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Gospel Liturgy's Sunday morning

Since we’ve come “back around” to tbe beginning of the section entitled “Morning Family Worship” we get a rubric . . .

The formulas for “Sunday-Schools and Families,” pages 128-135, may be substituted for the following

Thou, Lord, seest us in the silent darkness, and art with us in the deathlike solemnity of sleep. When we awake we are still with Thee; and now that the light of day is all around us, may the light of Thy countenance shine shine so vividly within us, that nothing we behold, or think of, may cloud the glory of Thy presence.

Thou hast hallowed a day of rest from labor, that man, coming away from the din and hurry of life, might sanctify the hours in the quiet of meditation, and be listed into communion with heaven. Mercifully incline us to the appointed blessing, and enable us to say into all worldly cares and anxieties, Be still, and know that this day is the day of the Lord.

We give Thee heary thanks for the continued protection and bounty of Thy providence; for all our personal and domestic comforts; for all temporal favors; and for all our religious aspirations.

Especially do we praise Thee for the guidance and hope of divine revelation. Thou hast given us Thy holy word, as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night; and though we walk in a world of mystery, we are assured that there is no element at work in it, which is unknown to Thee, or beyond Thy control.

Lord, give unto us the believing mind and the prayerful heart. Enable us truly to revere Thee, that we may fully walk in the way of Thy heavenly law: enable us fully to trust Thee, that our souls may enter into the promised rest.

¶ All unite in the Lord’s Prayer. ¶ Scripture lesson. ¶ One of the Prayers on pages 60-62.

  • Gospel Liturgy, p. 141.
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Having no words to pray, I sang

As my regular readers know, I pray morning and evening prayer each day, and it helps me keep a sense of moral direction in these very disquieting days. Last night, with more news from Iraq and the vioence in Gaza, I gave up trying to pray the evening office, even though it has enough of a comprehensiveness to relay my feelings of “The President is a violent moron; help him, Lord” and “Guilty or innocent, the treatment of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib is going to plan new violence” and so forth. But violence was the constant them.

That, rather than the failing of rite, led me to make my evening prayer in song. So taking a cue from all those Friday lists of “what’s in your I-Pod” here were the hymns I sang, with a rough indication of why I sang them:

  • For the people of the United States: “Comfort, Comfort Ye My People”

    • Comfort, comfort ye my people, /
    speak ye peace, thus saith our God; /
    comfort those who sit in darkness, /
    mourning ‘neath their sorrow’s load; /
    speak ye to Jerusalem /
    of the peace that waits for them; /
    tell her that her sins I cover,
    and her warfare now is over

  • For those brutalized in Iraq, Gaza, and elsewhere: “Lift, Thy Head, O Zion Weeping” (Hymn of the Hungarian Galley Slaves)

    • Though in chains thou now art grieving, / Though a tortured slave thou die, / Zion, if thou die believing, / Heaven’s path shall open lie. / Upward gaze and happy be, / God hath not forsaken thee, / Thou his people art, and surely / He will fold his own securely.

  • For those in authority: “O God of Earth and Altar”

    • O God of earth and altar, / bow down and hear our cry, / our earthly rulers falter, / our people drift and die; / the walls of gold entomb us, / the swords of scorn divide, / take not thy thunder from us, / but take away our pride.

  • For clarity: “O Strength and Stay, Upholding All Creation”

    • Grant to life’s day a calm unclouded ending, / An eve untouched by shadows of decay, / the brightness of a holy deathbed blending / With dawning glories of the eternal day.

  • For courage: “Eternal Ruler, of the ceaseless round”

    • Oh, clothe us with thy heavenly armor, Lord, / thy trusty shield, thy sword of love divine; / our inspiration be thy constant word, / we ask no victories that are not thine; / give or withhold, let pain or pleasure be; / enough to know that we are serving thee.

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Gospel Liturgy's Saturday morning

Note: this would be a good prayer for a funeral, perhaps matching the Saturday when Jesus was in the grave.

Evermore, O Lord, hast thou made the outgoings of the morning to rejoice; yet day follows day into darkness, and night after night passes away for ever. Friend after friend departs into Thine invisible presence, and we are left among the living and visible things of the earth, for a purpose to be fully satisfied hereafter.

Merciful Father, prepare us by Thy grace for the fulfilment of Thy wise design. And grant that in the fleeting show of tiem and sense, we may so number our days as to apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Enable us, O Lord, to set Thee always before our eyes, and to discern Thee in all Thy wonderful ways. In the midst of our busiest pursuits and of our best enjoyments, we may remember that we are strangers and pilgrims in the earth; and while we look for the better country, may we so use the world as not abusing either it or ourselves. Walking trustfully, may we devote the strength and length of our days to the highest service, and peacefully pass into the heavenly rest.

¶ All unite in the Lord’s Prayer. ¶ Scripture lesson. ¶ One of the Prayers on pages 60-62.

