Gathering Hymn

Come, come whoever you are,

Wanderer, worshipper, 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.

Welcome

                                                              Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur                                                    

Prelude (9:00)

Choral Prelude (11:00)

Hymn to Freedom                                                   Oscar Peterson

Lift Every Voice and Sing                                                   Johnson                                

Chalice Lighting

Opening Hymn

We’re Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table

Covenant

Love is the doctrine of this church.     

The quest of 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, good will on earth be sung

Through every land, by every tongue.           ~ based on Isaac Watts

Offering for the Westside Food Bank

Time for All Ages

Song of Blessing [1011]

Return again, return again, return to the home of your soul.

Return to who you are, return to what you are,

Return to where you are born and reborn again.

A Time for Community

Offertory                         

Come Sunday                                                          Duke Ellington

Everybody Rejoice (from “The Wiz”)                   Charlie Smalls

Devotional Time

  Pastoral Prayer

  Silence

  Hymn #1009

Meditation on Breathing

Reading

Love After Love                                                       Derek Walcott

Music for the Morning

I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart                         Duke Ellington

Teri Bond & Joe Engleman

Sermon

"Living the Questions, Loving the Questions”                           

                                                              Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur                                                    

Closing Hymn #1064

Blue Boat Home

Benediction

Postlude                          (9:00)

                                       (11:00)

If I Had You                                                              arr. Art Tatum

What A Wonderful World       Thiele/Weiss, arr. Glenn Carlos

Extinguishing the Chalice

Gathering Hymn

Come, come whoever you are,

Wanderer, worshipper, 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

                                                              Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur                                                    

Prelude (9:00)

Choral Prelude (11:00)

Saviour, Like a Shepherd Lead Us                     arr. Mark Hayes                                            

Truth Be In My Head                                                      Nicholson                                                                    

Chalice Lighting

 The Weber-Pelayo-Fouts family (9:00)

Edna Bonacich (11:00)

Opening Hymn #113

Where Is Our Holy Church?

Covenant

Love is the doctrine of this church.     

The quest of 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, good will on earth be sung

Through every land, by every tongue.           ~ based on Isaac Watts

Offering for the Westside Food Bank

Time for All Ages

Song of Blessing [1011]

Return again, return again, return to the home of your soul.

Return to who you are, return to what you are,

Return to where you are born and reborn again.

A Time for Community

Offertory                         (9:00)                                                                

                                       (11:00)             

Time Remembered                                                          Bill Evans

Elijah Rock                                                                          Hairston

Devotional Time

  Pastoral Prayer

  Silence

  Hymn #123

Spirit of Life

Reading

from The Tao Te Ching: A New English Version                                         

                                                                                Stephen Mitchell

Music for the Morning  

It Aint' Necessarily So (from Porgy and Bess)             Gershwin                                               

Babatunde Akinboboye, baritone soloist

Sermon

"The Quest of Truth Is Our Sacrament"                           

                                                              Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur                                                     

Closing Song [1007]

There’s A River Flowin’ In My Soul

Benediction

Postlude                          (9:00)

                                       (11:00)

Be Thou My Vision                                                traditional Irish

Eternal Light, Shine In My Heart                                       Englert

Extinguishing the Chalice

Gathering Hymn

'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free,

'Tis a gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,

To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed.

To turn, turn, will be our delight,

'Till by turning, turning, we come 'round right.

Welcome

                                                              Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur                                                    

Prelude (9:00)

Choral Prelude (11:00)

Beautiful Love                                                             Victor Young  

Truth Be In My Head                                                      Nicholson                                                                    

Chalice Lighting

Opening Hymn #131

Love Will Guide Us

Covenant

Love is the doctrine of this church.     

The quest of 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, good will on earth be sung

Through every land, by every tongue.           ~ based on Isaac Watts

Offering for the Westside Food Bank

Time for All Ages

Song of Blessing

This Little Light of Mine

A Time for Community

Offertory                  (9:00)                                                                

                                 (11:00)             

Magnificat in G major                                         Alexandre Guilmant                                                            

"Love" from Four Sacred Songs                                                 DiOrio

Devotional Time

  Pastoral Prayer

  Sung Meditation

Silence

Come and find the quiet center in the crowded life we lead,

Find the room for hope to enter, find the frame where we are freed:

Clear the chaos and the clutter, clear our eyes that we can see

All the things that really matter, be at peace, and simply be.

Silence is a friend who claims us, cools the heat and slows the pace,

God it is who speaks and names us, knows our being, touches base,

Making space within our thinking, lifting shades to show the sun,

Raising courage when we’re shrinking, finding scope for faith begun.

                    ~  lyrics by Shirley Murray, music attributed to B.F. White

Reading

Blessed Are Those 

             Rev. John Buehrens,  former President of the Unitarian

             Universalist Association                    

Music for the Morning

The Prayer                                                                                      Foster

VanNessa Hulme, soprano and Gabriel Paredes, tenor

Sermon

"Love Will Guide Us"                               Rev. Rebecca Benefiel Bijur                                                     

Closing Song

Come and Go With Me

Benediction

Postlude (9:00)

Choral Postlude (11:00)

Teardrop                                                                        Brian Hargrove

Greater Love Hath No One                                                        Ireland

Extinguishing the Chalice

Gathering Hymn

Gathered here in the mystery of the hour,

Gathered here in one strong body,

Gathered here in the struggle and the power,

Spirit, draw near.

Welcome                                      

Prelude

Chalice Lighting

Rima Snyder

 Opening Song

Round and Round

Round and round the earth is turning

Turning always round to darkness,

And from darkness round to light.

Covenant

Love is the doctrine of this church.     

The quest of 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, good will on earth be sung

Through every land, by every tongue.     

~ based on Isaac Watts

Offering for the Westside Food Bank

Story for All Ages 

"Persephone and the Pomegranate"                      Kris Waldherr

A Time for Community

Offertory

Silence and Meditation

Reading

"Making Peace with the Darkness" 

adapted from a sermon by Rev. Fred Hammond given 

at the UU congregation of Tuscaloosa December 13, 2009

Hymn #55

Dark of Winter

Writing of Intentions

Closing Chants

Kore Evohe

Light is Returning

Light is returning, even though this is the darkest hour

No one can hold back the dawn.

Let's keep it burning, let's keep the light of hope alive,

Make safe our journey through the storm.

One planet is turning, circling in her path around the sun

Earth mother is calling her children home.

Extinguishing the Chalice