Wild Goose Big Book of Worship Resources 2

Iona Community

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Worship
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Wild Goose Publications
• Date de parution: 28 octobre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781849526937
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Another wide-ranging collection of resources, including material for Advent, Christmas, Lent and Holy Week.
Also includes a reflection, meditation and prayer for Holocaust Memorial Day; resources and ideas for remembering the Bible with women; prayers by and for kids; all-age resources for Pentecost and Ascension, and Christmastime; harvest prayers; a meditative look at climate change, the sacredness of all life and human responsibility; a blessing for a new car; stories and reflections for the World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel; a reflection and prayer on racial justice; prayers for Remembrance Sunday; a reflection, meditation, and ideas for taking action on homelessness …
So – as always with the Iona Community – worship which is contextual, prophetic, with a strong justice and peace edge.
Originally published as single digital downloads by Wild Goose, these are now all brought together for the first time in this second Big Book of Worship Resources .
Contributors include Isabel Smyth, Jan Sutch Pickard, Ruth Burgess, Thom M Shuman, David Osborne, Roddy Cowie, Janet Lees, Joy Mead, David Coleman, Iain Whyte, Isabel Whyte, Peter Millar, Elaine Gisbourne, Richard Skinner, Ewan Aitken and others.
God of justice and joy,
help us to be faithful to our calling to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, to be people of hospitality, integrity, justice and compassion.
Amen
Norman Shanks
www.ionabooks.com

