Order of Service for November 9, 2025

Twenty-Second Sunday After Pentecost

Remembrance Sunday

 

WE GATHER TO PRAISE GOD

 

PRELUDES

 

INTROIT: 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)                             -arr. H. Sorenson

 

PRAYER OF APPROACH:

God of the living and the dead,

On this day, we gather with remembrance in our

hearts:

For those who gave their lives,

for those whose lives were forever changed,

for the generations who have carried both grief and

gratitude.

Yet in our remembering, let us not lose sight of your

promise,

that you are the God of life, and death, and life

beyond death.

Renew in us the courage to be peacemakers,

the faith to trust resurrection life even amid the tombs

of history,

and the love that unites earth and heaven in your

eternal peace.

Amen.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE LAND

 

WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

STEWARDSHIP MOMENT

 

CALL TO WORSHIP:

ONE: God of all generations,
You call us to remember not only what has been,
but what still can be through your renewing Spirit.
We gather in gratitude for those who dreamed of peace
and for all who continue the work of your kingdom today.

ALL:
In this time of worship,
kindle in us a vision of your world made whole —
where justice and mercy meet,
where neighbours live in harmony,
and where your love is the law of life.

As we take up the torch of hope,
guide our hands and hearts to build what endures:
compassion over fear, peace over pride,
life over death.

ONE:
For You, in life, in death, in life beyond death, are with us
and in you all creation finds its home.
Amen.

 

PASSING OF THE PEACE: The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you… And also with you.

 

 

*OPENING HYMN: VU #678 For the Healing of All Nations

 

            ♫1      For the healing of the nations, 

                        God, we pray with one accord;

                        for a just and equal sharing

                        of the things that earth affords.

                        To a life of love in action

                        help us rise and pledge our word.

 

            2         Lead us forward into freedom,

                        from despair your world release;

                        that, redeemed from war and hatred,

                        all may come and go in peace.

                        Show us how through care and goodness

                        fear will die and hope increase.

 

            3         All that kills abundant living,

                        let it from the earth be banned:

                        pride of status, race or schooling,

                        dogmas that obscure your plan.

                        In our common quest for justice 

                        may we hallow life’s brief span.

 

            4         You, Creator-God, have written

                        your great name on humankind;

                        for our growing in your likeness

                        bring the life of Christ to mind;

                        that, by our response and service,

                        earth its destiny may find.

 

*Children are welcomed to the front after the final verse of the hymn*

 

CHILDREN’S TIME

 

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Abba, with us,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done, 

on earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory 

forever and ever. Amen.

 

PRAYER OF PEACE

 

*HYMN: VU #684 Make Me a Channel of Your Peace

 

         ♫1       Make me a channel of your peace:

                        where there is hatred, let me bring your love;

                        where there is injury, your healing power,

                        and where there’s doubt, true faith in you:

 

            2         Make me a channel of your peace:

                        where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope;

                        where there is darkness, only light;

                        and where there’s sadness, ever joy.

                                    O Spirit, grant that I may never seek

                                    so much to be consoled as to console,

                                    to be understood as to understand,

                                    to be loved as to love with all my soul.

 

            3         Make me a channel of your peace.

                        It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

                        in giving to all that we received,

                        and in dying that we’re born to eternal life.

 

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE:

In Flanders Fields

BY JOHN MCCRAE

 

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

    That mark our place; and in the sky

    The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

 

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

        In Flanders fields.

 

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

    The torch; be yours to hold it high.

    If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

        In Flanders fields.

 

God… 

We pray with failing hands

We pray for parents who have given all they are 

The children lost.

For parents who have given all they had to live on.

For Children who never knew their parents 
and grandparents, family.

We pray for those who have risked everything in search of a more peaceful place to live. 

For those who have risked everything to live as they are and challenge those who would be threatened by the rainbow of God’s creation. 

 

Guide our hearts in love and courage to walk in Your way of love without barriers, love which celebrates the glorious diversity of creation. In hope that anticipates joy.

 

ANTHEM: Agnus Dei                                                                                -J. Raney

 

OFFERING:

            INVITATION TO INVEST IN GOD’S MISSION:

            “Called by God, as disciples of Jesus, The United Church of Canada seeks to be a

            bold, connected, evolving church of diverse, courageous, hope-filled communities

            united in deep spirituality, inspiring worship, and daring justice.”

 

            OFFERTORY

 

            *DOXOLOGY: VU #540 

 

                        ♫      Grant us, God, the grace of giving,

                                    with a spirit large and free,

                                    that ourselves and all our living

                                    we may offer faithfully.

            

            PRAYER

 

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION

 

SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 20:27-38

The Question about the Resurrection

27 Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him 28 and asked him a question: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman and died childless; 30 then the second 31 and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. 32 Finally the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”

34 Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36 Indeed, they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37 And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all of them are alive.”

The word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

 

MESSAGE: “With Glowing Hearts”

 

HYMN: VU #806 O God, Our Help in Ages Past

 

            ♫1      O God, our help in ages past,

                        our hope for years to come,

                        our shelter from the stormy blast,

                        and our eternal home:

 

            2         under the shadow of thy throne

                        thy saints have dwelt secure;

                        Sufficient is thine arm alone,

                        and our defence is sure.

 

            3         Before the hills in order stood,

                        or earth received its frame,

                        from everlasting thou art God,

                        to endless years the same.

 

            4         A thousand ages in thy sight

                        are like an evening gone,

                        short as the watch that ends the night

                        before the rising sun.

 

            5          Time like an ever-rolling stream

                        soon bears us all away;

                        we fly forgotten, as a dream

                        dies at the opening day.

 

            6         O God, our help in ages past,

                        our hope for years to come,

                        be thou our guard while troubles last,

                        and our eternal home.

 

WE REMEMBER

 

*READING OF NAMES OF THOSE WHO SERVED

​

*ODE OF REMEMBRANCE

           They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
           Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
           At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
           We will remember them.

 

*LAMENT

 

*MINUTE OF SILENCE

 

*CLOSING HYMN: O CANADA (VU #524)

            

       ♫1       O Canada! Our home and native land!

                   true patriot love in all of us command.

                   With glowing hearts we see the rise,

                   the True North strong and Free!

                   From far and wide, O Canada, 

                   we stand on guard for thee.

                               God keep our land glorious and free!

                               O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

                               O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

 

*COMMISSIONING:

ONE: Go forth in peace, remembering those who gave theirs.
ALL: We go, to live for the living God.
ONE: Go with the courage of Christ,
the compassion of the Spirit,
and the everlasting hope of the God of the living.
ALL: Thanks be to God.

 

*SUNG RESPONSE: Go Now in Peace

 

♫         Go now in peace. Never be afraid.

God will go with you each hour of every day.
Go now in faith, steadfast, strong and true.
Know He will guide you in all you do.
Go now in love, and show you believe.
Reach out to others so all the world can see.
God will be there watching from above.
Go now in peace, in faith, and in love.

 

POSTLUDE