its merry pace towards ‘the holiday season’ and it will be easy to forget.  But we will not forget, because we have been called by God and sealed by the cross in baptism for eternal life, a life breathed into us by the life and death of Jesus.  We’ve known for two thousand years that the past, with all its power to inspire us towards God’s future, is not behind us.  It is present, right here and right now.  

God is working his purpose out

as year succeeds to year;

God is working his purpose out,

and the time is drawing near;

Nearer and nearer draws the time,

the time that shall surely be,

when the earth shall be filled

with the glory of God

as the waters cover the sea. [4]

---

[1] cf. Hebrews 12.

[2] cf. The Book of Alternative Services 1985, 602.

[3] cf. The Book of Alternative Services 1985, 603.

[4] The Hymnal  1940, #538.

Re-Presenting the Past to Shape Our Future: Reflections on Remembrance Day 2018

Re-Presenting the Past to Shape Our Future

Reflections on Remembrance Day 2018

Propers for Peace from the BCP 1979 (TEC)

11 November 2018

Holy Trinity Cathedral

New Westminster BC

Click here to listen to the Sermon as preached at the 10.00 Eucharist today.

            When I was a boy, at least once if not twice a year, my father would pack up my mother, my sister and me to drive from Colorado to upstate New York to visit my Leggett grandparents.  My father loved the freedom of long-distance driving, so the trip was always a joy for him. My mother could knit or nap in the front passenger seat, so she kept busy.  My sister could read her favourite books, so she was content.  But I was too young to drive, not fond of napping and could not read in a moving vehicle without becoming carsick.  

            My father invented a game for me.  How many different license plates could I collect along the way?  It was not enough just to record where the license plate was from.  My dad expected me to ponder any motto on the plate.  New Hampshire was always one of my favourites:  “Live Free or Die!”  But on one trip I came upon a rare plate to see on the highways of the United States: a car with license plates from Québec.

            No one in my family spoke French and it wasn’t until I went to university that I learned to read, write and speak French --- after a fashion.  So I had no idea what the motto meant:  “Je me souviens.”  I tried various pronunciations, but it remained a mystery to me.  Google Translate was still many decades in the future, so I had to be content to remain in ignorance of this strange motto from a foreign land.

            Skip forward twenty-five years.  I’ve graduated from university with a degree in modern languages and secondary education. I’ve completed my seminary education, served in various ministry settings, almost completed a doctoral degree and find myself in Canada.  “Je me souviens” now has meaning for me --- “I remember”.  

            Our neighbours to the east remember who they are.  There is great strength in knowing who we are and how we have come to be where we are in the great mystery of time.  There is also great danger in forgetting that we remember our past in order to shape a better future, not only for us but for all who share ‘fragile earth, our island home’.  I value my own identity as the descendant of Welsh settlers of the island of Britain who then dealt with the invasion of Anglo-Saxon and Norman French peoples by creating a hybrid culture, a kind of British Métis if you like.  I cannot and will not forget my grandfather who fought in the First World War, my three uncles veterans of the Second World War, my father a veteran of Korea, my cousins who served in the British armed forces and my brother-in-law who cared for the wounded and injured of Iraq and Afghanistan.  But I dare not forget why I remember.

            Within the Christian tradition there are few more important words than ‘remember’. Every Sunday, as we celebrate the eucharist, you hear me twice quote Jesus’ words on that last night, “Do this in remembrance of me.”  The word that the writers of the gospels use is anamnesis.  ‘Anamnesis’ literally means ‘not forgetting’, the opposite of ‘amnesia’.  Even more importantly, the word ‘anamnesis’ means to ‘unleash the power of the past into the present in order to shape the future’. To remember, as Christians, is not a trip down some nostalgic road so that we can romanticize about the past, to wish things were the way they used to be.  

