Plymouth Congregational Church A Congregation of the United Church of Christ

Transcription

1 Plymouth Congregational Church A Congregation of the United Church of Christ RINGING OF THE BELL THE GATHERING Service of the Word October 16, 2016 Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost 10:00 am PRELUDE Sketch in Db Robert Schumann *OPENING HYMN Sing Praise to God, Who Has Shaped No. 22 *CALL TO WORSHIP Susan Hawks One: When the lights are on and the house is full, And the laughter is easy And all is well Many: Behold, I stand at the door and knock. One: When the lights are low and the house is still and the talk is intense and the air is full of wondering Many: Behold, I stand at the door and knock. One: Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest, stay with us for day is beginning. Bring to our house your poverty, Many: For then shall we be rich. One: Bring to our house your pain, Many: That sharing it, we may also share your joy. One: Bring to our house your understanding of us, Many: That we may be freed to learn more of you. One: Bring to our house all those who hurry or hobble behind you, Many: That we may meet you as the savior of all. One: Bring to our house your Holy Spirit, Many: That this may be a cradle of your love. One: With friend, with stranger, and neighbor be among us today, Many: For the doors of our house we open, and the doors of our hearts we leave ajar. Amen. *Please rise if you are able

2 *MUSICAL CALL TO COMMUNITY We will sing once through in unison, then as a round, following your section leader WORDS OF WELCOME Quinn G. Caldwell THE REFRESHMENT OF FORGIVENESS PRAYER OF CONFESSION *WORDS OF ASSURANCE *PASSING OF THE PEACE Please share a sign of peace with those around you. *PRAISE SONG (unison) We will sing once through in unison, then as a round, following your section leader Joseph Downing 2016 STORY FOR ALL AGES After the Story, kids can head upstairs with Liz for Chapel Time. ANTHEM Blessed Are They John Ness Beck THE GIFT OF THE WORD SCRIPTURE Ruth 1:6-19 SERMON *HYMN Blessed Be the Tie That Binds No. 393 PASTORAL PRAYER One God be with you. Many And also with you. One Lift up your hearts. THE MINISTRY OF PRAYER 2

3 Many One We lift our hearts to God. Let us pray THE PRAYER OF OUR SAVIOR Our Father, 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 sins as we forgive those who sin against us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. There are several beloved versions of this prayer. In an effort to pray in unison while respecting the different versions that many of us have prayed since childhood, we will cycle through the different versions over the course of a year. We will pray the prayer with sins through the end of MUSICAL RESPONSE (unison) Seek ye first the kingdom of God And God s righteousness And all these things shall be added unto you, Allelu, alleluia. CALL TO THE OFFERING OFFERING OURSELVES AND OUR GIFTS This week, we receive the UCC s Neighbors in Need special offering to support domestic ministries of justice and compassion. OFFERTORY ANTHEM Thou Shalt Give John Ness Beck *DOXOLOGY (unison) Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise God, all creatures here below! Praise God for all that love has done! Creator, Christ, and Spirit one. Amen. *PRAYER OF DEDICATION Old Hundredth *CLOSING HYMN God, Bless Our Homes No. 429 *BENEDICTION POSTLUDE Der Kaffeeklatch Franz Joseph Haydn 3

