October 31, 2021 – Hallowe’en
THE FIRST CHURCH OF DEERFIELD
The Brick Church / The Brick-less Church
Whoever you are, wherever you may be on life’s journey, you are welcome here.
ORDER OF WORSHIP
Sunday, October 31, 2021
PRELUDE
Pastorale Flor Peeters (1903-1986)
Dr. Thomas Pousont, organ
CALL TO WORSHIP
Love is the Spirit of this church,
and service its law.
This is our covenant:
To dwell together in peace,
To seek truth in love,
And to help our neighbor.
HYMN (559)
Come, thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount I’m fixed upon it, mount of God’s redeeming love.
Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the Way I love;
Here’s my heart, Lord, take and seal it; Seal it for thy courts above.
RESPONSIVE PRAYER OF CONFESSION
(This morning’s prayer of confession is drawn from the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism and from the Gospel According to Mark 9:24)
Congregational response (after each statement): “help our unbelief”
We believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person;
We believe in justice, equity, and compassion in human relations;
We believe in acceptance and encouragement of one another;
We believe in a free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
We believe in the right of conscience, and in the democratic process;
We believe in the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all;
We believe in respect for the interdependent web of all existence, of which we are a part.
We believe; help our unbelief.
Dona Nobis Pacem Trad. (attrib. to Mozart)
The Deerfield Choral Scholars: Christopher, Maddalena, & Stephen
(due to Covid safety measures, this musical offering has been pre-recorded)
READING
Mark 9: 14-28
REFLECTION
If the Great Pumpkin Comes
Rev. Liza B. Knapp
HYMN (286)
If you will trust in God to guide you, and hope in God through all your ways,
God will give strength, whate’er betide you, and bear you through the evil days.
Who trusts in God’s unchanging love, builds on the rock that will not move.
Sing, pray, and keep God’s ways unswerving; so do your own part faithfully,
and trust God’s word; though undeserving, you’ll find God’s promise true to be.
God never will forsake in need the soul that trusts in God indeed.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Mary Dancer
OFFERTORY & DOXOLOGY
A Dorian Prelude Flor Peeters
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
We offer these gifts in Faith,
believing that you will provide for us, according to our needs;
We offer these gifts in Hope,
believing that the seeds we scatter will bear fruit, according to their kinds;
We offer these gifts with Love,
believing there is no gift greater, than Love.
In the name of Christ, In the name of Love,
Amen
PASSING OF THE PEACE
HYMN (tune: 559)
Sent to share the Spirit’s blessing, we go forth renewed, restored,
humbled by the task before us, strengthened by the love outpoured.
Finding faith confirmed in action, led by hope through each new day,
we are called to be God’s people, living as we sing and pray.
BENEDICTION
Believe the day is coming, when God’s
Believe the day is coming, when Christ’s compassion will fill the world.
Believe the day is coming,
(by M. Luti, adapted)
POSTLUDE
March (1955) Flor Peeters
***
The First Church of Deerfield is an inclusive, inquisitive, open-and-affirming congregation
of the United Church of Christ and the Unitarian Universalist Association
PO Box 276, Deerfield, Massachusetts 01342
office@firstchurchofdeerfield.org / (413) 773-5323
Rev. Liza B. Knapp, Pastor – deerfieldpastor@gmail.com / (413) 768-9412
Dr. Thomas Pousont, Organist and Director of Music Ministry
Pat Auchard, Administrator – Tom Mershon, Sexton – Rev. Ann Hallstein, Pastor Emerita
