Blessing of the Animals Worship Liturgy . . .

Call to Worship- based on Psalm 25

Pastor: To you, Abba, I lift my soul.

People: In you, Amma, I trust.

Pastor: Let us take solace in you.

Pastor: Let us learn your ways.

People: Make straight our paths.

Pastor: Teach us truth and wisdom.

Pastor: Let us leave our troubles.

People: Revive our hopes.

Pastor: We wait for you.

Invocation

God of slow time, in our impatience we try to direct. We like to demand things in our time and in our way. In this time though, right now, encourage us to let go of the reins and listen for you. Amen

Prayer of Transformation

Holy God, You created us in your image. Help us to continue to develop and mature in that image. There is so much that draws us away from you and taints our reflection. Call us back to your dream and hope. Help us trim the waste and release the build-up on our original sacred form. Teach us to listen to your still small voice within and give us the strength to follow wherever you might lead.

In you,

Through you,

And for you,

Let us develop to the fullness that you imagine. AMEN

Assurance of Pardon

May you know God is always working with us, in us, and through us. God loves you just as you are and seeks to help you grow. May the love and acceptance of God offer you the nourishment you need as you continue to heal and bloom.

Pastoral Prayer

Today, O Lord, we lift the world in prayer:

The places of strife,

The places of civil war,

The places of poverty, hunger, and pestilence.

We pray for the places, where there is what seems to be an impenetrable chasm between the rich and the poor.

We pray for those places that turn a deaf ear to the needs of the people and only line their own pockets,

We pray for those places where the rule of law is being side stepped for the enrichment and comfort of a few,

We pray for people being displaced and disappeared for those being deported, and for those living in fear that they are next.

There is so much on our mind and our heart.

Search for that which we have forgotten to say.

We pray also for the individuals known to us who are in need today. Hear now as we name them.

We pray all of this in the name of your son and our teach, Jesus, who taught us to pray together saying:

& Lord’s Prayer

Invitation to share

We are invited now to share. It is not a demand. It is not a requirement. It is not a key to heaven. It is an invitation into the reciprocity of creation. Seeds are sown. Plants grow. Fruits are harvested. Meals are made and served. We are invited to participate in a system of grace, gratitude, and giving. May you hear the invitation and respond with joyous love and appreciation.

Prayer of Dedication

God of all that was, is, and ever will be, acknowledge the gifts that we have brought forth. Like the fall harvest, you have long ago planted seeds within us. They have grown and born fruit; and so, we return a portion to honor what we received first from you. May these gifts represent our gratitude and thanksgiving for all that you have done, and may they go forward to plant and assure a crop of the future. AMEN

NOTE: Permission granted for use for religious or educational purposes with citation.

The blessing took place in lieu of our chancel steps time. The kids helped to bless the animals. Each animal was given a certificate and a cookie if it was allowed by their owner.

The sermon was based on the story of Balaam’s Donkey Numbers 22:21-33. This reading does not appear in the lectionary and is rarely shared in Sunday School stories so often is unknown to a congregation.

From our Ghana Sunday Service

Our church has a partnership with a community in Kpenoe, Ghana. This partnership has been in existence since 2008. To learn more about the partnership, visit https://www.wolfeboroucc.org/ghana.

Each year we renew our covenant with them and celebrate our friendship. This liturgy comes from that service in 2025.

This is a picture from last year’s celebration in which we centered the idea of harvest and the blessing of sustenance as embodied in the Yam.

Call to Worship Based on Psalm 33 –

Pastor: Rejoice in the Lord

People: Praise the Lord with instrument and voice.

Pastor: Sing to God a new song.

People: Play with vigor and joy.

Pastor: The Earth reverberates with the steadfast love of the Lord.

People: Let us tremble and stand in awe of God.

Pastor: Our soul shimmers in response to the creator.

People: our souls wait for God and are glad.

Invocation –

Holy and awesome God, we celebrate your presence amongst and between us. We honor all of your creation. Open our eyes to see you in all the ways you make yourself known to us. Let us learn more about you as we learn about each other. Amen

Prayer of Transformation

Lord,

I open my heart to you.

Soften it where it has hardened.

Move it toward compassion.

When I seek to protect it, keep me open and attentive to what it says.

Remind me of the courage and strength it contains so that I may support spiritual siblings.

