Worship at Home: Telling the Truth

"May the light of truth illumine our minds, May the spark of love set our hearts on fire, May the flame of freedom burn brightly within us, Now and always." - Richard M. Fewkes

This Morning's Order of Worship

Rev. Frieda Gillespie, Interim Minister

Sam Chandler, Music Director

Welcome & Announcements
Call to Worship: Love is Our Greatest Purpose
Opening Hymn: #1004 Busca el Amor
Reading: We Are Here
Lighting Our Chalice: Across the Distance
Time for All Ages: The Cracked Pot
Offering
Morning Message: Telling the Truth
Joys & Concerns
Closing Hymn: #1034 Daoona Nayeesh
Closing Words: To Bless the Space Between Us
Postlude: All Together Now

Welcome & Announcements

with Joanna Landsman, Board President

Welcome to our virtual worship service this Sunday, May 24th.

Welcome & Announcements for Sunday, May 24

Call to Worship

Love is Our Greatest Purpose by Jay E. Abernathy, Jr.,

read by Anne Turner, Chair of the Worship Council

We affirm that love is our greatest purpose.

Accepting one another is the truest form of faithful living.

The search for truth is our constant star.

We pledge our hearts, minds, and hands:

To challenge injustice with courage;

To find hope in times of fear;

And to live out our Unitarian Universalist values every day as a beloved community.

Thus do we covenant with each other and with all that is sacred in life.

Opening Hymn

#1004 Busca el Amor

Translation:

1. Examine that heart of yours

as you look for the love on your high shelf

past the pleasure and passion for your own self

for the love that's reaching someone else

Chorus

Seek out the love in you

and find the joy that comes to those who care

seek out the love in you

it only grows whenever it is shared

2. Your heart's a chameleon

Ever open to change like any flower

spreading out for the sun

petals bursting with power

to be love that's reaching someone else

Reading

We Are Here , adapted from Longing in Consolations by David Why,

read by Sarah Witte, Clerk of the Board

"We Are Here," adapted from "Longing," from "Consolations" by David Why

We are here essentially to risk ourselves in the world. We are a form of invitation to others and to otherness, we are made to hazard ourselves for the right thing, for the right woman or the right man, for a son or a daughter: sometimes for the right work, sometimes for a gift given against all the odds: and sometimes, in the greatest and most emblematic act of human generosity, for complete and utter strangers. And in all this continual risking, the most profound courage may be found in the greatest risk and the greatest vulnerability of all, the simple willingness to allow ourselves to be happy in that generosity, and out of that happiness, to give more and more happiness along the way…

Lighting Our Chalice

Across the Distance by Laura Thompson, read by Sarah Witte

Time for All Ages

The Cracked Pot with Anna Bianconi, Children's Chapel Teacher

Offering: Our Half-Plate

Grace Street Ministry is an outreach ministry created in 2006 by two ordained UCC pastors who felt Spirit-driven to begin a ministry with the marginalized and homeless in downtown Portland. Grace Street offers a consistent, compassionate, pastoral presence to relieve suffering, address the spiritual needs in this ever shifting community and decrease the prejudice between the housed and the homeless through preaching, education and experience. In the words of Pastor Jeff Logan, “In these scary and uncertain times, we feel as if what we bring to this community is essential, and although we will be exceptionally careful, we plan to continue showing up.” Thank you for your generosity.