Bulletin – Sunday, June 8, 2025 – Pentecost / 100th Anniversary Celebration of the United Church of Canada / Communion
Sunday, June 8, 2025
Pentecost / 100th Anniversary Celebration of the United Church of Canada / Communion
We Gather as People of Faith
Welcome
Announcements
Minute Person(s)
Land Acknowledgement
One: We acknowledge that the many churches of the United Church of Canada are located on the traditional territorial lands of the First Nations and Métis peoples. We acknowledge the harms and mistakes of the past, and pledge to move forward in a spirit of reconciliation. Today, we gather for worship at Windsor Park United Church in Treaty One Territory, which is also the homestead of the Métis Nation. For thousands of years Indigenous Peoples walked this land and knew it to be the center of their lives and their spirituality.
All: May we live on these lands in peace and with respect for all creation.
Call to the Church
One: The Peter stood up with the other disciples, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Beloved Ones of God! In the last days, God says: ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your children will prophesy, your elders will dream dreams, and your youth will see visions. On my servants, people of all genders and races, I will pour out my Spirit in those days!”
Call to Worship
One: When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place…Today, we gather in many places and ways, yet we are one in heart! Touched by the Spirit, the first disciples were enlivened.
All: By the Spirit, we live and thrive!
One: On the day of Pentecost, the Church was born.
All: Today, we celebrate 100 years of being the United Church!
One: In their gathering that day, people were changed by the Spirit.
All: In our gathering today, we seek the Spirit’s direction for tomorrow.
One: With open hearts, let us worship God and pray for the Spirit’s presence amongst us.
All: Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
Opening Prayer
Awesome God, on Pentecost, you gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to an expectant and united church. And by your Spirit, you bring us to this time and place to life our hearts, minds, and bodies to worship you. Grant us the hope of the same Spirit in our life and worship. Help us to expect great things from you! We are diverse in many ways, but our hearts are one in you. May we show the world the love we experience in Jesus, and the power we find in the Spirit as we seek to honour your dream. To your glory be our worship and witness. Amen.
Hymn – “On This Day of Celebration”
On this day of celebration, at this time when hopes are new,
God, we gather as your people, called to put our trust in you.
You have made the world we live in; you have worked through history.
In your plan we find our purpose, in your love, our unity.
Long ago, you sent our Saviour to this world in deep despair.
In your Word made flesh you came, our life to know, our sins to bear.
Christ has died and Christ is risen! At this new year we proclaim:
Yesterday, today, forever – Jesus Christ is still the same!
Through two thousand years of changes, through these passing centuries,
You have called your church to witness to Christ’s love that claims and frees.
Each new generation hears you, each must find a fresh new way
To make known the life you offer, to the people in their day.
On this day, we pause and wonder what the future years will bring,
Yet we know you clothe each flower and you make each sparrow sing.
How much more will you protect us with your guiding, caring hand!
By your Spirit, lead us boldly in the future you have planned.
Lighting the Christ Candle
On June 10, 1925, the inaugural service of the United Church of Canada was held. Today, we join with others across the church to give thanks, mark and witness to the church that we are and the church that we are becoming by the grace of the Spirit.
Prayer of Approach and Confession
One: The act of Confession is a way that we admit to dampening the movement of the Spirit in our lives and the world. Let us pray:
All: Gracious God, time and again, you send us the gift of your Spirit. Time and again, you send us the gift of your dreams. Time and again, you love us back into being. And time and again, we turn away from you. Gracious God, forgive us for all the times we have twisted or forgotten your Good News, for all the times in which we have confused unity with “sameness”, for all the times we have failed to let your Kingdom inspire our living. We are sorry. For the times we have tried to be the church without you, for the times we have doubted your presence and power to work in us, for the times we have believed the lie that there is not enough, and we are not enough, forgive us. Take all the ways that we have fallen into hubris and fear, missing the mark as individuals and as a denomination, and in your mercy, help us to move into the future you have for us. Open our hearts, God. May your Spirit ignite your dream in us again! This we pray in Christ’s holy and powerful name. Amen
Words of Assurance
One: In the words of assurance, we remember God’s mercy and grace that allows us to begin again. Dear Ones of God, receive these words and take heart: God poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, healing hearts and divisions, empowering the church to move forward in Christ’s spirit. And God continues to po9ur out the Holy Spirit on us today. So, let us rejoice in God’s love and forgiveness, and share this blessing with all those we meet, for we are forgiven, and we are blessed to be a blessing.
All: Thanks be to God! Amen.
