Service Sunday June 22, 2025

Services

Jun 18

Written By Highland Hills

HIGHLAND HILLS UNITED CHURCH

Minden, Ontario

SUNDAY, June 22, 2025

All are Welcome!

Worship Leader: Rev. Max Ward

Music Director: Melissa Stephens

(For a Printer Friendly PDF version click this link)

The Gathering

WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS:

FOCUSING ON THE LIGHT OF CHRIST:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF TERRITORY: In Unison

Since time immemorial, Indigenous peoples have occupied and cared for this territory, the country we call Canada, from coast to coast to coast. In naming this land mass, even more specifically Haliburton Highlands, and environs, we acknowledge this place as the Traditional home of the Anishinaabe peoples. As a community of faith, we seek to rebuild right relations with the First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples, to learn from and with each other, and to live on the territory with respect and gratitude for its creation and Creator. This is our commitment. Amen.

Written by Bill Perry, Consecon P.C., Carying Place, Ont.

Gathering, Lent-Easter 2024, p.30. Used with permission.

THE APPROACH

CALL TO WORSHIP:

One: In worship, we are invited to call upon the name of the Lord,

ALL: to call on God’s presence for all we need.

One: We call upon God in hope and prayer,

ALL: bringing before God our dreams and our fears, trusting God with our desires and our disappointments.

One: We call upon God in joy and music,

ALL: bringing to God our laughter and delight, honouring God in our friendships and communities.

One: We call upon God craving mercy and care

ALL: to be comforted by God’s love, forgiven by God’s grace, and strengthened through faith in God’s eternal power.

One: Come, call upon God as we worship today.

Written by Gill Le Fevre, Walton Memorial U.C., Oakville, Ont.

Gathering, Pentecost 1 2025, p.36. Used with permission.

HYMN: “Come and Find the Quiet Centre” VU #374

1 Come and find the quiet centre

in the crowded life we lead,

find the room for hope to enter,

find the frame where we are freed:

clear the chaos and the clutter,

clear our eyes, that we can see

all the things that really matter,

be at peace, and simply be.

2 Silence is a friend who claims us,

cools the heat and slows the pace,

God it is who speaks and names us,

knows our being, face to face,

making space within our thinking,

lifting shades to show the sun,

raising courage when we're shrinking,

finding scope for faith begun.

3 In the Spirit let us travel,

open to each other's pain,

let our loves and fears unravel,

celebrate the space we gain:

there's a place for deepest dreaming,

there's a time for heart to care,

in the Spirit's lively scheming

there is always room to spare!

A SONG OF FAITH: Read In Unison

We sing of God the Spirit, faithful and untameable,

who is creatively and redemptively active in the world.

The Spirit challenges us to celebrate the holy

not only in what is familiar, but also in that which seems foreign.

We sing of the Spirit, who speaks our prayers of deepest longing

and enfolds our concerns and confessions,

transforming us and the world.

MINISTRY OF MUSIC:

LEARNING TOGETHER:

HYMN: “Jesus Calls Us” VU #562

1 Jesus calls us; o'er the tumult

of our life's wild restless sea,

day by day his clear voice sounding,

saying, 'Christian, follow me.'

2 Long ago apostles heard it

by the Galilean lake,

turned from home and toil and kindred,

leaving all for Jesus' sake.

3 Jesus calls us from the worship

of the vain world's golden store,

from each idol that would keep us,

saying, 'Christian, love me more.'

4 In our joys and in our sorrows,

days of toil and hours of ease,

still he calls, in cares and pleasures,

'Christian, love me more than these.'

5 Jesus calls us: by your mercies,

Saviour, may we hear your call,

give our hearts to your obedience,

serve and love you best of all.

THE WORD

Scripture: Luke 8 : 26 - 39

Leader: Hear and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church.

ALL: Thanks be to God.

MESSAGE:

“What’s In A Name”

OUR RESPONSE

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE and A CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETATION OF THE LORD’S PRAYER:

Eternal Spirit,

Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,

Source of all that is and that shall be.

Father and Mother of us all,

Loving God, in whom is heaven:

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!

The way of your justice be followed by peoples of the world!

Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!

Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope

and come on earth.

With the bread we need for today, feed us.

In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.

In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.

From trials too great to endure, spare us.

From the grip of all that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,

now and forever. Amen.

Written by Jim Cotter, 1988. Used by permission.

HYMN “O Jesus, I Have Promised” VU #120

1 O Jesus, I have promised to serve you to the end;

remain for ever near me, my Saviour and my friend:

I shall not fear the journey if you are by my side,

nor wander from the pathway if you will be my guide.

2 O let me feel you near me: the world is ever near;

I see the sights that dazzle, the tempting sounds I hear;

my foes are ever near me, around me and within;

but, Jesus, then draw nearer and shield my soul from sin.

3 O let me hear you speaking in accents clear and still,

above the storms of passion, the murmurs of self-will;

O speak to reassure me, to hasten or control;

now speak, and make me listen, O guardian of my soul.

4 O Jesus, you have promised to all who follow you,

that where you are in glory your servant shall be too.

And Jesus, I have promised to serve you to the end;

O give me grace to follow, my Saviour and my friend.

PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS

OFFERTORY PRAYER

We lift these gifts of our hands and hearts to the glory that is in you, O Christ. We offer our gifts of talents and time that each of us bring to this community of faith. Receive these gifts, given freely for the greater good of the world. Amen

Written by Jim McKean, while at Severn Shores U.C., Severn, Ont.

Gathering, Pentecost 1 2025, p.46. Used with permission.

SUNG BLESSING MV #150 vs 4

4 Spirit God: be our breath, be our song.

Blow through us, bringing strength to move on.

Through change, through challenge, we’ll greet the new dawn…

SENDING FORTH:

A Time of Fellowship

Highland Hills