Gathering Music (Mary Bopp – video) (Begins 5 minutes before the hour)
Welcome and Announcements
Centering
Prelude: Kristen Dockendorf playing the steel tongue drum (video)
Chalice Lighting
Opening Words
Introduction to the Service
Opening Hymn
“For the Beauty of the Earth”
Words by Folliott Sandford Pierpoint
Music by Conrad Kocher
#21 in Singing the Living Tradition
Led by Kate Howard-Bender
For the beauty of the earth, for the splendor of the skies,
for the love which from our birth over and around us lies:
Source of all, to thee we raise this, our hymn of grateful praise.
For the joy of ear and eye, for the heart and mind’s delight,
for the mystic harmony linking sense to sound and sight:
Source of all, to thee we raise this, our hymn of grateful praise.
For the wonder of each hour of the day and of the night,
hill and vale and tree and flower, sun and moon and stars of light:
Source of all, to thee we raise this, our hymn of grateful praise.
For the joy of human care, sister, brother, parent, child
for the kinship we all share, for all gentle thoughts and mild:
Source of all, to thee we raise this, our hymn of grateful praise.
Activity: Shared Gratitude
Musical Response (Mary Bopp – video)
Joys and Concerns
Musical Response (Mary Bopp – video)
First Speaker (Maddie Breault)
Offering
Every month, fifty percent of our Sunday plate collection goes to a local charity or organization. This month, the recipient of our community outreach ministry is Manchester Senior, Adult, and Family Services. Manchester Senior, Adult, and Family Services provides social work and conservator services to any Manchester resident over eighteen.
Offering Music
“Sing”
Words and music by Joe Raposo
Performed by Kate Howard-Bender
Second Speaker (Sid Soderholm)
Poem
“On Kindness”
Written with the Children’s Ministry, Elementary on World Kindness Day, 2022
Read by Elizabeth Thomas, RE Assistant
Kindness is yellow
like Lucy’s rain boots
and Teddy’s shoes.
It is red like a heart.
“Can I give you a hug?”
Kindness smells sweet like strawberry cupcakes,
sweet like the flowers I p ick for my mom,
the roses I give her on Mother’s Day.
Kindness smells like the chalice flame.
“You have a beautiful smile!”
The smell of sizzling bacon
or homemade blueberry muffins
on a late Saturday morning
remind me of kindness.
“I like your shirt.”
Kindness would sound like
birds chirping,
cats purring.
It would sound like a lullaby.
“You are welcome here.”
Third Speaker (Marsha Howland)
Closing Hymn
“This Little Light of Mine”
Words and music: African American spiritual
#118 in Singing the Living Tradition
Led by Kate Howard-Bender
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
Ev’rywhere I go, I’m gonna let it shine …
Building up a world, I’m gonna let it shine …
Extinguishing the Chalice
Closing Words
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
“I want to Thank You for Letting Me Be Myself”
Words and music by Sly Stone
Words adapted by Kate Howard-Bender
Performed by Kate Howard-Bender
