March 12, 2023
WELCOME TO ST ANDREW’S ON THE TERRACE
PRELUDE
CALL TO WORSHIP
The Lenten journey continues:
we walk with Jesus this path of danger and risk;
along the way we are meeting with others,
those who walked the path with him as we do now:
Jesus himself in desert conditions, dazzled disciples, an estranged
Samaritan, a man born blind and his family, and two grieving sisters;
and then the usual Holy Week crowd;
a motley company of people much like us,
different time and place, but our common humanity the same.
All are welcome as we walk this Lenten path together
SILENCE
GATHERING
Each new day opens to us new doors of potential and hope.
Each new day offers us new challenges, new calls to commitment,
fresh possibilities for deepening our faith.
In worship we hear the challenge voiced,
gain strength for the tasks ahead, and learn to grow in faith.
Let us worship the One we name God.
PROCESSIONAL HYMN CH4 172 ‘Sing for Gods glory’
Words: Kathryn Galloway
Tune: LOBE DEN HERREN
1. Sing for God’s glory that colours the dawn of creation,
racing across the sky, trailing bright clouds of elation;
sun of delight
succeeds the velvet of night,
warming the earth’s exultation.
2. Sing for God’s power that shatters the chains that would bind us,
searing the darkness of fear and despair that could blind us;
touching our shame
with love that will not lay blame,
reaching out gently to find us.
3. Sing for God’s justice disturbing each easy illusion,
tearing down tyrants and putting our pride to confusion;
lifeblood of right,
resisting evil and slight,
offering freedom’s transfusion.
4. Sing for God’s saints who have travelled faith’s journey before us,
who in our weariness give us their hope to restore us;
in them we see
the new creation to be,
spirit of love made flesh for us.
WELCOME
E te whānau a Te Karaiti,
Ngā mihi aroha ki a tātou katoa.
Kia ora tātou.
Talofa lava
Talofa.
OPENING PRAYER
For our community gathered here,
for the spirit that called us together and drew us to this place:
we give thanks this day.
For moments we have shared with others;
for times when we have reached out across barriers
of distance and fear; for times when others have reached out to us;
for moments when we have discovered another along our path:
we give thanks this day.
For this community of celebration and growth,
introspection and solitude, and for those moments of
‘that peace which passes all understanding’:
we give thanks this day.
For our gathering together out of distant places;
for our weaving together out of many separate selves
this hour of celebration and worship:
we give thanks this day.
JESUS PRAYER Jim Cotter paraphrase
Eternal Spirit
Life-Giver, Pain-Bearer, Love-Maker,
source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
loving God, in whom is heaven:
the hallowing of your name
echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed
by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done
by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test,
strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory
of the power that is love, now and for ever.
Amen.
LIGHTING THE RAINBOW CANDLE
We light the rainbow candle as a sign of our inclusivity and for our children.
PASSING THE PEACE
Traditionally we shake hands to pass the peace and say “peace be with you.” Now that COVID-19 is here we ask that you pass the peace without shaking hands.
THE WORD IN TEXTS Lynne Dovey
Hebrew Bible Exodus 17:1-7
New Testament Reading John 4:5-42
Contemporary Reading ‘A Psalm on Living Water’ (responsive)
from WomanWord by Miriam Therese Winter (adapted)
You are like a mountain spring,
O Fountain of Living Water:
I sip from the deep down freshness
of your never-failing Love.
You are like a summer rain,
O Sudden Benediction:
drench my soul and quench
my thirsting spirit with your Peace.
You are like a raging sea,
O Storm upon my Ocean:
breaking to bits my fragile bark
as I learn to tack the waves and current.
You are like a waterfall,
Oasis in my desert:
Source of my heart’s survival
in the press and stress of life.
You are like a cleansing flood
River of reconciliation:
Washing away any selfish
self-serving signs.
You are like a bottomless well,
O Cup of Life-giving Water:
full up to overflowing.
Praise be, Shaddai.
RESPONSE
For the Word in scripture,
for the Word among us,
for the Word within us,
we give thanks.
HYMN AA 77 ‘Jesus comes to me as a Springtime Tree’
Words: Joy Cowley
Music: Ian Render; Tune: JOY
1. Jesus comes to me as a springtime tree
and I receive him as a springtime tree.
Fragrant the blossoming of the child,
fresh with laughter, free and wild,
and carrying the green of summer.
2. Jesus comes to me as a summer tree
and I receive him as a summer tree.
Warm in the sun and richly laid
with patterns of growth through light and shade,
and carrying the fire of autumn.
3. Jesus comes to me as an autumn tree
and I receive him as an autumn tree.
