If you would like to watch the service as a playlist, please click here (45 minutes) and you will be directed to our YouTube page. If you prefer, you may click on the individual links below at your own pace. Please keep track of the video time lengths, so you aren’t late for our special Holy Zoom and Congregational meeting starting at 10:30am
Welcome and Opening – (5:44 minutes)
Welcome: Marianne Schmink and Taylor Stein, Search Committee Co-Chairs
Opening Poem: Blessing for the Morning Light, by David Whyte. Read by Andy Bachmann
The blessing of the morning light to you,
may it find you even in your invisible
appearances, may you be seen to have risen
from some other place you know and have known
in the darkness and that that carries all you need.
May you see what is hidden in you as a place
of hospitality and shadowed shelter,
may what is hidden in you become your gift
to give, may you hold that shadow to the light
and the silence of that shelter to the word
of the light, may you join all of your previous
disappearances with this new appearance,
this new morning, this being seen again,
new and newly alive.
Special Music: Epistemology by M. Ward, offered by Andy Bachmann
I was raised in a Catholic school, learned who to pray to
I learned how to hold on from a book of old psalms
And if you’re trying to sing an old song, keep getting the words wrong,
Well, you’re just a-following along too closely in the book
I learned how to keep my head from something Paul said
About keeping the fruit in the spirit from the chorus down to the hook
And sometimes I wonder what in God’s name did I do to deserve you
Oh, to deserve you
Cause I just rolled and I tumbled, down a long road, I stumbled
While shooting in the dark as to what’s best
And finally, I found you
Without ever learning how to
I put the right foot in front of the left
And beyond that is anybody’s guess
Time with Children – Ministerial Candidate and Hattie – (10:58 minutes)
Gila Monsters Meet You at the Airport by Marjorie W. Sharmat, illustrated by Byron Barton
Hey kids, join us for activity time!
Prayers, Hymn, and Readings – (8:38 minutes)
Prayers: Rev. Talia Raymond and the Ministerial Candidate
Hymn: God the Spirit, Guide and Guardian
Mark Burlingame and Larry Reimer, Trumpet and Tane DeKrey, Piano
God the Spirit, guide and guardian,
wind-sped flame and hovering dove,
breath of life and voice of prophets,
sign of blessing, power of love:
give to those who lead your people
fresh anointing of your grace;
send them forth as bold apostles
to your Church in every place.
Great Creator, life-bestower,
truth beyond all thought’s recall,
fount of wisdom, womb of mercy,
giving and forgiving all:
as you know our strength and weakness,
so may those the church exalts
oversee its life steadfastly
yet not overlook its faults.
Triune God, mysterious being,
undivided and diverse,
deeper than our minds can fathom,
greater than our creeds rehearse:
help us in our varied callings
your full image to proclaim,
that our ministries uniting
may give glory to your name.
Readings offered by Members of the Search Committee:
From Acts 2
Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.
From Acts 17 – The Uproar in Thessalonica
…Paul and Silas came to Thessalonica. And Paul went into the synagogue, as was his custom, and on three sabbath days argued with the people from the scriptures. Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But some …formed a mob and set the city in an uproar… While they were searching for Paul and Silas to bring them out to the assembly, they gathered before the city authorities, shouting, ‘These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also… They are all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor, saying that there is another king named Jesus.’
Paul in Athens
Paul then traveled to Athens, where he was “deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols.” So he went to various temples and houses of worship and gatherings of philosophers and made his case.
Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said, “For we too are his offspring.”
From James H. Cone:
But there is no perfect guide for discerning God’s movement in the world. Contrary to what many conservatives say, the Bible is not a blueprint on this matter. It is a valuable symbol for pointing to God’s revelation in Jesus, but it is not self-interpreting. We are thus in an existential situation of freedom in which the burden is on us to make decisions without a guaranteed ethical guide.
Sermon and Alleluia – (17:23 minutes)
Sermon – “From the Chorus Down to the Hook” by the Ministerial Candidate
Here are the UCG friends celebrating a birthday this week.
Happy Birthday!
Tony Delisle 08/04
Marilyn Maxwell 08/04
Elizabeth Poe 08/04
Lynda Spence 08/04
Adam Stout 08/04
Bill Zegel 08/04
Michelle Myers 08/05
Sharon Schreiber 08/05
Melanie Cake 08/06
Heather Dewar 08/06
Reisa George 08/07
Catherine Puckett 08/07
Jennifer Stuart 08/08
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Sunday Seminars – Join us this morning!
Holy Zoom with UCG Ministerial Candidate: 10:30 – 11:00 AM Sunday, August 2 – Join the search committee and Talia for a Holy Zoom live discussion with the Ministerial Candidate. She will share more about her journey and her hopes and dreams for a future ministry with UCG.
Zoom details:
• We will use the same Zoom meeting for both the 10:30am Holy Zoom discussion and 11:15am Congregational Meeting.
• We will utilize the polling system within Zoom for voting.
• To help us facilitate the vote, if more than one voting member plan to be sitting together at the Zoom meeting please reach out to Rebecca Beachy in advance.
Topic: UCG Minister Candidate Sunday
Time: Aug 2, 2020 10:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://ufl.zoom.us/j/97674712918?pwd=SnQ1SGRnNmpzTHRaS2JFUEQzTk5UUT09
Meeting ID: 976 7471 2918
Passcode: 001873
Special Called Congregational Meeting 11:15AM Sunday, August 2 – same zoom link as Holy Zoom above. This portion is available to UCG Members only. We will hear from the search committee, discuss, and then vote on their motion to officially call ministerial candidate as our next Minister.
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