Keep me aware of its inner yearnings.

Remind me that a heart is not divisible, but exponentially expandable.

Open my heart, O Lord.

Let me be crafted by your hand and be as you need me in this world. AMEN

Pastoral Prayer

Holy parent of all,

As we pray today, we cannot forget the wider world: not only those places that we are familiar with, but the points and places we may never see, the people who look and speak differently than us. People of different cultures, histories, and faiths. We bring before you, O God, the whole of the world and the world itself.

We pray for the planet

and for the people of every nation who inhabit it.

We pray for the soil under our feet, the air in the sky, the water that flows through the land and sits in aquifers underground.

We pray for the swallow and the orca, for the spider and the sea cucumber.

We pray for the iris and the prairie grass,

for peat moss and the giant sequoia,

for all that lives and breathes.

We pray for the interaction and the interchange that each has with the other.

Let us all remember that each is connected to you and a reflection of you.

We also pray for those specifically known to us that need your love and care this day . . . (Lift up your arms and let the congregation fill it with the names of their loved ones in need)

And all those we don’t know to name or don’t know how to name.

We pray this all in the name of Jesus. Our brother, your son. Who taught us to pray together saying:

Lord’s Prayer . . .

To be mindful of the reciprocity of this relationship – this will be our words to invite giving:

Invitation to share

Generosity is a very important concept in Ghana. One of their precepts is that we share because we are blessed with things to share. Unlike our tendency to assure that we have “enough” first, people in Ghana say, “Because I have something. I need to share.” So let us with joy consider what we have and therefore, what we need to share. As you decide what that is, whether dollars or actions; talents or treasurers; may you dance up your gift. Letting the joy of gift carry you into the act of giving.

We will also be interspersing the idea of hand washing within the worship to remind us that it is not only us doing the giving and they the receiving, but that we both learn and grow by through our relationship. At multiple times during the worship will will enact a symbolic hand washing, remembering that one hand washes the other. And thus our Prayer of Dedication following the collection of the offering will be:

Prayer of Dedication

Holy One, you have given and we have received. We are blessed and so we pass on that blessing. We send out our blessings into the world so that others too may be blessed. Let us continue the washing of one another’s hands as we celebrate the many gifts that you have poured upon us all. AMEN

Here is the link to last year’s Ghana Sunday worship: https://youtu.be/UYfCHU4yU68?si=DtF65pIp8ANU7bUE

Some liturgy from our mornings by the lakeside

Start in silent reflection:

Pastor: Before there was, there wasn’t.

Before there is, there was.

After there is, there will be.

May it be so.

Let us take a few moments to remember our place in all that was, is, and will be.

Lighting of the Candle

Pastor: Let us light the candle to remember in all of this there was, is, and will be God.

Call to worship:

Pastor: God bid us come to the lakeshore,

People: and we came.

Pastor: God calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves,

People: and we try.

Pastor: God inspires us to go out and do as Jesus did,

People: and we go

Pastor: bringing the love of God and the compassion of Jesus

People: where we can, when we can, and how we can. AMEN

Invocation:

God, you call us to be church in this world; not to go to church, but to be your church. We are here seeking to be just that: to refuel, to remember, to be revived. Send your Spirit upon us that we might be refilled to go out and share your love with the world that deeply needs it. AMEN

HYMN: Come Down to the Lakeshore –

The First Word

Let us hear this word offered by Abba Serinus:

They said of Abba Serinus that he used to work hard and always ate two small loaves. Abba Job, his companion and himself a great ascetic, went to see him and said, “I am careful about what I do in the cell, but when I come out I do as the brothers do.” Abba Serinus said to him, “there is no great virtue in keeping to your regime in your cell, but there is if you keep it when you come out of your cell.”

Here ends our reading. May God add to our understanding.

Silent Reflection

The Second Word: Acts 5: 1-10

Silent Reflection

Response – offering people an opportunity to reflect

Reflection – longer sharing from clergy or other worship leader

UNISON PRAYER- Inspired by the work of George MacLeod found in John Phillip Newell’s book Rebirthing God with the help of AI and editing.

Gathering God,
You join us together like the waters of this lake—
distinct, yet inseparable.

In a world that divides,
make us one in compassion,
one in hope,
one in the creation of justice.

