Ruth Nangeroni, the Hospice Program Coordinator of Brattleboro Area Hospice will be the guest speaker at 10:00am at All Souls Church. She will share a brief history of the hospice movement and how it has shifted over time. Ruth will share about the work being done at Brattleboro Area Hospice in offering care and supporting our community members and their families who are facing the end of life or grieving the loss of a loved one, as well as educating the community on the issues of death, dying and grieving.
We anticipate that this service will be both in-person and on Zoom. Click right here Sunday shortly before 10:00 a.m. to join via Zoom. Click here to read our protocols for in-person attendance.When attending in person, please completely power off your cell phone during the service to preserve the Church’s WiFi bandwidth for our Zoom attendees.
“A Good Life To The Very End”
Order of Service
Sunday, October 2, 2022
The Great Secret of Death by Rainer Maria Rilke
The great secret of death, and perhaps its deepest connection with us is this: that in taking from us a being we have loved and venerated, death does not wound us without, at the same time, lifting us towards a more perfect understanding of this being and ourselves.
Announcements and Board Greeting Elizabeth Lewis
Prelude: Enigma Variations IX: “Nimrod” Edward Elgar
Peter Gibbons, viola; Eva Greene, piano
Chalice Lighting
Chalice Lighting: Rise up, O flame, by thy light glowing, show to us beauty, vision, and wisdom.
Lighting our Children’s Chalice
We light this chalice to celebrate Unitarian Universalism. We are the church of the open minds. We are the church of the helping hands. We are the church of the loving hearts.
Opening Words: “It Is Time” by Sherri Rose-Walker
It is time to attend to the world
and all that is in it:
the benediction of light,
the symmetry of soil, the poetics of decay.
It is time to move into the world, walking toward the sun,
navigating the terrain of longing
as it leads outward,
perhaps to the final edge.
It is time to attend the dying,
the tenderness revealed
when all defense is swept away,
and it is time to attend to dear enemies
whose spite is an anagram for grace.
It is time, and more than time,
to go to the world with a begging bowl,
bare foot, empty of language,
to attend to the messages of salvation
in the dust of the road.
Opening Hymn #6: “Just as long as I have breath”
Story for All Ages: “Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge”
by Mem Fox, illustrated by Julie Vivas
Anthem: “Guardians” words and music by Adrienne Jones
All Souls Choir, Tom Baehr, Director
Reading: “Surrounded by Love” by Kelly Salasin
Hymn #307: “The Human Touch Can Light the Flame”
Offering Speaker: Ruth Nangeroni, Program Coordinator of Brattleboro Area Hospice
Offertory: “Crystal Silence” Chick Corea
Eva Greene, piano
Reflection on Joys and Concerns
Closing Hymn: “Love Call Me Home” Peggy Seeger
When the waters are deep, friends carry me over
When I cry in my sleep, love, call me home
(chorus)
Time, ferry me down the river
Friends carry me safely over
Life, tend me on my journey
Love call me home.
When the waters are cold, friends carry me over
When I’m losing my hold, love call me home
(chorus)
When I’m weary and cannot swim, friends carry me over
Open your arms and take me in, Love call me home
(chorus)
Take the gift I bring, friends carry me over
Deep within me life is singing, love call me home
(chorus)
Life offers a chance, for friends to carry us over
Time can stop or dance forever, love call me home
(chorus)
Extinguishing the Chalice with the words of John Murray
“Go out into the highways and by-ways. Give the people something of your new vision. You may possess a small light, but uncover it, let it shine, use it in order to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men and women.”
Closing Circle: “Carry the Flame of Peace and Love” (sung two times)
Benediction from the Wisdom of Solomon 7
I am mortal, like everyone else, a descendant of the first formed child of earth, and in the womb of a mother was I moulded into flesh within a period of ten months.
When I was born, I began to breathe the common air, and fell upon the kindred earth. My first sound was a cry, as is true for all. I was nursed with care in swaddling cloths; no king has had a different beginning of existence.
There is for all one entrance and one way out. Therefore I prayed, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.
May it be for us all. Amen and Blessed Be
Coffee Hour and Conversation