Sunday, December 8, 2024
Order of Service
We welcome all gathering for worship this morning or later in the week. Whether you attend in-person, worship on ZOOM or YouTube, or are a viewer on Rogers TV20 - please know that we consider everyone to be a part of our worship experience and an integral member of our St. Andrew's Guelph community.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this morning's service, both in-person and virtually.
Join us on our St. Andrew's Guelph YouTube Channel, select the live service, and remember to invite your friends and families. You can also join us via ZOOM by following the link in your Sunday morning email. If you'd like to begin receiving our weekly emails, you can sign up here.
You, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way. You will tell his people how to be saved through the forgiveness of their sins. Because of our God’s deep compassion, the dawn from heaven will break upon us, to give light to those who are sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide us on the path of peace
Luke 1:76-79
Prelude: La, how a Rose arr.G.Martin
Call to Worship
113 Comfort, comfort you my people
Prayer of Adoration and Confession
Declaration of Forgiveness
Hear and believe the Good News! Christ is our peace, the gracious giver of our forgiveness, salvation and new life. Let our Saviour break the power of sin and set us free again to live in all righteousness and truth.
Anthem: Creation will be at peace A. Page
Lighting the Candle of Peace
This morning we light the second candle of Advent. The first candle reminds us of a starry night in a quiet stable when God changed the course of human history. Our hope is firm, for in our Saviour’s birth, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The second candle symbolizes God’s perfect peace in an imperfect world. The season of Advent calls us to turn the eyes of our hearts to the Prince of Peace who has come into our lives, never to leave.
119 Hope is a Star - Verses 2 and 2
Prayer after Lighting
Gracious God, help us to see and be your peace in our world. Help us to remember this Advent that we can be channels of peace to all we meet. Help us to seek your perfect peace that surpasses all understanding. We pray this in the name of Christ, our Saviour. Amen.
Story: Peas on Earth!
139 Hark the herald angels sing
Prayer for Illumination
Dear God of peace, speak to us in the waiting, the watching, the hoping, the longing, the rejoicing. We are listening. Speak to us in these Advent days, and journey with us, we pray, until the day when Jesus, Prince of Peace, is born. Amen.
Scripture: Malachi 3:1-4, Luke 1:68-79
Sermon: A Favourable View
for he has looked favourably on his people and redeemed them. Luke 1:68
145 In the bleak mid-winter
Call for Offering
Our God of hope brings peace, joy and love to us and through us. In freedom and faith, let us gather our gifts together that peace may begin with us.
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Offertory: Noel Angevin C. Franck
Doxology: Tallis’ Canon
Prayer of Dedication
Prayer the People
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father 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, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.
720 O day of peace
Commissioning
Go out in the peace that comes from God, who has begun good work in you, who is a light in shadowed places. Go out with a peace to change the world for goodness sake. And as you go, may the love of God who made you, the strength of Christ you saved you, and the wisdom of the Spirit who enlivens you, go with you, you who are channels of peace with your words, your wills, and your ways.
Benediction
Postlude …
We gather on the traditional territory of the Wendat, the Anishnaabeg and the Haudenosaunee Peoples. We are also on lands that are part of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum. We live and work, worship, learn and meet on lands that are the traditional territory of many different Indigenous Peoples who were here before the establishment of European colonies.