Let us recognize our uniqueness

and also celebrate what we are when we come together.

In our interconnectedness,

let no one feel forgotten,
let every voice be heard,
And let each drop show its full wonder.

Let us together
be a glimpse of your kin-dom and our eternal home.
AMEN

PRAYER FOR THE PEOPLE

Pastor: Are there people that we should hold in our prayers today?

Pastor: May God be with each and offer them healing and hope as they have need. AMEN

UNISON PRAYER FOR THE OFFERING of GIFTS

Holy One, In a world where many are taught to hold tightly to what they have and seek to acquire more for fear of not enough, we have chosen to hear you and to open our hands and our heart. Receive these gifts as a sign of our love and commitment to you and your vision for this world. We trust in you. AMEN

Closing Litany – Lao-Tse

Pastor: If there is to be peace in the world,

People: There must be peace in the nations.

Pastor: If there is to be peace in the nations,

People: There must be peace in the cities,

Pastor: If there is to be peace in the cities,

People: There must be peace between neighbors.

Pastor: If there is to be peace between neighbors,

People: There must be peace in the home.

Pastor: If there is to be peace in the home,

People: There must be peace in the heart.

RESPONSIVE HYMN: Let there be Peace on Earth

Liturgy for ONA Sunday

Opening Centering Chant –

I am precious in God’s sight.

You are precious in God’s sight.

All are precious in God’s sight.

Call to Worship

Pastor: Within each of us lies a holy seed.

People: Let us tend it. Let us nurture it.

Pastor: Let us not fear it as it presses its way to the surface.

People: God wants each of us to grow and thrive.

Pastor: The world needs each of us to grow and thrive.

People: Let us be as God designed.

Invocation

Holy One, pour your spirit upon us. Shine within us. Weed out that which chokes life and feed what brings it. Let us grow toward you; ever seeking, ever reaching to be all that you have created us to be. May our time today encourage us to continue to grow. AMEN

Prayer of Transformation

Liberation God,

Help me to peel off the facades that I have built up.

Take off the masks that I have created to protect myself and be what others thought I could or should be.

Remind me of my divine origin and inspire us each to nurture the divine flame within and encourage us to feed that flame in others.

Free us from expectations and revisions that society places on us and work with us to shed the ideas of shouldn’t, can’t, or that is not for you. Clear out our ears so that we might hear you whispering, “Beloved, you got this. Keep going.” Let us listen closely to our heart and with your support, bravely and honestly show who you made us to be. AMEN

Assurance of Pardon

God is our originator, our creator,

In us is the divine fingerprint.

Let us always seek to reveal that wonder within being fully who God created us to be.

Prayer of Illumination

Holy Spirit flow into our heart.

Open our ears and let us hear this spoken word.

May each phrase set upon us and enlighten our understanding of God’s kin-dom and dream. AMEN

Invitation to share

As one body, we do care for one another. This is what God asks of us.

Thus, like the earliest Christians, we gather our gifts together to help all of humanity and the ways of God.

Let us respond to the wonders of God and all of God’s gifts by opening our hands and our hearts.

Prayer of Dedication

God, Receive these gifts as a symbol of our deeper commitment to work together for the coming of your kin-dom of heaven on earth. AMEN

A Blessing for Your Journey

For those times when goodbyes are necessary, it is important to mark the occasion so that the community can both celebrate and grieve.

You are each a blessing.
We have been richer for your presence.
We are thankful for the time you have shared in this gathered body.
A part of us weeps at your absence,
but a greater part of us celebrates with you as you take this next step in life.

As we send you off, we offer you this blessing:

Go with our love in your hearts.
Go knowing you have made an impact here.
Go knowing you will always be a part of us.
Go with our blessings—

May God bless you and keep you as you reestablish your roots.
May you build community and find a new church home.
May you create new memories and be filled with joy
as you grow into your new life.
And as you are blessed, may you share that blessing
with all whom you meet.

We send you with love.
We send you with hope.
We send you with our support, if ever you need it.
May God watch over you,
and may this be a wonderful new adventure.

Amen.

You go with our blessing—and our love goes with you.

Liturgies continue

Call to Worship (Based on Psalm 118 )

Pastor: Give thanks to the Lord, for God is good.

People: God’s steadfast love endures forever!

