September 28, 2025
TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION SUNDAY
A Service of Prayer, of Song, of Celebration, and of Coming Together with Our Prayers For Our Indigenous NeighboUrs
Lead Minister: The Rev. Jope Langejans
Music Director: Cody Obst
Minister Emeritus: Rev. Gerry Scharff
Honorary Associate Ministers: Rev. Clint Mooney & Rev. Kelley Warner
Chair of Council: Vacant
Reader: Henry Klassen
…and for this morning, here’s a couple of very interesting anecdotes: “Lose weight fast!, shed your burdens!” and then there’s this one: “Troubles are a lot like babies – they grow Larger if you nurse them!”
Gathering
(*Indicates that you may stand if you are able…)
PRELUDE
O Great Spirit
“O Great Spirit, how I long to hear your name.
How I long to see your face.
A way hi ho -- away hi ho -- away hi hi ho.”
“O Great Spirit, how I long to touch your hands.
How I long to see your face.
A way hi ho -- away hi ho -- away hi hi ho.”
WELCOMING & ANNOUNCEMENTS
*INTROIT MV # 62 “There Is Room for All”
LIGHTING OF THE CANDLE OF CHRIST
ACKNOWLEDGING THE TERRITORY (Unison)
ALL: Over the years, our relationship with indigenous people has not always been life-building. Sometimes we sought to live in respectful relationships with the First Peoples. Too often, we have ignored, mistreated, and destroyed them, exhibiting racism. Today, we’ve lit our candle of reconciliation, realizing we have a long way to journey in understanding our role in building right relations.
(Laura Trurnbull, Penticton, B.C., Gathering magazine, Pentecost 2, pg. 30)
“The Journey”, Stories and Prayers for the Christian Year From People of the First Nations…….page 176.
OPENING CALL TO WORSHIP:
Leader: As we focus ourselves this morning on Truth and Reconciliation Sunday, may we be mindful that much work has been completed so far in terms of reconciliation but that this is only the beginning.
ALL: With this in mind, we enter ourselves into worship and focus ourselves on standing up for those who were forced into living in caged residential schools and who are now glimpsing the kingdom or the ‘kin’dom of God through our true reconciliation.
Leader: This is a service of remembrance, of hope, and of action. We gather today to hear silent whispers and cries of anguish. We gather to name honestly the ways in which lives were damaged by our actions. We take time to listen, and we remember. Through our remembering, we must also hope for something more, and as bold participants in God’s world, we are called to take action.
ALL: May we gather in the presence of the Holy One and join our praises for this day – this new day.
Leader: Praise the sun…praise the moon…praise the changing and falling leaves and the autumn breezes.
ALL: Praise our worship and praise our time together.
Leader: Praise the music…praise the prayers…and praise our God who now receives us in this time of worship.
ALL: The Spirit of God calls to our spirits – calling us together. The Word of God calls us to ministry – calling us to be the church, calling us to love the world, calling us to work for peace…each and every day.
Leader: We now open ourselves to the Spirit’s yearning and
May the light of Christ, which is lit for all to see, enliven our hearts.
OPENING PRAYER (Unison)
ALL: Holy Creator God, we gather in worship to give thanks and to seek inspiration for living our lives. We thank you for the world you have created, for its infinite varieties of peoples, colours, races, and cultures; for the endless opportunities to make new relationships; for the challenge of venturing across new frontiers, creating new things, and discovering new truths. We thank you for your call to participate in healing what is hurt and broken. Open us to the abundance of your grace. Give us new ways of encountering one another; help us be open to the struggles of the world; allow us to be honest about the ways we do not listen to the cries of creation or the cries of our Indigenous brothers and sisters. Through this time together, empower us to be active participants in your world, listening with new ears to the cries of pain and hope from the depths of creation…Amen.
ASSURANCE of PARDON: (Leader)
God’s grace is over all and in all. By God’s grace, our faithfulness is possible. By God’s grace, we are renewed and can begin afresh each and every day…Thanks be to God….Amen.
CHOIR SELECTION:
“Lift Every Voice and Sing” by: James Weldon Johnson & J. Rosamond Johnson
Engaging the Sacred Text
(Reader: Henry Klassen)
OLDER TESTAMENT PASSAGE
JEREMIAH 32: 1-3a, 6-15 Houses, fields, and vineyards shall again be purchased…
EPISTLE LESSON
1 TIMOTHY 6: 6-19 The love of money; fight the good fight…
HYMN of ILLUMINATION VU # 308 “Many and Great, O God, Are Your Works”
GOSPEL PASSAGE (Rev. Jope)
LUKE 16: 19-31
The rich man and Lazarus…(This Gospel reading comes from the Indigenous biblical text…)
Message “Creation Stories”
Responding
OFFERING INVITATION: (Leader)
We are all called to participate in the healing of the world. Our offerings can enable this community and others to be what the church is called to be, offering healing and love…our offerings will now be taken up…
OFFERTORY CHOIR SELECTION
“Love Has Broken Down the Wall” by: Mark A. Miller
WORDS FOR OUR OFFERING:
Leader: Here we offer symbols of what we give, both online and in person: e-transfers, cheques, pre-authorized payments, coins, and paper. May you, O God, bless us in our giving through our stewardship of your gifts. May you transform our hearts by love shared and multiplied in Jesus’ name. And so, we offer a prayer of thanks…
Leader: Prayer of Dedication
Blessing
SUNDAY’S BLESSING of HOPE for T & R SUNDAY (Unison)
ALL: O Loving God, we come to you to say sorry for our part in the wrongs of the world. Often we do not welcome strangers. Often we do not open wide our arms to people who are different. We put up barriers, we push others out, we want our own safety and security. So, help us, O God, to be less quick to make judgements; to be more open-minded and willing to help others, to listen, and learn from them. Help us to realize that we are not superior, that all are equal. Help us to accept ourselves and to grow in self-awareness….so to be blessed.
FIONA’S PRAYER for RECONCILIATION
VU # 952
LORD’S PRAYER
COMMISSIONING & BLESSING: (Unison)
May our Creator fill us with peace and thanksgiving wherever we may go and protect us as we all journey into tomorrow….
*CLOSING HYMN MV # 169 “When Hands Reach Out Beyond Divides”
BENEDICTION
POSTLUDE MUSIC
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SCRIPTURE PASSAGES for Sunday, October 5
World Communion Sunday
Lamentations 1:1-6
Lamentations 3:19-26
Psalm 137
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10