            We remember that last night because we want to unleash the power of Jesus’ self-giving to empower us to work towards the future God envisions for all of creation.  We remember the many generations of those disciples of Jesus who came before us because we want their stories to shape our own so that ‘we and all God’s children may be free’. We remember the sacrifices of those who fought and died in armed conflicts as well as the sacrifices of their families who tried to carry on at home because we do not want their sacrifices to be in vain, to be simply one more tally in humanity’s failure to discover more life-giving and life-sustaining ways to manage conflict.

            My grandfather Broom was a gentle man who served first as a cavalryman and then as a machine-gunner in the First World War.  In that war he lost faith in many things and wanted nothing more than to come home to love his family and to tend his garden.  During the Second World War he sent his only son off to India while he remained in England as a member of the Home Guard and an Air Raid Warden. I remember going into his garden shed and finding his old helmet.  I put it on and marched proudly out into the back garden only to see something in my grandfather’s eyes I had never seen before --- anger, not at me but at the memories; fear, not of me but for me; sorrow, not at me but for me.  He gently removed the helmet, put it back in the shed and I never put it on again.  My grandfather remembered and in that present moment he desired a different future for his grandson.

            There are those who ponder why some churches, such as ours, observe Remembrance Day.  It has been, in my experience, an occasion for some ‘vigorous fellowship’ in some of the circles in which I live and work.  What I tell my friends who have different views from mine is this. Deeply embedded in the human soul is the need to remember, but that deeply-felt need must be shaped by a vision for the future.  Without a vision for the future, remembering becomes a comfortable or an unsettling experience that does not lead into productive action.  As Christians we have a vision for the future and that future is the creation made new, the restoration of right relationship between God and humanity, right relationship between humanity and creation, right relationships between all human beings regardless of any category we might wish to place ourselves or others, right relationship within ourselves as persons who know both the light and the shadow within us.  And so we remember our past in order to unleash its power to shape the future, a future that embodies the good news of God in Jesus of Nazareth.

            So remember, my friends.  Remember in order that today we can take even just small steps into the future God has shown us.  Je me souviens.  Nous nous souvenons.  We remember who we have come from so that who we are today is a sign of who we shall be.

God is working his purpose out

as year succeeds to year:

God is working his purpose out,

and the time is drawing near;

nearer and nearer draws the time,

the time that shall surely be,

when the earth shall be filled with glory of God

as the waters cover the sea.[1]

---

[1]The Hymnal 1982, #534 v. 1.

'In Search of a Better World': Reflections for Remembrance Day 2017 (12 November 2017)

‘In Search of a Better World’

Reflections for Remembrance Day 2017

12 November 2017

Saint Faith’s Anglican Church

Vancouver BC

Click here to listen to the Sermon

as preached at the 10.00 Eucharist

on Sunday the 12th of November.

Revised Text

Matthew 5.38-48

                                    ^5.38 [Jesus said,] “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a toot for a tooth.’   ³⁹ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer.  But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; ⁴⁰ and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; ⁴¹ and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.  ⁴² Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

                  ⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’  ⁴⁴ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?  ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

 ‘In Search of a Better World’

Reflections for Remembrance Day 2017

12 November 2017

Saint Faith’s Anglican Church

Vancouver BC

Matthew 5.38-48

                                    ^5.38 [Jesus said,] “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a toot for a tooth.’   ³⁹ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer.  But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; ⁴⁰ and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; ⁴¹ and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.  ⁴² Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

                  ⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’  ⁴⁴ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?  ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

         There are few readings from the New Testament that confront me more with my inadequacies as a disciple of Jesus than today’s gospel.  I wrestle with what Jesus means when he says, ‘do not resist an evildoer.’  I have made decisions as a priest that have restricted what funds we give and to whom we give them.  I struggle to be ‘perfect’, a word that Jesus uses to mean ‘fulfil your true identity as a child of God’ rather than ‘be flawless’.  What I offer this morning is a series of reflections on Christian discipleship.

