Gathering Music
A Medley of Uplifting Tunes
Performed by Dorothy Bognar, piano
Welcome
Announcements
Centering
Prelude
Three Lyric Preludes
by William Gillock (in C, D, & E)
Performed by Dorothy Bognar, piano
Chalice Lighting
“Be Ours a Religion”
#683 in Singing the Living Tradition
by Theodore Parker
Be ours a religion which, like sunshine,
goes everywhere;
Its temple, all space;
Its shrine, the good heart,
Its creed, all truth,
Its ritual, works of love,
Its profession of faith, divine living.
Introduction to the Service
Opening Hymn
“Come, Come Whoever You Are”
#188 in Singing the Living Tradition
Words adapted from Rumi
Music by Lynn Adair Ungar
Performed by Sandy Johnson, vocals; Dorothy Bognar, piano
Come, come, whoever you are,
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
Ours is no caravan of despair.
Come, yet again come.
First Reading
Excerpts from “Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans”
by Lydia Maria Child (1833)
Musical Response
“Over the River and Through the Woods”
Words by Lydia Maria Child
Music traditional/Composer unknown
Performed by Dorothy Bognar, piano
Second Reading
Excerpts from “To Mothers in the Free States”
by Eliza Lee Cabot Follen (1855)
Musical Response
“All Things Beautiful and Fair”
Words by Eliza Follen
Muris: Traditional English
Performed by Dorothy Bognar, piano
Joys and Concerns
Musical Response
Offering Intro
“Love is the Doctrine of This Church”
#471 in Singing the Living Tradition
by L. Griswold Adams
Love is the doctrine of this church,
The quest of truth is its sacrament,
And service is its prayer.
To dwell together in peace,
To seek knowledge in freedom,
To serve human need,
To the end that all souls shall grow
into harmony with the Divine–
Thus do we covenant with each other.
Offertory Music
“Imagine”
Words and music by John Lennon
Dorothy Bognar, piano; Sandy Johnson, vocals
“Inspirations that Time Forgot? The Contributions of Eliza Cabot Follen and Lydia Maria Francis Child”
Commentary by Stacey Musulin
Closing Hymn
“As Tranquil Streams”
#145 in Singing the Living Tradition
Words by Marion Franklin Ham
Music adapted from Musicalisches Hand-buch, Hamburg
Performed by Sandy Johnson, vocals; Dorothy Bognar, piano
As tranquil streams that meet and merge
and flow as one to seek the sea,
Our kindred hearts and minds unite
to build a church that shall be free.
Free from the bonds that bind the mind to
narrow thought and lifeless creed;
Free from a social code that fails to serve
the cause of human need.
A freedom that reveres the past, but
trusts the dawning future more,
And bids the soul, in search of truth,
adventure boldly and explore.
Prophetic church, the future waits
your liberating ministry;
Go forward in the power of love,
Proclaim the truth that makes us free.
Closing Prayer
“Religion”
by Vincent Silliman
#466 in Singing the Living Tradition
Let religion be to us life and joy.
Let it be a voice of renewing challenge to the best we have and may be,
Let it be a call to generous action.
Let religion be to us a dissatisfaction with things that are,
Which bids us serve more eagerly the true and right.
Let it be the sorry that opens for us the way of sympathy, understanding,
And service to suffering humanity.
Let religion be to us the wonder and lure of that
Which is only partly known and understood.
And eye that glories in nature’s majesty and beauty,
And a heart that rejoices in deeds of kindness and of courage.
Extinguishing the Chalice
Closing Words
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
