Order of Service – 29th June 2025

The Order of Service follows below.

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Brougham Place Uniting Church
Kardlayirdi Karnungga
A Light on the Hill

June 29, 2025, 10.00am
Preacher: Uniting World
Uniting World Sunday. Green

We acknowledge the Kaurna people as the traditional carers of the land on which our church is built.

As you wait for worship to begin, please turn your phone to silent.

Prelude

Welcome and Acknowledgment of Country

Naa marni? (Are you all good?)
Marni Ai! (Good I am)

Lighting of the Candles

Wa Wa Emimimo, TiS 711, offered by Amanda Hutchinson and the BPUC Youth Group

Call to Worship

Friends, today is a special service to focus our attention on what Christ is doing in our world. As part of the Uniting Church in Australia, we are connected in partnership with churches across the Pacific, Asia and Africa. Our partners are vibrant, inspiring, and dedicated people of God who are transforming lives and communities for the better.

Many of our overseas church relationships reach back more than 150 years and have impacted countless lives, through many generations. Through these relationships, we seek to act as one body of Christ in the world, each playing our part to build hope and end poverty and injustice.

Uniting World is the agency that manages these partnerships for the wider Uniting Church, and today we hear more about their work and celebrate our global neighbours together.

Opening Prayer

We sing: Gather Us In

Here in this place new light is streaming,
now is the darkness vanished away,
see, in this space, our fears and our dreamings,
brought here to you in the light of this day.

    Gather us in, the lost and forsaken;
    gather us in, the blind and the lame;
    call to us now, and we shall awaken,
    we shall arise at the sound of our name.
We are the young, our lives are a mystery;
we are the old, who yearn for your face;
we have been sung throughout all of history,
called to be light to the whole human race.

    Gather us in, the rich and the haughty;
    gather us in, the proud and the strong;
    give us a heart so meek and so lowly,
    give us the courage to enter the song.
Not in the dark of buildings confining,
not in some heaven light years away,
but here in this space, the new light is shining,
now is the kingdom, now is the day.

    Gather us in, and hold us forever;
    gather us in, and make us your own;
    gather us in, all peoples together,
    fire of love in our flesh and our bone.

Prayer of Confession

You call all people to respond in faith;
yet we humbly acknowledge our faltering responses:
We have not responded to your love with a full obedience;
Lord have mercy

Our common worship, witness and service has not always set forth the word of salvation for all people;
Christ have mercy

At times we have been hesitant to go forward together in sole loyalty to Christ,
the living Head of the Church;
Lord have mercy

We have resisted your call to constant reform under your Word;
Christ have mercy

And we have faltered in our efforts
to seek a wider unity
in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Lord have mercy

Words of Assurance/Grace

Passing of the Peace

The peace of our God be with you.
And also with you.

Community News and Notices

You can sign up to receive BP E-news by email and read past issues on our website: www.bpuc.org

Uniting World Sunday donation page: https://donate.unitingworld.org.au/sunday/sunday-donate

Children’s Time

Children may go downstairs for Sunday School. Parents, you are welcome to join your child in Sunday School if you feel your child may need your assistance. Alternatively, you may wish for your child to remain with you for the duration of worship. Activity packs are available at the entrances.

We sing: All Things Bright and Beautiful

    All things bright and beautiful,
    all creatures great and small,
    all things wise and wonderful –
    the Lord God made them all.

The wildflowers in their beauty,
the mountain ranges tall,
the billabongs and rivers,
and friendly birds that call,

    All things bright and beautiful,
    all creatures great and small,
    all things wise and wonderful –
    the Lord God made them all.
The cold wind in the winter,
the bright, life-giving sun,
the ripe fruits in the garden –
he made them every one.

    All things bright and beautiful,
    all creatures great and small,
    all things wise and wonderful –
    the Lord God made them all.
The coloured walls of gorges,
the gum trees green and tall,
the rocks, and pools, and palm trees,
the sparkling waterfall,

    All things bright and beautiful,
    all creatures great and small,
    all things wise and wonderful –
    the Lord God made them all.
The many-coloured corals,
the creatures of the sea,
of bushland, field or desert,
on farms, or roaming free,

    All things bright and beautiful,
    all creatures great and small,
    all things wise and wonderful –
    the Lord God made them all.
He gave us eyes to see them,
and lips that we might tell
how great is God Almighty
who has made all things well.

