Order of Service – 6th September 2026

The Order of Service follows below.

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Brougham Place Uniting Church

Kardlayirdi Karnungga

A Light on the Hill

September 6^th 2026

Preacher: Rev Leanne Davis

Liturgical week: Season of Creation. Colour: Aqua blue

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)

We care for Kaurna land,

We care for Kaurna sky.

We care for Kaurna waters,

We touch our hearts and say:

Thank you, Kaurna people.

Lighting of the Candles

Introit: Canticle of Daniel

Call to Worship

Come into the presence of the God

who plants gardens and shapes mountains.

We are creatures of earth and breath.

Come beneath the canopy of grace where all life belongs.

We are here to listen with humility and wonder.

Come with your gratitude and your grief for the world.

We come trusting that God has not abandoned creation.

Let us worship the One in whom

all things live and move and have their being.

We sing: Let hills and mountains sing and shout

Let hills and mountains sing and shout.

Let trees and flowers dance about.

Let towns and cities all cry out in praise to the Lord.

Let seas and oceans foam and roar.

Let calling seagulls wheel and soar.

Let waves and waters pound the shore

in praise to the Lord,

praise to the Lord.

Let drums and cymbals beat and pound.

Let shape and colour whirl around.

Let pen and poet all resound in praise to the Lord.

Let the earth and ore their riches bring.

Let court and crown with justice ring,

Let sign and symbol search and sing.

in praise to the Lord,

praise to the Lord.

Let art explode on blinded sight.

Let deaf and dumb in verse recite.

Let lame and frenzied dance delight in praise to the Lord.

Let those in prison be unbound.

Let all the gathered church be found.

Let bread and wine be shared around.

in praise to the Lord,

praise to the Lord.

Prayer

Creator God,

you form us from soil,

fill our lungs with breath,

and place us among forests, rivers,

and creatures as kin.

Open our eyes to the beauty that remains,

our hearts to the grief that is real,

and our hands to the work of healing.

Teach us again the wisdom of trees:

to grow slowly,

to reach toward light,

to hold one another through unseen entanglement.

Through Christ who came to reconcile all creation.

Remind us again of our reliance on water.

Help us to grow towards your life-giving refreshment

and to remember the water of our baptism.

Amen.

Prayer of Confession

God of the living earth,

we confess that we have forgotten our place within creation.

We often treat gifts as commodities,

creatures as products,

water as if it’s just a means of production,

and forests as though they existed only for our use.

We confess our participation in systems that wound the earth,

and we confess the weariness that tempts us toward despair.

Forgive us when we choose convenience over care,

consumption over community,

and fear over action.

Teach us repentance that leads to restoration,

and hope that takes the shape of love.

Amen.

Words of Grace

Hear the good news:

The God who formed humanity from the soil

has not abandoned the work of creation.

Grace is still growing.

Seeds are still germinating.

Forests are still teaching wisdom.

In Christ, reconciliation remains possible

and Spirit continues to renew the face of the earth.

Thanks be to God.

Passing of the Peace

The peace of our God be with you.

And also with you.

Community News, Notices and Welcome to Leanne

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)

We sing: All are welcome, friend and stranger

Refrain:

All are welcome, friend and stranger,

at the banquet of the Saviour.

All are welcome, all are welcome here.

From the woman who comes crying,

leaving tears at Jesus’ feet,

to the man who knows the right way,

but cannot see.

Refrain:

All are welcome, friend and stranger,

at the banquet of the Saviour.

All are welcome, all are welcome here.

From the ones who feel forgotten,

those who sense their place is gone,

to the ones who live in hunger –

here you belong.

Refrain:

All are welcome, friend and stranger,

at the banquet of the Saviour.

All are welcome, all are welcome here.

Go into the streets and cities,

to the farms and families.

Tell about the splendid table –

God’s mercy.

Refrain:

All are welcome, friend and stranger,

at the banquet of the Saviour.

All are welcome, all are welcome here.

Holy Communion

The children are invited to sit with their families.

Invitation to the Lord’s table

This is the table of the Lord, who feeds God’s children by word and sacrament. It is open to all who love Jesus a little and seek to love him more.

The Great Thanksgiving

Lift up your hearts!

We lift them up to our God.

Let us give thanks to God our Creator.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

… And so we praise you

with the faithful of every time and place,

joining in the eternal hymn, singing:

You are holy, you are whole

You are always evermore

Than we ever understand.

You are always at hand.

Blessed are you coming near;

Blessed are you coming here

To your church in wine and bread,

Raised from soil, raised from dead.

You are holy,

You are wholeness,

You are present,

Let the cosmos praise you, Lord!

Hallelujah, hallelujah,

hallelujah, hallelujah,

Hallelujah, our Lord!

The Lord’s Prayer

Let us pray together in the words that Jesus taught us:

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.

The Breaking of the Bread

We break this bread

and take this cup

so that we can all share in the life of Christ.

The gifts of God for the people of God.

The distribution

Prayer After Communion

God of Love and Mercy

You nurture and sustain us by Word and sacrament.

By your grace we are empowered to serve you in or lives, in our church

and in your mission.

