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Author: St. James UCC

Please donate new socks and underwear, July 2-19

..collection to support Remote Area Medical event in Wise County, VA

To St. James Members and Friends:

Our member, Dave Kirk, is once again traveling to southwest Virginia next month to volunteer at the Remote Area Medical event in Wise County (known as RAM). This is the 18th year that hundreds of volunteer doctors, nurses and dentists travel to this remote area of Appalachia for a long weekend to provide medical and dental services to thousands of people in the region who have little or no access to medical care. They are supported by an army of volunteers who assist in whatever ways are needed, including helping to provide food for all the volunteer medical personnel. There is also a clothing tent, where “gently used” clothing and shoes are made available. There is a particular need for socks and underwear, since many of these folks have little or no money for undergarments. So we are going to assist this year by gathering NEW UNDERWEAR AND SOCKS, for all ages and genders, which Dave and Caity will deliver. We hope you will assist us in this endeavor. Our collecting efforts will begin this next Sunday, July 2nd, and will continue through Wednesday, July 19th. A large plastic tub will be available in the breezeway between the sanctuary and Fellowship Hall, where you can leave your donations. Thank you if you are able to help us in this worthwhile endeavor.

June 25, 2017

Reminder: Our Congregational Meeting will be held at around 12:15, after our post-worship fellowship today. All members are cordially invited to attend.

Worship Leader – Rev. Samantha Tuttle

For Meditation and Reflection:

We come together from our separate lives, each of us bringing our concerns, our preoccupations, our hopes, and our dreams. We are not yet fully present. The traffic, the last-minute cooking, the final details still cling to us. Our bodies hold the rush of the past few hours. It is now time to let go of these pressures and embrace and become aware of the present moment…When you are ready, repeat silently to yourself: ‘Hineini’ or ‘Here I am’. Hineini is used in the Torah to signify being present in body, mind, and spirit. It means settling into where we are and simply being “here”.

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June 18, 2017

Worship leader – Rev. Dr. Robert M. Close, Jr.

For Meditation and Reflection

Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again, come again and again. -Rumi

Welcome and Announcements:

Call to Worship – Rev. Close
.
Opening Hymn: For the Beauty of the Earth – Red hymnal #55

An Expression of Our Faith (in unison)
We are a Christian community of faith, with each person traveling a journey of spiritual discovery….a journey to healing and wholeness. We find more grace in faithful searching than in certainty. For us, following Jesus involves selfless love, resistance to evil, and renunciation of privilege. We believe that God is calling us to build a healthy community of faith, to strive for peace and justice, to protect and restore God’s creation, to bring hope to others, to live our lives with compassion and holy boldness. In Jesus we find our approach to God, yet we respect the faithfulness of those whose approach is different. Listening to the Spirit in our midst, we are convinced that God’s plan is for all to be one. All that matters is to Be At One with God. Amen.

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June 11, 2017

Trinity Sunday
Worship leader – David Plume

For Meditation and Reflection
Holy, holy, holy God, in calling forth creation from the void, revealing yourself in human flesh, and pouring forth your wisdom to guide us, you manifest your concern for your whole universe. You invite us, as your people, to gather the world’s needs into our hearts and bring them before you.

Welcome, announcements and Introduction:

Call to Worship
Leader: In the name of the Creator, the Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
People: Amen.
Leader: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
People: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
Leader: In the beginning the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters.
People: In the beginning God said, “Let us make humankind in our image.”
Leader: And so we came into being, created by God who exists in community.
People: We are here as God’s community to worship the Source of our being.

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June 4, 2017

Pentecost Sunday

For Meditation and Reflection:
As surely as we belong to the universe, we belong together. We join here to transcend the isolated self. To reconnect, to know ourselves to be at home, here on earth, under the stars, linked with each other.
Let us take a moment now to settle into the silence. Hear and feel your quiet breathing. Hear and feel the quiet of this place and this community of people. In this quiet hour may our spirits be renewed. In this gathering of old and new friends may our minds be open to new truth, and our hearts be receptive to love, as we give thanks for this life we are blessed to share.

Welcome and Announcements – A warm welcome is extended to all. Your presence both enriches us and this time of celebration together.

