HYMNS MARCH 11TH, 2012 3RD OF LENT

1. WHEN LONG BEFORE TIME - 248

LENTEN TENEBRAE CANDLE LITURGY - I HAVE CALLED YOU BY NAME - PRINTED, V. 1, 2, 3

2. GIVE TO US LAUGHTER - 624

3. THE OLD RUGGED CROSS (printed)

4. HOW GREAT THOU ART (back of Voices United)

Psalm 19, #740, REF.2
During the Season after Epiphany and Lent we are reading a section of the most recent United Church affirmation of faith, A Song of Faith, as a part of worship. Today we declare our beliefs about the sacrament of baptism.

Responsive Reading from A Song of Faith

Sung Response: To You, O God VU752 Refrain 2 (stand)

To point to the presence of the holy in the world,

the church receives, consecrates, and shares

visible signs of the grace of God.

In company with the churches

of the Reformed and Methodist traditions,

we celebrate two sacraments as gifts of Christ:

baptism and holy communion.

In these sacraments the ordinary things of life

—water, bread, wine—

point beyond themselves to God and God’s love,

teaching us to be alert

to the sacred in the midst of life.

Before conscious thought or action on our part,

we are born into the brokenness of this world.

Before conscious thought or action on our part,

we are surrounded by God's redeeming love.

Baptism by water in the name of the Holy Trinity
is the means by which we are received, at any age,
into the covenanted community of the church.
It is the ritual that signifies our rebirth in faith
and cleansing by the power of God.
Baptism signifies the nurturing, sustaining,
and transforming power of God’s love
and our grateful response to that grace.

Responsive Reading excerpted from A Song of Faith:A Statement of Faith of the United Church of Canada

Sung Response: To You, O God VU752 Refrain 2