  • Gospel Liturgy, p. 145.
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First anniversary

This blog is now one year old. (Since I was self-coding between May and August, you can’t search for the earliest entries.) I can’t believe it has only been one year, but what an eventful one it was.

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Gospel Liturgy's Friday Morning

Blessed Father, in whom is the well-spring of all our joys: Day unto day uttereth speech of Thine; night unto night showeth knowledge of Thee. We close our eyes under Thy protection: we open them to behold Thy goodness. O let us never forget from whom all blessings flow; and may gratitude for Thy favors be exalted in devotional trust.

Thou art the Father of Mercies, and only in Thee can we find what we need, to awaken our best powers, and to satisfy our spiritual longings. Thou art the Fountain of living waters, and apart from Thee there is no life nor refreshment to the soul.

Enable us, O Lord, to grow daily in knowledge of Thy truth and grace, that we may press on to higher victories over the world, and over ourselves. Direct us, we beseech Thee, in all our endeavors, and mercifully bring us to Thyself, through the paths of pleasantness and peace.

¶ All unite in the Lord’s Prayer. ¶ Scripture lesson. ¶ One of the Prayers on pages 60-62.

  • Gospel Liturgy, p. 144.
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Anglicans 1, Lutherans 0 (for Universalism)

I had heard that Universalism was condemned by the last of the Church of England’s Forty-Two “Articles of Religion” of 1553 but I had never seen the offending plank. I had heard, correctly, that it was removed when the articles were recast as the Thirty-nine Articles that (some) Episcopalians know and love today. (Some of these were later rendered void in the United States.)

See Articles of Religion of 1553 and 1572 compared.

XLII. All men shall not bee saued at the length.

Thei also are worthie of condem­nacion, who indeuoure at this time to restore the dangerouse opinion, that al menne, be thei neuer so vngodlie, shall at length bee saued, when thei haue suffered paines for their sinnes a certaine time appoincted by Goddes iustice.

Of course, we all know about the denunciation of Universalism in the Lutheran Augsburg Confession of 1530, right. I suppose it is still there: article seventeen. Of course things were rockier in those early days of the Reformation. (The Arians and Muslims get it in article one.)

They condemn the Anabaptists, who think that there will be an end to the punishments of condemned men and devils.

Who are you calling a devil?

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Sweet revenge

Philocrites notes in his Texas’ taxes.

You’re no doubt disappointed that we UU bloggers are coming late to this story. Boy in the Bands plots revenge, but I merely noted the story two days ago in my Scrapbook.

My idea of revenge would be twenty new Unitarian Universalist congregations in Texas, and a legal defence fund for the Dennison (and other) churches.

Oh, and perhaps enlisting as many non-Unitarian Universalists in Texas to make their objections known. I remember my profs (in my seminary in Texas) once saying that he stood up for the disadvantaged and that the causes he supported needed the help of while, Protestant, male clergy, just to show the powers-that-be that “people like them” were involved in making a change.

Yes: this works from racist and sexist assumptions, but they are the assumptions of those misusing their power, not the ones of those demanding their rights.

So, like the straight people in Massachusetts who support and defend the rights of same-sex couples to marry (thank you) we need some friends in Texas to rock the world of those who think that we are immaterial and easy to dismiss.

You may call that revenge if you will. (I do have a flutter of glee at the thought of tough-minded Texas Baptist pastors, workig from a strong sense of principle, defending us in public, for instance.) But I would call it community building, too.

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How purple is our cow?

Darren at the LivingRoom writes about ‘Purple Cow’ Church, and think aloud how the Church can be distinct in order to be seem.

Is that what we (Unitarian Universalists) are doing when we make ourselves out to be so precious and twee? I don’t like it, but perhaps it give us “market share” by being distinctive. Sort of a “there is no bad press” assumption. (And this follows a week when we’ve gotten very good press.)

As a Christian, I usederstand and accept the existance of different communions and denominations (but not their division and mutual hostility) because through our distinctive gifts, that is, our particularity, we make the Church Universal catholic, this is, plenary and full.

I’m not sure what role peculiarity has for Unitarian Universalm qua “non-Christian religion” though? And that, in part, is why our quaintly addled folkways (as lampooned on The Simpsons for instance) annoy me so much.

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Gospel Liturgy's Thursday morning

With glory to Thee, O Lord, very morning should begin, and every evening should close. What have we that is not Thine! Alas that a world so full of Thy mercies, should be so empty of Thy praise!

Lord, increase our faith, strengthen our hope, and enlarge our charity.

Teach us to watch over our ways, that temptation may never be able to suprise us; and do Thou so keep us in Thy fear and love, that sin may never obtain the dominion over us.

May no prospect of worldly advantage, not any dread of worldly loss, ever lead us to swerve from Thy commandments; and whatever be Thy will, with respect to the good things of this life, be pleased to put gladness in our hearts, through a living trust in Thy holy word.

¶ All unite in the Lord’s Prayer. ¶ Scripture lesson. ¶ One of the prayers on pages 60-62.

  • Gospel Liturgy, p. 144.