Unitarian Sunday Reflections

(Hull and Lincoln Unitarians)

Sunday 16 October 2022

Lincoln Service ~ 11 am

Hull Service ~ 4 pm

Join Zoom Meeting

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Passcode: 130597

Theme

“Praying for Peace”

Unitarian Day for Prayers for Peace

A service filled with options

We continue to Pray for the Ukraine, Yemen, and all places of war and destruction and all people, creatures and the environment effected by these wars.

May Peace come

“No more war, please”

PRELUDE

WORDS OF WELCOME

Welcome to each and to all:

seekers, journeyers, questing, and content.

May our time of reflection and worship,

fill our desire for wholeness and belonging.

In this time together we are made worthy…..

OPENING QUOTES

“The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, But It Bends Toward Justice”  

~ Rev Theodore Parker

“I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.”

~ Helen Keller

“I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.”

~ Albert Einstein

“Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.”

~ Thomas Merton

“It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.”

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

“You can find peace amidst the storms that threaten you.”

~ Joseph B. Wirthlin

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi

CHALICE LIGHTING

Words from the Passover Haggadah

May the light we now kindle Inspire us to use our powers

To heal and not to harm,

to help and not to hinder,

To bless and not to curse,

to serve you, Spirit of Peace and Compassion.

Light the chalice

A PRAYER

A Prayer for Lovers in a Dangerous Time by Rev John Carter

Yet another week of political intrigue.

Winners demanding respect, honour and our acquiescence to the idol of false democracy.

We have watched politicians act the buffoon in order to get what they want. Midnight tweet storms of petulance and demagoguery.

We have despaired as they would rather keep their cushy employment than to risk standing for decency and justice, to speak out against majority bias.

we live in a dangerous time

these men and women have at the finger tips the ability to destroy, literal destruction,

          they already do so with their words, attitudes and pontifications.

and we wonder if they cannot control their tongue, what is to stop them from pressing the button?

does the moral universe truly bend toward justice?

(silence)

I cannot and will not deny my fears

I cannot and will not deny the humanity of my opposite

I cannot and will not deny the need to speak out, to protest, to act in some way.

Life is too important to risk passive silence,

Life is too important to risk.

So to begin today, at this moment is to take time and pray….

Let me be an instrument of your justice…

          not to condemn and imprison

          but to communicate and release

Help me to see the long view

          beyond my narrow concerns

          beyond the span of my years….

So that I may be an instrument of your justice.

          to welcome and care

          to feed and clothe

          to walk alongside those who need my presence.

to give hand, heart and mind to the shape of justice, of peace, of compassion

for all creation.

so say we all,

amen.

HYMN

HFL 191 (CD 1/ TK15)

“To Worship Rightly”

words by John Greenleaf Whittier

Now let us sing in loving celebration:

The holier worship, which our God may bless,

Restores the lost, binds up the spirit broken,

And feeds the widowed and the parentless.

Fold to thy heart thy sister and thy brother;

Where pity dwells, the peace of God is there;

To worship rightly is to love each other;

Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer.

Follow with reverent steps the great example

Of those whose holy work was doing good:

So shall the wide earth seem our daily temple,

Each loving life a psalm of gratitude.

Then shall all shackles fall; the stormy clangour

Of wild war-music o’er the earth shall cease;

Love shall tread out the baleful fire the anger,

And in its ashes plant the tree of peace.

READINGS

Isaiah 11:6-9

The wolf shall live with the lamb,

   the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

the calf and the lion and the fatling together,

   and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze,

   their young shall lie down together;

   and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,

   and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.

They will not hurt or destroy

   on all my holy mountain;

for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord

   as the waters cover the sea.

“Beyond A Dying Sun”

by Steve Engle

Beyond a dying sun I saw a vision on the sea

of golden sails full billowed on the wind.

And echoing above the waves a voice called after me,

“God’s dwelling place is with you till the end.”

For God at last shall wipe away the tears from ev’ry eye

The sting of death shall pierce the heart no more.

When grieving turns to laughter all the pain from us shall fly,

and former ways lie bleached upon the shore.

