General Synod 34 Closing Worship
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PRELUDE
“Our Common Home, This Planet Earth” 
*Planting of Seeds and Watering taking place 
Our common home, this planet earth requires our common care
This gift of God is meant for all to use protect and share
The earth supports a web of life in which we take our place
It’s food and water air and light sustain the human race
	
But now the earth is in distress from our pursuit of gain
If we consume our planet home, what profit will remain
If we ask more than earth can give and use more than we need
Our common future is at risk endangered by our greed

What we do now affects the earth beyond the present day
Concern for those who follow us can help us find our way
God, help us bend our common will to right our common wrong
That ages hence may sing your praise for earth restored and strong
Words and Music by Barbara Hamm

CALL TO EXPRESSIVE ADORATION (w/movement) 
[demonstrated movements center downstage]
Leader: Then, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. God is making all things new, Open up our hearts (Movement A)

All: God is making all things new, Open up our hearts (Movement A)

Leader: : The Spirit brings us to see God’s glory shining from the mountain top. God is making all things new, Help us do our part (Movement B)

All: God is making all things new, Help us do our part (Movement B)

Leader: The glory of God is a light to the nations, the people of God bring their splendor and sight. God is making all things new, Let this be our start (Movement C)

All: God is making all things new, Let this be our start (Movement C)

Leader: Come to the river, Gather ‘round the Tree, Dance in the Grass, Plant a few seeds. The God of abundance is setting us free!

All: God is making all things new, 
Open up our hearts (Movement A) 
Help us do our part (Movement B) 
Let this be our start (Movement C)

OPENING SONG—Open The Eyes of My Heart Lord 
Open the eyes of my heart, God
Open the eyes of my heart
I want to see You
I want to see You

To see You high and lifted up
Shinin' in the light of Your glory
Pour out Your power and love
As we sing holy, holy, holy

High and lifted up
Shinin' in the light of Your glory
Pour out Your power and love
As we sing holy, holy, holy
Words and Music by Michael Smith 

INVOCATION 
Pt. 1 (Sung in Chant-like form w/ movements)

Cantor: God has come to dwell with us. Open up our hearts (Movement A)

All: God has come to dwell with us. Open up our hearts

Cantor: Holy City, New Jerusalem, Help us do our part (Movement B)

All: Holy City, New Jerusalem, Help us do our part

Cantor: Wipe each tear from every eye, Hold us as we walk towards truth, You are making all things new. 

All: Open up our hearts.
Help us do our part. 
Open up our hearts.

Cantor: Dios ha venido a morar con nosotros, en cada corazón.
Todos: Dios ha venido a morar con nosotros, en cada corazón.
Cantor: Ciudad santa, Jerúsalen nueva, ayúdanos a cambiar.
Todos: Ciudad santa, Jerúsalen nueva, ayúdanos a cambiar.

Cantor: Seca el llanto de cada ojo, llévanos a buscar tu verdad, haces nuevas todas las cosas,

Todos: En cada corazón.
Ayúdanos a cambiar.
En cada corazón.

Pt. 2 (Spoken)
Leader: God of the new heaven and the new earth, 
God of ages past, of the soil of ancestors who have become soil,
You need no invocation for you are already and always dwelling with us—
Emmanuel—in times of uncertainty
Emmanuel—in times of reconciliation
Emmanuel—in times of resolution
Your angels surround us, guiding us to unpolluted rivers 
Ushering us to healthy trees full of unstrange fruit that multiply.
We come to meet you where you meet us—
Here, in this place, flesh that weeps, laughs, and dances on your grass.
We will worship you, in spirit and in truth. 
Amen.

WELCOME/PASSING OF THE PEACE 
United Church of Christ Siblings, welcome! Welcome to worship as you are and as you have been made new through this gathering of the church. 

Let us share the peace of Christ with one another now. As we do so, we acknowledge that some shake hands, some smile or nod, some speak words, some share a hug. Share the peace of Christ as it is most welcomed by the recipient as an offering of kinship and hospitality. 

Peace be with you!

[passing of the peace among the body accompanied by instrumental music]

INVITATION TO GENEROSITY

We believe in the God of justice and righteousness, and God believes in us to carry forth the mission of loving and caring for community. We share our gifts and resources so that we may continue to walk humbly with God and with neighbors.

