Round Hill Community Church

Round Hill Community Church

ORDER OF SERVICE February 8, 2015 Fifth Sunday after Epiphany PRELUDE Concerto in C Major, Hob VII, No. 1 Haydn Brianna Tam, Cello WORDS OF WELCOME INTROIT CALL TO WORSHIP Leader: We gather this morning for worship, tender with personal concerns and brittle from the bruising of the world. All: We come searching for meaning and hungry for peace. Leader: We pray from personal longings and in intercession for all God s children; we share our hopes and doubts; we offer gifts and celebrate healing. All: May we receive God s unexpected blessings, exalt God s holy name and taste God s love. *HYMN No. 23 Verse 1 All Verse 2 Choir Verse 3 All Verse 4 Soloist Verse 5 All Praise, My Soul, the God of Heaven * The congregation is invited to stand

*OPENING PRAYER God of all trust, may we who confess your faith prove it in our lives, with abundant joy outrageous hope and dependence on nothing but your word alone, through Jesus Christ. Amen. *THE LORD S PRAYER 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 trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass 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 and ever. Amen. *GLORIA PATRI Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

CHILDREN S MESSAGE Children may now leave for Church School The Rev. Lynne Kramer SCRIPTURE LESSON Exodus 5:1 Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Let my people go.. SPECIAL MUSIC Cello Suite, No. 3 in C Major J.S. Bach Prelude SCRIPTURE LESSON Mark 1:14-21 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news. As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, Follow me and I will make you fish for people. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him. SERMON The Search for the Beloved Community The Rev. Dr. Ed Horstmann

*HYMN You Are Salt for the Earth, O People Haugen OFFERING Invitation Offertory Prayer Anthem Jubilate Deo B. Britten Psalm 100, pg. 481 in the pew Bibles *Doxology Praise God from whom all blessings flow; praise him, all creatures here below; praise him above, ye heavenly host: Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. *Hymn No. 720 O Beautiful for Spacious Skies (verse 1) PASTORAL PRAYER *HYMN No. 683 O for a World CHURCH PRAYER Our Heavenly Father, shed forth thy blessed spirit upon all our lives. Make each one of us an instrument in thy hands for good. Purify our hearts, strengthen our minds and bodies, fill us with Christian love. Let no pride, no self-conceit, no rivalry, no ill-will ever spring up among us. Make us earnest and true, wise and prudent, giving no just cause for offense and may thy holy peace rest upon us this day and every day throughout the coming week, sweetening our trials, cheering us in our work, and keeping us faithful to the end, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

OFFERING Invitation Offertory Prayer Anthem Jubilate Deo B. Britten Psalm 100, pg. 481 in the pew Bibles *Doxology Praise God from whom all blessings flow; praise him, all creatures here below; praise him above, ye heavenly host: Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. *Hymn No. 720 O Beautiful for Spacious Skies (verse 1) PASTORAL PRAYER *HYMN No. 683 O for a World CHURCH PRAYER Our Heavenly Father, shed forth thy blessed spirit upon all our lives. Make each one of us an instrument in thy hands for good. Purify our hearts, strengthen our minds and bodies, fill us with Christian love. Let no pride, no self-conceit, no rivalry, no ill-will ever spring up among us. Make us earnest and true, wise and prudent, giving no just cause for offense and may thy holy peace rest upon us this day and every day throughout the coming week, sweetening our trials, cheering us in our work, and keeping us faithful to the end, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

CHORAL RESPONSE Hineh mah tov, Umah naim, Shevet ahim Gam yahad. Behold how good, And how pleasant it is, For brethren to dwell Together in unity. POSTLUDE Cello Suite in C Major J.S. Bach Gigue ROUND HILL COMMUNITY CHURCH MISSON STATEMENT We, the members of the Round Hill Community Church, a selfgoverning, non-denominational body, seek to foster a community of faith where people of all ages and backgrounds pursue spiritual growth; where God is worshipped in Word and praised in music; where friends are made and hurts are healed. We seek to be a community where individuals commit their time are resources to education, fellowship, and to helping those in need among our Church family and in the broader world. We are a church where faith, hope, justice and love are valued, and above all, Jesus is Lord. ROUND HILL COMMUNITY CHURCH CREED I believe in God, the one universal Father of all mankind, revealed supremely in Jesus Christ, our Lord, and present with us to guide, comfort and inspire in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Kingdom of God; and in the mission of the Christian Church to proclaim the Gospel to all the world, exalting the worship of the Lord our God, and laboring for the progress of knowledge, the promotion of righteousness, the reign of peace, and the realization of human brotherhood. United in Christian love, we pray and labor for the coming of the Kingdom, the triumph of righteousness and the life everlasting. Amen.

CHURCH NEWS Thank you to Martina Halsey and Craig DeMott for ushering today. We thank Julia Boysen and Kathryn Payne for hosting Coffee Hour today. Please join them in the Parlor following worship. Today, we welcome Brianna Tam, principal cellist of the Greenwich High School Orchestra who will play works by Haydn and J.S. Bach as part of our Youth Music Series. Please join us this afternoon at 4pm in the Sanctuary for a presentation by John Bell on the The Power of Congregational Singing. John Bell is a native of Kilmarnock, who lives in Glasgow, where he studied Arts and Theology. After spells of volunteer work in London and Amsterdam, and engagements in student politics, he was ordained by the Church of Scotland. For ten years he worked in youth ministry before transferring to concentrate on music and worship. He lectures, preaches, and conducts seminars across the denominations in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and in Southern Africa. He is a hymn writer, author, and occasional broadcaster on national radio and television, but retains a primary passion for congregational song. This event is designed to help our congregation explore, and re-discover, the power of congregational singing. We hope to learn new hymns and tunes that we can incorporate into our current experience of worship. We will explore some new ways of approaching and singing the hymns that are most familiar to us (e.g. by adding a variety of instrumental music, or discovering the influence of the unaccompanied human voice). This should prove to be a fascinating examination of the power of music and song.

All single women of the Round Hill Community Church and their single friends are invited to our next meeting to be held in the church parlor next Saturday, February 14th from noon-2pm. Please bring a lunch and beverage. Send RSVP s to church@roundhillcommunitychurch.org or call the office at 203-869-1091 if planning to attend. The weekly Meditation Group meetings will resume this Thursday, February 12. On Sunday, February 15 at 11:30 a.m., in conjunction with the Icons of the Civil Rights Movement exhibition, Professor Randy Williams will share with us his life experience as a Black American. He maintains two careers, one as an active visual artist and another as an educator developing new methods of presenting the visual arts in colleges, universities, schools, and museums. A professor of Studio and Art Education at Manhattanville College, Williams is also an instructor and educational consultant to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Jewish Museum, the Neuburger Museum, and he is the Artistic Director of the New York State Summer School of the Visual Arts.

REFLECTIONS Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don t have to have a college degree to serve. You don t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others. Faith is taking the first step even when you can t see the whole staircase. The ultimate measure of a human being is not where he or she stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but what we stand for at times of challenge and controversy. - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr What God does first and best and most, is to trust people with their moment in history to do what must be done for the sake of the whole community. - Walter Brueggemann

Senior Minister: The Rev. Dr. Edward G. Horstmann Pastoral Associate: The Rev. Lynne S. Kramer Minister Emeritus: The Rev. Dr. Ralph Ahlberg Interim Music Director: Eugene Sirotkine Church School Coordinator: Connie Blunden Round Hill Community Church 395 Round Hill Road, Greenwich, CT 06831 203.869.1091 roundhillcommunitychurch.org