Though hatred rages on the wind and wars defile the land,

I see those golden sails still coming strong,

for through the eyes of faith still shines the vision of the Lamb,

and o’er a weary earth there rings this song.

I see a new world coming when everyone is free!

And all shall be God’s people in justice, love and peace.

Vision of Peace (Unitarian Voice)

“The vision of God as the One Spirit who dwells at the heart of all carries with it the ideal,

for ourselves and for humanity (for the race),

of an increasing oneness with the Spirit,

an increasing width and depth of being,

an increasing enlargement of mind and heart,

an increasing greatness and generosity of soul –

that so we may rise out of our littleness,

out of our vanity,

out of greeds and discords that mar our life,

into a true and abiding freedom and peace.”

~ Sidney Spencer

HYMN

HFL 189 (CD3 / TK14)

“True Religion”

words by The Dalai Lama, recast by John Andrew Storey

Religion needs to permeate

The common life of every day;

Each to the other must relate

To build the world for which we pray.

Our forms and customs will not meet

The spirit’s needs we deeply feel,

Unless our hearts with quickened beat

Match outward show with inner zeal.

When thoughts are pure, and words are kind,

Compassionate our every deed,

With selfishness put from the mind

Our lives become a worthy creed.

READINGS

“You are salt for the earth”

by Marty Haugen

Bring forth the reign of mercy,

Bring forth the reign of peace;

Bring forth the reign of justice,

Bring forth the City of God!

You are salt for the earth, O people:

Salt for the Kingdom of God!

Share the flavour of life, O people:

Life in the Kingdom of God!

Bring forth the reign of mercy,

Bring forth the reign of peace;

Bring forth the reign of justice,

Bring forth the City of God!

You are a light on the hill, O people:

Light for the City of God!

Shine so holy and bright, O people:

Shine for the Kingdom of God!

Bring forth the reign of mercy,

Bring forth the reign of peace;

Bring forth the reign of justice,

Bring forth the City of God!

You are a seed of the Word, O people:

Bring forth the City of God!

Seeds of mercy and seeds of justice,

Grow in the Kingdom of God!

Bring forth the reign of mercy,

Bring forth the reign of peace;

Bring forth the reign of justice,

Bring forth the City of God!

We are a blest and a pilgrim people:

Bound for the Kingdom of God!

Love our journey and love our homeland:

Love is the Kingdom of God!

Bring forth the reign of mercy,

Bring forth the reign of peace;

Bring forth the reign of justice,

Bring forth the City of God!

Unconditional Love,

Source Unknown, from the book Timeless Prayers for Peace.

“One time a beggar woman with cancer of the face tried to kiss Dorothy Day’s hand.

Dorothy commented:

‘The only thing I could do was kiss her dirty old face with the gaping hole in it where any eye and nose had been. It sounds like a heroic deed but it was not. What we avert our eyes from today can be borne tomorrow when we have learned a little more about love.’

‘Without unconditional love there can be no peace in the heart, and without peace in the heart, there can be no peace in the world.”

Gift of Dreaming, by Zam Walker

Grant us the gift of dreaming:

The dream of a world enjoying its extraordinary colour and beauty –

          not viewingg life through tunnel-visioned, grey tinted spectacles.

The dream of breadth and variety in glorious harmony –

          not definition through division, prejudice and ignorance.

The dream of acceptance and inclusion –

          not judgement and exclusion.

The dream of love, compassion and humour –

          not of our idolatry and self-righteousness.

The dream of ‘we might’ –

          not ‘we cannot’.

Grant us the vision and imagination to dream

enable, empower and inspire us to make our dream a reality.

“Spirit of my every breath”

by Joan Norton

Spirit of my every breath
Help me to recognise the good from the bad – the beautiful from the not so beautiful. Help me to accept other people, even though I may not fully understand.
Give me the grace to accept when I’m wrong, and not to gloat when I’m right.
Give me the time for those close to me, who need my time.
Help me to be a friend to those who need friendship.
Help me to try to understand this world with all its problems – the wars I cannot stop

and the injustices I cannot heal.
Help me to be a caring person in all I try to do. Spirit of my conscience, be my friend.

