Presbyterian Church USA worship service celebrating women.
Call to Worship
(May be read by one person or read responsively)
Come,
let us celebrate the unique gifts that God has given to each woman, each
man, every girl and boy.
Let us
together, women and men, young and old, give thanks for the call of Christ to
follow him into a broken world to lead the church into making all things
new.
Let us
sing praises to our God that we can claim the amazing gifts of the Spirit
with which we have been equipped for service and leadership—gifts of
peacemaking, compassion, perseverance, unity and love—and use them for the
sake of all God's children.
Let us
worship God with great joy, gratitude and expectation!
Prayer of Confession
Loving and merciful God,
you created each of us in your own image to live in community. You graced us
generously with the gifts of apostles, prophets, pastors and teachers. You
equipped all of us, women and men alike, for the work of ministry. Yet too
often we tarnish your image, waste our gifts, refuse to accept your call to
service and fail to live at peace with our neighbors. O, God, in the name of
Christ, help us to turn to you to shape us as you intended when you created
us. Fill us with your Spirit and strengthen us to continue our journey and
complete the task of shaping the Christian community as one people of God.
We trust that all things are possible through you. In the name of Christ.
Amen.
Litany of Thanksgiving
Leader:
O God, for your church, which
throughout the ages has called women to serve in this world that you love,
People:
we thank you.
Leader:
For Mary of Bethany, who showed us how to listen and learn,
People:
we thank you.
Leader:
For Martha, who served others
with loving care,
People:
we thank you.
Leader:
For Priscilla and Lydia and other
courageous leaders of the early church,
People:
we give you praise.
Leader:
For women like Katharine Bennett
and Margaret Hodge, who led the movement for full equality among women in
the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.,
People:
we thank you.
Leader:
For the life and creative leadership of Sarah E. Dickson, the first woman
ordained as an elder in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.,
People:
we thank you.
Leader:
For the ministry of women elders
who joyfully accepted their new responsibilities with diligence,
People:
we thank you and we celebrate
their lives and their commitment to the ministry of the whole church.
All:
Together, may we move
forward with men and women as fully equal partners in the ministry of Christ
to which you call us all. Amen.
Statement of Faith
Excerpted from "A Brief Statement of Faith," The Book of Confessions,
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
In sovereign love God created
the world good and makes everyone equally in God's image, male and female,
of every race and people, to live as one community ....We trust in God the
Holy Spirit, everywhere the giver and renewer of life.
The
Spirit justifies us by grace through faith, sets us free to accept ourselves
and to love God and neighbor, and binds us together with all believers in
the one body of Christ, the Church.
The
same Spirit who inspired the prophets and apostles rules our faith and life
in Christ through Scripture, engages us through the Word proclaimed, claims
us in the waters of baptism, feeds us with the bread of life and the cup of
salvation, and calls women and men to all ministries of the Church.
Suggested Scripture Readings
Genesis
1:27
Ephesians 4:7, 11-12
Galatians 3:26-29
Acts 2:17-18
Suggested Hymns
#285 "God,
You
Spin the Whirling Planets"
#322 "Spirit of the Living God"
#343 "Called as Partners in Christ's Service"
#432 "Canto de Esperanza" ("Song of Hope")
#514 "Let Us Talents and Tongues Employ"
All hymns are from The
Presbyterian Hymnal (Louisville.: Westminster John Knox, 1990)
Charge and Benediction
Go out to tell the world
that our God is faithful—like a mother who will not forsake her nursing
child, like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home. Go out to
celebrate with joy the amazing gifts that this faithful God has given each
one of us, women and men alike. Go out to use those gifts in ministry to the
church and to the world.
May the God of Abraham, Sarah
and Hagar, the God who is the Christ, the son of Mary, and God the Holy
Spirit, who hovers over us like a hen who gathers her chicks beneath her
wings, go with you now and forever. Amen.
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to Women's History Month page. |