Order of Service – 11th October 2026

The Order of Service follows below.

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Please join us in saying and singing 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

11 October, 2026

Preacher: Rev Linda Driver

Liturgical week and colour: Pentecost 20 [28], green

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

O Day of God, Draw Near Together in Song 616, R. Scott / J. Hopkirk

Call to Worship

Listen. Somewhere, a table is being set.

We hear plates and cups, and chairs being pulled out.

Breathe in. Somewhere, bread is warm and the coffee is on.

We smell the welcome before we see it.

The invitation has gone out, and it keeps going out: to the busy and the tired, to the young and the old, to the good and the works-in-progress, to the ones standing at the edge.

We come with busy minds, full hands and many distractions.

Everything is ready.

Then here we are.

Meet us as we are, God of the wide-open table.

Let us take our place at the feast of grace.

We sing: Jesus Calls Us Here to Meet Him

Jesus calls us here to meet him

as, through word and song and prayer,

we affirm God’s promised presence

where his people live and care.

Praise the God who keeps his promise;

praise the Son who calls us friends;

praise the Spirit who, among us,

to our hopes and fears attends.

Jesus calls us to confess him

Word of Life and Lord of All,

sharer of our flesh and frailness

saving all who fail or fall.

Tell his holy human story;

tell his tales that all may hear;

tell the world that Christ in glory

came to earth to meet us here.

Jesus calls us to each other:

found in him are no divides.

Race and class and sex and language

such are barriers he derides.

Join the hand of friend and stranger;

join the hands of age and youth;

join the faithful and the doubter

in their common search for truth.

Opening Prayer: Full Hands, Open Hands

(fists held)

God, our hands are full.

(hands open)

God, our hands are open.

(hands lifted)

We’re ready to be given a seat, a plate, a welcome.

(arms wide)

God of the open table,

you are never too busy for us.

Open our arms as wide as yours. Amen.

Prayer of Confession

When God invited us to rest, and we were too busy to stop…

We said, “Not now.”

When someone needed us to listen, and our minds were already somewhere else…

We said, “Not now.”

When someone was left out of the game, the group chat, or the room, and it was easier to look away…

We said, “Not now.”

When we had a chance to make room, to change a door, a habit or a seat, and we kept things as they were…

We said, “Not now.”

When someone stopped coming, and nobody picked up the phone…

We said, “Not now.”

Let’s take a moment of silence. In it, if you like, name one “not now” you’d like to be rid of. Or just breathe, with open hands.

Let’s pray together:

God of the wide table,

we are sorry for the times we were too busy,

too comfortable, or too scared to come,

and for the times we kept the door narrower than yours. Forgive us.

Teach us to put down what we’re gripping,

and to pick up your life:

compassion, kindness, humility and love. Amen.

We sing: Take, O Take Me As I Am

Take, O take me as I am;

summon out what I shall be;

set your seal upon my heart

and live in me.

Repeat x3

Words of Grace

Hear the good news. The table was set before we got our act together. The bread was baked and the places were laid before any of us was ready. God’s welcome has never waited for our readiness. In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. We are loved. There is a seat with each of our names on it.

Thanks be to God.

And so, one more time, the invitation goes out. Turn to someone near you, a neighbour of any age. Hold out your open hands and say to them what has been said to you:

(to one another)

There’s room. Come.

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

Children’s Time

(arms wide)

There’s room. Come.

Children and Young People may go downstairs for Sunday School and Youth. Parents, you are welcome to join your young children in Sunday School if you feel they 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.

Choral Anthem

O Praise God in His Holiness – Psalm 150, J. Weldon (Fl.A. 43a, p. 185)

Scripture Reading: Matthew 22:1–14

Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad, so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

May the Spirit of God open our eyes to see, our ears to hear,

and our hearts to understand.

Message: A Table Set Wide

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.

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.

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 young and for old, a place at the table,

a voice to be heard, a part in the song,

the hands of a child in hands that are wrinkled,

for young and for old, the right to belong.

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.

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 everyone born, a place at the table

to live without fear, and simply to be,

to work, to speak out, to witness and worship,

for everyone born, the right to be free.

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!

Prayers of the People

God of the wide-open table, we bring you the places where there is not yet enough room.