         During the past two weeks I have had two experiences which have caused me to ponder what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in a time of conflict, whether internal or external, civil or military.     The first experience was listening to a portion of the 2017 Massey Lectures given by Payam Akhavan, a former UN war crimes prosecutor and human rights scholar.  His lectures are entitled ‘In Search of a Better World’, a nod, I think, to the motto of the Order of Canada (‘Seeking a Better Country’).  Not only has he been a witness to the atrocities that human beings are capable of perpetrating against their sisters and brothers, he himself is a member of the Baha’i community, the object of continuous persecution in Iran and elsewhere. 

         What struck me in the brief portion that I heard on CBC’s Ideas was his firm belief in the unwillingness of liberal democracies such as our own to accept the necessity of intervening with military force when faced with human rights abuses.  As a Baha’i Mr Akhavan comes from a religious tradition which officially expects its adherents to shun partisan politics, yet affirms the unity of God, the unity of religious tradition and the unity of the human race.  What I heard Mr Akhavan say reminded me of something Frederick Buechner once wrote:  a pacifist’s belief in non-violence should not prevent her or him from picking up a baseball bat to defend a child who is under threat.

         I am not a pacifist but I respect those who are.  It takes courage to resist the almost universal human justification for force and coercion rather than witness and persuasion.  But like Payam Akhavan and Frederick Buechner I believe that there are times when opposition to evil requires the use of force, whether the force of law or of arms.  I acknowledge and honour the sacrifices made by my grandfather, my uncles and my father who served in the armed forces of their respective countries.  I know how two of my uncles came to the end of their lives as casualties of World War II long after the war was officially over.  There are qualities of character I learned as ‘an Air Force brat’ that I continue to value and to exercise.

         The other experience came after I had posted some thoughts following the attack on the Baptist congregation in Texas that left the assailant and twenty-six other people dead.  Among the thoughts that I posted was a hope that God would have compassion on the assailant as well as the victims of the attack.

         A young person I know well spoke to me a day or so later.  He expressed his inability to have such a hope.  This young man’s mood was one that I think a fair number of people share throughout Canada and the United States.  We are accustomed to having compassion for the victim and less accustomed, perhaps even unwilling, to have compassion on the perpetrator.  Perhaps this difficulty arises from the mistaken view that compassion implies some sort of approval with one for whom we have compassion.

         I don’t think that this is what compassion means.  The word comes from the Latin meaning ‘to suffer with’ or ‘to share in another’s emotional state’.  It’s easier for us to suffer with the victims and families of tragedy, even if, for most of us, the scale of the suffering exceeds anything we have ever personally experienced.  But it is very difficult to suffer with someone who causes such hurt and trauma.  We search for reasons behind such a person’s actions, often, I think, hoping that we will discover that this person is ‘inhuman’ or insufficiently human in one aspect of her or his personality or another.

         But compassion with the perpetrator, with the ‘other’, is precisely what we need to cultivate in these times.  In a recent article in The Guardian, Jonathan Freedland writes that we will never understand people’s motivation to vote for Brexit or for Trump if we don’t seek to understand their anger and how it led them to vote against their own best interests.  Without compassion we may find ourselves tempted to be judgemental, condescending and prone to complain, shame and blame.

        

         The compassion of which I am speaking does not mean condoning or approving.  It is the act of taking the risk to understand the motivations of another person or group of people whose actions are at such variance from my own or our own.  Such compassion may actually lead us to discern courses of action that lead to healing, reconciliation and genuine progress.

         But on this Remembrance Day weekend let me ask that we renew our commitment to a compassion for those who are not only ‘different’ from ourselves but who may actively oppose the values and way of life we hold dear and for which our loved ones made so many sacrifices.  It is easier for a world leader to threaten others with military force than it is for the same leader to seek, with compassion, to understand her or his perceived ‘enemies’.  It is easier to speak of a ‘clash of civilizations’ than to come to grips with the historic causes for many of the world’s contemporary conflicts.