Contributions copyright © the individual contributors
Compilation © The Iona Community
Published 2019 by
Wild Goose Publications
21 Carlton Court, Glasgow G5 9JP, UK, the publishing division of the Iona Community.
Scottish Charity No. SC003794. Limited Company Reg. No. SC096243.
PDF: ISBN 978-1-84952-692-0
ePub: ISBN 978-1-84952-693-7
Mobi for Kindle: ISBN 978-1-84952-694-4
Cover photo © Mikko Pitkänen / Alias Studiot Oy | Dreamstime.com
The publishers gratefully acknowledge the support of the Drummond Trust, 3 Pitt Terrace, Stirling FK8 2EY in producing this book.
Apart from reasonable personal use on the purchaser’s own system and related devices, no part of this document or file(s) may be transmitted in any form, by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Non-commercial use:
The material in this book may be used non- commercially for worship and group work without written permission from the publisher. If copies of small sections are made, please make full acknowledgement of the source, and report usage to the CLA or other copyright organisation.
For any commercial use of the contents of this book, permission must be obtained in writing from the publisher in advance.
The Iona Community has asserted its right in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
Contents
The silence of God: A reflection, meditation and prayer for Holocaust Memorial Day , Isabel Smyth
An interview with Mrs Grumpy, and other dialogues and monologues for worship , Jan Sutch Pickard
Women at the well: Remembering the Bible with women , Janet Lees
My gran’s porch: Prayers by and for kids , Ruth Burgess and Thom M Shuman
Jesus is back!: Lent and Easter resources for remembering the Bible with children and young people , Janet Lees
Lead me into life with you: Short prayers for Lent and Holy Week , Thom M Shuman
To walk the way of the Cross: Prayers of intercession for Palm Sunday , David Osborne
Walking in the wider world: Readings, reflections and prayers for Holy Week , Peter Millar
Out of our brokenness: Stories for Easter , Jan Sutch Pickard
Love endures: A hymn for Easter Sunday , Jan Sutch Pickard
Lord of the upper room: A prayer for the first Sunday after Easter , Roddy Cowie
A litany of laughter: A meditation , Joy Mead
Ascension and Pentecost: All-age resources and ideas , Janet Lees
Let us live your love: Harvest prayers , David Osborne
The granaries of heaven: A Harvest prayer of thanksgiving and concern , Roddy Cowie
Nature, life and being: A meditative look at climate change, the sacredness of all life and human responsibility , Joy Mead
A blessing for a new car , David Coleman
Seven days: Stories & reflections for the World Week for Peace in Palestine & Israel , Jan Sutch Pickard & members of the Iona Community
Racial justice: A reflection and a prayer , Iain & Isabel Whyte
Prayers for Remembrance Sunday , Roddy Cowie
The light which illumines the world: Readings, reflections and prayers for the four weeks of Advent , Peter Millar
Voices of longing, glimpses of hope: A script for six voices for the beginning of an Advent service , Elaine Gisbourne
The appointment: A reflection on the Incarnation , Tom Gordon
The Gospel according to sheep: An alternative look at Christmas , Janet Lees
The council of the Magi: A dialogue , Richard Skinner
In shop doorways and on street corners: A reflection, meditation, and ideas for taking action on homelessness , Ewan Aitken
About the authors
The silence of God
A reflection, meditation and prayer for Holocaust Memorial Day
Isabel Smyth
Reflection:
The silence of God can be frightening and deafening in its reverberations and perhaps that is the reason people don’t like silence. This is particularly so in the face of great suffering and evil. We say in the Christian tradition that there is ‘no greater love that anyone can have than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’ (John 15:13). This is true, but I wonder if there is not an even greater love, and that is to watch other people be discriminated against, suffer and die, to have one’s heart broken and be powerless to do anything about it – to live with unrequited love, misunderstandings in relationships, powerlessness to help or solve another’s problem. This can be like a living death, protracted over time.
Shusaku Endo’s book Silence , now made into a film by Martin Scorsese, deals with this very problem. Where is God amid the struggle with apostasy, with the temptation to deny one’s truth and firmly held faith, not to save one’s own skin, though torture would make that understandable, but to save others from terrible torture and execution? Where is God in all of this? Why does God not speak, not act? This is the dilemma of the central character in the film as he struggles with his faith and the consequences of his fidelity or his betrayal. Why does God not help him? How can he continue to live while others have died and sacrificed themselves for their faith? How can he bear the shame and guilt? What meaning is there in this life now?
The theme of Holocaust Memorial Day 2017 deals with this very issue. In the light of the Nazi Holocaust and the genocides in Armenia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia and Darfur (described as the first genocide of the 21st century), ‘How can life go on?’. Survivor of the Holocaust and author Elie Wiesel has said:
‘For the survivor death is not the problem. Death was an everyday occurrence. We learned to live with death. The problem is to adjust to life, to living. You must teach us about living.’ 1
The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day challenges us:
– How are people to survive in the light of unimaginable suffering? …
– How can life be rebuilt after such trauma? …
– How does a person cope with living when so many others have died? …
– What sense can there be in all this? …
– How can we who are onlookers teach others about living? …
– How can we find meaning in their lives and our own? …
These questions do not just apply to survivors of genocides. I am sure we all experience a feeling of hopelessness as we view on our television screens the violence and atrocities perpetrated not just in the Middle East or parts of Africa and Asia but also on European soil. We ask: How can I live a comfortable life at home, speaking out about justice, doing my best to make the world a better place in my own small way – while all this suffering is happening all around, and I have personally experienced nothing of it? Where is God? Why is God silent? Is God’s heart not breaking? Does God hear our cries? Does God shed tears over the pain and suffering, to say nothing of the evil of people, made in the image and likeness of God, whom God loves?
Our Christian faith tells us yes, God does, and the evidence for this is the Cross. Is the Cross not a sign for us that our God, however we understand God, feels deeply the pain and anguish of seeing people suffer? Does the Cross not show us that God fully enters into that suffering, that God is not far or distant but present in the very suffering itself? Christian belief is that to enter into this pain, to feel it deeply and embrace it, can lead to transformation and resurrection. The suffering and evil need not have the final word.
The systematic and mechanistic horrors of the Holocaust let loose a great evil in our world. They revealed the depravity that we all are capable of. Yet we know that we humans are also capable of great love and compassion. Believers of all faiths and none are called to confront this evil in ourselves and in our world, to acknowledge it and so weaken its power over us, to work for personal transformation and the spread of God’s reign among us by lovingly:
• recognising the interrelatedness of all people and refusing to divide the world into ‘us’ and ‘them’
• accepting that both the perpetrators and the victims are our brothers and sisters and so feel the pain of the world and our implication in that pain
• keeping alive the memory of all those who have suffered and died for no other reason than their ethnic or religious identity
• rejoicing in and respecting diversity, recognising that difference of beliefs, cultures, traditions enriches our human family
• learning about the beliefs and traditions of those who are different from us, and challenging misconceptions and prejudices
• developing an open and generous theology that creates a place for people of all faiths a