CANDLE LITURGY
We light the Christ candle each week, reminding ourselves of the wondrous splendour of holy light. We are assured that Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Light of Life. The path we seek to follow is one of blazing glory.
May Christ always illumine the way.
     Used with permission from Gathering Lent/Easter 2026; Laura J. Turnbull

SUNG RESPONSE: VU 213 “Rejoice the Lord is King”  verse one
1. Rejoice the Lord is King!
Your risen Lord adore!
Rejoice, give thanks and sing and triumph ever-more.
Lift up your heart,
lift up your voice; rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

1. CALL TO WORSHIP:
Come to this time of worship as a child, trusting in God's goodness.
We come, wanting to bring the enthusiasm, trust, and innocence of a child.
Come to remember who you are, and more importantly, whose you are.
We are children of God, coming once again to remember and celebrate who God is and what God has done for us.
Let us worship God together.
     Used with permission Gathering Lent/Easter 2026; Catherine Tovell

2. OPENING PRAYER:
God of surprises, lift our hearts in wonder this morning.
Fill us with your Spirit's joyful abandon as we worship.
Take the mountains and the valleys of life, the mountains and the valleys of our relationships, and help us to celebrate their rich folds, the variety of experience that shapes our faith. Smooth out the rough and painful paths. Come to us as our companion, we pray. Amen.
     Used with permission Gathering Lent/Easter 2026; Gord Dunbar

3. LEARNING TIME:

4. HYMN  VU 232 “Joyful, Joyful We Adore You”
1.  Joyful, joyful we adore you,
God of glory, life and love;
hearts unfold like flowers before you,
opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness,
drive the gloom of doubt away;
giver of immortal gladness,
fill us with the light of day.

2.  All your works with joy surround you,
earth and heaven reflect your rays,
stars and angels sing around you,
centre of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain,
flowery meadow, flashing sea,
chanting bird and flowing fountain,
sound their praise eternally.

3. . You are giving and forgiving,
ever blessing, ever blest,
wellspring of the joy of living,
ocean depth of happy rest!
ource of grace and fount of blessing,
let your light upon us shine;
teach us how to love each other,
lift us to the joy divine.

4.  Mortals join the mighty chorus
which the morning stars began;
God's own love is reigning o'er us,
joining people hand in hand.
Ever singing, march we onward,
victors in the midst of strife;
joyful music leads us sunward in the triumph song of life.

5. PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
Revealing God, may the delight of the shared word stir us to new understandings. When it seems confusing, grant clarity. When it is complex, simplify the concepts. Help us to experience the awe and wonder of your holy message. WE ask in the name of the Beloved Christ, the Word.  Amen.
     Used with permission Gathering Lent/Easter 2026; Laura J. Turnbull

6. SCRIPTURE LESSON:
Acts 17: 22 - 31
22 So Paul stood up in front of the council and said: People of Athens, I see that you are very religious. 23 As I was going through your city and looking at the things you worship, I found an altar with the words, “To an Unknown God.” You worship this God, but you don't really know him. So I want to tell you about him. 24 This God made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he doesn't live in temples built by human hands. 25 He doesn't need help from anyone. He gives life, breath, and everything else to all people. 26 From one person God made all nations who live on earth, and he decided when and where every nation would be.
27 God has done all this, so that we will look for him and reach out and find him. He isn't far from any of us, 28 and he gives us the power to live, to move, and to be who we are. “We are his children,” just as some of your poets have said. 29 Since we are God's children, we must not think that he is like an idol made out of gold or silver or stone. He isn't like anything that humans have thought up and made. 30 In the past, God forgave all this because people did not know what they were doing. But now he says that everyone everywhere must turn to him. 31 He has set a day when he will judge the world's people with fairness. And he has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death.

