Order of Service - September 28, 2014 "Welcoming the Stranger"
Date of Service:
September 28, 2014
September 28, 2014
Gathering Hymn Come, come, whoever you are, wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving.
Ours is no caravan of despair. Come, yet again come.
Ven, ven, cual eres, ven, nómada_en búsqueda, si_amas la vida.
La nuestra_es la caravana de_amor. Ven, otra vez ven.
Call to Worship
Chalice Lighting Bani Adam Saadi
Jila Tayefehnowrooz & Parsa Arjomandinezhad
Prelude Welcome, Welcome! Clif Hardin
Opening Hymn #1008 When Our Heart Is in a Holy Place
Covenant Love is the doctrine of this church.
The quest for truth is its sacrament, and service is its prayer.
To dwell together in peace, to seek knowledge in freedom,
To serve humankind in fellowship, thus do we covenant with each other.
Hymn of Praise From all that dwell below the skies
Let songs of hope and faith arise
Let peace, goodwill on earth be sung
Through every land, by every tongue.
Offering for the Westside Food Bank and Turning Point
Story for All Ages The Name Jar Yangsook Choi
Song of Blessing As you leave this friendly place, love give light to every face;
May the kindness which you learn light your hearts till you return.
Life Together
Offering Loving You (9am) Daniel Gledhill
Ubi Caritas (11am) Dominic Fox
Reading This is the mission of our faith:
To teach the fragile art of hospitality;
To revere both the critical mind and the generous heart;
To prove that diversity need not mean divisiveness;
And to witness to all that we must hold the whole world in our hands.
William F. Schultz
Devotional Time
Sung Response #1031 Filled With Loving Kindness
Sermon Welcoming the Stranger Nica Eaton-Guinn
Music for the Morning There’s Got to Be a Way Mariah Carey & Ric Wake
Jyvonne Haskin, mezzo soprano
Closing Hymn #1053 How Could Anyone
Benediction
Musical Response Theme from Somewhere in Time (9am) John Barry
Love is... (11am) Marjorie Herman
❦ ❦ ❦ ❦
How do you feel about difference? How might you welcome the stranger?
We invite you to discuss this and the reading below with someone during coffee hour
or during the patio chat after the 9 am service.
What if we were to be together and listen to each other's comments with a willingness to expose rather
than to confirm our own beliefs and opinions? What if we were to willingly listen to one another with the
awareness that we each see the world in unique ways? And with the expectation that I could learn
something new if I listen for the differences rather than the similarities? We have this opportunity many
times in a day, every day. What might we see, what might we learn, what might we create together, if we
become this kind of listener, one who enjoys the differences and welcomes in disturbance? I know we
would be delightfully startled by how much difference there is. And then we would be wonderfully
comforted by how much closer we became, because every time we listen well, we move towards each
other. From our new thoughts and our new companions, we would all become wiser.
(Margaret Wheatley, mid-20th century)
Service Notes
Service participants: Nancy Babbitt, Steve DePaul, Tom Foretich, Glen Howell, Diane Macunovich, Dan
Patterson, Kit Shaw, Sue Stoyanoff, Alicia Van Ooyen, Michael Young, Steve Young, Sylvia Young
Our Community Offering this month will go to the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN).
CARECEN is a community organization which provides legal assistance, advocacy and organizational
skills, and educational programs for Central Americans and the larger community in Los Angeles. Its
work on behalf of the children refugees includes legal representation, counseling in coordination with
mental health services to help them cope with the violence many of them have experienced in their home
countries and during their migration, and advocacy, including lobbying members of congress to inform
them of the situation and to urge them to keep in place existing protections for unaccompanied children migrants.