Call to Worship
Pastor: We give thanks for the life that pulsates within us
People: breath and heartbeat, joy and sorrow, dance and stillness.
Pastor: We give thanks for the life that ebbs and flows between us
People: loving, understanding, creating, embracing and letting go.
Pastor: We give thanks for the web of life that surrounds and sustains us
People: feeding, protecting, teaching, inspiring mutual care.
Pastor: We give thanks for the source of all life,
All: this living universe, of which our lives are an expression.

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May 28, 2017

For Meditation and Reflection:

“We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”
– Maya Angelou

Welcome and Announcements

Opening Prayer (in unison): Come, O Creator, O Immensity of love, O Eternity of mercy. Come, and be with us and in us and beside us and over us. Be as hands upon us, and fashion us for shining. Be as warmth within us, and fire us for caring. Be as strength beside us, and shape our lives for healing. Abide in our prayers, the spoken and the unspoken; and make your Word come true in our flesh; through Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Amen.

Responsive Call to Worship
Leader: Beautiful are the works of God!
People: Beautiful also are the skins of God’s people!
Leader: Beautiful is the mind of God!
People: Beautiful also are the hopes of God’s people!
Leader: Beautiful is the heart of God!
People: Beautiful also are the souls of God’s people!
Leader: God made the heavens and the earth!
People: To God be the glory for the things God has done!

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May 21, 2017

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Worship Leader: David Plume

For Meditation and Reflection:
Creator of the universe, you made the world in beauty, and restore all things in glory through the victory of Jesus Christ. We pray that, wherever your image is still disfigured by poverty, sickness, selfishness, war and greed, the new creation in Jesus Christ may appear in justice, love and peace, to the glory of your name. Amen.

Welcome, Announcements and Introduction

Call to Worship:
Leader: We long for community and the Presence of God.
People: In whom we live and move and have our being.
Leader: This day, Christ tells us that we will never be alone. An Advocate will share our journey.
People: With whom we will live and create community and celebrate being.
Leader: May the ever present love of God be with you.
People: And may the joy of Christ surround you.
Leader: May we know the presence of the Advocate as we gather in this community of peace, continuing to share the cost of discipleship with deeds of bold mercy and courageous justice.
All: As an Easter People following a Risen Lord, may the life of Jesus live on in us and through us. Amen.

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May 14, 2017

Happy Mother’s Day

Welcome and Announcements – A warm welcome is extended to all. Your
presence both enriches us and this time of celebration together.

For Meditation and Reflection: We come together from our separate lives,
each of us bringing our concerns, our preoccupations, our hopes, and our dreams.
We are not yet fully present. The traffic, the last-minute cooking, the final details still cling to us. Our bodies hold the rush of the past few hours. It is now time to let go of these pressures and embrace and become aware of the present moment. When you are ready, repeat silently to yourself: ‘Hineini’ or ‘Here I am’. Hineini is used in the
Torah to signify being present in body, mind, and spirit. It means settling into where
we are and simply being “here”.

Call to Worship
Pastor: We are people of all ages who enter this space
bringing our joys and our concerns.
All: We come together in hope.
Pastor: We greet each other warmly with our voices and our smiles.
All: We come together in peace.
Pastor: We share our growth and our aspirations.
All: We come together in wonder.
Pastor: We share our losses and our disappointments.
All: We come together in sorrow.
Pastor: We share our concern and our compassion.
All: We come together in love.
Pastor: We sing and pray and listen. We speak and read and dream.
We think and ponder and reflect. We cry and laugh and reflect.
We mourn and celebrate and meditate. We strive for justice and for mercy.
All: We come together to worship God.

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May 7, 2017

Tena Brass, Lay Leader | Rev. Esther R. Ziegler, Worship Leader

Good Shepherd of the Sheep, you have opened the door to new life for us through your dedication and your sacrifice. May we reflect your love for us by opening the doors of our hearts to you and your beloved creation.

Welcome, Announcements and Introduction

Call to Worship, Rev. Ziegler

One: Come into this place as you are: friend or stranger, lost or found, old or young.
All: Come, for you are the person the Good Shepherd loves and gives life.
One: Come as you are to worship and to be folded into God’s tender care and shelter.
All: Come, let us worship and follow the one who reigns with love.

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April 23, 2107

Earth Day

For Meditation and Reflection:
“The idea that we live in something called the environment is preposterous. The world that environs us, that is around us, is also within us. We are made of it, we eat, drink and breathe it; it is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.”
-Wendell Berry
Welcome and Announcements

Opening Prayer : Oh, Great Creator,
We come before you in a humble manner. We pray for all our relations in nature.
We pray for all those who walk, crawl, fly and swim. May there be good health
And healing for this earth. May there be beauty above us; may there be beauty
Below us; may there be beauty in us, and may there be beauty around us. We ask that this world be filled with Love, Beauty and Peace.