Responsive Reading Psalm 66  8 - 20 VU page 784-5 Part 2 & 3
Refrain:  “God of all, to you we raise this our song of joyful praise”
Part Two  (8 - 12)
Bless our God, all peoples, and let the sound of praise be heard.
God has preserved us among the living, and kept our feet from stumbling.
For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.
You led us into the desert, you laid a burden upon our back,
you let sickness furrow our brow, we passed through fire and water;
but you brought us out to a land of plenty.  Refrain

Part Three (13 - 20)
I will come to your house with burnt-offerings; I will pay you my vows,
the vows which I made with my lips, and swore with my mouth when I was in trouble.
I will offer fat beasts in sacrifice, a savoury offering of rams;
I will prepare you an offering of bulls and goats.  Refrain

Come then and listen, all you that fear God, while I tell what God has done for me.
I cried aloud to God; high praise was ready on my tongue.
If I had cherished evil in my heart, God would not have heard me.
But truly God has heard me, has given heed to the voice of my prayer.
Blessed are you, O God, for you have not rejected my prayer,
nor withdrawn from me your steadfast love.  Refrain

7.  REFLECTION:

8.  HYMN: VU 376 “Spirit of the Living God”
1.  Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.
Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.
Melt me, mould me, fill me, use me.
Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.

2.  Spirit of the living God, move among us all;
make us one in heart and mind, make us one in love:
humble, caring, selfless, sharing.
Spirit of the living God, fill our lives with love!

9.  SCRIPTURE LESSONS:
1 Peter 3: 13 - 22
13 Can anyone really harm you for being eager to do good deeds? 14 Even if you have to suffer for doing good things, God will bless you. So stop being afraid and don't worry about what people might do. 15 Honor Christ and let him be the Lord of your life.
Always be ready to give an answer when someone asks you about your hope. 16 Give a kind and respectful answer and keep your conscience clear. This way you will make people ashamed for saying bad things about your good conduct as a follower of Christ. 17 You are better off to obey God and suffer for doing right than to suffer for doing wrong. 18 Christ died once for our sins. An innocent person died for those who are guilty. Christ did this to bring you to God, when his body was put to death and his spirit was made alive.
19 Christ then preached to the spirits that were being kept in prison. 20 They had disobeyed God while Noah was building the boat, but God had been patient with them. Eight people went into that boat and were brought safely through the flood. 21 Those flood waters were like baptism that now saves you. But baptism is more than just washing your body. It means turning to God with a clear conscience, because Jesus Christ was raised from death. 22 Christ is now in heaven, where he sits at the right side[a] of God. All angels, authorities, and powers are under his control.

John 14: 15 - 21
The Holy Spirit Is Promised
15 Jesus said to his disciples: If you love me, you will do as I command. 16 Then I will ask the Father to send you the Holy Spirit who will help[a] you and always be with you. 17 The Spirit will show you what is true. The people of this world cannot accept the Spirit, because they don't see or know him. But you know the Spirit, who is with you and will keep on living in you. 18 I won't leave you like orphans. I will come back to you. 19 In a little while the people of this world won't be able to see me, but you will see me. And because I live, you will live. 20 Then you will know I am one with the Father. You will know you are one with me, and I am one with you. 21 If you love me, you will do what I have said, and my Father will love you. I will also love you and show you what I am like.

10.  REFLECTION:

11.  HYMN: VU 581 “When We Are Living” Verses 1 - 3
1.  When we are living, it is in Christ Jesus,
and when we're dying, it is in the Lord.
Both in our living and in our dying,
we belong to God, we belong to God.

2.  Through all our living, we our fruits must give.
Good works of service are for offering.
When we are giving, or when receiving,
we belong to God, we belong to God.

3.  'Mid times of sorrow and in times of pain,
when sensing beauty or in love's embrace,
whether we suffer, or sing rejoicing,
we belong to God, we belong to God.

