This new feature is here to hopefully offer you some words for worship in these strange times, when some of us have noticed that our traditional liturgical language seems…..inadequate, or at least a bit “off” from what we need for virtual worship experiences. Each week we’ll bring you one or more pieces that you can use as is, or adapt, or use as a jumping off point. They may be specific to the lectionaries, or general enough to use in any service. All authors have given permission for their words to be used. If you print them somewhere, please give credit to the author and a note of RevGalBlogPals.org. If you simply speak them, we only ask that you link to RevGals in the notes of any publicly available video — no need to give verbal credit in zoom worship, only written in the notes if you post it to YouTube, for instance.
We hope these are helpful to you!
Call to Worship by Peg Roy
We gather together tho apart,
Taking sanctuary in our own homes.
We gather together tho apart,
Confident that God is present with each and every on of us.
We gather together tho apart,
Trusting the Holy Spirit to knit our hearts together as one.
We gather together tho apart,
To celebrate Jesus, God’s gift of unconditional love and grace and give thanks.
A prayer inviting us to make an offering, in whatever form that takes these days, by Teri Peterson
In Christ you have given us all things, O God, and also called us to give of ourselves, following his way. As we enter into this resurrection life, make our giving–of time, attention, encouragement, and resources–a witness to your generosity. May we know the blessings of the kingdom, even as we seek to live in it each day, wherever we may be. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.
Benediction by Julia Seymour
I ask this blessing for us all:
May the Creator of all joints and sinews keep our connections strong.
May the Healer of all brokenness piece our hearts together for compassion and hope.
May the Wisdom of eternal truth guide our movements together to the next right step for us all.
May the blessing of God- Creator, Healer, Wisdom- be upon us all and grant us unity in heart, mind, and service- now and forever. Amen.
Knowing the Holy Spirit comes alongside us all, let us sign off in peace to love and serve the Lord. Alleluia, amen!
Some musical ideas…
Please note that these are simply inserted from YouTube — if you do streaming worship, you will need the relevant licenses to either perform them “live” yourself, or permission from both the composer and the performer to stream the video. Or, if you simply share the videos on your own website or Facebook page, no further permissions are needed.
When reading the John 14 text in the RCL, this song came to mind as one I would probably choose… (Aside: the refrain is about the right length for washing your hands!)
For a band-led version of this week’s NL reading (1 Corinthians 13), you might try this one:
One of my favourite Easter hymns that works throughout the season also goes particularly well with this week’s RCL text from Acts 17. There are also a few videos from King’s College Cambridge that are amazing, but they don’t have the words on the screen, so I’ve chosen this lovely recording. If you use the PCUSA Glory to God hymnal it’s #244, as well.
RevGalBlogPals encourages you to share our blog posts via email or social media. We do not grant permission to cut-and-paste prayers and articles without a link back to the specific post. For permission to use material in paper publications, please email revgalblogpals at gmail dot com. For Worship Words, you may use or adapt what you find here, but please credit the author in printed orders of service/web publications and in public video descriptions if possible.
If you have written words for online worship that you are willing to share, please send us an email!
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