Liturgies from Below - UK Edition. Carvalhaes, Claudio
Glasgow, Scotland
Janet Walton, Professor Emerita of Worship, Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY
Thomas R. Whelan, associate professor of liturgical theology; visiting lecturer, St Patrick’s University College, Maynooth, Ireland
Ging Chai (Irene) Wong
YongJiang Zhou, East Theological Seminary in Shanghai, China
Reach Toward One Another
See page 31 to read We Extend Our Arms to One Another, which inspired this artwork.
INVOCATIONS, CALLS TO WORSHIP, GATHERING PRAYERS
Come If You Are Willing
Come, if you are willing.
Come into this place, but be prepared to find yourself sitting next to your worst enemy.
Come into this place, but be prepared to find yourself offering prayer with someone whose values and way of life revolt you.
Come into this place, but be prepared to find yourself.
Be prepared to find in yourself dark places, dark thoughts, that you would prefer to remain unacknowledged.
Be prepared to live in a world that can never match your memories of what it used to be, or dreams of what it might be.
Be prepared to know you are loved, but be prepared also for the outrageous news that every other human being is loved no more and no less, no matter what you or they do.
Come, if you will, but be prepared for an uncertainty that will not quickly be resolved, for a discomfort that will not easily be salved, for a hunger that will not willingly be satisfied.
Come, if you are willing.
We Extend Our Arms to One Another
Leader: consider inviting participants to extend their arms to God and one another.
The grace of God be with the oppressed, the poor, the marginalized, and the groaning creation.
We open our arms, for it is right and good to extend our arms to one another.
Come Unto Me
Consider adding a trumpet sound before each stanza.
Come unto me you who are depressed
And you who are oppressed
Come unto me you who are hungry
And you who are angry
Come unto me you who are unemployed
And you who are underemployed
Come unto me you who are anxious
And you who are bitter and frantic
Come to the place of blessings
Where you will find respite, peace, and joy
Call to Worship as Asylum-Seekers
We gather to seek asylum from a world that sets neighbor against neighbor.
We gather to seek asylum from the temptation to draw and enforce boundaries that mean we can describe other people as not our problem.
We gather to seek asylum from a worldview that values us primarily as consumers, as wealth-generators, as units of production and consumption.
We gather to seek asylum from the binaries that bind and constrain us.
We gather to seek asylum from the very church(es) in whose name we gather, in which orthodoxy and hierarchy have been tools of oppression and abuse.
We name ourselves as asylum-seekers.
We pray that in our seeking, we may create that asylum for which we yearn.
We pray that, starting here, starting now, our seeking may crack open the empires that we resist and turn away from so that the whole world may be transformed into a place of safe asylum for all.
Sacred Wind, Come Blow on Us
Sacred wind, come blow on us
Let us feel your presence
Holy Earth anchor us
Nourish our frames
Illuminating fire burn ever brighter
Reflect your truth
Life-giving water
Restore and baptize us
Amen
Out of the Depths We Cry
The Lord calls us to worship.
Come!
Remember the cries of those who come from the depths of the sea.
Leader: Out of the depths we cry to you, oh Lord!
Join your hearts with God’s people
who have had to pay their
way toward freedom.
Leader: Out of the depths we cry to you, oh Lord!
Let your ears be attentive to those who have drowned,
those who have escaped from violence, and
those who have fled discrimination.
All: Out of the depths we cry to you, oh Lord!
—Adapted from Psalm 130
Calling Together
Hear God’s people!
You shall love God with all your heart,
with all your soul and with all your might.
Hear God’s people!
Love God truly. And your neighbor as yourself.
Hear God’s people!
God is great.
There is no God but God.
God has spoken through the prophets.
But We Are . . . Kyrie Eleison
We praise mammon with shouts of joy
But we are mute for justice
kyrie eleison
We see the color of currency
But we are blind to the pain of the poor
kyrie eleison
We hear the gospel of prosperity
But we are deaf to the groans of the earth
kyrie eleison
Come