Introduction to Worship for 9/10/2017

Season of Creation:

For the next six weeks, we will observing a season of Creation. Each week there will be special activities that are designed to deepen our connection to the particular focus of the day, including centers where you can light a candle and pray, pick up a coloring picture, design and color a rock, and other activities that are suitable to the theme.

September 10: We will celebrate the connections of all creation to our Creator, using one of the psalms of celebration that invites all things and beings to join the hymn of praise.
September 17: We’ll focus on growing things and on the human relationship to crops and forests, fields and trees.
September 24, “Water” Sunday: We will consider the water cycle and the ways in which water is life.
October 1, World Communion Sunday: We will be thinking and praying about the nations and generations of humanity, created in God’s image and beloved by God, as we celebrate the sacrament and commit to the healing of our world.
October 8: We’ll celebrate our relationship to animals, and we will have a blessing of the animals- in pictures only, but thanking God for the enriching presence of our pets as well as those who roam free in the world.
October 15: We will tell again the story of creation, and think about our calling to be stewards—what it means to be partners with God in caring for the earth.

Be sure to bring or send us a photo of your pets—past, present, or future—to use on October 8 (bonus points for pictures that show you and your pet together). If you email us a digital copy, we will print it for use in the display.

Reflections

Our Scripture Lesson this week is Psalm 148.

When have you felt humble awe and joyful wonder as you looked at (or heard, or felt) God’s creation?
What is the most beautiful place you have ever seen?
Choose one facet of creation that you love—birds, trees, weather, soil, water, light, children, sex, aging, sleep. Observe it, think about it, learn about it every chance you can. If that element of creation were your only Bible what would it tell you about God?

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