         As disciples of Jesus we have an obligation to urge our leaders to nurture such compassion within themselves and within the body politic.  As fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends, sons and daughters, we have an obligation to exercise such compassion for the sake of those whom we hold dear.  As citizens who remember the sacrifice of all who confronted evil with their body, mind, strength and heart, we have an obligation to foster such compassion so that their sacrifice will be remembered as a step towards the fulfilment of Micah’s vision:  “[the peoples] shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; ⁴ but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.”  [Micah 4.3b-4]

         And then, perhaps only then, we will begin to be perfect as our God in heaven is perfect, to be as compassionate as the God who causes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on both the righteous and the unrighteous.

         

An Ordo for Remembrance Day Weekend (12 November 2017)

Remembrance Sunday

12 November 2017

The Gathering of the Community

Gathering Music

Announcements

Opening Hymn

‘Rise Up, O Saints of God’  Songs for a Gospel People #47

The Greeting

Blessed are you, Author of creation,

for all the saints who went before us,

who have spoken to our hearts and touched us with your fire.

Blessed are you for ever and ever.

Blessed are you, Word of redemption,

for all the saints who live beside us,

whose weaknesses and strengths are woven with our own.

Blessed are you for ever and ever.

Blessed are you, Spirit of wisdom,

for all the saints who live beyond us,

who challenge us to change the world with them.

Blessed are you for ever and ever.

Blessed are you, holy and undivided Trinity, one God.

Blessed are you for ever and ever.  Amen. [i]

The Hymn of Praise

‘Let There Be Peace on Earth’  Songs for a Gospel People #128

The Collect of the Day

Let us pray.

O God,

it is your will to hold both earth and heaven

in a single peace.

Let the design of your great love

shine on the waste of our wraths and sorrows,

and give peace to your Church,

peace among nations,

peace in our homes

and peace in our hearts;

through your Son Jesus Christ.  Amen.

The Proclamation of the Word

The First Reading

A reading from the prophet Micah (4.1-5).

            ^4.1 In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills.  Peoples shall stream to it, ² and many nations shall come and say:  “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”  For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.  ³ He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; ⁴ but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

            ⁵ For all the peoples walk, each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.

Thanks be to God.

The Psalm

Psalm 85.8-13 from Songs for the Holy One.

Refrain (sung twice):  Holy One, help us to listen and follow your teachings.

I will listen to what God says.

You surely speak of well-being for loving and loyal people,

who do not turn again to foolish ways.

Your saving help is near for those who revere you,

that your glory may dwell in our land.

Refrain:  Holy One, help us to listen and follow your teachings.

Faithful love and truth have met together;

true justice and well-being have kissed each other.

Truth springs from the earth;

true justice looks down from heaven.

Holy One, you will indeed grant prosperity

and our land will yield her harvests.

True justice goes before you

and prepares a pathway for your footsteps.

Refrain:  Holy One, help us to listen and follow your teachings.

The Second Reading

A reading the Letter to the Ephesians (2.13-18).

^2.13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  ¹⁴ For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.  ¹⁵ He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.  ¹⁷ So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; ¹⁸ for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.

Thanks be to God.

Hymn before the Gospel

‘Alleluia’  Common Praise #708 (sung twice)

The Gospel

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew (5.38-48).

Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

            ^5.38 [Jesus said,] “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’  ³⁹ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer.  But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; ⁴⁰ and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; ⁴¹ and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.  ⁴² Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

            ⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  ⁴⁴ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?  ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

The Gospel of Christ.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Hymn after the Gospel

‘Alleluia’  Common Praise #708 (sung twice)

The Homily

The Apostles’ Creed

Let us confess the faith of our baptism.

I believe in God,

the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord. 

He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit

and born of the Virgin Mary. 

He suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died and was buried. 

He descended to the dead. 

On the third day he rose again. 

He ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father. 

He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting.  Amen.

The Prayers of the Community

Intercessions, Petitions and Thanksgivings

Moment of Silence with ‘Last Post’

The Exchange of the Peace

May the peace of Christ be always with you.