“The Flower that Springs from the Ruins of War”

by John Hands

The flower that springs from the ruins of war is an inspiration

the moss that thrusts through cracks in the wall is courage made manifest

the rock that lies in the bed of the stream is patience incarnate

the tree that waves above the desolate landscape is fortitude in flower

Listen to the wind, observe the flowers, pay attention to the rushing of waters. In observation is joy, in attention is growth, in listening is peace.

Power without harm is given to him who harbours no designs on the myriad creatures.

“For We Are Strangers No More”

by Kenneth L Morse

         refrain

          For we are strangers no more, but members of one family;

          strangers no more, but part of one humanity;

          strangers no more, we’re neighbours to each other now;

          strangers no more, we’re sisters and we’re brothers now.

1)

Come, walk with me, we’ll praise the lord together,

As we join song to song and prayer to prayer.

Come, take my hand, and we will work together

by lifting all the burdens we can share….

          For we are….

2)

Where diff-‘ring cultures meet we’ll serve together.

Where hatred rages we will strive for peace.

Come, take my hand, and we will pray together

that justice come and strife and warfare cease..

          For we are….

3)

There is a love that binds the world together;

a love that seeks the last, the lost, the least.

One day that love will bring us all together

in Christ from South and North, from West and East.

          For we are….

HYMN

HFL 94 (CD ACH / TK 12)

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day”

words by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old familiar carols play,

          And wild and sweet

          The words repeat,

“Goodwill to all, and peace on earth!”

I thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

          Had rolled along

          The unbroken song,

“Goodwill to all, and peace on earth!”

Till, ringing, singing on its way,

The world revolved from night to day,

          A voice, a chime,

          A chant sublime:

“Goodwill to all, and peace on earth!”

And in despair I bowed my head:

“There is no peace on earth,” I said.

          “For hate is strong

          And mocks the song:

Goodwill to all, and peace on earth!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

“God is not dead, and doth not sleep!

          The wrong shall fail,

          The right prevail —

Goodwill to all, and peace on earth!”

CONVERSATION

PRAYER

by A Powell Davies

“O Thou to whom we pray for shelter, peace, and life, and there is none, teach us how to pray a braver prayer.

All about us are the miseries of humanities injustice and oppression: when shall we be one with the destitute, the dispossessed, opening our hearts to the downcast and the weary? These are our brothers and our sisters, flesh of our flesh, bearing Thine image and breathing Thy breath within them. These are our compatriots, pilgrims journeying with us in hope and yearning.

O God, when we pray for a better world, joyous and peaceful, with all its banners bright, help us to see that we ourselves must bring this world to pass, and take us to where our work is waiting for us.

How long must it be, O God — for our years grow shorter — before we are ready for our duty?

Save us, O God, from prayers that are too fluent and from softly spoken insincerities. Help us to beware of language which in its soothing beauty hides the truth, and especially the truth about ourselves. When the tranquillising word is spoken, give us to search out its inner meaning,  lest we still the voice of conscience, thinking thus to quieten our unrest. Remind us how brittle is the shelter that we build about ourselves with comfortable phrases: show us how vain, at last, are all our self-deceiving words. Give us to know that the path to peace is guarded by the flaming sword of truth, and that is guide is righteousness. And let us not forget that all pretence is unavailing when we talk with Thee.”

HYMN

HFL 226 ( CD 3 / TK 19)

“Song of Peace”

words of Lloyd Stone

This is my song, O God of all the nations,

A song of peace for lands afar and mine;

This is my home, the country where my heart is,

Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;

But other hearts in other lands are beating

With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,

And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine;

But other lands have sunlight, too, and clover,

And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.

O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,

A song of peace for their land and for mine.

BLESSING

words by Rev John Carter

A light has been kindled within us

we have been called to help, to heal and to bless.

As we go forth into our activities of daily life and living

may we do so, serving the spirit of Peace and Compassion

in all that we do.

Go in Peace.