Welcome to Hospital Chaplaincy

September 2016 – Peek-a-boo, I see you!

Rev Jean Shannon, Pr Rosemary Myers & Rev Neale RobertsMusic by Joan Pratt, Barbara Hall & Richard Bramley

The Uniting Church in Australia

Chapel is held every Thursday @ 9:30—everyone is welcome – no matter what your faith background or engagement might be or

might have been. You are welcome to join us for a small moment in community.

Uniting Hospital ChaplaincyCanberra HospitalPhone: 62443768

We pay respects to the traditional owners of this land, the Ngunnawal people, and to their elders, past and present, for their stewardship

and wisdom. We give thanks.

Christ/community candle is lit

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Call to Prayer

I, God, am in your midstWhoever knows me can never fail.I, God, am in your midstWhoever knows me can never fail. Not in the heights,Not in the depths,Nor in the breadths,For I am love,which the vast expanses of ignorance,can never still. Hildegard of Bingen

Creator, we cannot hide. You knew us before1 we were born. You shaped us in your image – you have led the way and followed behind. Loving Spirit, we come humbly to your table; the lost and found. We are both wealthy with your blessing and yet sometimes poor in spirit. We look to you in this time – celebrating in the depth of winter – the joy of spring. We rise up in this sacred hour to sing and praise you Lord. Amen J Shannon

Hymn: TIS 61 Sing all creation

Prayers for your people – There are those not with us today who need our prayers. Let us take a moment to include them. We light a candle to cast light into the shadows of our hearts. The flame sends warmth out to those in need and acts as a beacon to remind us God sees all and they are included.

Light the care candle

1 Berg, Else, 1877-1942. Potter, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55636 [retrieved August 30, 2016]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Else_Berg_A_potter.jpg.

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Hymn: TIS The stories told by Jesus by George Stuart (Tune TIS 457)

The stories told by JesusWere told to simple folk.He told them for their comfort,As well as to provoke.The leaders of the temple,The ones who taught the Law,They did not give approvalTo what they heard and saw.

2. For Jesus ‘strays’ were welcome.They were the ones he sought;And so he told this storyTo give them more support.“Take sheep – You have a hundred;You lose one. You will leaveThe ninety nine in pasture,The lost one to retrieve.”

3. And when you find the drifter,The one alone and cold,You take it to your shoulder;Return it to the fold.Your joy is overwhelming;For what was lost is found.You celebrate with neighbours.Your happiness, profound.”

4. Just so. This is the messageOf hope and grace and peaceTo those who feel ‘gone missing’,For those who need release.There’s joy in restorationFor when we feel alone,In God we are accepted;In God is peace unknown

Readings from our Biblical tradition

Present-ness and Forgiveness

We pray, Conscious that raising our hearts and mindsis a gift of the Spirit of Life at work in the depths of our being. For the presence of that Spirit in us, we give thanks.

We pray, conscious that our prayer gives the Spirit a way of breaking into word and song

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unique in all the universe.For the words and songs within each of us, we give thanks.

We pray, remembering Jesus who so allowed the Spirit of Life to move in his lifethat in him we have seen the perfect expression of the Spirit in Human form.For Jesus and all he means to us, we give thanks.

We pray, challenged by Jesus to allow life to be a mirror for usso that we might live a life in all its fullness.We pray, mindful of all that has brought us together, of the Spirit at work in our livesand of what may be possibleif we allow the Spirit to work freely in each of us.

We pray, inviting the Spirit of Life, love and goodness to move freely in our words and actions. Adapted from M Morwood2

On the night in which Jesus gave himself up to death,he took bread, gave you thanks,broke it and said:This is my body which is given for you.Do this for the remembrance of me.

When the meal was ended, he lifted the cup,and again giving you thanks,

2 Lost Coin Church, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54790 [retrieved August 24, 2016]. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jstephenconn/4361788851/.

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gave it to his friends and said:This cup is the new covenantsealed by my blood.Do this, whenever you drink it,for the remembrance of me.

Holy God,we offer our thanks and praise.

And so, in remembrance of all you have done for us,we take this bread and this cup,and offer ourselves as a holy and living sacrifice,made worthy by the perfect offering of Christour teacher.

By your Word and Holy Spirit,bless these gifts that we may truly shareChrist’s body and blood, and become, by grace, his body given for the sake of the world.

For through your Spirit,the whole earth makes its prayerin sighs too deep for words,longing for the day of freedom:for in hope and by faith we were saved.

Accept our thanks and praise, good Father,with your Son, Redeemer & spirit,with whom and in whom,and by the Spirit who dwells in us,we worship you in joyful song:

Holy God,we offer our thanks and praise.

Lord’s prayer

Life-Giver, Pain-Bearer, Love-Maker.Source of all that is and that shall be.

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Father and Mother of us all,Loving God, in whom is heaven:

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!The way of your justice be followedby all peoples of the world!Your heavenly will be doneby all created beings!Your commonwealth of peace and freedomsustain our hope and come on earth.

With the bread we need for today, feed us.In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.From trials too great to endure, spare us.From the grip of all that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,now and forever. Amen.

The minister takes the bread and breaks it Christ is the bread of joy, who shares food with everyone

The minister lifts the cup Christ is the cup of life, who revives the faint-hearted.

The minister holds out the bread and the cup to the people and says:Let us receive what we are;let us become what we receive.The body of Christ.

Share the bread & wine:

Communion Closing Prayer

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Ever present God, we have shared your table in a world that has no hidden corners. We are still soft like children, like clay – still forming into the best that we can be. We give thanks for the moment that shrinks the spaces between us. We are grateful to be fed in word and substance to remind us to reach out and touch another both spiritually and visibly. With this bread, we imagine a better world. J Shannon

Hymn: TIS 233 I will sing a wondrous story

Words of mission

He knows it all already so what are we afraid of? There is no point in having a ‘trust deficit’ with God. There is one who can take it and still be there! J Shannon

Blessing

May the Holy God surprise you on the way,Christ Jesus take you by the hand,And the Spirit lift up your feet. Amen

Amen Dorothy McRae-McMahon Echoes of our Journey

The candle is extinguished

Go in peace and the Lord be with you. Thank you.

This liturgy is a gift from the Uniting Church in Australia. Please feel free to take it with you.

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Trust deficit in an ego centric world

The conclusion of a recent research report was that some cultural groups hold less trust in authorities. No surprise there - but the report went on to talk about how the institution had to respond to the ‘trust deficit’ – a new term to me. I’m guessing the reason they chose the term was to emphasise that it was not that the organisation was untrustworthy, it was that community was not investing enough trust in the government institution. Trust as a commodity – like coins or bonds. Trust as something outside of us that can be traded.

Another newspaper story described the altercation that took place in a ski resort carpark. It seems that a man left 2 teenagers to ‘mind’ a parking space while he drove somewhere else. That is, they were supposed to stand in the car park and wave drivers (in actual cars) away from a spot they were holding for the dad. Things got physical when a car of young men did not accede the empty space ownership to the car-less duo. I had to ask myself, what is the ethics of this situation?

Two things sprung to mind in the convergence of these stories. Humans strive to make the universe as they want it – and fail. We are the pottery, not the potter. What we lack is trust. To me, a trust deficit is the same as a faith deficit. The Dad, got others to do his work in the belief he could take ownership of a public space for his personal convenience. The government organisation thinks it can market itself in such a way that without change or investment– the community will somehow come around to a different position: the unacceptable will become acceptable.

All this reminds me of the CS Lewis quote: “Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less”.

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