Easter Sunday Sunrise Service
April 1st, 2018
6:30 a.m. Outdoors St. David’s U.C.
Port Hastings, N.S.
Ministers: Each one of us
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WE GATHER TOGETHER
OPENING WORDSWe are summoned by our God
to gather to remember and worship.
We are summoned to recall the darkness
when God's Child, Jesus, passed from his life into death.
We recall the dawn of a new day
when Jesus also passed from death into NEW LIFE,
a new life that God gives.
Jesus lights our way through the darkness into the new light.
A new fire burns within us as we greet the Easter morn.
LIGHTING THE NEW FIRE Christ candle is lit.
This is the dawn of a new creation: come to the new fire!
WE APPROACH GOD
CALL TO WORSHIP (inspired by Psalm 118:19–24)One: Open wide the way to renewed life
that all may enter and give thanks to God.
All: Our prayers have been answered,
and God has become our salvation.
One: This Love's doing;
it is marvellous in our eyes.
All: This is the day that God has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Easter Greeting 3 times:
One: Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Response: Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
HYMN This Is the Day that God Has Made VU 175
This is the day that God has made!
Rejoice! Rejoice, and be exceeding glad!
This is the day that God has made!
Rejoice! Rejoice! Hallelujah!
1 Christ has conquered death at last,
left the tomb that held him fast!
Gone the sorrow, gone the night,
dawns the morning clear and bright! R
2 Jesus lives who once was dead,
lives forever, as he said!
Risen now our Saviour, King;
songs of gladness let us sing! R
OPENING PRAYER
O God, in the darkness before the dawn, you gather us from all over the world to kindle a new fire and light a new light.
The light of Jesus, your beloved Child, shines in the darkness to bring warmth and energy to the earth
and to illumine a new relationship with you and one another.
Bless us with memory and a collective will
to extend your light and warmth beyond ourselves
and to embrace your light within us
and where we find it in your people all over the world. Amen.
PASSING THE PEACE
WE LISTEN FOR GOD'S WORD
John 20:1-18 Reader Theatre-A reading in 4 voices
WE RESPOND TO GOD'S WORD
RENEWAL OF BAPTISM Invitation to gather around the font.One: As the light begins to dawn on this celebration of Jesus' resurrection, let us remember the meaning of baptism and our baptism.
All: As the light begins to dawn on us and warm our hearts, may we as a faith community remember that our baptism calls us to live in newness of life and to extend the ministry of God by sharing Light and a New Fire.
One: (as water is poured) Let us pray:
God, we give you thanks for life-nurturing water.
Water sustains all life whether washing or cleansing.
Water quenches thirst, the thirst of the earth and its inhabitants.
Water, precious water, is a gift and a right to be shared by all.
All: Jesus, by his own baptism into a community, found temptations awaited, but thanks be to God's light and fire, Jesus persevered to illuminate a path for us.
One: May we remember our baptisms
as we pass by the stations of water and candle.
(You are invited to come to the font, dipping your hands in and applying drops of water to your foreheads or simply feeling the water.)
HYMN Morning Has Broken VU 409
1. Morning has broken like the first morning,
blackbird has spoken like the first bird.
Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning!
Praise for them, springing fresh from the Word!
2. Sweet the rain's new fall sunlit from heaven,
like the first dewfall on the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden,
sprung in completeness where God's feet pass.
3. Ours is the sunlight! Ours is the morning
born of the one light Eden saw play!
Praise with elation, praise every morning,
God's recreation of the new day!
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE A prayer with actions
We pray in the name of the light of the world, the One who taught us to pray saying: Our Father who...
SENDING OUT AND BLESSING
Glory to God for the Easter Light and Love of Jesus.
May that Light and Love from God bring you wholeness and joy.
Go forth walking from the darkness
into the illumined path set before you,
knowing that God is with you. Amen and Amen.
The light is carried into the church as we move to the firehall to share breakfast.
