Order of Service / Creation Time 1 / September 14, 2025

*Gathering Hymn This Is God’s Wondrous World (#296 VU)

Welcome & Land Acknowledgement

Lighting the Christ Candle

Call to Worship

One: Earth.

All: The foundation upon which we stand.

One: Loam.

  All: A place of growth, of nourishment, of life!

One: Dirt.

  All: A place of work, a place of play—

One: Of a parent saying,

All: “Come in and get cleaned up!”

One: Earth. Loam. Dirt. Land.

All: Sacred. Holy. Ever strong and ever changing.

One: Filled with God’s love.

  All: Alleluia! Amen!

*Richard Bott, Gathering Pentecost 2 2016.

Opening Prayer

*Opening Hymn Touch the Earth Lightly (#307 VU)

Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison)

Loving God, you have brought us through the summer’s heat and drought, the summer’s rain and cool evenings. Throughout the country, we have been battling forest fires and experiencing evacuations. We have struggled with excesses of weather and the looming threat of real climate change. It has disturbed and disquieted us. As this season draws to a close, we find ourselves seeking wisdom and compassion from your word and song as we anticipate an autumn like no other. We anticipate this season knowing that things will be different, yet also knowing that the trees will slowly turn their autumnal colours and the birds will start their procession southward. As the seasons change, may we remain true to your word and to the purpose that Jesus has called us to live. (a time of silent confession) Amen.

*Jim McKean, Gathering Pentecost 2 2025. Page 27.

Words of Assurance

One: Hear the good news. The earth is the Lord’s and we belong to God.

  All: God remembers the land and renews the ground through our hands.

One: As seasons turn God turns our hearts to life.

All: We will walk gently and tend the earth. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Announcements and Minute for Mission

Time for God’s Children (Hymn – Like a Rock, #92 MV)

Like a rock, like a rock, God is under our feet

Like the starry night sky, God is over our head

Like the sun on the horizon, God is ever before

Like the river runs to ocean, our home is in God evermore.

Prayer for Illumination

Proclaiming the Scriptures

Jeremiah 4:11‒12, 22‒28 The land shall be desolation; the earth shall mourn.

Psalm 14 (VU p. 735) The foolish say, “There is no God.”

Luke 15:1‒10 The parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin.

This is the Good News from the Bible.

  Thanks be to God.

Anthem

Sermon

*Hymn All Praise to You (#297 VU)

*Offering

*Offertory Hymn (#542 VU, We Give You But Your Own)

We give you but your own, whate’er the gift may be,

all that we have is yours alone, we give it gratefully.

*Offertory Prayer (Unison)

Holy One, as first you gave to us, so now we give to you. Bless these gifts as seeds of healing for this land. Use them to shelter neighbours, tend soil and waters, and mend what fire and flood have harmed. Root us in Christ, that your harmony may grow here. Amen

Prayers of the People and Lord’s Prayer

*Closing Hymn Creator God You Gave Us Life (MV 27)

*Commissioning

One: With loving hearts, and hands willing to serve,

All: we go into this world, singing with creation and loving the earth ever more deeply.

*Pat Milliken. A Worship Resource for Creation Time on United Church Website.

*Commissioning Song Peace Be With You (#215 MV)

Peace be with you, peace forever, peace be with you my friends.

Till we meet again, may God be with you. Peace, peace, peace.

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