Westport Presbyterian Church 1835 – present
Friendsgiving Sunday & WPC 190th Anniversary
November 16, 2025
Image credit: moma.org “Friendship,” by Agnes Martin (1963)
PRELUDE: It Is Well With My Soul arr. Edwin Spencer
CALL TO WORSHIP: (“From Blossoms,” by Li-Young Lee, adapted)
One: From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.
All: From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.
One: O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.
All: There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.
One: From joy to joy to joy, let us summon our jubilance to be with each other in the presence of Divine Sweetness.
*OPENING HYMN (You may rise in Body or Spirit):
#761 Glory to God Called as Partners in Christ’s Service (verses 1, 2 & 4)
CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE:
All: We, too, have held brown paper bags of peaches.
We, too, have bitten into peaches – yet miss the “jubilance.”
We have failed to “carry within us an orchard” of love and gladness.
We have not welcomed the “sweet impossible blossom” of life.
Renew our hearts and minds, that we might live from joy to joy to joy.
One: Jesus Christ is the face of gladness in the world.
You are forgiven and freed to face the world in joy.
READINGS:
“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in
you and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:10-11)
“If you wake up in the morning and feel very happy about nothing, no cause,
that’s what I paint about” (Agnes Martin).
RECEIVING OF GIFTS AND PLEDGES/CHORAL ANTHEM:
We’ve Come This Far By Faith Mark Hayes
ORIENTATION TO SMALL GROUP CONVERSATIONS
SMALL GROUP CONVERSATIONS
*CLOSING HYMN (You may rise in Body or Spirit):
#351 Glory to God All Who Love and Serve Your City (verses 1, 2 & 4)
BLESSING FOR MEAL
POSTLUDE: The Heavens Are Telling, Beethoven, arr. Dorothy Wells 1
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