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Join the Conference on March 24
7:15 - 8:00 EST 

(Previously advertised 7:15 pm – 8:00 pm Pacific Standard Time (PST) sessions are held only upon reservation.  Please contact Phyllis Richards at richardp@ucc.org by 5:00 pm the Tuesday before the scheduled session to make your reservation.)

Middle East and Europe Office for Global MinistriesRev. Dr. Peter Makari, Area Executive

Bulletin

Recipe

Gathering

Opening Hymns

(Sing in your own setting while signing in to OGHS Live!)
 All suggested hymns are from the New Century Hymnal
"God, Whose Giving Knows No Ending"  NCH  No. 565

"O How Glorious, Full of Wonder"               NCH  No. 558
"Talents and Tongues Employ"                  NCH  No. 347

Call to Worship

One:              In a world that seems random and chaotic, 

Many:            Know that the Lord is God. 

One:              We are not alone. 

Many:            It is God who made us. We are God's people. 

One:              God unites us one with another. 

Many:            All of us are the sheep of God's pasture. 

All:                Let us worship the One who cares for us so lovingly.  Amen.

 (2010 OGHS® Worship Resources www.ucc.org/oghs)

Prayer of Confession (One on behalf of All)

My debts are too numerous to count, but not so marvelous as your mercy. My sins are many, but small compared to your forgiveness.My transgressions are frequent, but your love for mankind vanquishes them all, powerful and almighty, The stains on my soul are too numerous for me to count, but for you they are very limited.

The weapons of sin produced by a miserable wretch like me are not so strong against life as the memory of your death, living Lord, for fending off the Destroyer. What effect can a small shadow have on the light of your day, God?  How can the dusk withstand your radiance, great God?

How can my unruly frail body be placed on the scales with the cross of your suffering? How does the mass of all the sins of the universe appear to your eye, Almighty, who made everything in abundance?

Are they not for you but a clump of earth that easily crumbles or a drop of rain that splatters in all directions and disappears at your command?

(Prayer by St. Gregory of Narek, translated from original Armenian

by Tom Samuelian in Speaking with God from the Depths of the Heart.)

Assurance of Pardon 

One:  Almighty God has forgiven you all your sins and has promised to bring you to everlasting life.

Many:  Amen.  Almighty God has forgiven you all your sins and has promised to bring you to everlasting life.

One:  Amen.

The WORD

Scripture Reading  John 21:  15-19

Offering Prayer of Dedication (ALL)

Into your hands, O God, we commit this your world, this your family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was content to be betrayed, and to suffer death upon the cross.  Into your hands we commit all the problems which seem insoluble, in sure and certain hope; for in you in our trust.  Here and now, we lay all in your hands, All love, all glory, be unto you, forever and ever.  Amen. 

(Praying for Unity, Edinburgh House Press, "With All God's People:  The New Ecumenical Prayer Cycle, p. 75)

Partnership Prayer

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move in every human heart, that the barriers that divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease, and that, with divisions healed, your people might live in justice and peace; We pray in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Churches for Middle East Peace, www.cmep.org/SharedJER/Worship_Resource.pdf)

Commissioning and Benediction  

One:  The Lord be with you.

Many: And also with you.

One: May the God of hope fill us with every joy in believing. May Christ's peace abound in our hearts. May the Spirit of unity and peace draw us together to eternal life.