By Liturgical Element
MLK 2018
Below is a call and response prayer that could be used as a Call to Worship, Pastoral Prayer, Benediction, etc. The text is taken from various MLK quotes and the congregational response is from King’s “I Have a Dream” Speech, after the prophet Amos. One: We now raise the voice of the prophet Martin Luther King whose voice we still need so much: “I have the audacity,” King said, “to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds,...
read moreConvo w/Incarnation
Christmas Eve 2017 is a Sunday which means that many of our churches will have a morning service, and an evening service or two. It is a busy day and in some churches, the morning service will be sparsely attended as people wait for the evening services. If you won’t have time to prepare a sermon, or you want to shorten and simplify the morning service, below is a reading for 2 voices based on John 1:1-14 that could be used in place of a sermon, or elsewhere in the service (it could be adapted for use on other occasions). It is a...
read moreDayspring – Reading for 3 Voices
Here is an Advent/Christmas Eve reading for 3 voices based on Luke 1:67-79 (Zechariah’s Song). It weaves together two spoken voices with a sung refrain. The refrain is from the traditional Appalachian spiritual, “Bright Morning Stars.” The song has been recorded by many and the sheet music is readily available from a variety of sources. Here is one place to look: Amidon Music It is a simple arrangement but rehearsal is advance will be important to get the pacing and timing right. Note: I am grateful to scriptureecho.com...
read moreTimewalk
Below is a prayer-poem I wrote on 10/17/2017. It could be used as a call to worship, pastoral prayer, adapted for multiple readers, supplemented by projected images… Timewalk the sound I’ve heard before of countless leaves crunching under directionless feet the sight of now exposed branches, a calendar the transporting smells carried into my nostrils, carrying me back to distant days, younger walks the foretaste of nutmeg and buttered crumbles that are as close as the church parking lot the feel of time moving, time passing, time...
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