South Stormont Pastoral Charge

To pray is to hope. Through prayer, we give thanks, confess our mistakes and failures, and ask for what we need. Even when we feel as though we are standing at the edge of a cliff, we continue to pray. Not because we are free from despair or fear, but because we refuse to surrender to them. Prayer gives us the courage to take one more step toward hope. The Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) described despair as “the sickness unto death.” For him, death was not about the body but about the spirit. A person who has lost all hope and given up completely is no longer truly alive. Despair, he said, destroys relationships. It breaks the bond between us and God, between us and our neighbours, and between us and the world. It eventually causes us to lose our true selves. That is why Kierkegaard believed prayer to be an act of courage. He once prayed, “God, give me once more the courage to hope. Fertilize my barren mind. Let me hope again.” Some Christians question ...

  *Gathering Hymn God, Reveal Your Presence (#391 VU) Welcome & Land Acknowledgement Lighting the Christ Candle Call to Worship One: May the God of grace be welcome in our midst.   All: May we receive the power and peace of Divine Love. One: Come let us worship with our hearts, minds, and bodies.   All: Let us become a people seeking justice and compassion. One: Blessed be God who challenges, heals, and unites us. All: Blessed be our learning in this place, and blessed be our vision of possibilities. One: Blessed be God who inspires all things to be new. *Éric Hébert-Daly, Gathering Pentecost 1 2025 . Page 40. Opening Prayer *Opening Hymn Let Us with a Gladsome Mind (#234 VU|vs.1-4) Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison) Loving God, you teach us how to pray, yet we often forget what it truly means. You ask us to seek you, but sometimes we chase after things that do not satisfy us. You give us the bread we need, but we want more than enough. You encoura...

Today’s Gospel reading tells a well-known story about two sisters, Martha and Mary. This story is often understood as drawing a sharp line between those who serve and those who listen, with the suggestion that the listener holds a higher place. But if we look more closely, we see that this story is not really about choosing one way over the other. It does not say that working hard is wrong or that listening is always better. Rather, it helps us understand the importance of recognizing what matters in each moment and focusing on one thing at a time. When Jesus came to their home, Mary chose to sit and listen to him. She wanted to know more about him. She was excited to hear about what he had done and what he was going to say, so she gave him her full attention. Meanwhile, Martha chose to work and serve. This was important, as Jesus and his disciples likely needed food and drink after their journey from another village. But Martha’s serving was driven by worry and pressure.  For her,...

  *Gathering Hymn God, Reveal Your Presence (#391 VU) Welcome & Land Acknowledgement Lighting the Christ Candle Call to Worship One: Called to this place…   All: as people of God. One: Called to this place…   All: as friends in the Spirit One: Called to this place… All: as followers of the Christ One: Called to this place… All: to be renewed, to be refreshed, to be re-made! One: Called to this place… All: that we might go to all places to share the love of God! *Richard Bott, Gathering Pentecost 1 2025 . Page 40. Opening Prayer *Opening Hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness (#288 VU) Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison) Gracious God, we acknowledge and confess in your presence the smallness of our love, the narrowness of our concern, the denial of our true humanity. Through our careless hands have slipped opportunities not taken, people not cared for, days not celebrated. We are ashamed and sorry for the ways of our unfaithfulness, and ask for reassurance an...

Through today’s first Scripture reading, we hear from the prophet Amos, whose words challenge us. In his vision, Amos saw God standing beside a wall with a plumb line in hand. A plumb line is a tool builders use to determine whether a wall is straight and upright. In ancient times, it was also used to assess whether a wall could still be repaired. If the tilt was not too severe, it could be restored. But if it leaned too far, it was better to tear it down and build a new one. In this sense, the plumb line in today’s text is a symbol of measurement to see whether the people of Israel can still be renewed. Amos was from Judah, the southern kingdom, but he served as a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel. He was not a professional religious leader. He was a farmer and a shepherd. At the time, most priests were like puppets of political power, saying only what people wanted to hear. Their eyes and ears were closed to the truth. The spiritual and moral collapse of the nation left littl...

  *Gathering Hymn God, Reveal Your Presence (#391 VU) Welcome & Land Acknowledgement Lighting the Christ Candle Call to Worship One: We are gathered here on this Sunday after a week of our own busyness.   All: We are here for rest and renewal. One: We are gathered here to feel God’s presence, like a cool breeze on a hot, humid day.   All: We are here to release the noise and stresses of the world. One: We are gathered to receive the good news of God’s healing power, like a parent singing a lullaby to a crying baby or a Good Samaritan stopping to help, All: We are here to soothe our spirits and to fill our hearts with God’s love. One: This is the day that God has made. All: Let us rejoice and be glad in it! Let us worship! *Mary Parsons, Gathering Pentecost 1 2025 . Page 73. Opening Prayer *Opening Hymn Come, O Fount of Every Blessing (#559 VU) Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison) Gracious God, too often we forget that it is you who abundantly supplies...