Christ the King Dietrich Bonhoeffer Lutheran Church in Thornhill invites you to listen to their German and English services through live webstreaming.  For more details, http://www.lutheran-church-thornhill.org/services.html .

Herzliche Einladung zum Gottesdienst!

Pastor Sara Faulhafer offers Epiphany web resources to aid with worship planning. Thanks Sara!

Epiphany through Transfiguration_ Worship Web Resources

Consider how your congregation walks with the indigenous peoples in our land — preaching? prayers? offering? advocacy?  I wrote the song “In this moon of wintertime” out of the juxtaposition of the news of Attawapiskat and rehearsing the carol “Twas in the moon of wintertime.”  In this song, the singing of “Gloria” is not only an affirmation of the way of Love, it is a practice that imagines the fullness of God’s time where healing and wholeness have already occurred.  This song became part of our Inshallah Christmas Carol sing.  I offer it to you as a way to stir us all to pray and to live more consciously in a healthy relationship with indigenous peoples of this land.

In this moon of wintertime

In this moon of wintertime when chaos reigns supreme,

Economies and policies suppressing holy dreams

Of peace on earth, good will to all,

O God of promise, hear our call:

“Gloria”  (2x)

The peoples of this land called home are hurting in the North

For food and shelter, let alone the chance to bring forth

Their ways of making peace on earth,

With them we wait for Jesus’ birth:

“Gloria” (2x)

For Jesus’ birth in flesh and blood brings hope and joy and peace.

We long to bring the wholeness that this birth, in fact, completes.

O God of now-and-not-yet time,

Stir us to act and be a sign of

“Gloria” (4x)

Go to www.kairoscanada.org for information on political action and emergency relief for Indigenous peoples in Canada.

debbie lou ludolph, December 13, 2011

Pastor Sara Faulhafer writes, “Words often fail us whether we are trying to imagine God, struggling with the big questions of pain and suffering, or seeking words to express gratitude. Photographer Dave Perry invites us to reflect theologically with his original images and brief meditations. Surprising and stimulating, his pictures evoke a myriad of questions and emotions.”  Check it out:  visual theology blog .

From the worship desk of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:

“IN THESE OR SIMILAR WORDS”

As you may recall, the mandate of the Renewing Worship project was not only about producing a book or electronic resources for worship, although that was a significant and tangible part of it. The primary call was for ongoing renewal of worship in our church. The task is not over. In fact, in many ways, it is just beginning.

The rubrics in Evangelical Lutheran Worship are very fluid, allowing and encouraging a great amount of flexibility and freedom within a shared, historic framework, for a particular context. Phrases like “in these or similar words” and “another appropriate hymn or canticle” appear quite regularly. But what makes an alternate text “similar” or what makes a substitute canticle “appropriate”? Simply replacing texts or songs that appear within the services in ELW with anything different is not the intent. Rather, it is hoped that worship planners and leaders, if they are enacting these fluid rubrics, will make decisions and create texts with great care for theological content and liturgical use. That is not easy. In fact it is a big challenge!

If you have liturgical texts and prayers that are carefully-crafted examples of enacting the “in these or similar words” rubrics, we would love to see them. They may prove helpful in creating resources for worship planners. Please send any texts or other ideas and comments to worship@elca.org.

In the midst of meetings in Durban, Mardi Tindal, Moderator of The United Church of Canada,  has written this prayer for climate justice to be used in congregational worship.

Living and loving Christ,
You gave of yourself so that life might prevail.
We are grateful that your mind and heart lie
deep within the Earth.
And that you know the whole Earth to be holy,
all creatures to be kin.
We hear Earth’s cries, voice and song.
As we listen and see, awaken us.
Come among us, as you came among your frightened disciples.
Bless us, so that our unexamined thoughts and assumptions
are challenged and move us all to work for climate justice
in the way of your love.
Bless governmental leaders everywhere,
and put courage in their hearts to do the right things.
Inspire us all with a sense of our responsibilities,
leading us ever more boldly into what and who we are,
who you and Earth truly are.
All my relations. Amen.

You can find a video recording here:
http://www.united-church.ca/communications/news/moderator/111201

A prayer petition for First Nations, especially people of Attawapiskat

Call the peoples of Canada into a living relationship with one another, O God

– a  relationship marked by an earnest desire to repent for and forgive past wrongs;

a covenant relationship that will prepare in the desert of prejudice and resentment

a righteous highway of mutuality, trust, respect, and goodwill.

Give us the will and the grace to make the rough places plain

as we journey together in solving the many problems that trouble our First Nations.

We remember especially today the suffering of the people of Attawapiskat.

Hear us, O God.

[C]    Your mercy is great.

Prayer petition crafted by Pastor James F. Brown, Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, Waterloo.

F. Richard Garland has written Gather Your People To Comfort And Love as an Advent hymn text closely related to the lectionary readings for Year B and set to the  familiar  Irish tune  SHANE (Be Thou my Vision).  http://bit.ly/rnqMe0

F. Richard Garland’s photo, biography, contact information and links to additional songs and choral music are available on the Global Board of Discipleship (United Methodists) website.   F. Richard Garland