Transgender Remembrance Day Service Pastoral/Worship Leader Service lead-sheet.
Gathering
Opening Music
Welcome & Call to Worship
Welcome to Metropolitan Community Church. If this is the first time you have visited us then you are especially welcome.
Today is a special day.
Thanks be to God for this day!
Today, we join our global church to observe Transgender Remembrance Day.
The church engaged and united in Spirit-breathed prayer will see the powerful, healing effects of God’s loving will for us.
Today, we remember our trans and gender non-conforming siblings [in Christ] lost at the hands of hatred, evil and violence because of their gender identity and expression.
God joins us in our grief and pain.
Today, we restore anew our commitment to protect, support and remember our transgender [and genderqueer] siblings [in Christ].
God bears witness to our restoration.
Let our worship today honor our memories and reflect our renewal!
Amen!
Opening prayer
Please join with me in prayer.
Loving Creator God, maker of us all, you who knows us and loves us, be with us now as we come together to be your community, as we come to worship you, as we come together to remember. Bring us the hope we need and the wholeness that we need to live lives that are full of your love. Lives that are all that you desire us to be. Help us to be the wonderful diverse people that we are of all sexual orientations, of all gender identities, of all ages and races, for it is you who made us.
We ask that your presence will be manifest in our words and actions and we ask this all in your many names. Amen.
Song: All are Welcome, Copyright © 1999 Dakota Road Music. Words and Music by Hans Peterson and Larry Olson. Licensed w/CCLI.
Readings for Today
Ecclesiastes 3:1 – 8
For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
Song: Do not be afraid, Copyright © 2006 David M. Bailey.
Licensed w/ASCAP
Isaiah 56:1 – 8
God says, "Preserve justice and do righteousness, for liberation is about to come and justice will be revealed. "How blessed is the one who does this, and the one who takes hold of it; who is respectful of the sabbath, and keeps from doing injustice." Let not the stranger who has joined to God say, "God will surely separate me from God’s people." Nor let the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree." For God says, "To the eunuchs who keep My sabbath, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My promise, to them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial, and a name better than that of children, sons or daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off. "Also the strangers who join themselves to God, to minister to God, and to love God’s name, to be God’s servants, every one who is respectful of the sabbath and holds fast My promise; even those I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all people."
Sermon/Homily
Song of Response: Jesus, take me as I am, Copyright © 1998 Vineyard Songs (UK/Eire). All rights reserved. International copyright secured. By Suzette Thorndycraft. Licensed w/CCLI.
Community PrayerPlease join together in the Community Prayer printed in your bulletin.
Blesser of all things, You created us in your likeness, in your image, and then pronounced us good. We give you thanks for the gift of life itself and for our uniqueness. God of transformations, set us free to change and grow, hold us close in love and grace. We rejoice in the lives of our transgender siblings, different, strong, dynamic and loved. In the silence now let us think about those transgender people who share our lives. Let us remember their struggles and celebrate their strengths. [Silence.]
God we thank you that you have given us all a place to call home and that you have been with us on our journeys. Bring us even closer to you. Amen.
Passing of the Peace – An Act of Welcome
Please greet one another with a word, of welcome, a handshake, or however you feel comfortable.
Affirmation of FaithJoin together in the Affirmation of Faith printed in your bulletin.
As children of God, we celebrate the beauty and individual worth of all creation. We believe in God: who created each of us, who breathed into us our uniqueness, who delights in who we are, and what we can still become. We believe in the love of God: who laughs with us in our joy, who cries with us in our pain, who wants all creation to seek peace, reconciliation and love for each other. We believe in the justice of God as revealed in the living Word, and through the lives of the prophets of yesterday and today. God alone created us. We are not alone; God loves us. Nothing will separate us from the love of God.
Song (offering): There is a Redeemer, Copyright© 1982 Birdwing Music BMG Music. By Melody Green and Keith Green. Licensed w/CCLI.
Communion
In this meal we find all our stories, the stories of how we got here. In MCC and as part of the Christian tradition, we welcome and celebrate difference.
Though today we are thinking particularly of those who are gender different, whatever your difference might be, you are welcome at this table. Whoever you are God’s love is for you, here and now.
This is a meal of inclusion where all can take part.
The Thanksgiving
May God be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the living God.
Let us give thanks and praise to God.
It is right to give God thanks and praise.
Yes it is indeed right to give thanks to you, Almighty Creator, giver of live. You created us in your image, diverse, beautiful and good. You deliver us from the captivity of sin, empowering us to oppose the evils of this world by your peace and compassionate fervor. When we turn away from Your glorious gaze in our human frailty and fatigue, You call us back into communion at this, Your table, and remind us of your everlasting presence. Therefore, let us join together in saying:
All: Holy, Holy, Holy O God of power and might. Heaven and earth are full of Your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is the One who comes in the name of God. Hosanna in the highest!
Words of Institution
The night Jesus was arrested he shared a sacred meal with his followers. While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ Do this in remembrance of me. And after supper, Jesus took a cup, and after giving thanks to God he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from this, all of you; for this is thenew covenant. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. This meal takes ordinary things and transforms them. God takes us, ordinary people, transforms us and uses us to transform our world.
Will you pray with me?
We offer our thanks to you, O God. You are the Giver of Life. Bless this bread, the bread of life which feeds our spiritual hunger.
Praise be to you, O God. You are the Sustainer of the universe and the Renewal of our souls. Bless this fruit of the vine, the cup of salvation, which refreshes our spirits.
Holy Spirit, rain down upon us gathered here and at your table around the world today. Pour yourself out upon us. Come upon this bread and this cup so that we who share in this meal may be bonded with Christ and with each other. Come, O Spirit, dwell in us that we may be transformed by You. AMEN.
Mystery of Faith
Join me in proclaiming the mystery of our faith:
All: Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again!
Breaking of Bread and Blessing of Cup
Invitation
In Metropolitan Community Churches we celebrate an open Communion; you do not need to be a member of this church or any church to partake. This is Christ's table and Christ Jesus invites to this meal all who will come. We recall the words of Jesus when he said, I am the bread of life; they who come to me shall not hunger, and they who place their faith in me shall not thirst. All that God gives me will come to me; and those who come to me, I will not turn away.
Come, share in this meal of transformation.
Music (recorded): The Prayer, Copyright © 1998 Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. by Carole Bayer Sager and David Foster (Italian Lyrics by Alberto Testa and Tony Renisa). Sung by Josh Groban and Charlotte Church. Licensed w/ASCAP.
Song: You Laid Aside Your Majesty, Copyright ©1985 Kingsway's Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing). All rights reserved. International copyright secured. By Noel Richards. Licensed w/CCLI.
Sending Out