Sung Response – “Spirit of Life” (VU #381)
Spirit of Life, come unto me.
Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion.
Blow in the wind, rise in the sea; move in the hand, giving life the shape of justice.
Roots hold me close; wings set me free;
Spirit of Life, come to me, come to me.
Time for All Ages
Sung Response – “A New Creed”
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.
Prayer of Illumination
Spirit of God, you hovered over the waters before the first days of Creation, and you hovered over the disciples on the first day that Christ’s church came alive. You were present to our ancestors in faith 100 years ago as they came together to form the United Church of Canada. You were present in all those who continued to build a uniting church in the generations that followed, and we believe that you are still present with us today. Open our hearts to your in this time so that we might know your wisdom, trust in the ways you proclaim, and live into them with hope! All this we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen
We Hear God’s Word
Scripture Reading: Ephesians 1:15-19, 3:16-21
Voice One: I have heard your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.
Voice Two: I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know God, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which God has called you, what are the riches of God’s glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of God’s power for us who believe, according to the working of God’s great power.
Voice One: I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, God may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through the Spirit, and the Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Voice Two: Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations for ever and ever. Amen.
May God speak to us through these readings of scripture.
Thanks be to God!
Hymn – “Spirit of Gentleness” (VU #375)
Spirit, Spirit of gentleness,
Blow thro’ the wilderness calling and free;
Spirit, Spirit of gentleness,
Stir me from placidness,
Wind, Wind on the sea.
You moved on the waters, you called to the deep,
Then you coaxed up the mountains from the valleys of sleep;
And over the eons you called to each thing:
Wake from your slumbers and rise on your wings.
Spirit, Spirit of gentleness,
Blow thro’ the wilderness calling and free;
Spirit, Spirit of gentleness,
Stir me from placidness,
Wind, Wind on the sea.
You swept though the desert, you stung with the sand,
And you goaded your people with a law and a land;
And when they were blinded with their idols and lies,
Then you spoke through your prophets to open their eyes.
Spirit, Spirit of gentleness,
Blow thro’ the wilderness calling and free;
Spirit, Spirit of gentleness,
Stir me from placidness,
Wind, Wind on the sea.
You sang in a stable; you cried from a hill;
Then you whispered in silence when the whole world was still;
And down in the city you called once again,
When you blew thro’ your people on the rush of the wind.
Spirit, Spirit of gentleness,
Blow thro’ the wilderness calling and free;
Spirit, Spirit of gentleness,
Stir me from placidness,
Wind, Wind on the sea.
You call from tomorrow, you break ancient schemes,
From the bondage of sorrow the captives dream dreams,
Our women see visions, our men clear their eyes,
With bold new decisions your people arise.
Spirit, Spirit of gentleness,
Blow thro’ the wilderness calling and free;
Spirit, Spirit of gentleness,
Stir me from placidness,
Wind, Wind on the sea.
Sermon: “An Anniversary Memory”
Anthem – “Give Us a Vision”
Come, O Lord, look on your people;
Wand’ring and lost with no shepherd but you.
Without your light your people will perish.
Life us again and make our hearts new.
Give us a vision, a vision of you.
Mold us and make us a people of truth.
Come Spirit, feed us and lead us to do
Your holy mission, O give us a vision of you.
We bring thankfulness for yesterday’s blessings;
We have hopes and dreams of days yet to be.
So God of Light, come lift all our blindness,
Make your way plain until we can see.
Lord, come and give us a vision, a vision of you.
Mold us and make us a people of truth.
Come Spirit, feed us and lead us to do
Your holy mission, O give us a vision,
O look on your people and give us a vision of you!
A Vision of you, of you!
We Respond to God’s Word
Invitation to Share
We have witnessed the fruits of God’s Spirit, in the faithful ancestors who came before us building the church, in the humble acknowledgement of wrongs and the seeking of reconciliation, and the works done for justice. We have witnessed God’s blessings, in communities gathered sharing love and grace and in resources shared for the flourishing of all. With thanksgiving and joy, we present our offerings this day for what has been and what will come.
Offering Sung Response – “For the Life That You Have Given”
For the life that you have given, for the love in Christ made known,
With these fruits of time and labour, with these gifts that are your own.
Here we offer, Lord, our praises, heart and mind and strength we bring,
Give us grace to love and serve you, living what we pray and sing.