-Medicine Grizzly Bear, Spokane, WA 1990

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Easter Sunday, April 16, 2017

For Meditation and Reflection:

“I have come to realize more and more that prayer is just being in the presence of one who loves you deeply, who loves with a love that will not let you go. And so, when I get up in the morning, I try to spend as much time as I can in the sense of being quiet in the presence of this love. And it’s often like saying I want to be sitting, it’s a cold day and I’m sitting, in front of the warm fire. I don’t have to do anything. The fire warms me. All I have to do is be there in front of the fire. And after a while, I may have the qualities of the fire change me so I have the warmth of the fire, I may have the glow of the fire, and it is so also with me and God that I just have to be there and quiet.”
-Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Welcome and Announcements

Opening Prayer (in unison): Almighty God, through your only Son you overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life. Grant that we who celebrate our Lord’s resurrection, by the renewing of your Spirit, arise from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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April 9, 2017

Palm Sunday

For Meditation and Reflection: “The seed of God is in us. Given an intelligent and hardworking farmer, it will thrive and grow up into God, whose seed it is, and accordingly, its fruits will be God-nature. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and God seeds into God.”
– Meister Eckhart (1260 – 1329)

Welcome and Announcements

Opening Prayer (in unison): Gracious God, oil the hinges of our hearts’ doors,
That they may swing gently and easily to welcome your coming.

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April 2, 2017

Fifth Sunday of Lent

For Meditation and Reflection: “The Person Who Says It Cannot Be Done Should Not Interrupt The Person Doing It!”

Welcome and Announcements – A warm welcome is extended to all. Your presence both enriches us and this time of celebration together.

Call to Worship

Pastor: For all that is our life we offer thanks and praise.
People: For all life is a gift which we are called to use, to build the store of common good.
Pastor: As we worship together this morning, may we know once again that we are not isolated beings, but connected.
People: In mystery and miracle.
Pastor: To the universe.
People: To this community.
All: And to each other.

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March 26, 2017

Fourth Sunday of Lent

For Meditation and Reflection “Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know.” -Daniel J. Boorstein

Welcome and Announcements

Responsive Call to Worship – #824 (Black hymnal)

Opening Hymn: #1 – Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise

Prayers of the People: #878 – Litany of Intercession

Today’s Scripture Readings: First Reading: Psalm 23 Second Reading: John 9:1-40

Sermon by Rev. Mary Mason: “Blind from Birth”

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March 12, 2017

For Meditation and Reflection “To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world”. – Karl Barth

Welcome and Announcements

Call to Worship

Opening Hymn: #506 – Sweet Hour of Prayer

Introduction of Worship Leader Rev. Ted Haas

Today’s Scripture Readings:

Psalm 92: 1-4
Philemon 1-7
Matthew 6: 5-15
Luke 5: 15-16

Sermon: Prayer Changes Things Within Us and for Others

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February 19th, 2017

Thoughts for Today

“For God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of
power and of love and of a sound mind.”

Second letter of Paul to Timothy 1:7

“Is it possible, I asked myself, that I’m being
summoned from some deep and holy place
within? Am I being asked to enter a new passage
in the spiritual life — the journey from false self to
true self? Am I being asked to dismantle old
masks and patterns and unfold a deeper more
authentic self — the one God created me to be?
Am I being compelled to disturb my inner universe
in quest of the undiscovered being who clamors
from within?”

From When the Heart Waits,
by Sue Monk Kidd.

“To be fully human, fully myself. To accept all that
I am, all that you envision. This is my prayer. Walk
with me out to the rim of life. Beyond security.
Take me to the exquisite edge of courage. And
release me to become.”

Prayer from When the Heart Waits,
by Sue Monk Kidd.

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December 11, 2016

Third Sunday of Advent

Meditation thoughts

‘For Longing’ by John O’Donohue
“Blessed be the longing that brought you here and quickens your soul with wonder.
May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire that disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.
May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease to discover the new direction your longing wants you to take.
May the forms of your belonging—in love, creativity, and friendship— be equal to the grandeur and the call of your soul….
May you come to accept your longing as divine urgency.
May you know the urgency with which God longs for you.”

Welcome and announcements

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