Welcome to the afternoon contemplative service from the Uniting Church in Australia
Music
Gong
Silence
Gathering call
Summer sands are receding
Into the inevitable dunes
Of promises and dates,
deadlines and demands.
Let take a moment and breathe
Sweet ocean – vast and wonderful. Brimming in life.
Let us sit beside the dunes and listen to the call.
J Shannon
Music
Reading -Belongs to God (in the round)
1 Corinthians 13 The Gift of Love
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,[a] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly,[b] but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Silence
Read silently
(Insert your Name) is patient; (Your Name)is kind; (Your Name)is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. I do not insist on my own way; I am not irritable or resentful; 6I do not rejoice in wrongdoing, but I rejoice in the truth. 7I bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things.
Silence
Music
Prayer – in the round
Your word is a light to our feet and a lamp to our path.
Your word is a glue of the universe wherein the whole creation coheres.
Your word is the address of promise and command by which we live.
Your word has come fleshed among us full of grace and truth.
We are creatures of your word and we give thanks for it.
For all that…we are more dazzled that your word
Is carried, uttered acted,
by frail vulnerable human agents.
We ponder and give thanks for those who this day
speak your word where it is desperately needed
and deeply resisted.
We ponder and give thanks for those who this day
act your word for newness, peace and justice,
We ponder with trepidation that among us
you will yet designate such carriers
such speakers,
such actors.
In our thanks for your word,
we pray for courage in the name of the one
who emptied himself.
AmenWalter Brueggemann from Awed to Heaven Rooted in Earth
Silence
What if we trusted ourselves as God has trusted us?
Silence
Music The Peace of the Earth
The peace of the earth be with you,
the peace of the heavens too;
the peace of the rivers be with you,
the peace of the oceans too.
Deep peace falling over you;
God’s peace growing in you.
(Repeat)
Photo By Burton Red Sea
Closing prayer
The ocean breathes it song of love continuously
So let it be that we too breathe the prayer that loves us
In the morning and in the evening
In our kindness and our coldness
God waits patiently
For us to do better.
Amen.J Shannon
This liturgy is a gift of the Uniting Church in Australia. Please feel free to take it with you. It is also available from
The Uniting
Chaplaincy Team is here in the Canberra Hospital. They can be reached on 6244 3768.
1