ORDER OF SERVICE- Environmental Sunday of CSI -12 th June 2016 THE PREPARATION VESTRY PRAYER Come let us worship God the source and fount of life, in whose goodness the created order is sustained and by whose generosity the entire created order live and flourish. SILENCE God of our days and our nights, God of our hopes and our aspirations, God of our yesterdays and our today, God of our waking and our sleeping, We wake up once again to see your glory all around us. Come to us in the radiance of goodness. Come to us in the splendour of your love. Come to us in the fullness of your grace. Come to us yet again. AMEN. OPENING HYMN/LYRIC Let us all join together with the creation in singing Hymn/Lyric no.. PRAYER FOR PURIFICATION O God, who created and sustains us with the goodness of food and water, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hid, by the inspiration of Your same Spirit, that brooded over the waters and created life out of chaos, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts, that we may perfectly love You and Your creations and worthily magnify Your holy name in union with them; through Christ our Lord, AMEN. ADORATION Gloria in Excelsis (In Unison): (As in the CSI Book of Common Worship) Or Gracious God, we look at the entire creation they proclaim the wonder of Your creative power. You have made everything so beautiful and everything so good. The created order is a demonstration of your presence in our midst and it is a expression of your nature to feed and sustain the creation. We praise you O Gracious God. Compassionate God, You have not only created us and the rest of creation. You sustain us with the goodness of food. There is so much of food all around for the entire creation to live and flourish. We praise and adore you for your Son Jesus Christ who for us has become the bread of life. All those who feed on him may have New Life. We adore you O Compassionate God. Loving God, we give You thanks and praise for Your Holy Spirit who from before creation have been brooding over the waters, with great power raises people to be leaders who will see the world with the eyes of God, who opens our eyes to the truth about life that we may appreciate and value and preserve all that you have created. We praise and thank you O Loving God. OUR LORD S SUMMARY OF THE LAWAND THE PROPHETS (As in the CSI Book of Common Worship) 1
CALL TO CONFESSION Dearly beloved in Christ, by the Word of His mouth everything was created and through His Body and Blood, everything was redeemed. We have come together to hear this holy Word and to receive this Body and Blood. Let us therefore, kneel and examine ourselves in, silence, seeking God s grace that we may draw near to Him with repentance and faith. All kneel. After a period of silence the celebrant continues CONFESSION Merciful Father, a world you created so full of life is now filled with so much of death such as the death of peoples, communities, various species, forests and glaciers. A world of plenty for so many people and for so many other fellow species is now becoming a world of deprivation. Nearly 852 million people across the world are hungry. Every day, more than 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes--one child every five seconds. Forests are destroyed; lakes are converted into housing plots by greedy land grabbers. Agricultural fields of the villages which used to produce food for millions are now fast converted into industries and lands remain desolate, the birds of the air about which our Lord Jesus Christ marveled now die of hunger. You have created a wonderful world for us, we want to create another where only the rich will live, you gave us enormous resources to sustain life of all creation, in the name of science and technology and advancement we pollute the air, the water and the land. Like how we crucified your Son Jesus Christ, we are crucifying your creation on the cross of our selfishness, thoughtlessness and greed. Silence Then the Celebrant stands and reads Hear the gracious Word of God, to all who turn to Him through Jesus Christ, the First born of all creations, God loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD. (Ps. 33:5) The LORD is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made... The LORD is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made." (Ps. 145:9, 13) The Lord will surely comfort Zion and look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. (Isa. 51:3) Through Him God was pleased to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross. (Col. 1:20) ABSOLUTION (Silence) 2
May the God who is always compassionate on people who repent of their sins have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, re-create our minds, our science and technology, our businesses and trade, our theology and our faith and help us to value all that God has provided to sustain the entire created order. Congregation : Amen, thanks be to God. The Peace of the Lord be with you. Congregation: And also with you. THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD OF GOD COLLECT Gracious and Almighty God, we thank you for the gift of life and for the resources for life that you have mercifully entrusted to us, Grant us grace to become aware of the dangers that our planet is facing and to be nourished by the bread of life Jesus Christ that we may always be satisfied and not be greedy or exploitative through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit one God now and forever. AMEN. SCRIPTURE READING Gen. 1: 28-31 Ps.104 Lk.1:22-31 Rev.22:1-5 HYMN/LYRIC SERMON NICENE CREED INTERCESSION We pray for the peace and well being of the entire creation, bringing before God the well being of God s creation. We pray for presidents, prime ministers and heads of governments that a new eco friendly political culture should emerge all over the world. That every decision and action of governments should aimed at checking global warming and seek the well being of the planet. We pray for all endangered species of the world, for those who are working hard to avoid extinction of several species. 3
We pray for the leaders of the Churches, especially Most Rev.G Dyvasirvadam, the Moderator of the Church of South India, Most Rev. P.K Samantroy, the Moderator of the Church of North India,Most Rev. Joseph Marthoma, the Metropolitan of the Marthoma Church, all the Bishops of the Church of South India, particularly. Our Bishop,..., our Presbyter, that their teaching and preaching may inspire the church to be concerned about the food crisis that is gripping the planet and work to recreate the ailing system of life. We pray for activists and organizations campaigning and struggling to seek justice for the earth s resources and for the well being of the planet. We pray for people who are living below the poverty line and all those who are forced to be estranged from nature and be deprived of food. We pray for the well being of oppressed communities and displaced communities who are struggling to live with dignity. We pray for people who are facing religious persecution, who are living under oppressive regimes, who are living in areas of unrest, war and conflict. We pray for all those who have died due to hunger and disease, for those who are dying due to unfair economic policies and diseases due to industrial pollution. Gracious God have mercy on us and hear our prayer for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ the bread of life. AMEN. PRAYER OF DEDICATION: (To be repeated after the Presbyter) We dedicate ourselves to seek life for ourselves and the entire creation. We dedicate ourselves to liberate ourselves from the delusion of modernization and technology and in the power of the Holy Spirit discover a new way of living that will protect the integrity of creation and the well being of God s creation. We dedicate ourselves to become people who value food as the right of all that in our abundance we will not waste food but become a people share our resources with people who are deprived and are poor. We dedicate ourselves to become a Eucharistic community and deal with the earth s resources sacramentally and strive for the well being of the entire created order. AMEN. FIRST BENEDICTION Presbyter: May the Grace, Love and Peace of our Triune God, be with us, now and forever more. AMEN THE BREAKING OF THE BREAD 4
( The worship service from here shall be as in the CSI Eucharist Liturgy. Along with the offertory and Bread and Wine, it will be meaningful if we could offer a tray of flowers with other signs of God s goodness in creation, and placed on the altar) BENEDICTION May the God the Father of life give us grace to live our lives responsibly, May God the Son Jesus Christ the bread of life nourish us to see God in every part of creation, May God the Holy Spirit empower us to change our attitude of life, The Blessing of the Triune God be with us and bless us and the entire creation. AMEN. CLOSING HYMN Department of Ecological Concerns of CSI Synod- email: csi.oikos@gmail.com 5