Welcome to this service for this Eighth Sunday after Pentecost.
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 18th.
The service featured stirring and inspiring music including William Blake’s “Jerusalem” and “God of Grace and God of Glory” among others. The service theme was good shepherds and heroes drawing on Jeremiah 23:1-6 and Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56, and it invited people to reflect on these statements and questions:
“Would that all God’s people were prophets, and that God would put the divine spirit on them!” Numbers 11:29
“Today there are many good people when the world needs saints.” Carlo Carretto
“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for someone else. And no one makes a greater mistake than those who do nothing because they can do so little.” William Sloane Coffin
Who are the heroes and what are the acts of heroism you have witnessed, large or small, especially in your church or town? What heroic actions do we need today locally or globally?
The service included beautiful music from pianist Annemieke McLane and our choir.
You can see the Order of Worship below and find a link to the bulletin. 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.
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 Herbert Goertz:
Fireflies at night
Dancing galaxies of light
The joy of being
Let us worship together…
Readings
The scripture readings for this Sunday are from Jeremiah 23:1-6; Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56. You can hear them read dramatically on the video below or read the text or download it here: 7-18-21 Service Readings
The Live Zoom Service Recording
Order of Worship (the video is below)—please note that the video is a different order from the bulletin, which is here: 7-18-21 bulletin final
- Call to Worship, by Pastor Tom Kinder
- Hymn, “God of Grace and God of Glory,”
- Children’s Time and Lord’s Prayer
- Anthem: “Jerusalem,” words by William Blake (1804), music by Sir Hubert Parry (1916) sung by the United Church of Strafford Choir, Directed and Accompanied by Annemieke McLane
- Scripture Reading, read by Becky Bailey
- Sermon “Heroes and Good Shepherds: ‘I Will Not Cease from Mental Fight'” by the Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder, Pastor
- Hymn, “Men, Whose Boast It Is”
- Announcements
- Choral Benediction, “In the Lord I’ll Ever Be Thankful,” Taizé
- Postlude, English Suite IV, Allemande, by J. S. Bach, Annemieke McLane, piano
- Organ Improvisation on Hymns
Here is the video:
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 Deacon Chair Becky Bailey is 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.
United Church of Strafford, Vermont 