General Synod 34 Opening Worship
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Prelude Congregational Hymn “Sing  New World Into Being”  Mary Louise Bringle Tune 

Lyrics:
Sing a new world into being. Sound a bold and hopeful theme.
Find a tune for silent yearnings. Lend your voice and dare to dream:
Dream a church where all who worship find their lives and loves belong.
Sing a new world into being. Sing as Christ inspires your song!
 
Sing a new world into being where each gender, class and race
Brings its rainbow gifts and colors to God’s limitless embrace:
Where the lines that once divided form instead the ties that bind.
Sing a new world into being: risk transforming heart and mind.
 
Sing a new world into being where the homeless find a home,
Where no children ever hunger but are filled in God’s Shalom:
Where all people work for justice, where all hate and vengeance cease.
Sing a new world into being: raise the harmonies of peace.
 
Sing a new world into being, join the ancient prophets’ cry
For a time of health and plenty, when all tears have been wiped dry:
When compassion flows like waters, pouring balm for all who grieve,
Sing a new world into being: live the promise you believe!

Credit Line: Sing a New World into Being: Mary Louise Bringle Tune Hymn To Joy Ludwig Van Beethoven, © © 2006, GIA Publications, Inc.; All rights reserved. Reprinted/Streamed under ONE LICENSE #A-719582

Call to Worship (from Genesis 1, CEB)
Read by four voices. Final paragraph in unison.

First Voice: In the beginning when God began to create, 
Second Voice: 	God said “let there be light”
Third Voice: 	God said “let the dome separating the waters be called sky.”
Fourth Voice: 	God said “let the dry land appear.”
Third Voice: 	God said “let the earth grow plant life.”
Second Voice: 	God said “let there be lights in the dome of the sky.”
Fourth Voice::	God said “let the waters swarm with living things; let birds fly above the earth.”
Third Voice:	God said “let the earth produce every kind of living thing: livestock, crawling things, wildlife.”
Second Voice:	God said “let us make humanity in our own image.”

First Voice: And that’s what happened. 
And it was good, good, so good, so very good.  God saw how good it is.

Gathered from east and west, from north and south, 
from churches, conferences and associations, 
gathered with the memory and blessing of our ancestors, 
we come to worship, to create, to celebrate, to confess,
to sing, to share, to praise the living God 
who is good, good, so good, so very good!

Processional (with music) – from Prayground
Gifts of light (candles), soil, water, cedar, sage, sweetgrass, tobacco, flowers, other plants are brought forth
Processional “Siyahamba”
Lyrics:
Siyahamb' ekukhanyen' kwenkhos',
Siyahamb' ekukhanyen' kwenkhos',
Siyahamb' ekukhanyen' kwenkhos',
Siyahamb' ekukhanyen' kwen-,
yen' kwenkhos',

Siyahamba, hamba,
Siyahamba, hamba,
Siyahamb' ekukhanyen' kwen-,
yen' kwenkhos'.

Siyahamba, hamba,
Siyahamba, hamba,
Siyahamb' ekukhanyen' kwen-,
yen' kwenkhos'.

We are marching in the light of God,
We are marching in the light of God,
We are marching in the light of God,
We are marching in the light of,
The light of God,
We are marching, marching,
We are marching, marching,
We are marching in the light of,
The light of God,
We are marching, marching,
We are marching, marching,
We are marching in the light of God

We are marching in the light.
We are lifting up the light.
We are holding up the light
We are praying in the light 
We are dancing in the light
We are marching and lifting and holding and praying and dancing
We are marching in the light repeat
We are marching in the light of God

Prayer of Gathering – podium stage left	Third Voice
Gracious, eternal, holy, holy, holy God,
God of our ancestors, God of our children and their children, God of the generations,
In the beginning you created, and it was good. You stirred us out of the deep, formed us out of the soil, bathed us in creation’s waters, fashioned us in your image, called us to be a blessing. As we open this General Synod we remember those who walked before us, who paved our way to this time and place, and we say thank you to those saints and witnesses. With them, we gather now to continue to be the United Church of Christ. Bless the work of your church, gathered together again in embodied presence, gathered to praise and to worship, to prayerfully discern, to cry out for justice, to listen for your still speaking voice. May all that we say, all that we do, all that we discern in these days be done for your justice and your peace, and be done to your glory, in the name of the living, Triune God. Amen.

Land Acknowledgement	
As we gather in the name of our God who is good and very good, we confess that as God’s creatures the histories in which we have not been good to one another, in which we have not recognized all people as created in God’s image, in which ideologies of racism and colonization have infected our theologies, our practice, and our church. 

As we gather, thirty-fourth General Synod of the United Church of Christ recognizes that we gather on the traditional homelands of the Myaamiaki, Lenape, Bodwewadmik, and Saawanwa nations and people who stewarded this land since time immemorial, nations which were forcibly removed from the colonial state of Indiana. We remember and confess the streams of history in the United Church of Christ which were theologically complicit in the ideologies of colonization which made those removals possible. We commit again to our ongoing work to renounce the Doctrine of Discovery and theologies of colonization, to examine our relationships to the homelands and tribal nations in which our churches, associations, and conferences dwell, and to move from remembrance and renunciation to concrete, embodied, and ongoing reparative actions and repair of relationships with Native peoples and nations. 

Time for silent reflection, culminating in more drumming.

Prayer for Illumination – 		Second Voice
Eternal God,
	In the reading of the scripture, may your word be heard;
	In the meditations of our hearts, may your word be known;
In the faithfulness of our lives, may your word be shown.  Amen.

