Each Sunday we post online worship resources when Tier 4 restrictions only allow 20 people to attend church. We provide these to stay in touch and stay safe.
The links to the hymns can be accessed by clicking on “Click here” beside the hymn title. These take you to Youtube and we have no control over the adverts you see.
The prayers are taken from the Church of Scotland Weekly Worship.
Opening prayer
Even if we cannot gather in person
Emmanuel, God with us
Even if some Christmas traditions have had to go
Emmanuel, God with us
Even if we might not get to hug family and friends
Emmanuel, God with us
Even if we cannot sing carols beside each other
Emmanuel, God with us
Even if Christmas cheer is harder this year
Emmanuel, God with us.
Amen
The First Hymn:
O come, O come, Immanuel Click here
Prayer of Reflective confession
The world turns and we find our space in it.
The sun and the moon brighten short days and the long nights.
Light in the darkness. Hope for the world.
We turn to the North, to our home spread before us.
Where the pandemic divides us into haves and have-nots,
Where deep loneliness sits alongside community,
Where poverty rises: seen and unseen.
We are a part of this
We turn to the West, to the structures of power.
Where the currency of climate is too high a price for ‘progress’,
Where belonging means gender and skin colour and borders,
Where wagers of war sneer at brokers of peace.
We are a part of this
We turn to the South, to the home of the poorest.
Where healthcare and water and schooling are denied,
Where communities flee homelands threatened by climate and conflict,
Where locusts plague harvests and households and hope.
We are a part of this
We turn to the East, to the child in the stable.
Where an outcast young mother carried hope for the world,
Where light shone in the darkness for those weary of waiting,
Where God came among us, before us, behind us.
We are a part of this
In the here and the now, in the when and not-yet,
We are one with our neighbours nearby and afar.
We are holders of hope, bearers of the promise
The Kingdom of God, incarnate through us.
Made possible by your Son
Who taught us to say,
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 debts,
as we forgive our debtors
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever.
Amen
Bible Reading: Mark 13:24-37 Click Here
The Reflection: Click Here
The Second Hymn: Hark the Glad Sound Click here
Prayers of Intercession
Listening God,
We thank You that You are God with us,
That we can glimpse Your Kingdom around us
That we can see signs of You in our world
That we can be part of Your story.
God, we wait and we listen;
We hope for what is not seen
Shine the light of Your kingdom
Into the darkness of our world
Listening God,
Will You come into the darkness of today’s world?
To the places where once You walked among us
But are now places of despair, conflict and occupation.
Be with those whose stories we have heard
And the countless others whose voices are silenced.
Help us to be a voice of peace,
To speak out against oppression
To share the real Bethlehem with others this Advent.
Bring Your wisdom to a situation which seems to have no end.
God, we wait and we listen;
We hope for what is not seen
Shine the light of Your kingdom
Into the darkness of our world
Listening God,
Will You come into the darkness of our community?
To the people living with fear and worry
To the people whose Advent is not full of joy
To the people needing support
Open our eyes to the situations all around us that we do not see
And open our minds to the ways we can respond.
God, we wait and we listen
We hope for what is not seen
Shine the light of Your kingdom
Into the darkness of our world
Listening God,
Will You come into the darkness of our lives?
To our human doubts and failings
The times we do not live out our faith
The situations we have not used our power to change.
Help us to be as open to you as You were to us
When You were as vulnerable as a baby
Trusting in the world for Your safety.
Show us glimpses of Your Kingdom
Help us to hear Your story
Reveal to us our part in Your Advent Hope.
God, we wait and we listen
We hope for what is not seen
Shine the light of Your kingdom
Into the darkness of our world. Amen
Prayers from Ethiopia
We seek Your blessing God
Let the youth become strong
and the grown man maintain his strength,
the pregnant woman be delivered
and the woman who has given birth suckle her child.
Let the stranger come to the end of his journey
and those who remain at home dwell safely in their houses.
Let the flocks that go to feed in the pastures return happily.
May You be a moon of harvest and of calves.
May You be a star of joy and of happiness.
May You be a night of restoration and of good health.
Amen
Closing Hymn: Make Way, Make Way Click here
Closing Blessing
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you may abound in
hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” Romans 15:13
May you abound in the hope of the prophets, imagining another way
May you abound in the hope of a mother, singing revolution
May you abound in the hope of an infant, the incarnation of love
May you abound in the love that builds hope this day and evermore
And may you have a hopeful Advent and a comforting Christmas.
Amen
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