Second Sunday of Lent
Organ Prelude “Movement 1” from Concerto in a-minor (A. Vivaldi)
Congregational Welcome
Choral Introit “Come, Gracious Spirit” (Paul Sjolund)
Call to Worship
*Opening Hymn #456 Awake, My Soul, and with the Sun
*Prayer of Gathering and MercyOne Voice: Listen to how the Episcopal Prayer for the Second Sunday in Lent begins— “O God, whose glory is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from thy ways, and bring them again… to steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of thy Word…” In community with all people who seek God in every faith, let us pray.
All: God of grace and God of Glory, be with us here and now as we open our ears and our hearts, open our spirits, in our own longing for both truth and mercy. Be with us in our private and personal needs, in our communities, and across our globe, all of which need divine mercy and truth. Be with us in the strength of ancient covenant, and in the urgency of still unexpected challenges. Be with all of us across your creation, which we know through the name and the promise of Jesus your beloved, so in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
*Assurance of Grace
*Sung Response (Passion Chorale)
O God of all the living, both banished and restored,
Compassionate, forgiving, our peace and hope assured.
Grant now that our transgressing, our faithlessness may cease.
Stretch out your hand in blessing, in pardon, and in peace.
*Sharing of Peace
One Voice: The Peace of Christ be always with you. All: And also with you!
The Gospel Reading Mark 8: 31-38
The Children’s Time Wendy Donnell
*Hymn Response #324 Open My Eyes That I May See
(During the hymn children are invited to Church School)
The Epistle Readings 1 Corinthians 15: 1-10
Colossians 2: 13-15
The Morning Meditation The Rev. Kenneth Baily
The Pastoral Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
(Our father and mother…trespasses)
Call to Offering
Choral Offering “Set me as a Seal” (Clausen)
*Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Christ the word in flesh born low,
Praise Holy Spirit evermore,
One God, Triune, whom we adore. Amen.
*Prayer of Thanksgiving
*Closing Hymn (insert) O Praise the Gracious Power (vv. 1-5)
*Assurance and Blessing
*Choral Benediction “The Lord Bless You and Keep You” (Peter Lutkin)
Postlude “Movement 3” from Concerto in a-minor (A. Vivaldi)
* Those who are able please stand
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Each week during Lent Ken Baily will post two “cartoons” on the bulletin boards near the Parlor.
Take a look on your way to fellowship time. Perhaps they inspire discussion.
Like to cook? Sign up to bring a Nicaraguan-style dish to the Mission Committee’s fundraising lunch on Sunday, March 10, after worship. Mark your calendar for this special event!
Thanks to worship leaders Ken Baily, Wendy Donnell, Jan Zimmerman,
Yevgenia Semeina-Maroyan, Amanda Ketchpaw, Worship and Spiritual Life,
Tannika Scott, and Misha Hill.
Each Sunday, NHCC is blessed to be able to include remote members and friends in worship via YouTube and on our website. Our services are live streamed and recorded.
We don’t control who can watch or who can be seen. If you do not wish to have your likeness recorded, streamed, or photographed, please inform a greeter so you can be seated appropriately.
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please scan the qr code below and access plenty of our parish information.
(Also, you can talk to our reader or pastor, any day at all.)
“The basic fact is that Christianity as it was born in the mind of this Jewish thinker and teacher
appears as a technique of survival for the oppressed. That it became, through the intervening years,
a religion of the powerful and the dominant, used sometimes as an instrument of oppression,
must not tempt us into believing that it was thus in the mind and life of Jesus.
‘In him was life; and the life was the light of men.’
Wherever his spirit appears, the oppressed gather fresh courage;
for he announced the good news that fear, hypocrisy, and hatred, the three hounds of hell that
track the trail of the disinherited, need have no dominion over them.”
— Howard Thurman