A SERVICE FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY
Christian
Praise the Lord
Litanies, Prayers, And Occasional Services
Object:
GREETING
The God who makes us one has called us from the separateness of our lives and worship to be united through the love of our Savior Jesus Christ.
In the unity of the triune God, Creator, Christ and Holy Spirit, let us offer our praise and thanksgiving.
HYMN
The Church's One Foundation
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Loving Savior, we come humbly before you, confessing the divisions that we have made in your church. We have let styles and attitudes of worship keep us apart. We have persecuted one another in your name. We have prevented ourselves from seeing you in each other and we have chosen instead to divide your body by highlighting the differences and discounting the similarities that make us all one.
Forgive us, we pray. Open our minds to the possibilities of oneness in you. Bring us together by your love and fill us with grace, that alone can break down the barriers that divide us.
A TIME OF SILENCE FOR PERSONAL CONFESSION
WORDS OF ASSURANCE
The open arms of Christ receive us, who, though many, are made one in him. Through the love of our Savior, we know the unity of spirit that makes us truly the body of Christ.
PASSING OF THE PEACE
Leader: The peace of Christ be with you.
People: And also with you.
(Signs of reconciliation and peace may be exchanged.)
OLD TESTAMENT READING
Isaiah 65:17-25
ACT OF PRAISE
Psalm 100
EPISTLE
1 Corinthians 12:12-31
AN AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
GOSPEL
John 15:1-11
SERMON
THANKSGIVING LITANY FOR THE CHURCHES
Leader: Let us give thanks for the gifts and graces of each member of the Christian family. For the Churches of the Anglican Communion: their reverent worship, their Catholic heritage and Protestant conscience, their ecumenical zeal and desire to be used as a house of reconciliation.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: For the Baptist, Evangelical and Pentecostal churches: their stress on regeneration, missionary zeal and the conscious relation of the mature soul to its God.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: For the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ): their emphasis on individual freedom and their dedication to the unity of the Church through a common commitment to Christ as God's complete disclosure.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: For the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches: their sense of the reality of Christ's continuing presence through their Divine Liturgies, and their fellowship in the Trinitarian mystery in faith, and in charitable service.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: For the Lutheran churches: their devotion to the grace of the Triune God received by faith in Christ and made known through the ministry of the Word and Sacrament, and their contributions through theology, worship, education, and music.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: For the churches in the Methodist tradition: their awakening the consciences of Christians to social responsibilities, and their emphasis upon the witness of experience and the fruits of the disciplined life.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: For the Presbyterian and Reformed churches: their reverence for the sovereignty of God, their faithfulness to God's covenant and their sense of moral law.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: For the Roman Catholic Church: its traditions, disciplines and worship, rich with religious passion of the centuries, and their noble company of believers.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: For all other Christian bodies: their proclamation of the Gospel of salvation through humble repentance; their preaching of the Word of God and the inspiration of their members of conscientious Christian living.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: Let us pray. O God, grant to all these families of your people that, as they come to sit down in your Kingdom, each may lay at your feet that special grace and excellence with which you in times past have endowed them, and that we, by sharing them, may glorify you in all the world.
All: Amen.
(Intercessions used at the National Workshop for Christian Unity, March 1994. Reprinted with permission from Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute.)
HYMN
BENEDICTION
Leader: Go in the love of God reaching out to one another through the love of Christ.
People: We will love as Christ loves us.
Leader: Go in the peace of God, upholding each other across the lines that divide us.
People: We will care as Christ cares for us.
Leader: Go in the grace of God, supporting one another, so that all might be strong.
People: We will hold each other up, and together raise the standard for Christ our King.
(Other hymns and music may be added.)
The God who makes us one has called us from the separateness of our lives and worship to be united through the love of our Savior Jesus Christ.
In the unity of the triune God, Creator, Christ and Holy Spirit, let us offer our praise and thanksgiving.
HYMN
The Church's One Foundation
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Loving Savior, we come humbly before you, confessing the divisions that we have made in your church. We have let styles and attitudes of worship keep us apart. We have persecuted one another in your name. We have prevented ourselves from seeing you in each other and we have chosen instead to divide your body by highlighting the differences and discounting the similarities that make us all one.
Forgive us, we pray. Open our minds to the possibilities of oneness in you. Bring us together by your love and fill us with grace, that alone can break down the barriers that divide us.
A TIME OF SILENCE FOR PERSONAL CONFESSION
WORDS OF ASSURANCE
The open arms of Christ receive us, who, though many, are made one in him. Through the love of our Savior, we know the unity of spirit that makes us truly the body of Christ.
PASSING OF THE PEACE
Leader: The peace of Christ be with you.
People: And also with you.
(Signs of reconciliation and peace may be exchanged.)
OLD TESTAMENT READING
Isaiah 65:17-25
ACT OF PRAISE
Psalm 100
EPISTLE
1 Corinthians 12:12-31
AN AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
GOSPEL
John 15:1-11
SERMON
THANKSGIVING LITANY FOR THE CHURCHES
Leader: Let us give thanks for the gifts and graces of each member of the Christian family. For the Churches of the Anglican Communion: their reverent worship, their Catholic heritage and Protestant conscience, their ecumenical zeal and desire to be used as a house of reconciliation.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: For the Baptist, Evangelical and Pentecostal churches: their stress on regeneration, missionary zeal and the conscious relation of the mature soul to its God.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: For the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ): their emphasis on individual freedom and their dedication to the unity of the Church through a common commitment to Christ as God's complete disclosure.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: For the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches: their sense of the reality of Christ's continuing presence through their Divine Liturgies, and their fellowship in the Trinitarian mystery in faith, and in charitable service.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: For the Lutheran churches: their devotion to the grace of the Triune God received by faith in Christ and made known through the ministry of the Word and Sacrament, and their contributions through theology, worship, education, and music.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: For the churches in the Methodist tradition: their awakening the consciences of Christians to social responsibilities, and their emphasis upon the witness of experience and the fruits of the disciplined life.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: For the Presbyterian and Reformed churches: their reverence for the sovereignty of God, their faithfulness to God's covenant and their sense of moral law.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: For the Roman Catholic Church: its traditions, disciplines and worship, rich with religious passion of the centuries, and their noble company of believers.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: For all other Christian bodies: their proclamation of the Gospel of salvation through humble repentance; their preaching of the Word of God and the inspiration of their members of conscientious Christian living.
All: We thank you, O God, and bless your holy name.
Leader: Let us pray. O God, grant to all these families of your people that, as they come to sit down in your Kingdom, each may lay at your feet that special grace and excellence with which you in times past have endowed them, and that we, by sharing them, may glorify you in all the world.
All: Amen.
(Intercessions used at the National Workshop for Christian Unity, March 1994. Reprinted with permission from Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute.)
HYMN
BENEDICTION
Leader: Go in the love of God reaching out to one another through the love of Christ.
People: We will love as Christ loves us.
Leader: Go in the peace of God, upholding each other across the lines that divide us.
People: We will care as Christ cares for us.
Leader: Go in the grace of God, supporting one another, so that all might be strong.
People: We will hold each other up, and together raise the standard for Christ our King.
(Other hymns and music may be added.)
