Dear all,
As you have no doubt heard, churches will be permitted to re-open for public worship as of February 7. Unfortunately, that’s a Monday so we’ll have to wait for the following Sunday to gather in-person again. That means that for tomorrow (January 30) and February 6 we will continue with Zoom-only services. But as of Sunday, February 13, we will resume our previous pattern of a hybrid in-person service with a live musician which will also be Zoomed. Until we hear differently, we will continue to maintain physical distancing and wear masks.
Tomorrow’s service is focused on Paul’s great hymn to love in 1 Corinthians 13. Love, in popular culture, is associated with romance and that is wonderful. But there are other forms of love, too, including the love that Paul here speaks of. The Greek congregation he is writing to is a vain and competitive bunch, elbowing each other for status and recognition and honour in the newly formed church. They’re still operating with Greek assumptions about human excellence and merit as being the basis of worth and social recognition. This has led to great rivalry and it split the church into factions. In order the heal the divisions, Paul points them the “a more excellent way” of God’s love, a love which has its own beauty and points in a very different direction than romantic love.
Barry
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Time: Jan 30, 2022 @ 11:00 a.m.
Here is the order of worship.
SUNDAY, January 30 2022
Prelude:
Call to Worship
Hymn # 386: “Come down, O Love divine”
Prayer of Adoration
Prayer of Confession
Declaration of Grace
Responsive reading: Psalm 138:1-8
Jeremiah 1: 1-10 (The Message)
Anthem: Based on Psalm 138
1 Corinthians 12: 12- 13: 13
Hymn # 695: “Although I speak with angels’ tongue”
Meditation: “All you need is love?”
Hymn #696: “In suffering love”:
Offering
Offertory: “Ubi caritas” (Taizé)
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession
Hymn: “Where charity and love prevail”
Benediction
Postlude: