You may be planning an All Saints worship service for this Sunday, or you may be observing the 24th Sunday in the Pentecost season. Are you in need of a little liturgical help as you plan the service? Here are some liturgy elements created by fellow RevGals for you to use or adapt in your own worship. If you use them, please give credit in any printed resources or video descriptions.
if you have written any words for worship this week, please share them in the comments. At any time, if you write original liturgy elements that you are willing to share, please email them to revgalblogpals at gmail by the previous Monday for publication on Tuesday.
Lighting Candles and Naming Saints by Barbara Bruneau
One way to bring the reading of the names and the lighting of candles into the liturgy is to “layer” them between verses of a hymn. Depending on the number of persons you will be naming, you can pause one or more times to read some of the names. For example:
Sing “For All the Saints,” v. 1-2
We remember with gratitude these Saints from our congregation who have taught us how to live faithfully, love generously, and wait patiently. (Read the names of those who have died in the past year. After each name, you may light a candle and/or ring a bell.)
Sing “For All the Saints,” v. 3-5
We celebrate with joy these persons who have become part of the communion of saints this year through the sacrament of Baptism. We delight in their energy, their optimism, and their curiosity. (Read the names of those who have been baptized in the past year. After each name, you may light a candle and/or ring a bell.)
Sing “For All the Saints,” v. 6-7
Remembering Our Saints by Sigrid Rother
Leader: For all the Saints who have gone before us,
People: God, we give thanks for our ancestors in the faith.
Leader: For all the Saints who have exemplified the faithful life,
People: God, may we learn from their ways and follow You.
Leader: For all the Saints who have been beloved to us,
People: God, we give thanks for our loved ones who have passed on.
Leader: On this day, we name all those who are in our hearts:
List of names and relation to members (After each name is read, their photo may be shown on the screen, a candle may be lit, and a bell may be rung.)
Call to Worship for Pentecost 24 by Melodie Long
Leader: Come, let us worship! Truly, we are standing on holy ground!
All: Yet it is not the land, the building, the place. We are in the presence of God.
Leader: God weaves holiness around us, through us, within us, creating a fabric that binds us as one.
All: With the divine holding us, with the sacred leading us, we gather. Come, let us worship!
Call to Worship for All Saints Sunday by Sigrid Rother
One: Together as a community of believers, we praise God and we celebrate All Saints Day
All: We remember people who went before us by name and are thankful for so many who paved the way for us.
One: We are grateful to be part of a faith tradition going back many generations and to pass on our faith to the next generations.
All: It is comforting to belong to a cloud of witnesses. Let us worship God together.
Confession and Assurance by Melodie Long
Call for Forgiveness Unless God builds the house, we labor in vain. That is our call – to find ourselves centered in God in all ways. Though we have fallen far short of life as God created, with hope and grace God offers a new way. Let us pray.
Prayer for Reconciliation Loving and gracious Holy One, the God of all time and space, the One who created us in love and sent us out to love the world, we have willfully misunderstood you. We have taken your gifts and made them about us. This beautiful earth, which we call home, has become our personal playground rather than an expression of your creation. We build relationships to further ourselves and our ambitions. Even your Church has become what we have accomplished, built, and control rather than seeking to be your presence in this world. We have turned it into places of exclusion and condemnation rather than hubs of healing and grace. You created us to be people of your own heart, and we have failed. Yet your grace never leaves us in our own mire but always offers us hope. Forgive us, lead us back home to you.
Assurance of Wholeness (Hebrews 9) God eagerly waits for us! Isn’t that an expression of love? God waits for us. God invites us, God welcomes us, into a life of wholeness, healing, and grace. Alleluia!
Communion by Melodie Long
Call to Communion God spoke through the prophet Isaiah: “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. Incline your ear and come to me; listen, so that you might live.” Here at God’s Table is the bread of life for the feasting, the cup of salvation for all to share. AT God’s Table there is always enough, there is more.
Prayer of Communion The Lord be with you. And also with you. Lift up your heart. We lift our hearts to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is truly right to give our thanks and praise.
Through the voices of the past, O God, you speak to us. The stories of yesterday sing to us of who we were. Yet their greatest gift is your ever-present reminder of who we can become and who you are – a faithful, graceful loving presence believing in possibilities our minds and hearts cannot contain. Through the tales of creation, you teach us of the goodness of it all and remind us that all we have and are is in you. Through the prophets you bring us back to relationship with you and with one another. In Jesus, you showed us life at its fullest, a unity that is beyond this world. And in the people from times past who have made us who we are, you ground us once again and invite us to join in your ever new re-creation of life. [If observing All Saints Day: On this day we remember those who have gone before us: (insert names) and all those we hold in our hearts who live on in us today. (silence)] Now with the voices of the saints of the past and with all the company of angels and archangels, we sing forever to the glory of your name.
Holy, Holy, Holy. Lord, God of power and might Heaven and earth are full of your glory Hosanna in the highest Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest, hosanna in the highest
And so we live today, shaped by the winds of the past, further molded by the tides of today, and always looking into tomorrow as people of faith in the God of all newness. Great is the mystery of faith: Christ has died Christ has risen Christ will come again
We take this bread, this fruit of the vine, not as mere symbols but as the reality of your presence in this world. Though they seem simple gifts, they are indeed holy for they bring light, life, and hope for this broken world, for our weary hearts. Therefore, with our hearts and souls nourished at your Table of grace, as people of the ancient covenant of your faithfulness we turn our eyes and our hearts to you. Lead us into the future, trusting that your hand is holding us, your love is guiding us, and your grace is loving us back to life over and over again. Hear us now as we pray as your Son continues to teach us…. Lord’s Prayer
Words of institution
Prayer After Communion When we eat this bread and drink this cup, Holy One, we step into the rich beauty of the past, embrace the fullness of life today, and look with hope into the future you are even now creating. May your life-giving Spirit walk with us while we go into the world as people transformed by grace. Amen.
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