12. PRAYER OF YEARNING:
Fulfiller of our lives, we yearn to embody your commandment of love and pursue what we know is right. We long to ease the plight of others, even as we seek our own comfort. Nurture our hope this day, as we fulfill your commandment of love, that we may live as your children and abide in your Spirit.  Amen.
     From the Abingdon Worship Annual 2026.
      Copyright @2025 by Abingdon Press. Used by permission

13.  WORDS OF ASSURANCE:
Even when we are tested by the refiner's fire, God brings us to a place of laughter and light on the other side of our trials. The Advocate meets us in our suffering and heals us in holy love.
      From the Abingdon Worship Annual 2026.
      Copyright @2025 by Abingdon Press. Used by permission

14.  HYMN: VU #382 “Breathe on me Breath of God”
1.  Breathe on me, breath of God,
fill me with life anew,
that I may love what thou dost love,
and do what thou wouldst do.

2.  Breathe on me, breath of God,
until my heart is pure,
until my will is one with thine,
to do and to endure.

3.  Breathe on me, breath of God,
till I am wholly thine,
until this earthly part of me
glows with thy fire divine.

4.  Breathe on me, breath of God,
so shall I never die,
but live with thee the perfect life
of thine eternity.

15.  PASSING OF THE PEACE:
On the other side of trials, rest in the sanctuary of God's healing love. Come, let us share the peace of Christ with one another - the peace promised through the Holy Spirit.
     From the Abingdon Worship Annual 2025.
     Copyright @2024 by Abingdon Press. Used by permission

16.  INVITATION TO OFFERING:
Remembering that God's family is our family, let us reach out in love and gratitude as we present our offering for our community and for the world.
     Used with permission Gathering Lent/Easter 2026; George Allan

17.  OFFERTORY: VU 540 “Grant Us, God the Grace”
Grant us, God, the grace of giving,
with a spirit large and free,
that ourselves and all our living
we may offer faithfully.

18.  OFFERING PRAYER OF DEDICATION:
Loving God, may what we offer here this morning be a prayer: that we may be blessed as living testimony to your good news, that our offerings may be blessed as good news to use in the world, and that your world may live within us in spirit and in truth.  Amen.
     Used with permission Gathering Lent/Easter 2026; Gord Dunbar

19. PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND LORD'S PRAYER:

20.  HYMN: VU 581 “When We Are Living”  Verse 4
4. Across this wide world, we shall always find
those who are crying with no peace of mind,
but when we help them, or when we feed them,
we belong to God, we belong to God.

21.  BLESSING:
Once we searched and groped for God in darkness.
Now we reside with Christ in glorious light.
Once we lived as if God was far from us.
Now we rejoice each day in God's presence.
Once we strove for God's acceptance.
Now we rest secure in God's love
     From the Abingdon Worship Annual 2026.
     Copyright @2025 by Abingdon Press. Used by permission

Next Sunday:  Seventh Sunday of Easter
        May 17, 2026:
         Acts 1: 6 - 14   Psalm 68: 1 - 10, 33 - 36;
         1 Peter 4: 12 - 14; 5: 6 - 11;  John 17: 1 - 11.

1. SUNDAY, May 10, 2026  Sixth Sunday of Easter   10:45 AM   Rev. Jo-Ann Hills  “RECOLLECTIONS”  ALL ARE WELCOME!


2. TUESDAY, May 12, 2026  BIBLE STUDY  10:00 AM  Board Room


3. TUESDAY, May 12, 2026  Jubilation Handbell Ringers  If you are interested in ringing some bells, come out and give it a try;   6:30pm in the Choir Room.


4. SUNDAY, May 17, 2026  Seventh Sunday of Easter   10:45 AM   Rev. Jo-Ann Hills  “RECOLLECTIONS”  ALL ARE WELCOME!


5. SUNDAY, May 17, 2026  SUNDAY BRUNCH   11:30 AM   Wesley Hall  ALL ARE WELCOME!


6. WEDNESDAY, May 20, 2026  “MEETING OF THE OFFICIAL BOARD”   7:00 PM   Chairperson, Lorenzo Bacchetto  ALL BOARD MEMBERS ARE REQUESTED TO ATTEND


7. SUNDAY, May 24, 2026  Eight Sunday of Easter   10:45 AM   Rev. Jo-Ann Hills  “RECOLLECTIONS”  ALL ARE WELCOME!