Eleventh Order of Service
PRELUDE
The Service may begin with a Chorale, an Introit, a Processional Hymn, or with selected Sentences.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION, by the Minister and people:
O Thou unseen source of peace and holiness, we come into thy secret place to be filled with thy pure and solemn light. As we come to thee, we remember that we have been drawn aside from the straight and narrow way; that we have not walked lovingly with each other and humbly with thee; that we have feared what is not terrible and wished for what is not holy. In our weakness be thou the quickening power of life. Arise within our hearts as healing, strength and joy. Day by day may we grow in faith, in charity, in the purity by which we may see thee, and in the larger life of love to which thou callest us. Amen.
The Lord be with you.
And with thy spirit.
Praise ye the Lord.
The Lord’s name be praised.
HYMN or ANTHEM
FIRST LESSON
CHANT, if desired.
SECOND LESSON, if desired.
Then the Minister may say:
Here endeth the reading of the lesson.
LITANY, by the Minister, the responses to be said or sung by the people:
Let us pray. O Lord, show thy mercy upon us.
And grant us thy salvation.
O God, make clean our hearts within us.
And take not thy holy Spirit from us.
Almighty and eternal God, source of the light that never sets and of the love that never fails, life of our life, Father of our spirits, draw us to thyself in trust and in love.
By all the wonder and the meaning of thy order which rules over all; by the beauty which shines through all; by the ever wider knowledge and deeper life which blesses all:
Teach us and lead us ev-er near-er to thee. A-men.
By the revelation of thyself in the lives of all wise, great and good men; by the strength and grace which shine for us in the face of Jesus Christ; by every living word of truth and every good example; by the joy and praise of thy holy church:
Teach us and lead us ever nearer to thee.
By the kindness and love which have been about us from the beginning of our days even until now; by the relations of home and the love of little children; by the faithful loyalty of friends; by the very trials and bereavements which chasten and deepen our lives; by all the blessed memories of our dead:
Teach us and lead us ever nearer to thee.
By the deeds of brave and generous men who labor for a more just industry and a nobler state for all our people; by the vision of those who seek a fairer world for the people of other lands, and peace among all nations:
Teach us and lead us ever nearer to thee.
By all our experience; in health and in sickness; in joy and in sorrow; in every circumstance and in every place, O God, our Father:
Teach us and lead us ever nearer to thee. Amen.
PRAYER
ORGAN DEVOTIONAL INTERLUDE, ending with the music of the following chant.
Now unto God, the unseen fount of all our life,
And source of all wisdom and strength.
Be glory and majesty, do-minion and pow’r, for ever and ever. Amen.
ACT OF AFFIRMATION, to be said by the Minister and people, standing:
We believe in God, Father of our spirits, life of all that is; infinite in power, wisdom and goodness, and working everywhere for righteousness and peace and love.
We believe in the ideal of human life which reveals itself in Jesus as love to God and love to man.
We believe that we should be ever growing in knowledge and ever aiming at a higher standard of character.
We believe in the growth of the kingdom of God on earth, and that our loyalty to truth, to righteousness, and to our fellow men, is the measure of our desire for its coming.
We believe that the living and the dead are in the hands of God; that underneath both are his everlasting arms.
Glory be to God most high, The ev-er bless-ed Father.
Who was and is And shall be ev-er-more. A-men
OFFERTORY
ANNOUNCEMENTS
HYMN
SERMON
HYMN
BENEDICTION
ORGAN POSTLUDE