United Church of Gainesville
Rockin’ In the New Year: Holy Joy
Sunday, December 31, 2023 — 10 a.m.

Click here to join our service at 10:00 a.m. 

“You cannot truly invite [joy]; you can only be ready when she appears and hug her with meaning because in this very moment, joy chose you.”   — Donna Ashworth

WELCOME — Hannah Norton

PRELUDE — Mark Burlingame

CALL TO WORSHIP — based on “The Year” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox — offered by Heather Dewar

One: What can be said in New Year rhymes, That’s not been said a thousand times?

All: The new years come, the old years go, We know we dream, we dream we know.

One: We rise up laughing with the light, We lie down weeping with the night.

All: We hug the world until it stings, We curse it then and sigh for wings.

One: We live, we love, we woo, we wed, We wreathe our prides, we sheet our
dead.

All: We laugh, we weep, we hope, we cheer. And that’s the wonder of a year.

INTRODUCTION – Holy Joy — The Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu in an excerpt from “Mission Joy: Finding Happiness in Troubled Times” – offered by Pam Smith

OPENING SONG — “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”

I’d like to build the world a home and furnish it with love.
Grow apple trees and honey bees
And snow white turtle doves.
I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.
I’d like to hold it in my arms and keep it company.

Chorus
That’s the song I hear, Let the world sing today,
A song of peace that echoes on
And never goes away.

I’d like to see the world for once
all standing hand and hand.
And hear them echo through the hills
For peace throughout the land.
   Chorus

(repeat first verse)

TIME WITH THE CHILDREN — “How Do You Dance?” by Thyra Heder — offered by Pam Smith

INTERLUDE

READING — “Joy Chose You” by Donna Ashworth — offered by Renee Andrews

SPECIAL MUSIC AND OFFERING — “Blue Sky” by Dickey Betts — offered by Jack Nettles and Ned Stewart, guitars and Alan Hill, bass

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PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE — Jean Cunningham

SCRIPTURE READING — James 1:1-5 — offered by Dar Mikula

READING — “For When People Ask” by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer — offered by Dar Mikula

I want a word that means
Okay and not okay,
more than that: a word that means
devastated and stunned with joy.
I want the word that says
I feel it all, all at once.
The heart is not like a songbird
singing only one note at a time,
more like a Tuvan throat singer
able to sing both a drone
and simultaneously
two or three harmonies high above it—
a sound, the Tuvans say,
that gives the impression
of wind swirling among rocks.
The heart understands swirl,
how the churning of opposite feelings
weaves through us like an insistent breeze,
leads us wordlessly deeper into ourselves,
blesses us with paradox
so we might walk more openly
into this world so rife with devastation,
this world so ripe with joy.

REFLECTION — “Holy Joy” — Dar Mikula

PRAYER

CLOSING SONG — “Happiness Runs in a Circular Motion” (Sung as a round, guided by Board of Parish Ministry members.)

Ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba. ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba ba ba, ba ba, ba ba ba ba. (repeat)

Happiness runs in circular motion,
Life is like a little boat upon the sea.
Everybody is a part of everything anyway;
You can have it all if you let yourself be.

BENEDICTION — Hannah Norton

ALLELUIA

 

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 Here are our UCG friends celebrating a birthday this week!

Brandy	Culpepper	12/31
Tupelo	Hostetler	12/31
Jean	Cunningham	01/01
Skip	Everitt	01/01
Pradeep	Kumar	01/01
Bonnye	Roose	01/01
Larry	Roose	01/01
Pam	Smith	01/01
Dean	Chance	01/01
Nancy	Bell	01/02
Amelia	Davidson	01/02
Elizabeth	Franco	01/03
Dorothy	Burnham	01/04

Matt	Gitzendanner	01/04
Joyce	Koopman	01/05
Karen	Niederkohr	01/05
Salam	Tims	01/06