4 Plymouth Runs On YOU GREETERS: Mary and Rich Cappelli LITURGIST: Susan Hawks USHERS: Gert Danzy and Keith Jakway ACOLYTE: Emily Philips FLOWERS: Mary and Rich Cappelli in celebration of the birth of Clara Rose Cappelli on July 21, 2016 COMMUNITY TIME: Peggy Kinner OFFERING COUNTERS: Keith Jakway and Elaine Wolf Flowers Make our worship space even more beautiful for the glory of God and in honor of whatever you choose. A sign-up sheet is found in the bell tower entry. The cost is $25, but plans for larger or multiple arrangements can always be made. Accessibility: Individual listening headsets are available on the table at the back of the sanctuary. Please contact one of the ushers for help. An elevator and ramp are available. LARGE PRINT BULLETINS ARE IN THE BACK OF THE SANCTUARY. Welcoming Children in Worship: Children of all ages have a place in worship and in the life of the church. Nursery care is offered at 10:00 am for infants. At 10:00 am, a class is available for children ages 3 through Kindergarten, who are also welcome to stay in the nursery during the second hour. Sound is piped into Memorial Hall next door to the Sanctuary for those who would welcome a space apart. Worship Clipboards: Worship clipboards with age-appropriate bulletins and coloring paper are available in the back of the Sanctuary for our elementary aged children as a support to their attendance in worship. We hope you will find these clipboards a welcoming and supportive means of engaging your children during the worship service. There is ample free street parking on the blocks around our church on Sundays, as well as in the lots behind the Catholic diocese building and across East Onondaga Street. For those able to walk a short distance, parking here will allow those with mobility impairments or small children to use the spots directly in front of the church. Some Things You Ought to Know Capital Campaign Update We have 108 commitments totaling $702,447. $609,793 has been paid on those commitments so far. We have surpassed our stretch goal of the campaign!! Thanks be to God and the generosity of the Plymouth community. 4

5 TODAY following worship: Forum (Memorial Hall): Youth School to Prison Pipeline, withtwiggy Billue, National Action Network President and author of Suspended for Life. Bible Study (Adult Education Room downstairs) Genesis 22:1-19. Ask yourself: What effect do you think this incident would have on Isaac? Why would this story be included in our Bible? Is it pro-child sacrifice or anti-? Do we sacrifice children to gods today? If so, what gods? Next Week: Genesis 32: A Wrestling Match Jacob wrestles with someone (Esau? An angel? God?). How does this wrestling match symbolize Jacob's life? How does it symbolize our lives? Christmas wreaths for sale at Plymouth: Plymouth is sponsoring a wreath sale to help pay for our mission trip to Nicaragua. Participants in the mission trip will be circulating with a sign-up sheet after service on October 16th, 23rd, and 30th. A 24" wreath is $20, a 28" wreath (perfect for a front door) is $25, and a 32" wreath is $30. We expect delivery for Sunday services just before and after Thanksgiving. Please pay in advance, if possible. You can pay cash or write a check made out to Plymouth with "wreath" on the memo line. Thank you for your support! Plymouth ROCKS (previously referred to as the Service Opportunities Ministry): Last Sunday of every month - serving lunch at the Rescue Mission, leaving Plymouth around 10:15am and returning shortly after 12pm. Join us on October 30! Contact Abby Hind ( or abigail.r.hind@gmail.com) with any questions and to RSVP. The Food Pantry is collecting SHAMPOO during the month of October. Please place your contributions in the box in the back of the worship area. ALSO, the pantry has received an offer of produce from Matthew 25 Farm in Tully. Volunteers are needed for weekly or biweekly pickups at the farm. If this is a service opportunity for you, contact Leslie Lawrence ( or lelaw@twcny.rr.com) or Kathy Ferro in church office. New York Conference Volunteer Services Opportunity: The New York Conference is looking for volunteers to help stuff about 5000 envelopes for the Friends of the Conference mailing. This annual appeal directly supports the ministry and mission of the conference. Date/Time: November 16 th and 17 th, 2016, 9:00am-4:00pm You can sign up for as many hours as you can during these 2 days. Refreshments and lunch will be provided. If you are interested in helping with this mailing please contact Sueli Gaewsky at the Conference office via sgaewsky@uccny.org or phone number In the community: The SAGE Upstate 4th Annual Community Dinner and Silent Auction is this evening, at 5 pm, at the Harrison Center at All Saint s Church, 1340 Lancaster Ave. in Syracuse. All proceeds support SAGE Upstate programs for older gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in Central New York. To reserve your space, contact Kim Dill at or kdill@sageupstate.org Syracuse Vocal Ensemble is coming to Plymouth, Saturday, October 22, at 7:30pm, presenting Let There BE Peace On Earth, featuring Faure s Requiem, Bernstein s Chichester Psalms with orchestra, and a cappella works on the theme of peace and hope. Tickets: Adults $25, Students 12 and up $10, Under 12 free. Tickets and Info:

6 THIS WEEK AT PLYMOUTH Mon. Oct. 17 Plymouth Story deadline Tues. Oct. 18: Church Council, 5:30pm, Parlor Board of Christian Education, 7:00pm, Parlor Thurs. Oct. 20: Food Pantry, 10am-12noon, Parlor Bell Choir Rehearsal, 5:30pm, Gym Choir Rehearsal, 7:00pm, Memorial Hall 6

7 Music Notes for October 16, 2016 Most people find it amazing that organs have keyboards that are played by the feet. At various times in history, other keyboard instruments have also had pedalboards. Bach owned a pedal clavichord, and pedal harpsichords were occasionally built in the 18 th century. In the early nineteenth century, pedal pianos were built in Germany and France, and it is for this instrument that our prelude was written. Robert Schumann ( ) composed at least half a dozen pieces for pedal piano, although they are mostly played on the organ today. (Although, when I arrived at Syracuse University, one could still see a stencil on the door to Room 120 indicating that that room was the Pedal Piano studio, although I have no idea when or for how long SU owned such an instrument.) I chose this particular piece for the prelude because it begins with the same motif as our anthem. I don t know if John Ness Beck ( ) was aware of the Schumann piece when he wrote Blessed Are They, which, along with our offertory anthem Thou Shalt Give he published in a collection called Contemporary Music for the Church Service. Although this music uses some modern harmonies, it is by no means avant garde nor on the cutting edge of compositional practice. Beck was a composer and publisher of church music (he left a professorship of theory and composition at the Ohio State University School of Music for a job retailing church music.) Beck felt strongly that church music should remain, for the most part, traditional, and he even left a foundation that awards prizes to church music composed within his strict compositional limits. Blessed are they that considereth the poor; The Lord will deliver them, the Lord will preserve them, and they shall be blessed upon the earth. Thou shalt give unto the Lord, thy God, according as the Lord hath blessed thee; Everyone shall give as they are able, according to the blessing which God hath given thee. By the way, you may not have noticed, but we always strive to change texts to gender-neutral pronouns when artistically possible. (For example, the original text began, Blessed is he. ) We were somewhat vindicated this past week when the word they used as a gender-neutral third person singular pronoun was chosen as the Word of the Year by the American Dialects Society. Before the industrial revolution, the most complicated machines on earth were organs and clocks. It is no surprise that at times the two were combined. Our postlude was originally written to be played by a clock that probably had about 25 pipes. Franz Joseph Haydn ( ) wrote thirty-two pieces for this instrument. (Mozart and Handel also left behind pieces written for a clock.) This particular piece is called The Coffee Clatch and I thought that was a good choice as people proceed into Memorial Hour for coffee and refreshments.. About Plymouth Plymouth was founded in 1853 by a group of Syracusans who wanted to create a Christian abolitionist bulwark in the city. Since then, we have fought against slavery, poverty, and war; for immigrants, natives, workers, LGBT, and women s rights; and sought to be agents of mercy in a hurting world. We believe in beauty, laughter, the struggle for peace with justice, taking risks for God, and the Way of Jesus Christ. Our faith is over 2,000 years old; our thinking is not! We are Open and Affirming We believe God calls us to welcome all people and their gifts regardless of gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, physical ability, socioeconomic status, or religious background. We are Just Peace We covenant to live actively within the holy longing that weds justice with the quest for peace within us, between us, in community, and across the globe. We covenant to affirm the sacredness of all life and to honor and preserve creation. We are Sanctuary We provide a space of physical, emotional, and spiritual safety for immigrants without documents, and specifically pledge to the principles of the national New Sanctuary Movement. 7

8 We are Progressive Christians We try to walk in the way of Jesus Christ, our brother and savior. We believe God speaks new meanings for new days, and that She does so not only in the church and the ancient words of the Bible, but through the insights of science, the arts, the revelations of other religions, and the best strivings of the human spirit. We believe God has granted us a purpose, and that life is too short for long-faced religion. J oin us! Rev. Q uinn G. C aldwell, Pastor D r. J oseph D owning, D irector of M usic L iz Pruchnicki, D irector of C hildren, Y outh and Family M inistries Kathy Ferro, C hurch Administrator 232 E ast O nondaga Street Syracuse, N ew Y ork (315) plymouthsyr.org office@plymouthsyr.org 8