Pentecost
Hope Fund: Pentecost Resources
On November 13th, 2021, a special meeting of the Vermont Conference of the United Church of Christ enthusiastically approved the creation of a visionary initiative called the Hope Fund. At that meeting the people of the Vermont Conference also approved the creation of a fundraising team to support this effort. Your fundraising team: Paul Sangree, Elise Foster, Kevin Goldenbogen, Elissa Johnk, Leigh McCaffrey, Andy Nagy-Benson (chair) On Pentecost Sunday, June 5th, 2022 (or another Sunday of your choice), we invite your church to hold a...
read moreLitany of Remembrance: Memorial Day 2020
Based on John 15 In the Gospel of John we hear the story of how Jesus, in the final hours before his death, taught his followers some essential truths. This is part of what he taught them: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” On this Sunday before Memorial Day, we pause to remember the self-giving love of Jesus Christ that he modeled for us and which has been imitated in the self-giving love of those men and women who died in...
read more“What Do You See?”
What Do You See? A Sermon by Rev. Amy Pitton, delivered at Bethany Church, UCC Montpelier, VT on Sunday, August 25, 2019 Based on: Luke 13:10-17 Read: “Words of a Modern Day Prophet,” by Mary Oliver “There are things you can’t reach. But You can reach out to them, and all day long The wind, the bird flying away. The idea of god. And it can keep you busy as anything else, and happier. I look; morning to night I am never done with looking Looking I mean not just standing around, but standing around As though with your arms...
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 moreUnfolding
Here is a prayer-poem that was written as a Call to Worship for a morning worship service. It could be adapted for use in almost any worship setting. good morning earth and cooing doves and the many risings of this day I surrender to your unfolding anticipating? yes expecting? yes longing? yes hoping, yes that I can welcome what unfolds and be unfolded too © Rev. Kevin Goldenbogen, 2019 Kevin Goldenbogen is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ...
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 moreWe Told Them Another Parable
For World Communion Sunday, 2018, Kevin Goldenbogen at his home congregation preached about the Parable of the Yeast from Matthew 13:33: “He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.” (New Revised Standard Version). The brevity and density of this one sentence parable lends itself to repetition and so before the sermon, and because it was World Communion Sunday, they invited 7 readers to read the story in a different...
read moreChrist’s Threads: A Litany for WCS
Here is a litany written for World Communion Sunday, 2018. It could easily be adapted for your setting and/or for another occasion. Leader: According to John’s Gospel, when Jesus was facing death, he took time to imagine unity and to pray using these words: Response: That they may all be one. Leader: Jesus’ vision was not for unity between some, but between all, and with God. Response: That they may all be one. Leader: It’s true: the unity Jesus imagined and sacrificed to make real, has not been fully...
read more2018 Blessing of the Sunday School
Below is a short and easily adaptable blessing for Sunday School students and teachers to be used at the start of a new school year, or whenever appropriate. 2018 Blessing of the Sunday School Curriculum ordered and received. Classrooms organized. Bulletin board updated. Paper, scissors and sticky glue ready at a moment’s notice. Christian Education team is on top of things. A new Sunday School year is about to begin. Some teachers here may be a bit nervous about what is being asked of them. Some students may be a bit nervous about...
read moreTo Be a Doer of the Word
Here are hymn lyrics by Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder set to the hymn tune: Tallis’ Canon (composed by Thomas Tallis). The lyrics are a reflection on James 1:17-27 and were written to be used in Sunday morning worship at the United Church of Strafford, VT on September 2nd, 2018. You can also find the music and lyrics here formatted to print as a bulletin insert TOM REQUESTS THAT YOU CREDIT HIM AND THAT YOU LET HIM KNOW WHEN YOU USE IT AT: rev.thomas.cary.kinder@gmail.com To Be a Doer of the Word (L.M. Tallis’ Canon) text: James 1:17-27...
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