Guide us by your Spirit as we seek to bear witness to your love…

Through Christ we pray.

Amen!

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.

Anthem: Spirit of God in the clear running water

Scripture Reading:

Ezekiel 47:1-12

Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple; there water was flowing from below the entryway of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east), and the water was flowing down from below the south side of the temple, south of the altar. Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east, and the water was trickling out on the south side.

Going on eastward with a cord in his hand, the man measured one thousand cubits and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. Again he measured one thousand and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again he measured one thousand and led me through the water, and it was up to the waist. Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross, for the water had risen; it was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be crossed. He said to me, “Mortal, have you seen this?”

Then he led me back along the bank of the river. As I came back, I saw on the bank of the river a great many trees on the one side and on the other. He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and when it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters, the water will become fresh. Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish once these waters reach there. It will become fresh, and everything will live where the river goes. People will stand fishing beside the sea from En-gedi to En-eglaim; it will be a place for the spreading of nets; its fish will be of a great many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.”

John: 4:5-15

So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

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

and our hearts to understand.

Message

We sing: God the Great Imagination

God the Great Imagination

lit a spark and there was light.

In a far-flung constellation

this small rock was set in flight.

Redgums soar in bellbird forests,

creatures roam in pastures green,

circled by the loving promise

of God’s covenantal dream.

Yet our world is still encumbered

by the heedless need for power.

Vested interests take and plunder,

human flourishing turns sour.

Still enslaved and still enslaving

can we yet uphold the dream?

Can God change our bad behaving

and our conflicts still redeem?

Jesus knew the world’s temptations,

and the pull of pow’r and might.

Lure of praise and reputation

would distract from best and right.

Faithful to God’s great intention,

grace and love with pow’r imbued;

by his life, death, resurrection,

Jesus proved the cov’nant true.

Can we work in co-creation,

work with hearts and hands to see

hope and reconciliation,

freedom in our world of need?

Shall we yet live out Love’s image,

suffer till the task is done?

Love will labour till it’s finished

and the transformation won.

God with cosmic inspiration

sets the possible astir.

Christ the sacred incarnation,

changes all the ways we were.

God beyond us, Christ beside us,

Spirit’s inward deep embrace.

Covenant of richest beauty

our Creator’s gift of grace.

Prayers of the People

In the quietness, we turn our minds to the beauty and the terror of a changing planet. We remember the people of Nepal at this time of destruction, loss of life and the uncertainty facing thousands and thousands of people.

(A silence is kept)

Creator of forests and oceans,

we pray for places scarred by fire,

for species disappearing from earth,

for communities displaced by rising seas and changing climates.

Hear our prayer, O God,

show us how to care for your creation.

We pray for scientists,

farmers, conservation workers,

policy makers, and indigenous communities

whose wisdom has too often been ignored.

Hear our prayer, O God,

show us how to care for your creation.

We pray for those overwhelmed by ecological grief,

especially the young who inherit a future they did not choose.

Hear our prayer, O God,

show us how to care for your creation.

We pray for ourselves:

that we might resist despair,

practice courage,

and become people of restoration.

Hear our prayer, O God,

show us how to care for your creation.

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

We sing: Touch the earth lightly TiS 668

Touch the earth lightly,

use the earth gently,

nourish the life of the world in our care:

Gift of great wonder,

ours to surrender,

trust for the children tomorrow will bear.

We who endanger,

who create hunger,

agents of death for all creatures that live.

We who would foster

clouds of disaster,

God of our planet, forestall and forgive!

Let there be greening,

birth from the burning,

water that blesses and air that is sweet,

health in God’s garden,

hope in God’s children,

regeneration that peace will complete.

God of all living,

God of all loving,

God of the seedling, the snow and the sun,

teach us, deflect us,

Christ re-connect us,

using us gently and making us one.

Sending Forth and Benediction

Postlude

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 prayer, please make use of the Contact Cards in the pews and next to the Offering Bowl. Alternately, you can email office@bpuc.org or contact Sharonne Price at sharonneprice@gmail.com

This service has been prepared with assistance from

Liturgy, Learning, & (Purposeful) Life (L3)
© 2026, Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of South Australia

Bible Readings are from the New Revised Standard Version

Cover image by Sharonne Price, Mares Run, NSW

Congregation Hymns/Songs:

Let hills and mountains sing and shout
Words: Donald Bell Music: David McCallum Arrangement: Douglas Simper Songs from the Still Strange Land edited by Douglas Simper published by The Joint Board of Christian Education (1989) All rights reserved.

All are welcome, friend and stranger
Words and Music: Hans Peterson and Larry Olsen © 1999 Dakota Road Music and republished in “All Together for Good” Curly Music (2007) Modbury Heights SA No 515 All rights reserved.

You are holy, you are whole
Words and Music: Per Haring (Sweden) Published in All Together for Good by Curly Music (2007) Modbury Heights SA no 558 All rights reserved.

God the Great Imagination
Words: Sharonne Price Music: NETTLETON, American Folk Melody (Together in Song no 392)

Touch the earth lightly
Words: Shirley Elena Murray Music: Colin Gibson Together in Song no 668 Words and music ©1992 by Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream IL 60188 All rights reserved.