Click right here Sunday shortly before 10:00 AM to join our online service. 

Join us in this service presented by the Social and Environmental Action Committee, introducing the Ethiopian Community Development Council, with whom we’ll be sharing our Sunday offerings for January.  Our guest speaker is Thomas Huddleston, Co-Sponsorship Manager, who will be telling us about how we can help in resettling our new Afghan neighbors here in Windham County.

“Welcome!”

Click right here Sunday shortly before 10:00 AM to join our online service.
   Order of Service
 Sunday, January 2, 2022         

Announcements and Board Greeting               Leslie Kinney

Prelude:  “Come Sunday”         Duke Ellington

Eva Greene, piano; George Carvill, AV production

Chalice Lighting adapted from Peter Lee Scott                             Mara Berkely

“We come together in an attitude of openness – not knowing quite what will happen, yet daring to receive a new idea, a new experience, sustenance for our minds and our hearts.

We come with an attitude of praise, expressing our thankfulness for the good that has come into our lives.

We come with an attitude of humility, knowing how much we need one another, how alone we can be in the world, how vulnerable if we face life solely by ourselves.

We come in the spirit of love, seeking human warmth and fellowship in the hands and faces of those around us.

We come in the spirit of joy, seeking reconfirmation and renewal of life, of love, and of hope.”

Opening Words                                                                             Karen Tyler                       

Opening Hymn:  “Come, Come, Whoever You Are”
words by Rumi; music by Lynn Adair Ungar
Steve Squires, all voices & AV production

      
Reading:   “Home” by Warsan Shire                                             Meg Baker

Hymn:    “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor”
  words by Emma Lazarus; music by Irving Berlin
Christina Gibbons, soprano

Story for All Ages: “The Big Umbrella” by Amy June Bates
read by Tom Baehr

Offering Guest Speaker: Thomas Huddleston, Co-Sponsorship Manager, Ethiopian Community Development Council

Inviting the Offering                                                                          Karen Tyler

Offertory:    “Touch the Earth Lightly”   Colin Gibson

Eva Greene, piano; George Carvill, AV production

Candles of Joys and Concerns                                                           Karen Tyler

Reading: From “Tales of the Hasidim” by Martin Buber                    Meg Baker

                    
Closing Hymn #347  “We Would Be One”    Samuel Wright; Jean Sibelius (Finlandia)

Sung by Steve Squires, George Carvill, Eva Greene

  

Extinguishing the Chalice by Rev. Eric Cherry                              Mara Berkley

“The chalice is lit in our hearts each time that we pray for vision, long for healing,forgive our enemies,comfort our neighbors, and prepare for justice’s day.

In its light, our hope and compassion are renewed and the  ties that bind each to all become clear.

Now, by its sacred flame, the path before us is brightened:

Love prepares our way,

Harmony is in view,

there is no East or West,

no South or North.

Only a world to greet, and bless

with more Light still.”

Closing Circle: “Carry the Flame of Peace and Love” (sung two times)

Benediction by Valerie Kaur                                                               Karen Tyler

“Imagine the institutions we will build, the lives we will lead, the world we will birth when we see no stranger.”

Coffee Hour and Conversation