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“REFLECTIONS”
THIRD AVENUE UNITED CHURCH
WELCOMES YOU WORSHIP!
Order of Worship
OCTOBER 19, 2025
NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
“WORLD FOOD SUNDAY” [Find below an edited shorter version of the church Bulletin]
ORDAINED MINISTER: Rev. Jo-Ann Hills
ORGANIST / PIANIST: Ilene Wettergreen
SPECIAL MUSIC: JUBILATION HANDBELL RINGERS
“A Festival of Joy” by Lloyd Larson
“Calypso Celebration”with Guiro (Ruth and Anne Marie) arranged by Brenda Austin
“Pendaneni”with maracas (Ruth and Anne Marie) arranged by Cathy Mocklebust
HANDBELL DIRECTOR: Kathleen Link
OFFICE COORDINATOR: Jodi Hargreaves
SCRIPTURES READER: Rev. Jo-Ann Hills
PIANO/ORGAN PRELUDE
ACKNOWLEDGING TERRITORY:
Many thousands of years ago, Indigenous people lived, worked, played, and worshipped on this land. Over time, settlers from other lands came, sometimes sharing, often destroying, the relationship Indigenous peoples had with the water, land, and skies, with their Elders, families, culture, and faith. Today, as Settlers, we are repenting and relearning how to care tenderly and respectfully for all that God has given both Indigenous people and Settlers. We give thanks to the treaty 6 peoples and the Metis for their faithful stewardship of the land and the lessons they continue to teach. Used with permission from Gathering Pentecost 2 2025; Laura J. Turnbull
CANDLE LITURGY
We light this candle as a reminder of our soul's connection to eternal mystery-the unknowable, powerful bonds that weave our existence and purpose together to shine brightly in the world as the light of Christ. (Light the Christ candle.) Adapted/Used with permission Pentecost 2 Gathering 2025; Christine Le Blanc
Musical Response: Jubilation Handbell Ringers “A Festival of Joy” arranged by Lloyd Larson
1. CALL TO WORSHIP:
We come as ordinary people, with ordinary lives. Ordinary we are, but your call to us is powerful.
We come to be fed at your table of grace. We come to be fed, knowing that we are also called to feed others.
We come remembering your commissioning to us, to live out our faith as presence in this world. As your called people, we proclaim justice and encourage generosity. Used with permission Pentecost 2 Gathering 2025; Gord Dunbar
2. OPENING HYMN: VU 559 “Come, O Fount of every Blessing”
1. Come, O Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing your grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing call for songs of endless praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount; I'm fixed upon it, mount of God's unfailing love.
2. Here I pause in my sojourning, giving thanks for having come,
come to trust, at every turning, God will guide me safely home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God,
came to rescue me from danger, precious presence, precious blood.
3. O, to grace how great a debt or daily I am drawn anew!
Let that grace now, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to you.
Prone to wander, I can feel it, wander from the love I've known:
here's my heart, O, take and seal it, seal it for your very own.
3. OPENING PRAYER: Loving God, you gave signs and words to your prophets, to remind us how to live as a blessed people, but too often we have failed you, by our words and by our deeds. Even so, you have continued to give us hope. At the fall of Adam and Eve, you did not desert us; when the floods came, you saved us through Noah. You rescued your people from the chains of enslavement, from the sands of Egypt, and from the gardens of Babylon. Compassionate God, we thank you for your deep devotion and care, loving us still. You promised a new covenant of the Spirit to inscribe your love on our hearts, inspiring us to live our lives by your grace. Over and over again, you have uplifted your people. We give thanks and praise for your never-ending care. Amen. Used with permission Pentecost 2 Gathering 2025; Nancy Styles
4. LEARNING TIME: Jubilation Handbell Ringers
“Calypso Celebration”, with Guiro (Ruth and Anne Marie)
arranged by Brenda Austin
5. PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION Word of Life, come to us this morning through the holy scriptures, through song and praise, through one another, and through silence. Amen. Used with permission from Gathering: Pentecost 2; 2025: Susan Girard
6. PRAYER OF CONFESSION:
Pay attention to the voice of God speaking through the prophet Jeremiah: “They shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.”With this truth held in our hearts, we offer to God our confession. Let us pray: Gracious and Loving God, you are the source of joy.
