WELCOME TO ST ANDREW’S ON THE TERRACE

Today’s service is led by Rev. Catriona Cairns

GATHERING                                                                                  Craig Mitchell (adapted)

 

Welcome to worship here
Whether you’re from Kāpiti, Khandallah, Newtown or the Hutt,
Whether you’ve been rushing this morning or started the day calmly,
Whether you have favourite seats or you’re here for the first time

Here, we can be community.

 

We are nine years old, twenty-nine and nearly ninety
We grew up with the wireless and wireless Internet
We love gardening and poetry, basketball and hip hop,

Here, we can be community.

 

We are straight and queer and all in-between
We are in all kinds of relationships, individual and together
We seek honest friendship and true belonging

Here, we can be community.

 

We have more questions than answers
We know what to expect, yet we have no idea
We have much hope and a little faith

Here, we can be community.

 

Let us worship together.

 

PROCESSIONAL HYMN FFS 10(i) ‘Come and find the quiet centre’
Words © 1992 Shirley Erena Murray
Music : Gaelic traditional melody arr. John Bell 3 verses
Come and find the quiet centre
in the crowded life lead,
find the room for hope to enter,
find the frame where we are freed:
clear the chaos and the clutter,
clear our eyes, that we can see
all the things that really matter,
be at peace, and simply be.

Silence is a friend who claims us,
cools the heat and slows the pace,
God it is who speaks and names us,
knows our being, touches base,
making space within our thinking,
lifting shades to show the sun,
raising courage when we're shrinking,
finding scope for faith begun.

In the Spirit let us travel,
open to each other's pain,
let our loves and fears unravel,
celebrate the space we gain:
there's a place for deepest dreaming,
there's a time for heart to care,
in the Spirit's lively scheming
there is always room to spare!
WELCOME
Kia ora tatou.
Kia ora.
OPENING PRAYER
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
TIME WITH THE CHILDREN Graham Howell
BLESSING THE CHILDREN (All stand)
We send you to the Rainbow Room to hear stories, ask questions and have fun together.
We bless you. Amen.
PASSING THE PEACE
Traditionally we shake hands to pass the peace and say “peace be with you”. The response is “peace be with you, or “and with you.” You can also simply say hello. Now that COVID-19 is here, we are all asked to take precautions again transmission. We invite you to try different methods of greeting each other. For example, place both hands together in the prayer position and bend head towards the other person, place a hand on one’s upper chest and a slight bow slightly to acknowledge the other. Feel free to simply observe if you wish.
THE WORD IN TEXTS Bronwyn White
Hebrew Bible: Genesis 32:22-31 ‘Jacob wrestles at Peniel’
Gospel: Matthew 14:13-21 ‘Feeding the five thousand’
 
Contemporary reading: From “The Velveteen Rabbit’ by Margery Williams

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
RESPONSE
For the Word in scripture,
for the Word among us,
for the Word within us,
we give thanks.
REFLECTION ‘Wrestling our way to wholeness’ Rev. Catriona Cairns
OFFERING PRAYER (said together)
Like the disciples we sometimes feel we have little to offer, and that what we have won’t make a difference.
We bring our gifts and ourselves in the trust that together our intentions and energy will multiply, and bring justice and joy to others.
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.

HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT Lynette Burrell
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 Mike Wespel-Rose
CIRCLE OF PRAYER
We think today of the people of Belgium and Luxembourg and the United Protestant Church of Belgium. We remember the detainees of Manus and Nauru Islands, yearning that their cases be resolved. In New Zealand, we remember those in Parliament, and today we name Damien O'Connor (West Coast-Tasman electorate) and Greg O'Connor (Ōhāriu electorate). Here in the Central Presbytery, we pray for the leaders and people of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Hastings and from the worldwide church for the the Protestant Methodist Church of Benin.
PRAYER FOR ST ANDREW’S

Renew your people, God,
and renew our life in this place.
Give us a new spirit of unity
with those of all faiths,
and a new spirit of love
towards all people.

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
INVITATION TO COMMUNION
St Andrew’s is an open community and all are invited to Christ’s table.
Wherever you are on your faith journey, wherever you have come from and wherever you are going to, whatever you believe, whatever you do not believe, you are welcome to participate in the communion. This is God’s meal for all people.
 
