Gathering Music (Mary Bopp)
Welcome and Announcements (Martha Larson)
Introduction of Service and Speaker (Martha Larson)
Centering (Fred Louis)
Prelude
"Heartsong
by Mary Bopp
Chalice Lighting and Opening Words
"It may be difficult for you to accept that the seed of Buddha is in you, but we all have the capacity for faith, awakening, understanding, and awareness, and that is what is meant by Buddha nature. There is no one who does not have the capacity to be a Buddha."
--Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Buddha's Teaching
Opening Hymn
"This Is My Song" #159
Words: Lloyd Stone; Music: Jean Sibelius
Led by Fred Louis
This is my song, O God of all the nations,
a song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
but other hearts in other lands are beating
with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
and sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine;
but other lands have sunlight too, and clover,
and skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,
a song of peace for their land and for mine.
Reading: "The Five Remembrances" (Fred Louis)
Welcoming Visitors; Joys and Concerns (Martha Larson)
Musical Response
"Everything Will Be All Right"
by Kay Gardner
Performed by members of the Manchester Women's Sacred Singing Circle (MWSSC)
Everything will be all right
Day is day and follows night
Everything will be all right
Darkness flows into the light.
Offering Words (Martha Larson)
Offertory Music
"Awake"
by Mary Bopp
Anthem Medley
Performed by members of the MWSSC
"Be Here Now" by Debbie Christo
Now is the only moment, now is the only moment
Be in this moment, breathe in this moment
Love in this moment, be here now
Be here now in this moment
"Honor the Divine" by Linda Koehler
I honor the divine that's within your soul,
Please honor the divine within me.
Each of us holds the source of all being
When we all see this we shall live in peace
"Amazed" by Linda Hirshhorn
May I stay amazed, for all of my days
At all of the ways of the world's turning
Amazed at what I've got not what I've not,
All soon forgot in the world's turning.
"May I Be an Instrument of Peace" (unknown)
May I be an instrument of peace,
may I be an instrument of peace.
Reflection (Fred Louis)
Closing Hymn
"We Begin Again in Love" #1037
Words: Robert Eller-Isaacs; Music: Les Kleen
Narrator: For remaining silent when a single voice would have made a difference...
Congregation sings: We forgive ourselves and each other, we begin again in love.
N: For each time that our fears have made us rigid and inaccessible...
C: We forgive ourselves and each other, we begin again in love.
N: For each time we have struck out in anger without cause...
C: We forgive ourselves and each other, we begin again in love.
N: For each time that our greed has blinded us to the needs of others...
C: We forgive ourselves and each other, we begin again in love.
N: For the selfishness that set us apart and alone...
C: We forgive ourselves and each other, we begin again in love.
N: For falling short of the admonitions of the spirit...
C: We forgive ourselves and each other, we begin again in love.
N: For losing sight of our unity...
C: We forgive ourselves and each other, we begin again in love.
N: For those and for so many acts both evident and subtle which have fueled the illusion of separateness...
C: We forgive ourselves and each other, we begin again in love.
Extinguishing the Chalice and Closing Words (Marth Larson and Fred Louis)
Thanks ( Martha Larson)
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
"May I Be an Instrument of Peace" (unknown)
Together - Martha, Fred, MWSSC and Congregation
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