Offering Prayer
Empowering God, we believe your Spirit is with us this day, leading us into a new future. We offer our time, talents, finances, and hopes, trusting you to do more than we can dream possible. Bless us and these offerings with your Spirit. May we be bold disciples, deeply connected to you, who dare to act for justice. This we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hymn – “Faithful God, You have been Our Guide”
Faithful God, you have been our guide, year by year walking by our side,
Blessing challenge and healing strife, leading us on the way of life.
Faithful God of the living covenant, lead us onward in this new day.
Faithful God of the living covenant, lead us onward in this new day.
You have called us to be a light, sign of justice and truth and right.
You have made us a rainbow sign, colours showing your peace design.
Faithful God of the living covenant, lead us onward in this new day.
Faithful God of the living covenant, lead us onward in this new day.
God, whatever the future holds, keep us faithful as life unfolds.
Write your covenant on our hearts, send the gifts that your love imparts.
Faithful God of the living covenant, lead us onward in this new day.
Faithful God of the living covenant, lead us onward in this new day.
Holy Spirit, come bless our feast, joining north and south, west and east.
Bless the gifts on our table spread: cup of covenant, living bread.
Faithful God of the living covenant, lead us onward in this new day.
Faithful God of the living covenant, lead us onward in this new day.
Communion
On Pentecost, the gift of God’s Spirit was given freely to all who longed to receive it. On this day of Pentecost, we welcome all those who long to follow in the Way of Jesus to share in this sacrament of Communion.
One: God is with us.
All: We are not alone.
One: Christ is present here.
All: The Spirit is among us!
One: Let us give thanks to God
All: in memory and in hope.
One: Blessed are you, Gracious God, for you grace this world with life and light and love. In the beginning your Spirit moved across the deep waters like the Northern Lights dance across the skies at night. Amid emptiness and chaos, you sought connection, and so, you created day and night, skies and seas, plants and trees, the stars in the sky, the animals that fly and the animals that swim, the animas that walk and swing and sing, and you call us all good.
One: And over time, your Spirit continued to call forth wisdom and courage for your people: filled with the Spirit, Miriam danced for joy on the shores of the Red Sea. To Elijah, the Spirit was heard in the still, small voice after the fire and wind. Ezekiel witnessed your Spirit breathe life into a people without hope. To the prophet Joel, you promised: “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your children will prophesy, your elders will dream dreams, your youth will see visions. And on my servants, people of all genders and races, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”
One: Yet we turned from you, afraid and uncertain of what you would do. Yet you continued to pursue us in love, coming to May who boldly said yes and so, you brought that Spirit into the world once more, alive and embodied in Jesus, the Christ. He lived with the Spirit’s deep passion and wisdom. He boldly shared the Spirit’s joy and compassion. He dared to dream that your kingdom will come on earth, as it is in heaven, and he called us all to follow in his Way. And, on Pentecost, his followers received your Spirit, too. They proclaimed your goodness in every language, singing
Sung Sanctus (MV #203)
O holy, holy, holy God,
O God of time and Space.
All earth and sea and sky above bear witness to your grace.
Hosanna in the highest heav’n, creation sings your praise.
And blessed is the One who comes and bears your name always!
One: Living in the Spirit’s ways drew attention, both from those who sought to follow and those who were afraid. And so, we remember the courage and vision Jesus shared with his friends on the night he was betrayed. During supper, Jesus took a loaf of bread, gave thanks to God, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying: “Take this bread and eat. This is my body which is given for you. When you eat, do this in remembrance of me.”
The Bread is Broken and Eaten
One: And after supper, he took the cup of blessing. He gave thanks to God, and shared it with his disciples, saying: “Take this cup and drink. This cup is God’s promise, shared in my life. Whenever you drink it, remember me.”
The Wine is Poured and Drunk
Sung Memorial Acclamation (MV #204)
Sing Christ has died and Christ is risen, Christ will come again!
Sing Christ has died and Christ is risen, Christ will come again!
One: Pour out your Spirit once more upon us, O God, and upon these gifts of bread and cup so that we might witness your Spirit in action and join in Christ’s life, proclaiming your joy and our Kingdom. On this Pentecost day, we pray: Come, Holy Spirit!
All: Come, Holy Spirit! Amen.
Prayer after Communion
In your grace and by your Spirit we have been fed at this table, brought into communion with you and each other. May this banquet so inspire us to love as we have been loved, feed as we have been fed, and to welcome all as Christ has welcomed us. In this way, we will witness your reign on earth, as it is in heaven. Amen.
Prayer for the Church
Voice One
Holy One, we are your church, your people gathered. Since the beginning, you have been with us. In the dry and desert-life moments, when decline and death surround us, you teach us that we need you and to trust in you. When these truths have been remembered, your people have flourished.