COMMUNION HYMN FFS 17 ‘For everyone born, a place at the table’
Words: © 1998 Shirley Erena Murray
Music: © 1998 Colin Gibson (Hope Publishing) 5 verses

For everyone born, a place at the table,
for everyone born, clean water and bread,
a shelter, a space, a safe place for growing,
for everyone born, a star overhead,
and God will delight when we are creators
of justice and joy, compassion and peace:
yes, God will delight when we are creators
of justice, justice and joy!

For woman and man, a place at the table,
revising the roles, deciding the share,
with wisdom and grace, dividing the power,
for woman and man, a system that's fair,
and God will delight when we are creators
of justice and joy, compassion and peace:
yes, God will delight when we are creators
of justice, justice and joy!

For young and for old, a place at the table,
a voice to be heard, a part in the song,
the hands of a child in hands that are wrinkled,
for young and for old, the right to belong,
and God will delight when we are creators
of justice and joy, compassion and peace:
yes, God will delight when we are creators
of justice, justice and joy!

For gay and for straight, a place at the table,
a covenant shared, a welcoming space,
a rainbow of race and gender and colour,
for gay and for straight, the chalice of grace,
and God will delight when we are creators
of justice and joy, compassion and peace:
yes, God will delight when we are creators
of justice, justice and joy!

 
For everyone born, a place at the table,
to live without fear, and simply to be,
to work, to speak out, to witness and worship,
for everyone born, the right to be free,
and God will delight when we are creators
of justice and joy, compassion and peace:
yes, God will delight when we are creators
of justice, justice and joy!
COMMUNION LITURGY Rex A E Hunt (adapted)

Welcome to the Table...
At this table we give thanks for justice, love, peace and freedom.
At this table we give thanks for friends and strangers
together in community in this safe place.
At this table we welcome old and young.
A place at the table.
And all are invited.

We give thanks for the unfolding of matter,
mind, intelligence, and life
that has brought us to this moment in time.
We celebrate our common origin with everything that exists.
We celebrate the mystery we experience and address as ‘God’,
ground and sustainer of everything that exists,
in whom we live and move and have our being.
And we acknowledge this mystery embodied
in every human person,
aware that each one of us gives God
unique and personal expression.
God is everywhere present.
In grace-filled moments of sharing.
In carefully created communities of loving solidarity.
We are one with everything, living and nonliving, on this planet.
Connected.
Interrelated.
Interdependent.

We remember the stories from our tradition...
How on many occasions Jesus would share a meal with friends.
Bread and wine, the very basics of life, shared in community.
For everyone born, a place at the table...
How the bread would be taken,
a blessing offered, and then shared between them.
And all of them ate.
How some wine would be poured out,
a blessing offered, and then passed between them.
And all of them drank.
A time of concern, conversation and celebration.
The bread and the wine symbolised human lives
interconnected with other human lives,
and the power of giving and receiving.
For everyone born, a place at the table...
This is the cup of peace and of new life for all.
A sign of love for the community of hope.
A reminder of the call to live fully,
to love wastefully, and
to be all that we can be.

You are invited to come to the front of the church and receive the wine, or grape juice, and then the bread, or a gluten-free cracker.
Or, remain in your seat to be served if mobility is difficult.
If you don't wish to receive communion, please remain in your seat – we’re glad you are here with us.

We give thanks that we have
gathered together in this sacred place,
and been refreshed at this table.
We rejoice in the wholeness of each person here.
We are grateful for who we are for each other.
May we go forth into the world in courage and peace.
HYMN FFS 14 ‘Faith has set us on a journey’
Tune: Austria WOV 374(1) Words: Shirley Murray © 3 verses

Faith has set us on a journey
past the landmarks that we know,
taking risks with no insurance
but the Word that tells us "go!"
Friend or job or home or lover
we may need to leave behind,
outworn truths and ways of thinking,
baggage to the past consigned.

 
Some are swags of easy conscience
who with others hitch a ride,
some are tourist-package Christians,
dollar-safe, with Book and guide.
There are others on this journey --
those who long and pray and search,
heave the stones to free the structures,
love the Christ and leave the Church.

We are this unlikely people
in the Body knit as one,
company of clowns and cripples --
some are wise and some can run.
Prophets are our travel agents,
gospel-makers lay this road:
to the place of peace and promise
faith will take us into God.
BLESSING
We go from this place into our week
Changed, a seed of transformation planted deep within us,
So in our conversations and actions, thoughts and dreams,
May we know more deeply the presence we call God,
Soothing and disturbing us,
A blessing to make us whole.
SUNG AMEN
POSTLUDE Prelude in C major (BWV 553) by J.S. Bach (1685 – 1750)