Welcome to this service for this Twelfth 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 August 15th. 

We need a wiser way to live, and even greater wisdom to convince people to live that way. Who has been both wise and influential in your life or in the world? What did they do that convinced people to follow their wisdom?

The service led up to those questions, exploring what wisdom is and how we can gain the wisdom we need and what it is calling us to do and be right now. It included inspiring readings and gorgeous music including piano and vocal pieces by George Frideric Handel plus two beloved hymns that you can sing along with as you watch, “Be Thou My Vision” and “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise.”

This week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a report laying out the deadly consequences that will come if we do not follow the path of wisdom and change immediately how we live on this planet. We have the wisdom we need to save ourselves from extinction, but we seem to lack the wisdom needed to convince the peoples and governments of the world to take the crucial steps.

The service hoped to encourage and challenge us to become wise in that way.

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 has returned to in-person gatherings, but several of us will continue to participate by zoom.  For the Heartfulness Circle Zoom 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: 

Mother bear and two cubs

slept inside a tree,

a cozy den for three.

Let us worship together…

Readings  

The scripture readings for this Sunday are from from Proverbs 9:1-6; Ephesians 5:15-20 and John 6:51-58 You can hear them read on the video below or read the text or download it here: 8-15-21 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: 8-15-21 bulletin final

1. Call to Worship, by Pastor Tom Kinder
2. Hymn, “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise”
3. Children’s Time and Lord’s Prayer
4. Anthem, “As with rosy steps the morn,” from Theodora G.F. Handel, Becky Bailey, Soloist, Annemieke McLane, piano
5. Scripture Readings, read by Ken Bushnell
6. Sermon, “Wisdom Calls: ‘Lay Aside Immaturity and Live’”  The Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder
7. Hymn, “Be Thou My Vision”
8. (the last four items below were relocated from the start of the service—the music was extraordinary, don’t miss it!)
9. Prelude,  Suite VIII, HWV 433, Allemande by G.F. Handel, Annemieke McLane, piano
10. Welcome and Announcements
11. Introit, “I Woke Up This Morning”
12. Gathering Music on the Organ

Here is the video: 

Sermon   You can read the text and find a pdf of the Call to Worship and Children’s Time 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 when we are not yet out of the pandemic.  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.