Pastor: Be in awe of the wonders of God.

People: God’s steadfast love endures forever!

Pastor: Take refuge in God, rather than worldly princes.

People: God’s steadfast love endures forever!

Pastor: The Lord is our strength and our might. God is our salvation.

People: God’s steadfast love endures forever!

Invocation

Loving and gracious God, you are more than we can imagine. Help us to see your wondrous and diverse ways. Open us to the many ways that you make yourself known. Teach us to be generous and hospitable. In you and through you we seek to find our sacred center so that we can better walk in the footprints that your son first set. Give us hearts of compassion and spirits of courage as we work to bring to fruition your vision of heaven on earth. AMEN

Pastoral Prayer

Holy and Gracious God,

Your compassion is extravagant.

When your son came to show us what your love looked like in action,

We saw him care for all no matter their position or circumstances.

We watched him let interruptions become purposeful interactions.

We noticed how he took time to learn people’s names

And gather close to him those others had pushed away or ignored.

We remember his words even to the thief crucified beside him,

“Today you will be with me in paradise.”

To him no difference was too vast, no border too impenetrable, no person was unworthy.

Let us today pray for the vision you cast through your son.

Let us pray for people who are without homes and are left sleeping on the streets.

Let us pray for the people who will go without their HIV protocols because of bureaucratic savings.

Let us pray for people we pass everyday that don’t know where or how they will pay the rent or get food to feed their families.

Let us pray for the growing lines at the food pantry.

Let us pray for those who walk thousands of miles to seek hope

And for those in Gaza being squeezed harder and harder into smaller and smaller spaces.

Let us pray for those who are detained and incarcerated without proper due process.

Let us pray for the battered areas in our world that fade from our news cycles.

Let us pray for those imprisoned,

Those in recovery,

Those seeking help for physical and emotional suffering.

Let us open our hearts and offer to God all of those who we know to need God’s balm and care today:

God in your compassion gather your chicks under your breast and give them a safe place to rest. Infuse your love in the form of justice into the wider world encouraging us all to step in and heal the hurting as we can, where we can, when we can.

We pray this in the name of your son, and our brother, who taught us so well and who shared with us this prayer which we say together now:

Followed by the Lord’s prayer

Blessing for a Baptismal Font

The church I am serving has only a small silver bowl as their baptismal font, which regularly gets locked up following a baptism not to be seen again until the next baptism. For me, baptismal fonts are meant to be in view at all times. They are meant not just to baptize people, but also to constantly remind us of that baptism.

I love the story that I was told in seminary of the reformer Martin Luther often walking around saying, “I am baptized. I am baptized. I am baptized.” as a way to find his grounding and remembering his courage which was not just in him but beyond him.

One of my mentors, Rev. Wendy Miller-Olapade, shared with me that each time she washes her hands, she is reminded of her baptism. She takes these simple and mundane times as sacred, and, long ago, she encouraged me to do the same.

Baptism is not an act for a single day, but an invitation into and an outward act symbolizing the beginning of living a faith filled life. Therefore, for this congregation, I have been on the hunt for baptismal font.

I finally found one that another congregation was re-homing as their congregation was dissolving. They sought new life for as much of their liturgical tools and furniture as possible. I had to arrange or transportation, but they were happy to find it a new home where it would be loved and used.

This week, we will bless it and welcome it into use in our congregation. Next Sunday, it will get to be used to welcome its first little one in our congregation into the life of Christ.

The challenge that I found was liturgy. I wanted to offer the font some official blessing into service, but I could not find much. So I offer you here what I created and think will work well in our context. I wanted the time of blessing to be significant, but not too long. I wanted to honor its past spiritual home just as we do with new members, and I wanted to include the kids in the blessing so it will be done during Chancel steps and they will join me in dotting it with some sacred oil.

Blessing of a Baptismal Font

Pastor: As we accept this baptismal font into our church as a tool to be used for one of our sacraments, let us take a moment to bless it:

For what is was,

For what it will be . . .

People: We welcome this font in our household of faith.

Pastor: For what it symbolizes,

For the hopes it contains,

People: We welcome this font into our household of faith.

Pastor: Holy God,

Pour down your Spirit upon this font.

May it hold your blessed waters.

May it feed your faithful people.

