In Person and Livestream Worship Service—a service to souls!
Westport Presbyterian Church—The Phoenix is rising!
October 9, 2022, 11:00 am
(Video will be posted LIVE on the church’s FB page at 11am and then cross-posted here. If the video doesn’t load properly here, you should be able to click on the Watch on Facebook link and watch as a guest)
PRELUDE: Fantasia in F major—Georg Phillip Telemann
CALL TO RETURN TO OUR SOULS
Pastor: All you big things, bless the Lord!
People: Gargantuan Galaxies and spinning solar systems!
Pastor: The Milky Way and the Big Dipper!
People: Lightning bolts! Great Lakes! And the journey of the Sun!
Pastor: The rotating sky! A starry night! Spring’s first full moon!
People: All forests and oceans! Great Plains! Rivers! And tides!
Pastor: Praise and love God forever and ever!
People: All you tiny things, bless the Lord!
Pastor: Raindrops! Seed pods! And all leaf buds!
People: Flower petals! pollen—and pine cone seeds!
Pastor: Every bumble bee, baby turtle, lightning bug!
People: Brain cells! Blood cells! The elements that make the air!
Pastor: Praise and love God forever and ever!
–adapted from an African canticle
HYMN: Let Us Build a House GTG #301
CALL TO CONFESSION AND COMMITMENT
Leader: May we know the honor of being a human being. (Jake Swamp, Haudenosaunee/Iroquois)
People: May we share the honor of being a human being.
Leader: Let us unite a frightened world by acts of kindness. (inspiration at start of pandemic)
People: Hate has no home here. (a 9 year old Muslim child wrote these words on a sign for a protest at Chicago’s airport when the January 27, 2017 travel ban from Muslim countries was announced)
Leader: Let hate have no home where you are.
People: Love your enemies. (Jesus)
Leader: Replace apathy with curiosity, violence with community. (Fred Culver)
People: May our capacity for God be reborn.
Leader: Always remember, what you give, you have. (Roman soldier) Amen.
SUNG PRAISE TO GOD FOR POWER AND HEALING GRACE: Jesus, We Are Here (English and Shona) GTG#392
BIBLE READING: John 4:5-29
ANTHEM: Child of God: Mark A. Miller
Leader: May the words of my mouth
People: And the meditations of our hearts
Leader: Be acceptable to You, O Lord,
People: Our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Message : What Are You Thirsty For?
HYMN: Down to the River to Pray
WELCOMING
PRAYER: Matthew 25 Prayer, Lord’s Prayer,
Congregational Sung Response: Come, Bring Your Burdens to God(sing twice) #851GTG
OFFERTORY: Wade In the Water—setting by Mark Hayes, Jennifer Weiman, mezzo soprano
Offering link
RESPONSIVE PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Leader: Our souls are boats
People: On a deep and rolling river.
Leader: It rushes and rolls deep within us
People: And is carrying us where It will.
Leader: Carry our boats—Creator—
People: Wherever You will. Amen
HYMN: Take Me to the Water GTG#480
BENEDICTION
SUNG BENEDICTION RESPONSE: Take Me to the Water GTG#480
Creative 5th stanza Take me to the River, Take Me to the River. Take me to the River, My soul— revive!
POSTLUDE: Nocturnal Waltz—Johannes Bornlöf
CHURCH AND COMMUNITY NEWS
- Thanks to everyone making Westport Showers happen on Sunday and Thursday and Westport Weekday Food Refuge every weekday. We are grateful for your support, and we praise God for your faithfulness.
- Please consider signing the MORE2 statement of support on the book table at the back of the sanctuary. This statement calls for local control of the Kansas City Police Department.
- Join us in joining St. James Missionary Baptist Church (43rd St and Pennsylvania) in celebrating their 152nd anniversary next Sunday, Oct. 16, 1:30-2:30 p.m. We are also supporting this by creating a Steptoe/Church reenactment with actors Granvile O’Neal, Brother John Anderson and Paulette Dawn (Rev Carmanita in recent WCA play). The historic Steptoe neighborhood/Black Westport is where freed enslaved people created a community that still needs to be honored and preserved.
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