Friends, we have gathered here to Make All Things New, and one important way to do that is to support the development of new ideas, new theologies, new ways of doing and being. And some of the people best positioned to make these new things are those marginalized by society, as they understand the necessity of change.

The Fannie Lou Hamer Scholarship Fund for Disabled Theologians of Color is a new scholarship offering from the UCC Disabilities Ministries Board. It seeks to support people who are disabled and Black, indigenous, or people of color in their pursuit of theological education on any level. Fannie Lou Hamer was a Black disabled civil rights leader and community organizer who advocated for intersectional justice, using her faith to energize and motivate her activism. Hamer strove for a world where all people have the things they need to live and thrive, but the health costs of white supremacy and poverty took her life too soon. She had so little time to live into the rights and freedoms she fought so hard to give to others, and we will never know what other gifts she could have given this world. What other gifts are the world and the church missing because BIPOC disabled folk do not have what they need to survive, thrive, and live into their call?

This scholarship aims to address some of this need, and to support the development of theology at the intersection of disability and race. Your gifts today will help to Make All Things New, for the theologians who will receive these scholarships, and for the church as a whole as we seek to live into anti-racism and disability justice. Friends, may our gifts testify to the church we wish to be, and the church we hope to become. 

On the screen is the QR code for today’s offering.  You can point your cell camera at the code and it will bring you to the website where you can make your donation online.  You can also choose the text to give feature by texting your gift to the displayed number.  If you prefer to write a check there are baskets at the back of the plenary hall in which to place your checks following worship.

Song
I Choose Love
In the midst of pain, I choose love, In the midst of pain, I choose love
In the midst of pain, sorrow falling down like rain
I wait the sun again I choose Love, I choose Love

In the midst of war, I choose peace, In the midst of war, I choose peace
In the midst of war, hate and anger keeping score, I will seek the good once more, 
I choose peace, I choose Peace
When my world falls down, I will rise, When my world falls down I will rise
When my world falls down, explanations can’t be found
I will climb to holy ground, I will rise, I will rise  

In the midst of pain, I choose love, In the midst of pain, I choose love
In the midst of pain, sorry falling down like rain
I wait the sun again I choose Love, I choose Love
Words and Music by Mark Miller 

PRAYER OF DEDICATION 
For the wondrous ways this offering will bless this community and the world, We dedicate these gifts. For the ways it’ll help us be witnesses to God’s love and compassion. We dedicate these gifts. Let this offering, and the works of our hands and feet, help us do a new thing with God and with community in this world. Amen. 

INVITATION TO TRANSFORMATION
Reads Isaiah 43:18-19
Do not remember the former things
    or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing;
    now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert.
God, we come to acknowledge the ways we have distanced ourselves from your vision of a new, more just world. In the silence, we seek to make a commitment to transformation, not for our own personal gain but for the sake of communal wholeness and liberation.

Moment of silence

Let us pray:
God, we confess that we have often placed our hope in heavenly ponderings
Instead of in the power that works in us on earth.
We have spent much of our journey looking above 
when you have come to dwell with us right here.
We have focused so much on a future paradise 
That we have forgotten to care for the soil beneath our feet.
Forgive us for the times we stood looking for rescue 
when we were called to be the rescuer. 
Forgive for the times we were seduced by myths of scarcity
Neglecting to share your abundance with our neighbors.
When we have lost our way, remind us of yours.
Holy Spirit, fall fresh on us again, so that we can bear witness 
To mighty works of God through Christ in the world.  

WORDS OF ASSURANCE
CAntor: God forgives. Now, we must live. Open up our hearts (Movement A)

All: God forgives. Now, we must live. Open up our hearts.

Cantor: Grace abounds, and love surrounds us. Help us do our part (Movement B)

All: Grace abounds, and love surrounds us. Help us do our part.

Cantor: She’ll wipe each tear from every eye, and Hold us as we walk towards truth. God is making all things new. 

All: Open up our hearts.
Help us do our part. 
Let this be our start. 

Cantor: Dios nos perdona, concede la vida, en cada corazón.
Todos: Dios nos perdona, concede la vida, en cada corazón.
Cantor: Tu gracia abunda, tu amor nos circunda, ayúdanos a cambiar.
Todos: Tu gracia abunda, tu amor nos circunda, ayúdanos a cambiar.

