SERVICES

SAMPLE ORDER OF SERVICE

Children are in the service for the first 10 minutes, going down to their classes when we sing “Go Now In Peace.”  OWL class meets at 10:00 downstairs.

 MUSIC FOR GATHERING                      Maggie Sauls,  piano
             Musette  (Suzuki arrangement)

            In unison: “Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.
            Blessed is the flame that burns in the heart’s secret places.
            Blessed is the heart with strength to stop its beating for honor’s sake.
            Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.”  (Hannah Senesh)
           
OPENING WORDS                                Wilma Clark, Worship Associate
            from Deuteronomy 30:19

TIME FOR ALL AGES                          Rev. Wendy Jerome
            (we will sing the children out to their classes with Go Now in Peace)
            “Go now in peace.  Go now in peace.  May the love of God surround you everywhere, everywhere you may go.”

WELCOME and ANNOUNCEMENTS    Emily Moore, Board Member

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT                  Bobbie Kuchta, Harvest Auction
                                     
* SINGING       O Hear, My People         #219

* COMMUNITY REFLECTION               

Community Reflection
Read responsively: "We take pride in freeing ourselves, in trying to understand what is within us, in trying to create our own lives.  And so for us, the strongest source of that awe and that clarity is to be found within ourselves.

It can be grasped in our part of existence, in our being conscious, in our being able to say, “I am.”

The starting place is within.  While there is yet time, before the last Shofar blast on Yom Kippur, before the Book of Life is sealed, we have the means to change our destinies for the year.

Self-reflection, self-evaluation, and self-correction have the power to change the character of our lives.   If I can say, “I am,” I can say, “I am to be.”

That which does not change, sours like a standing pool.

That which does not change, becomes its past, without a future.

Those who change without reflecting are like a ship anchored on rocks

Those who change without evaluating are like a leaf blown off by the wind.

Those who change without choosing are servants to the whim of time.

(These words and those for reflection later in this service are drawn from a Humanistic Yom Kippur service written by Harvey Sessler of the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, Westport, Connecticut)
           
* SINGING       Who Can Say I Am Free?           #218

JOYS & CONCERNS    
            In unison: “Love is the spirit of this church and service its law.
            This is our great covenant:  To dwell together in peace,
            To seek the truth in love,  And to help one another.”     
            (James Vila Blake)        

GIVING  With gratitude for the abundance in our lives, we give to the life of this congregation. 
MUSIC FOR GIVING                 UUC Choir, directed by Bobbie Kuchta  

Bashana Haba’ah lyrics by Ehud Manor, music by Nurit Hirsch  
            cello-Laura Jensen, clarinet-Lauren Schreiner, piano-Bergine Haakenson (English paraphrase:  “Next year, when peace will come,
            we shall return to the simple pleasures of life so long denied us. 
            You will see, you will see, oh how good it will be, next year.”)
 
READINGS                                          Rose Kilmurray & Alan Jackson 
            from Mishneh Yomah 8:9
            from Maimonides’s Mishhan Torah, Hilkhot Tesuvah 7:4                                                                                       
                                                           
SERMON                                              Rev. Wendy Jerome
            The New Year with Hearts Ready for Living 

WORDS FOR REFLECTION
I hereby forgive whoever has hurt me, whoever has done me any wrong,
Whether deliberately or by accident, whether by word or deed.
May no one be punished on my account, as I forgive and pardon fully those who have done me wrong.

I shall seek out those whom I have harmed and ask them to forgive and pardon me,
Whether I acted deliberately or by accident, whether by word or deed.

May I not willfully repeat the wrongs I have committed.
May justice rule the world, giving joy to the land, happiness to the city
And renewed strength and light to people.
                       
* SINGING  O Come, You Longing, Thirsty Souls            #209

EXTINGUISHING THE CHALICE            Klages Family  
            In unison:  “We extinguish this chalice but not the light of truth, the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment. These we carry in our hearts until we are together again.” (Elizabeth Selle Jones)