    All things bright and beautiful,
    all creatures great and small,
    all things wise and wonderful –
    the Lord God made them all.

Cecil Frances Alexander 1818-95 (vv 2alt. 5, and refrain) Brian Black 1926- (vv. 1 and 3) Compilers (v 4). Public Domain

Scripture Reading: Genesis 2:1-15.

Thus, the heavens and the earth were finished and all their multitude. On the sixth day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no vegetation of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground, but a stream would rise from the earth and water the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.

May the Spirit of God open our eyes to see, our ears to hear,
and our hearts to understand.

Message: Rev Dr Cliff Bird (Video)

Rev Dr Cliff Bird is a theologian and minister from the United Church in the Solomon Islands. He has worked extensively with UnitingWorld, authoring our publications on the theology of gender equality and human dignity, and serving on the Pacific-wide Theology of Disaster Resilience Working Group.

Cliff is currently working with the NSW and ACT Synod, resourcing the Uniting Church in providing pastoral care and religious and spiritual guidance to people who are participating in the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme (PALMS) program.

Musical Offering

El Shaddai, by Amy Grant. Sung by Emelia Haskey, accompanied by Callum McGing.

Used with permission under copyright CCLI Licence No 137219. Copyright cleared music for churches.

Prayers of the People

The Lord’s Prayer

And now with the confidence of the children of God, let us pray the prayer Jesus taught us saying…

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be Your name,

your Kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in Heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins,

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial

and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours

now and forever. Amen.

Offering

To give electronically please go to bpuc.org/give

Alternatively, there is an offering bowl near the lectern on the left-hand side as you exit the church.

Please consider an end-of-year tax-deductible donation to the Brougham Place Uniting Church Heritage Conservation Appeal

https://www.nationaltrust.org.au/the-national-trust-brougham-place-uniting-church-heritage-conservation-appeal/

Offering Prayer

God of extravagant mercy
With hands outstretched you have poured out
Wonder and pleasure and delight
Goodness and beauty and bounty.
Take and use these offerings we pray,
To help grow your Kingdom of justice and peace.
May we be part of building your new creation, together.
Amen.

We sing: For Everyone Born

For everyone born, a place at the table,
for everyone born, clean water and bread;
a shelter, a space, a safe place for growing,
for everyone born, a star overhead.

    Refrain:
    And God will delight when we are creators of justice
    and joy, compassion and peace:
    yes God will delight when we are creators of justice,
    justice and joy.
For woman and man, a place at the table —
and all those between, beyond, and; besides,
expanding our world, dismantling power,
each valued for what their voice can provide.

    Refrain:
    And God will delight when we are creators of justice
    and joy, compassion and peace:
    yes God will delight when we are creators of justice,
    justice and joy.
For gay, bi, and straight, a place at the table,
Invited to wed, to baptize and preach,
a rainbow of race and gender and color,
for queer, trans, and ace, God’s justice in reach.

    Refrain:
    And God will delight when we are creators of justice
    and joy, compassion and peace:
    yes God will delight when we are creators of justice,
    justice and joy.
For bodies diverse, a place at the table,
All manner of speech and movement and minds;
Enabled to lead and teach us new language,
For bodies diverse, a church redesigned.

    Refrain:
    And God will delight when we are creators of justice
    and joy, compassion and peace:
    yes God will delight when we are creators of justice,
    justice and joy.

Sending Forth and Benediction

Go now into the world in peace.
May the love of God guide you,
the compassion of Christ move you,
and the breath of the Spirit stir you to action.
Care for the earth, tend to one another,
seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.
And may the blessing of God — Creator, Christ, and Spirit —
be with you and remain with you, now and always.
Amen.

Sung Blessing

An Irish Blessing, by Andrew Chinn. Offered by Amanda Hutchinson and the BPUC Youth Group

Extroit

It is appropriate to depart during the Extroit if you wish

Come and share morning tea together, in the basement. There are stairs behind the organ and a ramp between the church and the car park. All are welcome!

Thank you for joining us for worship!
If you would like to get in touch or request a prayer, please make use of the Contact Cards in the pews and next to the Offering Bowl. Alternately, you can email our Minister, Rev Linda Driver: lindad@bpuc.org

This service has been prepared with assistance from

Uniting World Sunday Liturgy 2025

Uniting in Prayer Sunday 2024

Garry Worete Deverell, https://uncommonprayers.blogspot.com/2022/03/acknowledgement-of-country-for-dummies.html