Gathering Music (Mary Bopp) (begins at 9:50)
Welcome (Martha Larson, co-chair of the Sunday Services Committee)
Announcements
Introduction of the Service
Centering
Prelude
“ Allemande from Suite 1”
by JS Bach
Leah Coloff, cellist
Chalice Lighting
Words adapted from Martin Luther King, Jr.
Cowardice asks the question – is it safe?
Expediency asks the question – is it politic?
Vanity asks the question – is it popular?
But conscience asks the question – is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither
safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right.
Opening Hymn
“Amazing Grace!”
words by John Newton, music by Virginia Harmony
#205 and 206 in Singing the Living Tradition
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved;
how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed!
Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come;
’tis grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.
When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun,
we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.
First Reading
excerpt from All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
by the Rev. Robert Fulghum
spoken by the Ford family: Jenn, Ryan, Margeaux and Simone
All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Joys and Concerns
Musical Response (Mary Bopp)
Second Reading
A variety of quotes about the right thing
spoken by Maureen Flanagan
Offering
Continuing our practice of sharing our gifts with the community beyond our walls, fifty percent of our plate collections for the month of March will be dedicated to Hartford Deportation Defense.
Offering Music “True North” by Mary Bopp
Third Reading
excerpt adapted from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
performed by Glenn Campellone
Homily
“The Right Thing”
by Malcolm Barlow
Closing Hymn
“I Would Be True”
words by Howard A. Walter, music by Joseph Y Peek
I would be true, for there are those who trust me;
I would be pure, for there are those who care;
I would be strong, for there is much to suffer;
I would be brave, for there is much to dare.
I would be friend of all—the foe, the friendless;
I would be giving, and forget the gift;
I would be humble, for I know my weakness;
I would look up, and laugh, and love, and lift.
Extinguishing the Chalice
Closing words
excerpt from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.
Closing Circle
May faith in the spirit of life
And hope for the community of earth
And love of the light in each other
Be ours now, and in all the days to come.
Postlude (Mary Bopp)
Break Out Rooms