The Bible stories tell us that you are extravagantly generous with your grace. You spread a rich feast before us with the best of everything: food and drink and gourmet desserts! Yet, at times, we wonder whether there will be enough to go around. At times we are fearful and anxious. We struggle with feeling that the joy of others means less joy for us. Though we long to be generous, sometimes our fear causes us to hold back from open-hearted sharing. Help us today, we pray, to gain a vision of the abundance you have in store. Remind us of the words of the psalm: “My cup overflows.” In the quietness of our worship space, calm our troubled spirits as we offer to you our personal prayers: (a time of silence) Used with permission Pentecost 2 Gathering 2025; Robin Wardlaw
7. WORDS OF ASSURANCE:
God declares: “This is the covenant that I will make with my people: I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds. I will remember their sins and misdeeds no more.” This is the good news. Thanks be to God! Used with permission Pentecost 2 Gathering 2025; Robin Wardlaw
8. MUSICAL RESPONSE: Jubilation Handbell Ringers “Pendaneni”, with maracas (Ruth and Anne Marie) arranged by Cathy Mocklebust
9. AFFIRMATION OF FAITH: “A New Creed ” VU 918 We are not alone,
we live in God's world.
We believe in God: who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God's presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.
We are not alone.
Thanks be to God. The United Church of Canada, General Council 1968, alt. 1998
10. INVITATION TO OFFERING:
We are called to participate in the healing of the world. Our offerings can enable this community and others to be what the church is called to be, offering healing and love. Let us present our morning offering. Adapted/Used with permission Pentecost 2 Gathering 2025; Beth W. Johnston
11. OFFERTORY VU 544 “In Gratitude and Humble Trust”
In gratitude and humble trust we bring our best today
to serve your cause and share your love with all along life's way.
O God, who gave yourself to us in Jesus Christ, your Son,
teach us to give ourselves each day until life's work is done.
12. OFFERING PRAYER: These gifts are to provide living water for lives that are parched, Life-Giving God, and actual food and water for any who live with a scarcity of these essentials. These gifts are offered to encourage those who wonder if their hopes will ever come to fruition, and to support the gardeners who lovingly tend your world and its peoples in so many ways. Amen. Adapted/Used with permission Pentecost 2 Gathering 2025; Karen Boivin.
Please give by contributing online using “E-transfers” or PAR (Pre-Authorized Remittance) or by placing your offering in the plate.
E-transfers can be sent to: thirdaveunited@sasktel.net answer to security question is: “payment”
13. PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND LORD'S PRAYER:
THE LORD'S PRAYER
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom
and the power, and the glory,
forever and ever. AMEN.
14. HYMN: 271 VU “There's a Wideness in God's Mercy”
1. There's a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness of the sea;
there's a kindness in God's justice which is more than liberty.
2. There is no place where earth's sorrows are more felt than up in heaven;
there is no place where earth's failings have such gracious judgement given.
3. There is plentiful redemption in the blood that Christ has shed;
there is joy for all the members in the sorrows of the Head.
4. Troubled souls, why will you scatter like a crowd of frightened sheep?
Foolish hearts, why will you wander from a love so true and deep?
5. For the love of God is broader than the measures of the mind,
and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.
15. BLESSING:
Like autumn leaves rustling on the ground in rainbow colours of promise, may we go out to share the promises of God. May God bless what we offer to nourish life in the world; what we do to bring sustenance, joy, and delight; and what we model to transform people's giving into a habit of abundant sharing in Jesus' name. Amen
Used with permission Pentecost21 Gathering 2025; Gord Dunbar
16. THREE FOLD AMEN
SCRIPTURE LESSONS:
Jeremiah 31: 27 - 34
Responsive Reading Psalm 119: 97 - 104 VU page 840 REFRAIN: “Teach me, O God, the perfect way of your divine commands”
2 Timothy 3: 14 - 4: 5
The Gospel of Luke 18: 1 - 8 A Widow and a Judge
Next Sunday: Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost October 26, 2025: Joel 2:23-32;
Psalm 65; Psalm 65
2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18; Luke 18:9-14.
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