And also with you.

The Holy Communion

Offertory Hymn

‘We Are Called to Follow Jesus’  Songs for a Gospel People #18

Prayer over the Gifts

Let us pray.

God of unfailing light,

in your realm of glory

the poor are blessed,

the hungry filled,

and every tear is wiped away.

Strengthened by this vision,

may we who offer these gifts

follow in the way of holiness

that you Son made known in life and death.  Amen.

The Thanksgiving at the Table

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

Blessed are you, gracious God,

creator of heaven and earth;

in the multitude of your saints

you have surrounded us

with so great a cloud of witnesses,

that we, rejoicing in their fellowship,

may run with patience the race that is set before us,

and together with them receive the crown of glory

that never fades away. 

Therefore with angels and archangels

and with all who have served you in every age,

we raise our voices to proclaim the glory of your name.

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,

heaven and earth are full of your glory. 

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. [ii]

We give thanks to you, Lord our God,

for the goodness and love

you have made known to us in creation;

in calling Israel to be your people;

in your Word spoken through the prophets;

and above all in the Word made flesh, Jesus your Son.

For in these last days you sent him

to be incarnate from the Virgin Mary,

to be the Saviour and Redeemer of the world. 

In him, you have delivered us from evil,

and made us worthy to stand before you. 

In him, you have brought us out of error into truth,

out of sin into righteousness, out of death into life.

On the night he was handed over

to suffering and death, a death he freely accepted,

our Lord Jesus Christ took bread;

and when he had given thanks to you,

he broke it, and gave it to his disciples,

and said, “ Take, eat:  this is my body which is given for you. 

Do this for the remembrance of me.”

After supper he took the cup of wine;

and when he had given thanks,

he gave it to them, and said, “Drink this, all of you:

this is my blood of the new covenant,

which is shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sins. 

Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.”

Therefore, holy and gracious God, according to his command,

we remember his death,

we proclaim his resurrection,

we await his coming in glory;

and we offer our sacrifice

of praise and thanksgiving to you, Lord of all;

presenting to you, from your creation, this bread and this wine. 

We pray you, gracious God, to send your Holy Spirit upon these gifts,

so that they may be the sacrament of the body of Christ

and his blood of the new covenant. 

Unite us to your Son in his sacrifice,

so that we, made acceptable in him,

may be sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

In the fullness of time, reconcile all things in Christ,

and make them new, and bring us to that city of light

where you dwell with all your sons and daughters;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, the firstborn of all creation,

the head of the Church, and the author of our salvation;

by whom, and with whom, and in whom,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honour and glory are yours,

almighty Father, now and for ever.  Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

As our Saviour taught us, let us pray,

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial,

and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power,

and the glory are yours,

now and for ever.  Amen. [iii]

The Breaking of the Bread

Creator of all,

you gave us golden fields of wheat,

whose many grains we have gathered

and made into this one bread.

So may your Church be gathered

from the ends of the earth

into your kingdom.

This are the gifts of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Communion

The Hymn after Communion

‘O God of Love, O Power of Peace’  Songs for a Gospel People #109

The Sending Forth of the Community

Stewardship Moment

Prayer after Communion

Let us pray.

Bread of life,

you taught us to put away bitterness and anger,

and with tender-hearted kindness

to share the fruit of our labour with the needy.

Strengthen us by your grace,

so that in communion with you,

we may forgive one another

and live in love as Christ loved us.  Amen.

Glory to God,

whose power, working in us,

can do infinitely more

than we can ask or imagine.

Glory to God from generation to generation,

in the Church and in Christ Jesus,

for ever and ever.  Amen.

Closing Hymn

‘Walls That Divide’  Songs for a Gospel People #32

Dismissal

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

---

[i] Janet Morley, ed. All Desires Known, 3^rd ed. (1992), 148 alt.

[ii] Common Praise (1995) #732.

[iii] Common Praise (1995) #744.