The Community Asylum Seekers Project

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

CASP, the Community Asylum Seekers Project, is a Brattleboro-based nonprofit that provides basic needs and a supportive community to those in the process of seeking asylum in the United States. Please join us as we hear from CASP about their efforts to provide shelter, livelihoods, and solidarity to asylum-seekers in Southern Vermont during a time of global challenges.

Order of Service, Sunday, September 6, 2020
“Community Asylum Seekers Project”

Greetings and Announcements

Musical Prelude: Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”: Largo
by Antonin Dvořák
Tom Baehr, harmonica; Eva Greene, piano

Chalice Lighting adapted from Erika A. Hewitt

“The chalice arose as a beacon of hope in an atmosphere of tyranny.
The chalice arose as a sign of promise
that the marginalized would neither be forgotten nor ignored,
because they are beloved and precious from the perspective of the Holy.
This morning, we remember all of the people
who have been told explicitly—
or implicitly, through police violence or government policy;
through derision or dehumanization;
that they’re anything less than whole; anything less than beloved.
As we each light a chalice in our homes,
may we make of our lives a beacon:
a symbol of our promise to draw the circle wide;
a sign that we will not rest until “all” means all.”

Opening Words: by Msgr. Oscar Romero, Archbishop of El Salvador

Opening  Hymn: Love Will Guide Us by Sally Rogers
sung by Christina, Marie, Eva & Steve

Special Music: “There But For Fortune” by Phil Ochs
Beth and Michael McKinney, voice & guitar

Story for All Ages – “My Two Blankets”
by Kobald and Blackwwod

Offering Guest Speakers: Kate Paarlberg-Kvam and Steve Crofter, CASP

Offertory Music: Caritas Abundat,
from the chants of Hildegard von Bingen, 12th cent. German abbess

Joys & Concerns

Closing Words

Poem: “Maria de La Luz Knows How to Walk”
by Juan Phillipe Herrera

Closing Hymn: We’ll Build A Land  by Barbara Zanotti & Carolyn McDade
sung by Steve Squires

Chalice Extinguishing by Maureen Killoran

” Love is the aspiration, the spirit that moves and inspires this faith we share.
Rightly understood, love can nurture our spirits and transform the world.
May the flame of this chalice honor and embody the power and the blessing of the love we need, the love we give, the love we are challenged always to remember and to share.”

Closing Circle:
“Carry the flame of peace and love until we meet again.”
(Sing two times)
Benediction