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All Hallows on the Wall farewell Eucharist liturgy

In this moment, we bring ourselves, and our day,

We gather our random thoughts, our scattered lives.

We bring the entirety of ourselves to this place of calm, this place of safety.

We seek sanctuary so that we can risk everything.

We ask for comfort

We ask for peace

We ask for love

We ask for hope

God of vast sky and boundless ocean,

Whose names cannot be numbered,

Who is other and beyond, whose mystery defeats calculation and tabulation.

We approach the unknown in awe and humility

God who is closer than breathing interwoven in creation

who inhabits our deepest desires,

who resides in every pulse

We welcome you as one who knows us and makes yourself known

God who is present in our suffering as well as our celebrations,

Who embraces the anxious, the poor and the broken

Who raises up the humble and judges the proud

Forgive our selfishness, warm our hearts, stir our generosity, provoke our anger.

 

Prayer:

Henri Matisse is rumoured to have said

That he’d only believe in a God

Who understood how to dance.

I believe you are the God of dance –

You are the God who moves in creation

You are interwoven throughout evolution

You are the God who dances at dawn

You are the sparkle of light

You are the rhythm of life

Moving in mysterious ways

I feel you dancing on the earth

I sense your whisper in the trees

I breathe your spirit on the wind

You are the rhythm of life

Moving in mysterious ways

But always dancing

You are the God who dances

 

Prayer of All Hallows on the Wall

 

Gratitude, praise,

hearts lifted high,

voices full and joyful …

these you deserve.

For when we were nothing,

you made us something;

when we had no name and no faith and no future,

you called us your children;

when we lost our way or turned away,

you did not abandon us;

when we came back to you,

your arms opened wide in welcome.

And look,

you prepare a table for us

offering not just bread, not just wine

but your very self,

so that we may be filled, forgiven,

healed, blessed,

and made new again.

You are worth all our pain

and all our praise.

So we join our voices

to those of the Church on earth and in heaven:

Holy, holy, holy,

God of power and might,

Heaven and earth are full of your glory,

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

Lord God,

as we come to share the richness of your table,

we cannot forget the rawness of the earth.

We cannot take bread and forget those who are hungry.

Your world is one world, and we are stewards of its nourishment.

 

Lord, put our prosperity at the service of the poor.

We cannot take wine

and forget those who are thirsty.

The ground and the rootless,

the earth and its weary people cry out for justice.

Lord, put our fullness at the service of the empty.

We cannot hear your words of peace

and forget the world at war

or, if not at war, then preparing for it.

Show us quickly, Lord,

how to turn weapons into welcome signs,

and the lust for power into a desire for peace.

 

We cannot celebrate the feast of your family and forget our divisions.

We are one in the spirit, but not in fact.

History and hurt still dismember us.

Lord, heal your church in every brokenness.

 

Among friends, gathered round a table,

Jesus took bread, broke it and said,

“This is my body

it’s broken for you.”

And later he took the cup of wine and said,

“This is the new relationship with God made possible because of my death.

Take this – all of you.”

O Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world.

Have mercy upon us.

O Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world.

Have mercy upon us.

O Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world.

Grant us your peace.

Look, look,

Here is your Lord coming to you in bread and wine.

These are the gifts of God

for the people of God.

Draw near with faith.

Lord Jesus you have put your life into our hands now we put our lives into yours.

Take us renew and remake us.

What we have been is past;

What we shall be, through you, still awaits us.

So receive the body of our Lord Jesus Christ which he gave for you,

and his blood which he shed for you.

 

Almighty God,

we thank you for feeding us

with the body and blood of your Son Jesus Christ.

Through him we offer you our souls and bodies

to be a living sacrifice.

Send us out

in the power of your Spirit

to live and work

to your praise and glory.

         Amen.

As we journey from this beautiful church – may our hearts be full of thankfulness for all we have domt_ignore:All Hallows on the Wallne here and may we go forward with renewed hope in our hearts for the next stage

May the Love which overcomes all differences,

Which heals all wounds,

Which puts to flight all fears,

Which reconciles all who are separated,

Be in us and among us

Now and always.

And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among you, and remain with you always.

Amen

        

 

© Garth Hewitt

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