Season of ripeness, brightly ablaze
like a torch in the quietness of closing days
and carrying the wood of winter.
4. Jesus comes to me as a winter tree
and I receive him as a winter tree.
Gentle the cross and gentle the snow,
gentle the path where he and I go,
carrying the buds of spring.
REFLECTION ‘Breaking down barriers’ Rev Dr Fei Taule’ale’ausumai
HYMN IECS 28 ‘COME CELEBRATE THE WOMEN’
Words: Shirley Murray
Tune: ELLACOMBE WOV277
1. Come, celebrate the women
who brought the Church to birth!
the gentle revolution
that shall transform the earth:
whose faith was salt and leaven,
whose hearts and minds were free,
and this was their direction —
to peace and unity.
2. The teachers, saints and mothers
who lived and died unsung
kept safe the gospel story
and taught it to the young;
the Christ child Mary cradled,
the living Word to be,
was crucified for pleading
this peace and unity.
3. Daughters of the disciples,
you weave the story still,
the fabric of the future
with warmth and love and skill,
you make the bread of wholeness,
the wine of harmony —
and all shall share your feasting
in peace and unity!
OFFERTORY MUSIC
OFFERING HYMN ‘Willing Hands’
Tune: Duke Street WOV 24
Willing hands, to lead the blind,
heal the wounded, feed the poor.
Love embracing all our kind,
charity with liberal store.
OFFERING PRAYER
For the gifts we receive and the gifts we share
we give thanks.
For the abundant universe, with resources enough and to spare
we give thanks.
May our offerings of money and food, compassion and goodwill,
be multiplied to those who receive them
blessing them, as we are blessed to give. Amen
We recognise and bless the gifts brought to the table, and those which wing
their way electronically from our banks to the church’s account.
LIFE IN THE COMMUNITY OF ST ANDREW’S
People share notices and visitors are welcomed. If you have a notice, please move to the front row, ready to speak briefly from the lectern.
For the benefit of newcomers, please introduce yourself before you begin.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE Johan Van der Merwe
CIRCLE OF PRAYER
We think today of the people of Algeria and the Protestant Church of Algeria. We hold all refugees in our hearts and pray in particular for those who are still detained in Nauru. We give thanks for recent progress and pray that their calls for justice might yet be answered with compassion. In New Zealand, we remember those in Parliament, and today we name Tim van de Molen (Waikato) and Brooke van Velden (List). Here in the Central Presbytery we pray for the leaders and people of St John’s in the City Presbyterian Church Wellington.
PRAYER FOR ST ANDREW’S
Renew your people, God,
and renew our life in this place.
Give us a new spirit of unity
with all who follow the Way of Jesus
and new bonds of love
with people of other faiths.
Bless the city in which we live
that it may be a place
where honest dealing,
good government,
the desire for beauty,
and the care for others flourish.
Bless this church
that what we know of your will
may become what we do,
and what we believe
the strong impulse
of our worship and work.
Amen
HYMN WOV 561 ‘Kneels at the feet of his friends’
Words: Tom Colvin (c. 1965) and people of Ghana; Music: Ghana Folk Melody
1. Kneels at the feet of his friends,
silently washes their feet:
master who acts as a slave to them.
Refrain:
Yesu, Yesu,
fill us with your love,
show us how to serve
the neighbours we have from you.
2. Neighbours are rich and are poor,
neighbours are black and are white,
neighours are nearby and far away.
Refrain:
Yesu, Yesu,
fill us with your love,
show us how to serve
the neighbours we have from you.
3. These are the ones we should serve,
these are the ones we should love,
these are neighbours to us and you.
Refrain:
Yesu, Yesu,
fill us with your love,
show us how to serve
the neighbours we have from you.
4. Loving puts us on our knees,
serving as though we were slaves:
this is the way we should live with you.
Refrain:
Yesu, Yesu,
fill us with your love,
show us how to serve
the neighbours we have from you.
BLESSING
God go with you in creation.
Christ go with you as your company
and may the Holy Spirit give you hope and peace.
SUNG BLESSING FFS 29 ‘God speed you on your way’
Words by Shirley Erena Murray, © Hope Publishing
Tune: STAFFORD
1. God speed you on your way,
safe keep you ev’ry day,
give you wing, cause to sing–
all this we wish and pray.
2. God give you space to thrive,
all senses kept alive,
health and hope, means to cope,
joyfully to arrive.
3. God lead you to the new,
places and points of view,
paths to take, friends to make,
more life to travel through!
SUNG AMEN
POSTLUDE
THANK YOU Bruce Corkill,
our musician today
THANK YOU
Write the Thank You here