Order of Service – Easter Sunday – 5th April 2026

The Order of Service follows below.

For improved text clarity and easier reading, e.g. change text size, you can use ePub on iPhones, iPads and other devices with an ePub application. If you want to see it exactly as printed, or print your own there is a pdf.

Please join us in saying the words printed in bold text. Items in red text are for information and explanation and are not spoken.

Brougham Place Uniting Church
Kardlayirdi Karnungga
A Light on the Hill

April 5, 2026
Preacher: Rev Linda Driver
Easter Sunday. White and Gold

Welcome to Brougham Place Uniting Church.

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)

Introit and Lighting of the Candles

Easter Gloria (R Nairn)

Call to Worship

Rise up and live!

Life is springing forth from death and is offered to the world.

Thanks be to you, O Christ.

Christ is risen, the beat of love and life continues.

Thanks be to you, O Christ.

Christ is risen, alive in our hearts and our communities.

Thanks be to you, O Christ.

Christ is risen.

He is risen indeed.

Alleluia!

Alleluia!

The light of the world shines once again!

We sing: Christ the Lord is Risen Today

Christ the Lord is risen today:

Hallelujah!

Let the whole creation say:

Hallelujah!

Raise your joys and triumphs high;

Hallelujah!

Sing now, heaven, and earth reply:

Hallelujah!

Love’s redeeming work is done;

fought the fight, the battle won;

vain the stone, the watch, the seal:

Christ has burst the gates of hell.

Lives again our glorious king;

where, O death, is now your sting?

Once he died our souls to save;

where your victory, O grave?

Soar we now where Christ has led,

following our exalted Head;

made like him, like him we rise:

ours the cross, the grave, the skies.

Opening Prayer

Living and loving God,

we come to you with songs of praise

and shouts of joy

for love abounds, and signs of life surround us.

As we wait in awe this day,

we pray that the signs of the risen Christ

will be made real among us.

Be present with us in ways that go deeply into our lives,

that we may find the passion of your life within us

and around us.

This we pray in faith

because we believe that you are indeed alive amongst us.

Amen.

Prayer of Confession

Living Christ,

like Mary, we come looking for you amongst the dead,

but we forget that you are found in the ordinariness of real life.

When we fail to see you in those we meet in our everyday life,

God, awaken your love within us.

May we be witnesses to the risen Christ in our midst.

Like Peter, we run to the tomb in disbelief that you are not there,

but we miss all the signs of your life along the way.

When we fail to see you in the world around us,

God, awaken your love within us.

May we be witnesses to the risen Christ in our midst.

Like Mary, we weep at your graveside for what could have been,

but we fail to recognise you in the present, here with us now.

When we fail to see you in small acts of kindness and glimpses of your

love,

God, awaken your love within us.

May we be witnesses to the risen Christ in our midst.

Amen.

Words of Grace

Look, Christ is alive.

God makes all things new.

God makes each of us new.

Thanks be to God.

Easter Greeting

Christ is risen.

He is risen indeed.

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

Children’s Time (Exploring the Theme)

Children and Young People are staying in the service today. Some activities are available at the back.

Musical Offering

Easter Song (TiS 389)

Scripture Reading: John 20:1-18

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed, for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and she told them that he had said these things to her.

The Gospel of Christ, Light of the world.

Thanks be to God.

Choral Anthem

Christians Shout for Joy and Gladness (JS Bach)

Message

Poem: I Sometimes Forget (Hafiz)

I sometimes forget

that I was created for Joy.

My mind is too busy.

My Heart is too heavy

for me to remember

that I have been

called to dance

the Sacred dance of life.

I was created to smile

To Love

To be lifted up

And to lift others up.

O’ Sacred One

Untangle my feet

from all that ensnares.

Free my soul.

That we might

Dance

and that our dancing

might be contagious.