A Service of Worship for
Trinity Sunday
​May 30, 2021

I read in a book 
that a man called Christ 
went about doing good. 
It is very disconcerting to me 
that I am so easily satisfied 
with just going about.

Toyohiko Kagawa

​
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. 
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. 
Adult Education:
The adult education class will focus on Bipolar Disorder. May is Mental Health Month. Bipolar Disorder, also known as Manic-Depressive Disorder, is a significant challenge for those affected with it and those who interact with them in various kinds of relationships. For most of the last half of the 20th century, US and international studies consistently reported prevalence rates of less than 2%. By the late 1990s and into the 21st century, some researchers have reported prevalence rates of 5% to 7% and even higher. Questions of under- and over-diagnosis remain in dispute, but the seriousness of bipolar disorder is unquestioned. Longtime Covenant member Jane Ann Leeves, MD, is a psychiatrist with both professional and personal expertise with this disorder, since she has experienced it herself for nearly thirty years and has been writing about living with it, including vivd descriptions of some of her episodes. She says, "Research shows that the best way to reduce stigma is to get to know someone who has a mental illness.” Jane Ann’s courageous presentation on Sunday, May 30, will offer our community an opportunity to learn more about bipolar disorder and to get to know her even better.
Zoom link is available on the Online Gatherings page on our website: https://www.covenanthouston.org/covenant-gatherings.html
Full worship service video:
Prelude
"Flute Duo," by Louis-Nicolas Clerambault. Andrew Bowen, organ. 

​Call to Worship

Opening Sentences
In the worst of times,  people often say, 
“All we have is God.” 
Indeed. 

Here “God” is the thread of hope 
that desperate people hold on to. 
God is that scrap of life and goodness 
still in us. 
God is what keeps us from giving up. 

God is not a being,
but whatever life or love there is, 
no matter how small. 

We hold on to whatever shred of hope is left. 

It is very small indeed sometimes--
but it is enough.

​Scripture Lesson:  John 3:1-17
​
​Hymn
"Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty," Music: John Bacchus Dykes, David McKinley Williams (Desc.) Words: Reginald Heber. The Covenant Singers. Andrew Bowen, organ. 

​Time for Children

Confession
Unison Confession
Source of all being,
we turn to You as did our people in ancient days.
They beheld You in the stars,
  they felt You in their hearts,
    they sought You in their lives.
 
Now their quest is ours.
Help us, O God, to see the wonder of being.
Give us courage to search for truth.
Teach us the path to a better life.
So shall we, by our lives and labors,
bring nearer to realization the great hope inherited from ages past,
for a world transformed by liberty, justice, and peace.

​Music
"Hasidic Suite: III. Nuts and Wine," by Joachim Stutschewsky. Susan Wegner, cello; Karen Kline, piano.
Proclamation

​Prayer
This day as we pray and hold silence we acknowledge many griefs: we remember the men and women and people of all genders who have died while serving in our military; we remember our entire country and especially the family of George Floyd as we have just passed one year since his brutal murder at the hands of a police officer and we pray for all families and all of us as we grieve for all victims of racially motivated violence; we remember our entire country and especially the families of those who were killed in the mass shooting in California and the families of the thousands who die from gun violence each year; we remember the families of the millions who have died of COVID and each one of us as we process the trauma from these pandemic days. We pray with more than our words, we pray with our actions as we work for peace, as we become anti-racist, as we seek justice, as we strive for healing for all and every.
We pray together for sisters and brothers and all siblings
who live in lands where war prevails as a sign that we all share both in the pain of war and the longing and fight for peace and justice.
- Laura Mayo
 
We pray together for brothers and sisters and all siblings
of differing beliefs and religious affiliation
as an expression of the fact that we are all part of
the same humanity
and share this life on earth with one another.
 
We pray together for our wounded earth,
for fields, forests, and seas,
as a sign that we belong together
with the whole of God’s creation
and want to take responsibility for the healing of the earth’s
  wounds.
 
We pray together for the division
and brokenness we experience within ourselves
and in relationships between people
as an expression that we want to open ourselves
to wholeness and life.
Amen
​By Christina Lövestam
​​
​Invitation
​
​Prayer of Dedication
Creator, open our hearts
to peace and healing between all people
 
Creator, open our hearts
to provide and protect for all children of the earth.

Creator, open our hearts
to respect for the earth, and all the gifts of the earth.
 
Creator, open our hearts
to end exclusion, violence, and fear among all.
 
Thank you for the gifts of this day and every day.

Doxology

Affirmation of Faith
When faith is completely replaced by creed,
worship by discipline,
love by habit;
when the crisis of today is ignored
because of the splendor of the past;    
when faith becomes an heirloom 
rather than a living fountain;
when religion speaks only in the name of authority
rather than with the voice of compassion,
its message becomes meaningless.

Benediction

Postlude
"Eternal Lord, We Pray," by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Andrew Bowen, organ.
Worship Notes

The worship leader is Nita Lindley.

The prelude and postlude are played by Andrew Bowen, organ.

The Call to Worship is “God Time” by Lewis Garvin.

The Opening Sentences are from A New Climate for Theology: God, the World, and Global Warming by Sallie McFague.

The Unison Confession is from Gates of Prayer: The New Union Prayer Book, the 1975 Prayer Book of the Central Conference of [Reformed] Rabbis.

“Nuts and Wine” Susan Wegner, cello; Karen Kline, piano.

The Prayer of Dedication is from the Native American, Micmac (Mi'kmaq) Tribe, by Alicia Longriver.
​
The Affirmation of Faith is from Quest for God by Abraham Joshua Heschel.

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

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