Welcome to Worship

February 6, 2022
Poets & Prophets

 Join us here for a live-stream beginning at 9:15am

It is possible to build an ethics based on respect for the activities of our bodies…. We could re-write the entire history of ethics in light of the rights of bodies and the relationship between our bodies and the world– Umberto Eco

WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS -Rev. Bromleigh McCleneghan

PRELUDE – Phillip Herr-Klepacki

CALL TO WORSHIP – adapted from Alice Walker -Rev. Andy Bachmann

Leader: Helped are those who love the Earth, their mother, and who willingly suffer that she may not die;

People: in their grief over her pain they will weep rivers of blood, and in their joy in her lively response to love, the will converse with trees.

Leader: Helped are those who find the courage to do at least one small thing each day to help the existence of another – plant, animal, river, human being;

People: They shall be joined by multitudes of the timid.

Leader: Helped are those who lose their fear of death;

People: theirs is the power to envision the future in a blade of grass.

Leader: Helped are those who love and actively support the diversity of life;

People: they shall be secure in their differentness.

Leader: Helped are those who know.

OPENING SONG – “I Sing the Almighty Power of God”    
Tune: Forest Green

I sing the almighty power of God, that made the mountains rise
That spread the slowing seas abroad, and built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day;
The moon shines full at God’s command and all the stars obey.

There’s not a plant or flower below, but makes thy glories known,
And clouds arise and tempests blow, by order from thy throne;
While all that borrows life from thee is ever in thy care;
And everywhere that we can be, thou, God, art present there.

TIME WITH CHILDREN

INTERLUDE

SCRIPTURE – Genesis 1, as rendered by David Rosenberg             

Before a plant of the field was in earth, before a grain of the field sprouted — Yahweh had not spilled rain on the earth, nor was there man to work the land — yet from the day Yahweh made earth and sky, a mist from within would rise to moisten the surface. Yahweh shaped an earthling from clay of this earth, blew into its nostrils the wind of life. Now look: man becomes a creature of flesh.

READING –from Breathing Space by Heidi Neumark

Institutions and social services were not the only victims of planned shrinkage [the intentional reduction of public services to save money and encourage folx to move away]. Urban planning for the South Bronx began to cause the shrinkage of breathing space itself., closing up airways in children’s throats and lungs. When you live in this community, breathing space is not a figurative expression referring to long-for leisure amid a hectic lifestyle. Breathing space is a matter of life and death. In the South Bronx more children die of asthma than almost anywhere else in the nation. Children pack asthma pumps in their pockets the way other kids pack action figures.

SERMON – “Wind of Life” – Rev. Bromleigh McCleneghan

SPECIAL MUSIC AND OFFERTORY – “Eternal Morning” by Zach Neece. Offered by Lindsay Gassman, clarinet; Phillip Herr-Klepacki, piano

In June 1853, Thoreau wrote of an enchanting encounter with the Wood Thrush: “This is the only bird whose note affects me like music. It lifts and exhilarates me. It is inspiring. It changes all hours to an eternal morning.”

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE – Rev. Talia Raymond

PRAYER RESPONSE – “Garden Song”  Led by Rev. Larry Reimer

Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow.
All it takes is a rake and a hoe and a piece of fertile ground
Inch by inch, row by row, someone bless these seeds I sow.
Someone warm them from below till the rain comes tumbling down.

Pullin’ weeds, pickin’ stones, we are made of dreams and bones.
I feel a need to grow my own for the time is near at hand.
Grain for grain, sun and rain, find my way through nature’s chain.
As I tune my body and brain to the music of the land.

Make your rows, straight and long, temper them with warmth and song.
Mother earth will make you strong if you give her love and care.
See that crow, watching hungrily, from its perch on yonder tree.
In my garden I’m as free as that feathered thief up there.

BENEDICTION

ALLELUIA