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Easter

Sunday’s Coming: working towards Easter…

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This week on LL we’ll be working sort of “backwards-ish” through Holy Week. Today we’ll be thinking about what we need for the “big” Easter services–things we need to print in a bulletin–as well as thinking through Easter Sunrise, for those of us who do that. (watch for a sunrise post later today, when we’ll be far more awake than we will Sunday morning at 6-7-8am!

Tomorrow we’ll be creating for Friday and Thursday. Wednesday be sure to stop in for conversation about an Easter Vigil.

Of course, you can always check out the conversations already ongoing by clicking the sidebar links!

 

SO: Easter morning’s big service. What time is your big service? What mood are you going for? How do you decorate? Which Easter story are you reading (Mark? John? one of the others?)? If you’re going with Mark, are you stopping at the shorter ending or adding one of the longer endings?

What creative elements will be part of your Easter service? What very traditional elements will you have? (We always end with the Hallelujah Chorus.) What new thing would you like to try to introduce this year, or what’s something unusual you hope to convey? (besides that someone rose from the dead, which is pretty unusual in itself!)

Drop your words, themes, images, phrases, or seeds-of-ideas into the comments and let’s write some liturgy together!

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Looking Ahead: Easter

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How’s that Lenten Discipline going? One month and one day left of Lent! (not that anyone would count down or anything…)

On Easter morning, do you have a sunrise service? Inside or outside? printed bulletin or no bulletin? preaching or no preaching?

What about the service that happens well after sunrise?

What sparks are just beginning to catch your imagination–ideas, words, phrases, images…or maybe just a feeling or a sense of the atmosphere? What do you need for Easter, sunrise service or later? What have you done before, what would you like to try? Let’s work together to create!

Easter 7A Communion Prayer

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Submitted by Rev. Teri Peterson, Ridgefield-Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church

Blessed are you, O Lord, our God, Ruler of the Universe,
for you have kept your promises.
In the beginning, you called for yourself a people and you promised them a home.
Though it took many generations,
and though they were separated from their home by water and a desert,
you brought your people to a good land.
When your people turned away from you,
you promised us you would come among us.
In your Son Jesus we see you and your love,
living and real and for us.
He showed us how to follow you,
eating with sinners, touching the outcast,
loving all.
After his resurrection,
he told us to wait for your calling and your power.
He promised us that you would go with us as we proclaim the good news
that you have triumphed over death,
that love has the last word.
And now we wait to feel again the movement of your Holy Spirit,
giving gifts and expecting us to use them.
We give you thanks for your unending love for us,
and for this table,
where you have prepared a feast.
As we come to this meal, may we be made one with each other and with you.
Pour out your Spirit again on us and on these gifts of bread and wine,
show us a glimpse of your heavenly banquet.
Make this table the meeting place of earth and heaven,
that together we might be strengthened to go out
to be your witnesses in this place and even to the ends of the earth.
We pray in the name of our Risen Lord Christ, who taught us to pray together…

prayer of illumination: lift our eyes

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A prayer of illumination for reading Acts 1:1-14 (Ascension/Easter 7A).
Submitted by Andy James, First Presbyterian Church of Whitestone, Queens, NY

Ever-rising God,
just as you lifted the eyes of the disciples
to the rising Jesus at his ascension,
so lift our eyes to you as we hear your holy word today,
that we too might turn our eyes toward the need of the world
and follow in your way through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

prayer of confession: compassionate and gentle God

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submitted by Rev. Shannan Vance-Ocampo, Watchung Avenue Presbyterian Church, North Plainfield, NJ

Compassionate and Gentle God,
you have created us in Love to be your people.
As we gather for worship,
we are reminded that we have lost sight of this Gift
and forgotten how to really love you.
We have worshipped other gods,
put our faith in the riches of this world,
and impressed ourselves with misguided power.
We have looked for help in the wrong places
and ignored the extravagances you lay before us.
Send your Spirit to come and breathe its life-sustaining and life-altering presence into us
in these moments of worship.
Send your Spirit of renewal and transformation.
Send your Spirit that up-ends our lives and sets us on a new path.
Send your Spirit, O Lord.
Hear our prayers
and remake us in Your image once again.
We pray these things in the name of the One who rose from the grave.