Prayers/Litanies
Easter Sunrise @ Home
All of us in VT are under a stay-at-home order due to COVID-19 through at least April 15th, 2020. Here is a liturgy that individuals, families and those living under the same roof can use for an at-home sunrise service. AT SUNRISE Lord’s Prayer Our (Mother) Father (Creator) who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for Thine is the kingdom,...
read moreSpiritual Care Package
Below is a link to a simple weekly “spiritual care package” designed to be distributed to families and individuals in our congregation and beyond. It contains: 7 daily devotionals including scripture verse, visual meditation and prayer pages for families with children and youth It can be easily adapted to your timeframe, setting and needs. SPIRITUAL CARE PACKAGE © Hadley Bunting & Rev. Kevin Goldenbogen, 2020 Hadley is the Director of Family, Youth & Children and Kevin is the senior-pastor of Charlotte Congregational...
read moreWorship while Distancing
Soon after COVID-19 came to Vermont (week of 3/8/2020), many worship leaders I spoke with: 1) recognized how critically important worship is in a time like this, and 2) wondered how to worship together while keeping physically distant? When my church chose to suspend services in our sanctuary on Sunday mornings for a time, we immediately looked to technology to allow us to worship while distancing. Here’s what we planned: Our two pastors will hold a live-broadcast worship service on Sunday mornings at our regular time. Zoom and...
read moreWorld Communion Sunday 2019
SERVICE PRAYERS Call to Worship Women/Girls: We worship our God in Christ this morning, mindful that we’re not alone. Men/Boys: Old and young, near and far, different and the same, gather like this to sing, pray, listen, and commune. Left-Side: God of unity and diversity, join us. Right-Side: Christ of unity and diversity, love us. Pastor: Spirit, of unity and diversity, inspire us. Widening Prayer Provincial. Sectarian. Narrow and small. We confess these words are part of our stories, part of our behaviors, part of us. ...
read moreRefugee Awareness
In response to the UN’s World Refugee Day (6/20), mindful that 1 in 110 people in the world is currently displaced for one reason or another, and in conversation with Scripture, our church held Refugee Awareness Sunday on 6/23/2019. Here is an outline of our liturgy to inspire you and to be adapted for your setting. Words for Contemplation: “As far as I could tell, the world was not going to stop producing refugees. The plain, irreducible fact of good people being made nomad by the millions through all the kinds of horrors this...
read morePentecost 2019
A simple prayer for Pentecost that could be used as a greetings, call to worship, etc. The version below leads into the Lord’s Prayer. Skin to feel the breath of God; ears to hear the blowing Wind of God; eyes to see the flames of God; noses to smell the aroma of God; tongues to taste the goodness of God; hands to respond to the love of God; time to pray like this: Our (Mother) Father (Creator) who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day...
read morePrayer for Memorial Day 2019
Here is a prayer written for a congregational worship service on the Sunday before Memorial Day. It was inspired by Mark 10:35-45 A Memorial Day Prayer – 2019 (Inspired by Mark 10:35-45) God in Christ, your Gospel lays out before us a vision of service: desiring a place of privilege, you call us to humility; wanting glory, you show us that true glory comes when we act with justice and with love; coveting greatness, you teach us that greatness comes when we lay down our lives for others as you did for us. On this Sunday before Memorial...
read moreNo Assumptions on Mother’s Day
Here is a short prayer written for use in worship on Mother’s Day/Festival of the Christian Home 2019. It attempts to acknowledge the complexities of Mother’s Day and to help those praying to give it all to God. It could be used as a pastoral prayer, adapted for us as a litany, etc. God, on this day in our culture we set aside as “Mother’s Day,” we make no assumptions about the experiences or emotions of the people in this room: – some of us here love Mother’s day and celebrate it with great joy; – some feel acute...
read moreStations of the Cross 2019
Below is a link to a booklet we used at Charlotte Congregational Church on Good Friday 2019 for an outdoor walking meditation. Our congregation made 14 crosses and then tied them to trees in the woods behind our church building. At 4PM we began walking from station to station, using this booklet to guide our reflections. The “Connection” for each station was written by Rev. Susan Cooke Kittredge and the “Prayer” for each station was adapted by Rev. Will Burhans from “The Stations of the Cross” written by Passionist Missionaries of Union...
read moreBlessing of the Palms 2019
A simple blessing of the palms for Palm Sunday 2019. Blessing of the Palms Christ, a very long time ago you mounted a colt, road over coats, and entered Jerusalem, as fickle crowds waved palm branches, and shouted, “Hosanna” and “blessed is he.” This morning we reenact the story: we reenact to deepen; we reenact to understand; we reenact to connect; we reenact to lament; and we reenact for reasons all our own. Christ, bless our reenactment, and bless our palms that they might be for us: a doorway into Holy Week; a portal...
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