Cantor: Secará el llanto de cada ojo, y nos llevará a buscar su verdad. Dios renueva todas las cosas,

Todos: En cada corazón.
Ayúdanos a cambiar.
Ayúdanos a empezar.

SERMONIC SONG – Moving Forward
Oh, hey, what a moment You have brought me to?
Such a freedom I have found in You
You're the healer who makes all things new, yeah, yeah, yeah

I'm not going back, I'm moving ahead
Here to declare to You my past is over in You
All things are made new, surrendered my life to Christ
I'm moving, moving forward, oh

You have risen with all power in Your hands
You have given me a second chance
Hallelujah, hallelujah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, oh

I'm not going back, I'm moving ahead
Here to declare to You my past is over in You
All things are made new, surrendered my life to Christ
I'm moving

Not going back, moving ahead
Here to declare to You, my past is over in You
All things are made new, surrendered my life to Christ
I'm moving, moving forward
Said I'm moving forward, oh yeah

You make all things new
Yes, You make all things new and I will follow You forward, 
You make all things new
You make all things new and I will follow You forward

Words and Music by Ricardo Sanchez and Israel Hougton

SCRIPTURE READING 
SERMON 

RITUAL OF TRANSITION  – Cameron Barr, John Dorhauer, Karen Georgia Thompson
--Handing off of plant bulb from outgoing president to incoming president at the table

Cameron: The act of transition is a natural part of life’s course. We transition from infant to toddler, from toddler to child to adolescent to younger adult to older adult. We transition in our vocations and in our relationships. From life to death is a transition. From day tonight is a transition. It is not so much that things end—it is that there is always a beginning happening simultaneously, and if we are fortunate, we get to usher in transition beautifully with sacred care, and with hope.

Tonight marks the beginning of a transition. 
(John receives the plant.)

John Dorhauer has served this church faithfully. He had dedicated himself to the work of justice and radical love. He has helped to plant many seeds in many gardens for which we have yet to see the fruit. Yet, there is work to be done. There are new visions and new ideas that are waiting to be born. There is a new garden waiting to be grown. This plant is not so much a symbol of what is being handed over, but a symbol of the sacred opportunity that Karen Georgia Thompson will have to make things new, with God’s help and the help of God’s hand and feet.
(John hands the plant to Karen Georgia.)

Church, let us commit ourselves to the fruitfulness that will come, to the tilling that will be needed, as we await the dawning of a new day in God’s garden.

REMARKS – John Dorhauer

SENDING
CAntor: God be with us as we scatter. Open up our hearts (Movement A)

All: God be with us as we scatter. Open up our hearts (Movement A)

Cantor: Watch and keep us, guide us, hold us. Help us do our part (Movement B)

All: Watch and keep us, guide us, hold us. Help us do our part (Movement B)

Cantor: May your face shine on us now. May we never forget your truth. You’ll keep making all things new. 

All: Open up our hearts.
Help us do our part. 
Let this be our start. 

Cantor: Dios nos reúne y ahora envía, en cada corazón.
Todos: Dios nos reúne y ahora envía, en cada corazón.
Cantor: Guárdanos, guía, ampara, vigila, ayúdanos a cambiar.
Todos: Guárdanos, guía, ampara, vigila, ayúdanos a cambiar.

Cantor: Brille tu rostro sobre tu pueblo, busquemos siempre tu verdad. Haces nuevas todas las cosas,

Todos: En cada corazón.	
Ayúdanos a cambiar.

BENEDICTION – Karen Georgia Thompson

CLOSING SONG – “We Are a People of Hope” 
We are a people of hope, We are a people of hope
Lighting a candle, we wait for the dawn We are a people of hope

We are a people of peace, We are a people of peace
Lighting a candle, we work for the dawn We are a people of peace

We are a people of love, We are a people of love
Lighting a candle, we welcome the dawn We are a people of love

Christ is the light of the Word, Christ is the light of the world
Lighting a candle we witness the dawn, Christ is the light of the world

We are a people of hope we are a people of hope,
Lighting a candle we wait for the dawn
Lighting a candle we work for the dawn
Lighting a candle we welcome the dawn
Lighting a candle we witness the dawn
We are a people of hope.

RECESSIONAL  
– Christ Candle recesses

GS Closing Worship written by Mia McClai with editorial support by Cheryl A. Lindsay for General Synod 34 and use by UCC local churches.