Welcome to this service.  This week’s service features three teachings entitled “Finding the Guidance and Power We Need in this Time” You will find three different approaches to that question in the Call to Worship, Children’s Time (which is for adults as much as older children) and Sermon.

You will find an “Orientation to this Service and Announcements” after the first few videos. You can watch the entire service in under an hour or spread it out watching in two to twelve minute segments.  You can also find links here to read some of the service instead of watching the videos.  Please feel free to respond to the service using the comment feature of this website or you can email us at unitedchurchofstrafford@gmail.com.

You can read a July 18th Pastoral Letter on Rep. John Lewis and Black Lives Matter and Poor Peoples Campaign news by clicking here.

Prelude  Alexander Scriabin 24 Preludes, Op. 11 No. 5 in D major, Annemieke McLane, piano

Introit “I’m Gonna Lift My Sister Up” words & music by Faya Rose Touré – arr. Peter & Mary Alice Amidon

Sung by members of the United Church of Strafford Choir.

Teaching One: Finding the Guidance and Power We Need in this Time—Call to Worship and Herbert Goertz’s Haiku

You can find the text of the Call to Worship and Haiku by clicking here.

Orientation to this Service and Announcements

Welcome to this online worship service of the United Church of Strafford, Vermont for July 19th, 2020.

You can respond with thoughts about the service or with anything you would like to say by using the comment feature at the end of the post or by emailing us.  You can also bring others into this experience by sharing the link to this service by email or social media.

Here is the order of worship on this page:

• Above: Welcome, Prelude, Introit, Call to Worship and Herbert Goertz’s Haiku;
• This orientation;
• Time with Children (and Adults);
• Alternate Lord’s Prayer read by six members of our congregation;
• Anthem “Teach Your Children Well” Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
• Scriptures and Sermon by the Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder;
• Anthem (“Spirit of God Descend Upon My Heart”  Words: George Croly, 1854; Music: Karl Digerness, 2006;);
• Offering;
• Benediction Anthem (“Sanctus,” from J. S. Bach’s Mass in B minor)
• Postlude by Annemieke McLane.

Please note that we are gathering as a congregation by Zoom at 10:30 AM on Sunday mornings to say hello to one another and share our Joys and Concerns and Prayer requests and offer our compassion and support and company for this journey.

Our Heartfulness Contemplative Training Circle is also meeting by Zoom on Thursdays at 6:00 PM.  This is for anyone who is interested in practicing mindfulness or meditation, or heartfulness and centering prayer.  It is a time for talking about those practices and also more generally about our spiritual life.

You can find links to instructions on how to be part of those Zoom gatherings on the Welcome Page of our website.

If you are not on our weekly email list and would like to be, please email us at unitedchurchofstrafford@gmail.com and we will make sure you receive all our church news.

It is extremely important that we stay connected now.  Please reach out by phone or email to neighbors and other members of the congregation, especially those who live by themselves or are struggling or vulnerable.  Our Deacons, Becky Bailey, Kim Welsh and Maggie Hooker, are coordinating our Deacons Fund and our outreach to people in need of support, and Danette Harris, Chair of our Mission Committee, is leading our work with the Food Shelf.  Becky, Danette and Joey Hawkins are on the town committee that is coordinating outreach as well.  If you would like to donate or help please email us or use the comment feature on this page.

You can listen to this service in one sitting in under an hour or you may spread it out over the course of the day or week. Thank you!

Teaching Two: Finding the Guidance and Power We Need in this Time  Time with Children (and Adults—For Everyone, Really!) 

Alternative Lord’s Prayer

I invited children, parents and other adults to record themselves saying the prayer.  Here is a composite of six readers.  Please keep sending these in—it would be wonderful to have every member of the congregation lead the prayer!

Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer,
Way, Truth and Life,
Force of Love and Light
flowing within and all around us,
may your realm of compassion,
justice and peace rule our world.
Thank you for nurturing and guiding us,
forgiving us and helping us forgive,
and leading us away from harmful desires.
Please save us from all forms of evil,
for you are our source, our home, our power,
all goodness and beauty forever. Amen.

Anthem “Teach Your Children Well”  Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (2018 Remaster)

Teaching Three: Finding the Guidance and Power We Need in this Time Scripture and Sermon  

Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder

You can find the text of the Sermon by clicking here.

Anthem “Spirit of God Descend Upon My Heart”  Words: George Croly, 1854; Music: Karl Digerness, 2006; ©2006 Karl Digerness Music

Offering

This congregation is a small but meaningful part of the movement to establish God’s realm of peace, justice and care for God’s creation on earth, actively engaged in serving our community and supporting the wider worldwide movement.  One of the ways we work together and increase our strength beyond our individual abilities is by pooling our resources.  This is hard to do when we are forced apart by the pandemic, so we hope you will take just a minute to use our online donation service.

To make your offering on line, please click here.  (This is a service we are providing through an extremely well established on-line donation company specializing in churches that is recommended by the national United Church of Christ and used by thousands of churches like ours.  To read more about our decision to allow on line donations, click here.)

Benediction   “Sanctus” From J. S. Bach’s Mass in B minor BWV 232, della Cappella Musicale di Cremona dal concerto di Natale, 14 dicembre 2008

(The entire Mass is one of the masterpieces of all time in any art form.  You can hear John Eliot Gardiner’s recorded performance by clicking here.)

Postlude  F. Schubert, Sonata in A major, D 959 (1828) Scherzo (Allegro Vivace) Annemieke McLane, piano