After each part of our prayer, we’ll say together:

God of the open table,

make room.

And for anything held in our hearts that we haven’t said aloud.

(Silence)

Hear us, God, in your mercy.

Amen

The Lord’s Prayer

And with the confidence of those who have been invited to your table, we pray in words that echo the prayer Jesus taught us:

God of the open table,

holy is your name.

Let your kingdom come, your feast be spread on earth as in heaven.

Give us today the bread we need, and teach us to share it.

Forgive us for the times we said “not now,”

as we forgive those who have kept us waiting or shut us out.

Keep us from being so busy and afraid that we miss your invitation,

and free us from all that would shrink our welcome.

For the table, the welcome and the joy are yours,

now and for ever.

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.

Offering Prayer

Generous God,

everything we have is a gift from your hand.

We bring these offerings —

our money, our time and our lives —

not as payment for a place at your table,

but as our way of joining the feast.

Use them to widen the table,

so that nobody disappears

and everyone may hear: there’s room, come.

Amen.

We sing: All Are Welcome

Let us build a house where love can dwell

and all can safely live,

a place where saints and children tell

how hearts learn to forgive.

Built of hopes and dreams and visions,

rock of faith and vault of grace;

here the love of Christ shall end divisions:

Refrain:

All are welcome, all are welcome,

all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where prophets speak,

and words are strong and true,

where all God’s children dare to seek

to dream God’s reign anew.

Here the cross shall stand as witness

and as symbol of God’s grace;

here as one we claim the faith of Jesus:

All are welcome, all are welcome,

all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where love is found

in water, wine and wheat:

a banquet hall on holy ground

where peace and justice meet.

Here the love of God, through Jesus,

is revealed in time and space;

as we share in Christ the feast that frees us:

All are welcome, all are welcome,

all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where hands will reach

beyond the wood and stone

to heal and strengthen, serve and teach,

and live the Word they’ve known.

Here the outcast and the stranger

bear the image of God’s face:

let us bring an end to fear and danger:

All are welcome, all are welcome,

all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where all are named,

their songs and visions heard

and loved and treasured, taught and claimed

as words within the Word.

Built of tears and cries and laughter,

prayers of faith and songs of grace,

let this house proclaim from floor to rafter:

All are welcome, all are welcome,

all are welcome in this place.

Sending Forth and Benediction

Go now into the main streets of your week,

clothed in Christ’s love.

Wear Christ’s peace in the marketplace,

Christ’s kindness in your home,

Christ’s joy in the wilderness.

The feast of God continues wherever grace is shared.

And to whoever you meet, say:

There’s room. Come.

May the God who welcomes you,

Christ who clothes you in love,

and the Spirit who sends you in joy,

bless and keep you, now and always.

Amen.

Choral Blessing

Deep Peace – R. Nairn

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

Liturgy, Learning, & (Purposeful) Life (L3), God’s Wide-Open Table, Pentecost 20. Dr Michelle Eastwood. Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of South Australia (offering prayer and benediction adapted)

Call to worship, prayers, children’s talk, story retelling and Lord’s Prayer adaptation: Rev Linda Driver

Bible reading from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Image by elegantindianwedding from Pixabay

Congregation Hymns/Songs:

Jesus Calls Us Here to Meet Him
Together in Song 477. John L. Bell and Graham Maule © 1989, WGRG, Iona Community. Administered in Australia and New Zealand by Willow Publishing Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.
(TiS 477)

Take, O Take Me As I Am
Words and music © 1995 WGRG, Iona Community. All rights reserved.

For Everyone Born
Worship in Song 4139. Shirley Erena Murray. Words © 1998 Hope Publishing Co. All rights reserved. Revised lyrics: https://binarybreakingworship.com/2021/06/24/for-everyone-born-revised/ (WS 3149; Worship in Song 4139)

All Are Welcome
Marty Haugen b.1950. © 1994 GIA Publications Inc. All rights reserved.

Permission to stream / podcast the music and lyrics displayed in this service obtained from: ONE LICENSE, License #A‑604444. All rights reserved and CCLI Streaming License: 41427. CCLI Church Copyright Licence: 137219. Music Reproduction Licence: 137226.