Worship June 13, 2021

A Service of Worship for
June 13, 2021

And you whose spirit is sad and unsure,
try to remember the very best parts of your life,
the loveliest feelings in your body self,
occasions of bold delight and quiet confidence, moments of un-ambivalent commitment
and unrestrained joy.
Try to remember when you have believed passionately in something or someone human or divine.
Try to imagine that someone now believes in you
   because she trusts your loveliest feelings,
   commitments, confidence, joy.
She goes with us as we are called forth to go,
   with one another,
   evoked by historical memory and voices
   audible only to ears that can hear
the power of God in history.
Her name is love.

Carter Heyward

Worship Order

Worship notes are included at the bottom of this page and in the Worship Order located at the link below.

With this link you can make a donation to Covenant through PayPal or a credit card.

Adult Education:
For Sunday’s Adult Education, Karen Kline will tell he story of her spiritual journey, providing an opportunity for us to get better acquainted with a fully engaged member who joined Covenant shortly before the pandemic canceled our in-person services, but who has graced our worship services with her piano talent and our Adult Education program with her excellent ideas. Zoom in to learn about the journey that eventually brought her to Covenant.

Zoom link is available on the Online Gatherings page on our website: https://www.covenanthouston.org/covenant-gatherings.html

Full worship service video:

COFFEE TIME Gathering on Zoom
Today, 11AM
We will begin as a large group before we transition into “rooms" for coffee time.
Log in details on the Online Gatherings page.

Prelude
"Londonderry Gardens" by Charles E. Peery. The Bayou City Bells. David Lee, Director.

Call to Worship

Opening Sentences
In many ways, religion comes from
the same place in us that art comes from.
The language of human heart is poetry.
Music is the language of the spirit.
The metier of religious ideas is
parable, verse, and story.
All of our names for God are metaphor-
necessary license, approximation, and analogy.
Our sacred texts burn with the knowledge
and dare us to use all of our faculties of
intelligence and experience and creativity.
But we forget this; our fact and
argument obsessed culture is deaf to it, blind to it.

Scripture Lesson: Psalm 20

Hymn
"Too Often, God, Your Name is Used," Tune: Kingsfold Words: Thomas H. Troeger. The Covenant Singers. Karen Kline, piano.

Time for Children

Confession

Unison Confession
Human existence cannot be silent,
nor can it be nourished by false words,
but only true words, with which men
and women and people of all genders transform the world.
To exist, humanly, is to name the world,
to change it. Humans beings are not
built in silence, but in word, in work,
in action-reflection.

Music
"Study No. 8," by Antoine-Barthelemy Bruni. Jacy Grannis, viola.

Proclamation

Prayer

God,

You have many names.
I Am,
Mother,
Father,
Lover,
Holy,
Creator,
Presence,
Friend.

And you are beyond any name we may affix upon your Spirit.
   To be approachable, yet mysterious.
   To be available, yet elusive.

And for whatever name you choose to go by
or we choose to call you
We thank you
   and center our minds, hopes, thoughts, dreams, and concerns
   on you and the things that matter much in life.

For our world as we work to make your name known through our actions,
   hold us in your powerful hands,
make this Earth beautiful and clean,
   bring us together and
   remind us that all humans are members of your wonderful
   creation - without human-imposed conditions.

For our church -- longing to be together while respecting science's wisdom,
keep us focused on our work - to be examples of love,
   grace, openness and belonging,
   heal those among us who are sick,
comfort those of us who grieve,
   empower us for gathering once more to agents of
   change.

And for each of of us who hear and read this prayer,
   Surround us with peace.

In your name, and whatever name we choose to call you,
   we pray - Amen

Moses Mason

Invitation

Prayer of Dedication
May one image of God
never appease us.
May on word of the holy
never suffice.
May uncountable names
and limitless forms
of the infinite God
find and delight us.

Doxology

Affirmation of Faith
The community of believers
is the place where we learn
the language of faith, hope, and love.
The speech and gestures of worship beckon us
to dance between our woundings
at the edge of adventure
and experiences of bliss at the still center,
a rhythm of journeying and homecoming.

Benediction

Postlude
"Rhapsody," by Judy Phillips. Gina Dyches, violin. Marney Caldwell, percussion. David Lee, Director.

Worship Notes

The worship leader is Moses Mason.

The prelude and postlude are played by The Bayou City Bells, David Lee, director.

The Call to Worship is from “Meditation after an Interview” by Vassar Miller.

The Opening Sentences are by Krista Tippett.

The Unison Confession is from “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” by Paolo Freire, as printed in Imaging the Word, Vol. 3.

“Study No. 8” played by Jacy Grannis, viola.

The Prayer of Dedication is adapted from In the Sanctuary of Women: A Companion for Reflection and Prayer by Jan Richardson.

The Affirmation of Faith is from Active Spirituality by Kent Ira Groff.

Sunday schedule for today:
9:00 - Adult Education with Zoom
10:00 - Worship via videos on the Worship Page
11:00 - Transition from worship to coffee time with Zoom

A Service of Worship for​June 13, 2021

A Service of Worship for
June 13, 2021