Click right here Sunday shortly before 10:00 AM to join our online service.

In the era of Covid and rapid changes in the political, technological and natural realms – we are needing to shift our patterns and expectations again and again.  As we move through these changes how do we hold on to what is most important, while letting go of that which no longer serves us?  This service will share some insights from psychology and spirituality on moving and growing through change.  

“Transitions-The Art of Letting Go”

Click right here Sunday shortly before 10:00 AM to join our online service.

Order of Service
Sunday, October 17, 2021

Welcome Greeting                       Christina Gibbons         

Board Greeting

Prelude:  “Vou te contar”         Antonio Carlos Jobim (1927-1994)

              Eva Greene,  piano

Chalice Lighting:  “For This One Hour” by Paul Stephan Dodenhoff
offered by Jody McAssey

For this one hour, Spirit of Life, we let go.

For this one hour,
may we let go of our anxieties,
our fears, our anger, our self-doubts, our regrets, our petty grievances,
and our distractions.

If only for this one hour,
let the flame of this chalice burn them from our hearts and minds
and light our way to peace and serenity.

For this one holy hour.

                                                                                
Opening Words  by Erik Walker Wikstrom (adapted)                 Rev. Patience Stoddard

Opening Hymn #163  “For the Earth Forever Turning”   Kim Oler

                    sung by Catie G. Berg

Responsive Litany:   I am Listening  by J. Rupp and M Widecker   (adapted)

Autumn is slipping through summer’s branches and I am listening.
I am listening to the dying flowing forth from autumn’s being.
I am listening to the life hidden in the dying.
I am listening.

I am listening to the song of transformation,
to the wisdom of the season, to the losses and the grieving,
to the turning loose and letting go.
I am listening to the surrender of autumn.
I am listening.

I am listening to the music of the forest’s undergrowth,
to the crunch of leaves beneath my feet,
to the miracle of crumbling leaves becoming earth again.
I am listening to the beauty and fragility of aging.
I am listening.

I am listening to the wheel of the year turning,
to the cycle of the seasons,
to the call for harmony and balance.
I am listening to the circle of life.
I am listening.

I am listening to the death of old ways.
I am listening to the life force turning inward.
I am listening to the renewal of the earth.
 I am listening.

I am listening to a call for inner growth,
to my need to let go of material possessions,
to my need to reach out for invisible gifts.
I am listening to a call for transformation.
I am listening.

Story For All Ages:  “Katy the Reluctant Caterpillar “

Hymn #1020  “Woyaya”   Sol Amarifio (Ghana)

                sung by Yale University student chorus

 

Reading: from Intro to Necessary Losses: The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies, and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow        by Judith Viorst

 

Sermon: “Transitions-The Art of Letting Go”        Rev. Patience Stoddard

Offering shared with CASP

Offertory:   “Very Early”         Bill Evans

              Eva Greene, piano

Candles of Joys and Concerns                         Christina Gibbons                                       

Closing Hymn #354 “We Laugh, We Cry”   Shelley Jackson Denham

                          sung by Christina Gibbons, soprano

Closing Reading: “For a New Beginning” by John O’Donohue

Extinguishing the Chalice                                          Jody McAssey
We extinguish this chalice but not the light of truth,
the warmth of community or the fire of commitment.
These we carry in our hearts until we meet again.

Closing Circle: “Carry the Flame of Peace and Love” (sung two times)

Coffee Hour and Conversation