South Stormont Pastoral Charge

Today is the second Sunday of Easter. Last week, we proclaimed that Christ is risen. This week, we are invited to go deeper and reflect on what the resurrection means for us and for our lives. Today’s first scripture reading, Peter’s sermon in Acts 2, helps us see the resurrection more clearly. In Acts, Peter speaks in different ways to different people. The good news remains the same, but the words and images are not exactly the same, because the audience changes. Language, assumptions, and experience all shape how the message is heard. Here, Peter was speaking to a Jewish audience. They knew David. They knew the Psalms. They understood what it meant to wait for God. Because of this, Peter spoke of Jesus through the shared memory and hope of his people. Peter said, “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs.” Jesus was not hidden. His life was lived in public. People had seen the healings. They had heard the teaching. They had watched him ...

  # Gathering Hymn Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Give Thanks (#179 VU) Welcome & Land Acknowledgement Lighting the Christ Candle Call to Worship One: We come today as we are.    All: God welcomes all into the realm of love and acceptance. One: We come with questions, doubts, and fears.   All: Jesus, resurrected, meets us where we are and offers us peace and the assurance of his continued presence in our lives. One: Let us worship God, together sharing in the spirit of love and peace, gifted to us through Jesus, the resurrected Christ. *Stephanie Richmond. Gathering LE 2026 . Page 40. Opening Prayer *Opening Hymn Sing Your Joy (#253 VU) Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison) Merciful God, sometimes we believe that we live in a room with no window, no door, no light, and no love. Sometimes we act like the world has no sky, no way out, no light, and no hope. Turn our broken, tender, and vulnerable hearts to the window of your eternal compassion, the door leadin...

Today is Easter Sunday. This is the day we proclaim that Christ is risen. It is a day of joy and hope. But the Easter story in today's reading does not begin with celebration. It begins in the dark. Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb early on Sunday morning, before sunrise. The world around her is still dark. Her heart feels no different. She comes with grief and sorrow for the one she has loved. When Mary arrives, she finds the stone rolled away. She is shocked. Her first thought is not resurrection. She thinks someone has taken the body away. She runs to Peter and the other disciple and says, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” The two disciples run to the tomb. They look inside and see the burial cloths lying there, but they still do not understand what has happened. Then they go back home. But Mary stays. When Jesus died on the cross, she stayed near him. While other disciples ran away, she remained. Now again, she does not ...

# Profession of Our Faith (Unison)   God raised Jesus from death, turning sorrow into joy, despair into hope. We sing of Jesus raised from the dead. We sing hallelujah.   By becoming flesh in Jesus, God makes all things new. In Jesus’ life, teaching, and self-offering, God empowers us to live in love. In Jesus’ crucifixion, God bears the sin, grief, and suffering of the world. In Jesus’ resurrection, God overcomes death. Nothing separates us from the love of God.   The Risen Christ lives today, present to us and the source of our hope. In response to who Jesus was and to all he did and taught, to his life, death, and resurrection, and to his continuing presence with us through the Spirit, we celebrate him as the Word made flesh, the one in whom God and humanity are perfectly joined, the transformation of our lives, the Christ. *from A Song of Faith (A Faith Statement of the United Church of Canada) # Gathering Hymn Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Give Thanks (#179...