Scripture Readings – multiple voices from the four positions

	Isaiah 43: 1-3a, 5-7, 11-12, 19 CEB:
Third Voice
But now, says the Lord—
the one who created you, Jacob,
    the one who formed you, Israel:
Don’t fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
    when through the rivers, they won’t sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you won’t be scorched
    and flame won’t burn you.
3 I am the Lord your God,
    the holy one of Israel, your savior.
Fourth Voice
Don’t fear,
    I am with you.
From the east I’ll bring your children;
    from the west I’ll gather you.
6 I’ll say to the north, “Give them back!”
    and to the south, “Don’t detain them.”
Bring my sons from far away,
    and my daughters from the end of the earth,
7     everyone who is called by my name
    and whom I created for my glory,
    whom I have formed and made.
First Voice
I, I am the Lord,
    and there is no savior besides me.
12 I announced, I saved, I proclaimed,
not some stranger among you.
You are my witnesses, says the Lord,  and I am God.
Second Voice
Look! I’m doing a new thing;
    now it sprouts up; don’t you recognize it?
I’m making a way in the desert, paths[c] in the wilderness.

Listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
Thanks be to God. 

Sermon: “Making Room for the New” – Jamar Doyle,
President and CEO
The Council for Health & Human Service Ministries,
United Church of Christ

Music “Speak To My Heart” 
Speak to my heart, Holy Spirit
Give me the words that will bring new life
Words on the wings of the morning, the dark night will fade away
If You speak to my heart now

Speak to my heart, Holy Spirit
Message of love, love to encourage me
Lifting my heart from despair, how You love, love me, and care for me
Speak to my heart now, oh Lord

Speak to my heart, Holy Spirit
Give me the words that will bring new life
Words on the wings of the morning, the dark nights will fade away
Speak to my heart

Speak to my heart, Holy Spirit
Message of love to encourage me
Lifting my heart from despair, how You love me and care for me
Speak to my heart

Speak to my heart, that's what I want You to do
Speak to my heart, 'cause I'm waiting to hear from You
Speak to my heart, that's what I want You to do
Speak to my heart

Speak to my heart, Lord, give me Your holy word
If I can hear from You, then I'll know what to do
I won't go alone, I'll never go on my own
Just let Your spirit guide and let Your word abide, say

Speak to my heart, Lord, give me Your holy word
If I can hear from You, then I'll know what to do
I won't go alone, Lord, I'll never go on my own
Just let Your spirit guide and let Your word abide

Credit Line: Speak to My Heart, Donnie McClurkin © 2008, Verity Records/Legacy. All rights reserved. Reprinted/Streamed under CCLI #11417377.

Offertory 	Second Voice
	Because God is a God of bounty,
	Because God is a God of abundance,
	Because all good gifts come from God, who gives gifts in their season	
We return to God the fruits of our labors, the gifts of our work, a portion of what God has given us.

Fourth Voice
The World Communion of Reformed Churches, at its Uniting General Council, was urged by its member churches to work with issues of Indigenous People. This call was reiterated by the General Council of 2017. At that General Council, the WCRC was specifically called to work together as equal and mutual partners with Indigenous Peoples to guide and inform its processes and discernment. 

The WCRC is specifically committed to developing right relationships with Indigenous Peoples by initiating a study towards seeking repentance of wrongdoing, an apology, and a process leading to reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, including liturgical resources for use in churches and to work to theologically undermine doctrines of discovery. In its advocacy work, the WCRC is committed to working with the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People as a framework for developing relationships with Indigenous Peoples and to advocating with their governments to adopt the Declaration, and helping human rights agencies which support Indigenous Peoples as they struggle for
their rights.

Programmatically that WCRC is presently involved in a three-year study process that will, 
1. Continue critical analysis of unjust structures in the global context and its
implications for IP
2. Engaging in decolonizing liturgy and theology
3. Searching towards a transformative theological education relevant in the IP context

The study process will specifically look at 
1. Critical Analysis of unjust institutionalized structures and marginalization of
indigenous people
2. Engaging in the reconstruction of Indigenous Transformative Theology
3. Community Transformative Theological and Ministerial Formation

Second Voice	Your gifts to this offering will benefit  the work of the World Communion of Reformed Churches in developing right relationships with Indigenous Peoples. Your gifts demonstrate our collective commitment to restoration and repair. Your gifts demonstrate our communal participation in the kindom of God. Give in generosity and hope. 

Third Voice 	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.

	Prayer of Dedication (extemporaneous by First Voice)

Closing Song “God Has Work For Us To Do” by Mark Miller 
Till all the jails are empty and all the bellies filled,
Till no one hurts or steals or lies, and no more blood is spilled
God, has work for us to do, God has work for us to do
Till God’s will is done and all things are made new, 
God has work for us, work for us to do

Till age and race and gender, no longer separate,
Till pulpit press and politics are free of greed and hate
God, has work for us to do, God has work for us to do
Till God’s will is done and all things are made new, 
God has work for us, work for us to do

In tenement and mansion, in factory, farm, and mill,
in board room and in billiard hall, in wards where time stands still. In classroom, church, and office, in shops, or on the street,
in every place where people thrive, or stave, or hide, or meet. God has work for us to do.

By sitting at a bedside to hold pale, trembling hands,
by speaking for the powerless against unjust demands.
By praying through our doing, and singing though we fear, by trusting that the seed we sow will bring God's harvest near: God has work for us to do, 'til God's will is done and
all things are made new,
God has work for us to do!

Credit Line: God Has Work for Us to Do, Mark Miller © 2012, Choristers Guild. All rights reserved. Reprinted/Streamed under ONE LICENSE #A-719582

Benediction – Jamar Doyle

GS Opening Worship written by Stephanie Perdew PhD with editorial support by Cheryl A. Lindsay for General Synod 34 and use by UCC local churches.