Click right here on Sunday a little before 10:00 A.M. to join your ASC friends online.

We make our way through the myriad changes of our days in this strange present time with as much grace and grit as we can muster, and support one another as best we can. For those who are approaching end of life at this time, and for those who love and support them, the challenges are particularly poignant. Join us this morning as Patty Dunn, a beloved friend of All Souls Church, talks about these challenges, and how the work of Brattleboro Area Hospice has been adapting to meet them.

 

“Embracing the Night”

Order of Service

Sunday, August 2

 

Greeting and Board Announcements

Prelude    Etude in E major (excerpt) Op. 10:1      Frederic Chopin

Chalice Lighting: 

Universal mystery,
Guide us away from the desire to
Shine light in all the corners.
Teach us to embrace the night,
For without the darkness,
We never see the stars.

— by Jennifer Gracen

Opening Words

Hymn: Love Call Me Home       by Peggy Seeger
Singers: Catie Berg, Marie Gorst, Steve Squires, Karen Tyler

Reading: “Mary Oliver For Corona Times” by Adrie Kusserow.

Story For All Ages: “The Invisible String” by Patrice Karst

Hymn:  Calm Soul of All Things  by Matthew Arnold/Thomas Tallis                                          Maisie Crowther, soprano

Offering:  shared with Brattleboro Area Hospice
Guest Speaker, Patty Dunn

Offertory     Abide with Me   by William
Peter Gibbons, viola

Meditation on Joys and Concerns

Reading:  “It Was Like This”  by Jane Hirschfield

Closing Hymn:  Spirit of Life   by Carolyn McDade

Singers: Tom Baehr, Christina Gibbons, Eva Greene, Elizabeth Lewis, Beth McKinney, Steve Squires, Bob Wyckoff
Prayer-In-Motion: Beverly Miller

Extinguishing the Chalice:

Blessed is the dark, in which our dreams stir and are revealed.
Blessed is the dark of earth, where seeds come to life.
Blessed are the depths of the ocean where no light shimmers: the womb of all earthly life.

Blessed is the light into which we awake,
the light that sparkles on the waters:
that calls the tree forth from the seed,
and calls the shadow forth from the tree.

Blessed are we as we move through darkness and through light.

Closing Circle
“Carry the flame of peace and love until we meet again” (2X)