Worship in the Home: Sunday, July 12, 2020. Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 15.
Praying separately in our homes yet united in the Spirit, let us together intercede for all the needs of the world.
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It’s hard to overstate the impact COVID-19 has had on our communities and our worship experiences. To help with this, ELCA World Hunger is delighted to share an adapted version of this year’s Vacation Bible School: “On Earth As in Heaven…At Home!”
This adaptation simplifies some of the activities in the original leader’s guide, offers tips for doing crafts and games at home, and provides links to pre-recorded videos you can share.
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These petitions are offered as guides to prayer for the global, social and outreach ministries of the ELCA, as well as for the needs and circumstances of our neighbors, communities and world. Thank you for your continued prayers for the life and mission of this church. Download a Word doc, or PDF for letter size printout or legal size printout, or view the ELCA resource page.
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Worship in the Home, Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 14
You are great, O God, and greatly to be praised. You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Grant that we may believe in you, call upon you, know you, and serve you, through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
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Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 13, June 28, 2020: While you cannot be together in person, we can hear the word of God and hold each other in prayer. We offer this brief resource as an aid for prayer in the home.
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Pastor Kristin Engstrom, the Country Coordinator for the ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) program in Senegal, provides a video sermon (also in PDF) for use for either Sunday, July 5 or 12, 2020.
Pastor Engstrom will use the texts from the ELCA Global Church Sunday Resources. We encourage synod churches to adapt the resources to celebrate this virtual visit from Pastor Engstrom. View this post for multiple ways to access the video.
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Many of you know that the ELCA’s publishing ministry, 1517 Media, is located in Minneapolis. As employees gathered online to pray after the murder of George Floyd, the following prayer from All Creation Sings gave us words for this moment.
Lord Jesus Christ, your own mother looked on when your life ended in violence. Our hearts are pierced with grief and anger at the death of George Floyd. We commend him to your wounded hands, and his loved ones to your merciful heart, trusting only in the promise that your love is stronger than death, and that even now, you live and reign forever and ever. Amen.
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Juneteenth is a holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. While President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, Texas and Louisiana finally got the good news on June 19, 1865.
This resource may be used in whole or adapted based on your local traditions. Additional assembly song may reflect the theme and text of the day.
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There is terror all around. Violence and destruction, too. Telling the truth about that condition of the world, however, has always been unpopular. Jeremiah experienced rejection. Even more, Jesus was killed.
And Jesus calls us to follow him, to be countercultural like Jeremiah, to value the gospel of Jesus Christ even more than what the world counts as family values, to tell the truth openly about human sin and God’s mercy.
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June 17 marks the fifth anniversary of the shooting at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. The ELCA Prayer Service for Commemoration of the Emanuel Nine is available on the ELCA website or on YouTube. You can also download a version of the commemoration video.
To honor this day, the 2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly adopted a resolution to establish June 17 as "Emanuel 9 Day of Repentance," commemorating the martyrdom of the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, the Rev. Daniel L. Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton and Myra Thompson by Dylann Roof, who grew up in the ELCA. Pinckney and Simmons were graduates of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.
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More Days for Praise, a resource for the church’s festivals and commemorations is designed for home devotions. Remembering those saints who have lived through a host of challenging times and situations reminds us of our connection to a great cloud of witnesses.
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For your individual or group devotion, you may choose to listen to the following choral recordings made available through Augsburg Fortress: “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy”; “Our Mission Is to Follow Jesus”; “Creation’s Grandest Glory Stands.”
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The Episcopal Diocese of Arizona will be livestreaming a prayer vigil this Friday night, June 5, at 6 pm, and we encourage everyone to join us in prayer on our YouTube account.
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As we approach the fifth anniversary of the martyrdom of the Emanuel Nine, ELCA congregations are encouraged to reaffirm their commitment to repenting for the sins of racism and white supremacy, which continue to plague this church.
An online ELCA prayer service, including leaders from across the church and Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton as preacher, is being planned for June 17, 2020, to mark this fifth anniversary. More is available at elca.org/emanuelnine.
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Starting this week, Arizona Faith Network and the Sema Foundation invite you and your family to a series of Virtual Interfaith Prayer Vigils for Global Health & Peace. Join us each Thursday night throughout June from 7 - 8 p.m. as interfaith and community leaders throughout Arizona offer prayers of strength, hope and healing.
The events will be offered in a Zoom webinar format, live streamed to Facebook, and then later posted to YouTube. View all June events here.
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In this time of world-wide crisis, congregations throughout this church are not able to gather for worship as the body of Christ. While you cannot be together in person, we can hear the word of God and hold each other in prayer. We offer this brief resource as an aid for prayer in the home. As with our prayers in the gathered assembly for worship, you are encouraged to prepare or adapt them locally for your context.
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Hymnody resources for worship at home can be found through The Hymn Society. For your devotional time, you might be interested in knowing about the Community Video Hymn Sing FaceBook page led by Paul and Elizabeth Damico-Carper.
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A recent news story emphasizes the importance of interpreters in the dealing with the current pandemic. In a place such as New York City, where more than 800 languages are spoken, one can only imagine how hard it must be to make sure someone with any medical emergency can provide a description of their condition, as well as receive understandable instructions.
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O God, on this day you open the hearts of your faithful people by sending into us your Holy Spirit. Direct us by the light of that Spirit, that we may have a right judgment in all things and rejoice at all times in your peace, through Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
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