Welcome to this service for this Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Independence Day and our first Sunday gathering in the sanctuary for fifteen months.

The main part of the service is included below in a video of our in-person and zoom worship on Sunday morning at 10:00 AM on July 4th. 

The lectionary texts were from Ezekiel and Mark about being prophets and doing prophetic work whether we are honored or rejected for it. As William Sloane Coffin said, it is not about being successful, it is about being faithful. We reflected on what this congregation has done and what it may be called to do now. The service included beautiful music from pianist Annemieke McLane and our choir.

You can see the Order of Worship below. You will also find some portions of our worship that were not included in the live zoom service, including the haiku of the day, a few announcements and the offering.  We also include a link to the bulletin.

Thank you for being part of our church community! We haver returned to the sanctuary for in-person services but we will also continue live streamed and recorded service options.  If you would like to join us by Zoom on Sunday mornings click here.

Similarly, our 7:00 PM Thursday Heartfulness Contemplative Training Circle will return to in-person gatherings on July 8th, but several of us will continue to participate by zoom.  For the Heartfulness Circle link, click here.

If you would like to be added to our weekly newsletter list please let us know at unitedchurchofstrafford@gmail.com

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 webpage by email or social media.

Whoever you are, wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome here and in our church community.

Pastor Tom Kinder         Call to Worship  “Be still, and know that I am God.”  Psalm 46  

Here is this week’s haiku by Mel Goertz: 

A dragonfly with silvery wings

danced in the air,

perched on my knee.

Let us worship together…            

Readings  

The scripture readings for this Sunday are Psalm 122:1-2, 6, 8; from Ezekiel 2:1-5, 33:7; Mark 6:1-8, 12-13. You can hear them read on the video below or read the text or download it here: 7-4-21 Service Readings

The Live Zoom Service Recording

Order of Worship (the video is below)—please note that the video is a slightly different order from the bulletin, which is here: 7-4-21 bulletin final 

1. Introit, “Siyahamba” sung by the United Church of Strafford Choir, Annemieke McLane, Director
2. Call to Worship, by Pastor Tom Kinder
3. Unison Reading of our Future Directions Statement
4. Hymn: Variations on “America the Beautiful”
5. Children’s Time and Lord’s Prayer
6. Anthem “My Heart Is Ready,” by Cindy Kallet; arr. Peter Amidon
7. Scripture Reading, read by Ingrid Webb
8. Sermon “A Prophet Among Them” by the Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder, Pastor
9. Hymn “Someone Needs to Show the Way”
10. Announcements
11. Postlude (played as the Prelude) “Le Rappel des Oiseaux” by P. Rameau, Annemieke McLane, piano
12. Organ Improvisation on two hymns, Annemieke McLane

Here is the video (please note that we had some technical issues that affected the recording in places): 

Sermon   You can read the text and find a pdf of the Call to Worship and Sermon by clicking here.            

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.)                  

Announcements

To read additional announcements please see our weekly churchwide emails by clicking here.

You can be added to our email list by requesting so at unitedchurchofstrafford@gmail.com.

It is extremely important that we continue to stay closely connected during this transition time.  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 and Kim Welsh, 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.  If you would like to donate or help please email us or use the comment feature on this page.