May it bless us with happy memories

and hold us fast to your hopes.

May it signify a continuation of the family of faith which extends far outside these walls in both space and time.

Each time we see it, may we feel the inner tug of all that has been promised in these waters, whether they were poured here or elsewhere or even if only in someone’s heart.

We honor the journey of this font as it found its way to us and give thanks for our sister church in South Acton, MA in the many ways she sought to lay seeds in the ground even as her own congregation was scattered with the wind and her singular congregation is no more.

We give thanks for their generous hearts that they gifted this font to our congregation that it might continue to serve You.

May this font bring many smiles and joyful moments to this church.

May it signify the tie that binds when in times of trouble.

We pray all of this in your name, O God. AMEN

Blessing with oil – We bless you and set you into service in the name of our creator, son, and holy spirit. AMEN

CALL TO WORSHIP (based on Psalm 104)

Pastor: Bless the Lord, O my soul.

People: The Lord is great, clothed with honor and majesty and wrapped in light as with a garment.

Pastor: The Lord has stretched the heavens like a tent across all the earth.

People: God has set the earth on its foundations.

Pastor: and created all that is within, and upon, and around this earth.

People: Every bird and every tree, every blade of grass, every mountain, every rock, every spring bursting forth with water, God has made all things.

Pastor: God made the moon and the sun. God set the seasons into motion.

People: God made the darkness and light.

Pastor: God made humanity

People: and blew air into our very lungs.

Pastor: God is the creator and the redeemer of all.

People: God is our beginning and our end.

ALL: Bless the Lord, O our souls.

Pastoral Prayer for Eco-Sunday

Eco-Sunday is a Sunday where our prime purpose is to celebrate creation and to commit to our care to it. This year we have guest speaker Rev. Jim Antal coming to speak. To prepare for his presence, we will be reading his book, Climate Church, Climate World.

Not only is our worship wound around this theme, but the Faith in Action Team of the church is hosting an Eco-vendor showcase where environmental action groups can come and share their information with us following worship.

For this service, I wrote the following Pastoral Prayer. If you choose to borrow it, you will want to find out what native nations lived (and live) on the land you inhabit. You will want to perhaps change the animal that is the “annoyance” like our black flies. As well, change out the NH granite, majestic mountains, and other NH centric notations like the loon’s cry.

You are welcome to use it for any religious or educational purposes, but please cite me as the author. All rights are reserved.

Pastoral Prayer

Creator, who continues to create,

Today we expand our thoughts and prayers beyond our traditional boundaries –

We pray for the people of this earth, especially the indigenous people of this land on which we stand today: the Abenaki and Pennecook

And also for the non-human inhabitants of this land.

We pray for the great loon whose cry haunts our lakes,

For the salamanders we sometimes find underfoot,

For the bold American Eagle we see fly overhead,

And for the trout and bass in the waters.

We pray for the water herself as she falls from the sky,

For the the water that gathers and flows down our hills,

For the streams and rivers and lakes

And all that find their home in them and from them.

We pray for the beautiful NH granite and the trees that grow so tall.

We pray for the majestical beautiful mountains that reach tall around us

And for the blessing of their many trails.

We give thanks for the frogs, and ducks,

And reluctantly even for the black flies.

In and amongst it all, we give thanks for you, O God, the creator of all that is was and ever will be; and thanks for a system which constantly seeks to right itself, and for those who have put their names, their reputations, and yes, sometimes their lives on the line to protect all that you have made. Continue to watch over the brave. Care for the weak and remind us all of our interconnectedness. We pray all of this in the name of your son, Jesus Christ who taught us to pray saying:

We follow this with the Lord’s Prayer.

Lenten Liturgy

Call to Worship (based on Psalm 37 )

Pastor: Trust in the Lord.

People: We take delight in the Lord.

Pastor: Commit your way to the Lord.

People: We listen for the word of the Lord.

Pastor. Be still before the Lord.

People: We wait patiently for the Lord

Pastor: Our steps are made firm by the Lord.

People: The Lord holds us and leads us.

Invocation

Holy One, In a world that sometimes doesn’t know which way is up, be our center. Enter into our days. Enter into our heart. Enter into our lives. Teach us your ways and guide us in your paths so that we may discern how to live in this unbalanced but beautiful world. AMEN