Voice Two
We have been together as The United Church of Canada for 100 years. On this historic threshold, we remember yet again that we live and move and have our being in you. It is time to dance with the Holy Spirit as we move past this moment.
Voice Three
Empower us loving God, to live by your Spirit, unafraid of where She is taking us. Now is the time to dig deep in our faith! To dare to be your resurrection people, for Christ’s Way is our way. Let us be alive by your Spirit’s power! Awaken us to your moving among us even no so we can boldly follow your call into tomorrow.
Sung Amen (MV #205)
Amen, amen, O Holy One! Hosanna and Amen!
Amen, amen, O Holy One! Hosanna and Amen!
Prayers of the People
God of wind and flame, blow into our lives. Ignite the fire of hope, fan the flames of possibility. Transform us into a people who share your love with a world in pain, a people who proclaim your hope into a world given to despair, a people who live as though the world can be changed into the kingdom that is to come.
Baptizing God, who calls us to be a baptizing community, you speak to us in many languages over the course of our lives: the burbles and laughs and wails of infancy, the indistinct speech and partial words of toddlerhood, the strange syntax and slang of late childhood and adolescence, the full language of adulthood, the quavering speech and muted tones of old age. Speak to us in the language that we need to hear today, hear us in the language that we speak.
God of many languages. You sing the language of joy with us, you join us in the dance of life. Hear all of your children who sing and dance and praise this morning, those who celebrate new life with all the possibilities of the future, those who celebrate relationships, both the new and exciting and the long-term yet still exciting, those for whom the wonder of life fills their being to the limit, may they hear your voice joining in the singing and the shouting…
And yet, God of life, you also speak the languages of pain, of sorrow, of fear, of despair. Hear all your children who speak, who wail, who whisper in these languages this day: those who find themselves in hospital beds, or waiting anxiously beside those beds, those who gather to say farewell to one who is traveling, or one who is moving, those who gather at graveside to say that longer farewell, those who worry about where the next meal, or the next rent cheque, will come from, those who live in places where peace is just a word, a faint hope, a distant dream,
May all those whose language is rent by pain hear you lamenting with them.
God of mercy, we ask for your grace and blessing on all those fleeing their homes due to the wildfires, for those fighting the fires, and those providing refuge to the evacuees–give them the strength and courage to face what comes next. We ask you keep those named and unnamed in our community in your heart…
God of Pentecost, God who speaks with many tongues, God who makes God-self known in many ways, fill us with Your Spirit this and every morning, hear the prayers we share using many different languages, we pray in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the one we call Christ, whose life, death and resurrection show us the path to the Kingdom.
We pray as people of the Spirit, who lights our fires, who fills our lungs with air, who blows us out into the world to live and serve. Amen.
The Prayer Jesus Taught Us:
Our Father and Mother, 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.
We Go Into God’s World
Hymn – “A New Wellspring””
Now then, let us lift our voices in this hymn of hope and grace.
We have listened to words spoken. Now we know the tasks we face.
Let us go forth with a strong heart, seeking how we now can bring
Acts of courage, acts of caring, acts that make our spirits sing.
Boldly now, we join our voices, as we sing and as we say,
Words that make us ponder deeply how to put these words in play.
Let us go forth with a strong heart, seeking how we now can bring
Acts of justice, acts of doing, acts that make our hearts take wing.
As disciples, now, we’re willing to act boldly, when we dare,
Hear the many who are helpless, those whose lives are in despair.
Let us go forth with a strong heart seeking how we now can bring
Acts of sowing, acts of tending, acts that birth a new wellspring.
Commissioning
Beloved, as you go out into the world this year, hold this blessing on your heart: God who created you has chosen you for hope. So, may the Word of Life dance into you like the lights in the northern sky. May the power of the Spirit awaken your heart with awe, and may your witness awaken the world in which you live. May we travel together, listen together, love together, and grow together in the life of Christ, as the Body of Christ. For we are called to life—to live a Deep Spirituality, a Bold Discipleship, and a Daring Justice in Christ’s name, through whom all things are possible.
Benediction
Praise be to God, whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine! Glory be to God, in the Church, and in Christ Jesus, from generation to generation. Amen!
Sung Response – “With a Vision of Hope”
With a vision of hope we move along.
Empowered by faith we carry on.
Reaching out far and wide,
Moving forward reaching high.
Filled with hope, filled with dreams, we journey on.
