Order of Worship
Let us be as open vessels that God’s spirit may enter.
The Community Gathers: Experience God’s presence in the assembly. Please greet one another with joy and welcome new friends into our community of love.
You are welcome here…come and worship!
Prelude: Come, Now Is the Time To Worship (by Brian Doerksen)
-Jennifer Comeau/John Comeau/Rob Duquette
Welcome: Rev. Paula Norbert
Reading: John 20:1-11
Opening Hymn: Morning Has Broken #664
Call To Worship:
Leader: Lord, like the women at the tomb on the first Easter, we come out of our darkness and into your light.
All: We come out of emptiness to enter your fullness. We come out of our hopelessness to find your joy
Leader: We come out of our confusion to seek your peace.
All: We come at your invitation to celebrate your risen life and to praise you as Lord.
Opening Prayer:
God of the bright and morning star,
God of the rising sun, God of darkness banished,
we praise and worship you!
For empty tombs: thank you!
For disciples running with good news: thank you!
For your presence, alive, powerful, resurrected: thank you!
We celebrate your victory over death and
over all the powers that would defeat us. Amen.
Lord’s Prayer
A Time for the Children:
Readings: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24, John 20:11-18 -Rich Westley
Sermon: In The Darkness, Hope Shines Through
Rev. Paula Norbert
Music: Meditative Instrumental ~ Rob Duquette
Musical call to Prayer: (two times) Hush now in quiet peace, be still your mind at ease. The Spirit brings release, so wait upon the Lord. Rob Duquette
Prayers of Gratitude and Hope:
Lifting our worries, our burdens, our hopes this day
Offertory: Oh Happy Day (by Phillip Doddridge ~Recorded by Edwin Hawkins Singers) -Jennifer Comeau/
Jon Comeau/Rob Duquette & *Invited Members of the Union Church Congregation
Doxology: Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise God all creatures here below. Praise God above ye heavenly hosts, Creator, Christ and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Prayer of Dedication:
Closing Music: Jesus Christ Is Risen Today #232
Blessing:
Postlude: Go In Peace
Many Thanks to our musicians this morning Rob Duquette, Jen Comeau and members of our Union Church Community.
Wishing you all a very Happy Easter!
Our Church Leadership:
Moderator: Paul Schlaver
Clerk: Anita Coupe
Treasurer: Debbie Lamb
Mission Chair: Ken Murray
Deacons: Sharon Gaudin, Chair; Eve McPheeters,
Nancy Batchelor, Ardis Chretien, Bonnie Tallagnon,
and Beth Baskin
Trustees: John Comeau, Chair; Don Chretien, and
Rob Harriman
Finance: Peter McPheeters, Chair, Debbie Lamb, Doug Firebaugh,and Brad Coupe
Music Director: Michelle Currie
Website: www.unionchurchme.com
Pastor’s Info: Rev. Paula Norbert
Cell: 207-205-4951, pnorbert1217@gmail.com
Upcoming Events:
Cinco de Mayo Dinner coming in May: For more information and to volunteer, please contact Peter and Eve McPheeters
Spring Plant Sale: Sat, May 20th– FMI: Nancy Bancroft
2 Courtlynn Circle, Saco, Rain Date May 27th
Community Yard Sale: Saturday, May 27th, Biddeford Pool, Please consider donating good quality items to sell (no clothing please)
(All of these events will help support our many Community Outreach Programs in the local and global community)
EASTER BLESSING
“On this Easter morning, let us look again at the lives we have been so generously given and let us let fall away the useless baggage that we carry — old pains, old habits, old ways of seeing and feeling — and let us have the courage to begin again. Life is very short, and we are no sooner here than it is time to depart again, and we should use to the full the time that we still have.
We don’t realize all the good we can do. A kind, encouraging word or helping hand can bring many a person through dark valleys in their lives. We were sent here to search for the light of Easter in our hearts, and when we find it we are meant to give it away generously. The dawn that is rising this Easter morning is a gift to our hearts and we are meant to celebrate it and to carry away from this holy, ancient place the gifts of healing and light and the courage of a new beginning.”
John O’Donohue
Dawn Mass Reflections at Corcomroe Abbey
Easter Prayer
Creator of springtime,
how can it be that every year
I forget the miracles visiting
the land in the form of fresh leaves,
laughing flowers, greening grass.
Winter holds a strong power over me.
I lose the memory of vibrant vigor,
the unseen energy raising
dead earthen things to awakening life.
Risen One, dwelling within me,
how can it be that I forget you,
your passionate grace tending my soul,
your constant stream of hope
rising up through the dead ground
of my brown, barrened prayer.
I turn to you in this season of spring,
bowing gratefully
to every growing plant, every flourishing flower,
for each one sings an Easter metaphor
full of memory, proclaiming your wild embrace
of my inner life, a life holding the promise
of an eternal return to spring.
Joyce Rupp