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Your Congregation | Clergy & Lay Leaders | Worship Aids | Earth Day Eucharist
Earth Day Eucharist
Compiled and designed by the Reverend Gregory
Peters for Earth Day 2002.
A Litany of Penance
Lord, we pray for this world you have made. We ask your
blessing on earth, wind, and water. Preserve this sweet place in its course
through the cosmos.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear
our prayer.
Lord, we pray for the community of living creatures.
Guide us in our works and ways, that every being may praise with its life
and serve you all of its days.
Lord, in
your mercy,
hear
our prayer.
Lord, we pray for our human family. You named us
stewards of this Earth, and we want to tend it and care for it. Teach us to
live in harmony together, so we can live in harmony with Earth.
Lord, in
your mercy,
hear
our prayer.
Lord, again and again we seek what is good and do what
is bad. We stand in the rubble of many bad choices. We have been forgetful
and willful tenants since you first put us in the Garden. Give us strength
and courage to change our ways, so this Earth may flourish under our care.
Lord, in
your mercy,
hear
our prayer.
Lord, at the end of all things you will bring us into
your household, to make community with you forever. Fill us with your Spirit
now, in our days on this Earth, so we may be fit and ready for the new
heaven and the new Earth you promise.
Lord, in
your mercy,
hear
our prayer.
Lord, you have called us to be stewards of this wonderful Earth. Guide our efforts: refresh the ground and the sea, let the air be soft and sweet. Teach us to care for your Earth, as you care for us. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
(Episcopal Peace and Justice Ministries Jubilee 2000
Manual, pp. 211 - 214)
OR
A Litany of Thanksgiving:
O give thanks to our God who is good;
whose love endures for ever.
You sun and moon, you stars of the western sky:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
Sunrise and sunset, night and day:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
All mountains and valleys, thickets and talus slope,
cedar swamps and prairies, estuaries and alpine meadows:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
You rivers and straits, bogs and fens, glaciers,
avalanches, mists, snows, and rains:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
You maples and firs, chantrelles and salal, dogwoods
and heathers, mosses and ferns:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
You salmon and orcas, seals and crabs, kelp and loons,
kingfishers, octopi, and prawns:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
You marmots and voles, salamanders and bears,
swallowtails and gnats, swifts and warblers, owls and hawks:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
All peoples immigrant and native, women and men, who
inhabit rain bathed Cascadia:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
All you saints and martyrs of the North and West:
give to our God your thanks and praise.
(After the “Benedicite Aotearoa”, New Zealand Book of Common Prayer, p. 457)
Creator God, we pray to you from the midst of your
creation. We ask you to love and sustain this Earth; and to love and sustain
us, who cling to it as it spins on its course through the cosmos. Teach us
to love the Earth as you love it: help us not to take it for granted.
Creator God, you made us in your image: teach us to be good stewards of your
creation. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
(Episcopal Peace and Justice Ministries Jubillee
2000 Manual, pp. 211 - 214)
Opening Acclamation:
Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Who creates all things, redeems all things, and sanctifies all things.
Song of Praise:
You alone are unutterable,
from the time you created all things that can be spoken of.
You alone are unknowable,
from the time you created all things that can be known.
All things cry out about you;
those which speak, and those which cannot speak.
All things honor you;
those which think, and those which cannot think.
For there is one longing, one groaning,
that all things have for you. . . .
All things pray to you that comprehend your plan
and offer you a silent hymn.
In you, the One, all things abide,
and all things endlessly run to you who are the end of all.
(Gregory of Nazianzen)
Salutation:
God be with you.
And also with you.
Let us pray.
The Collect of the Day:
God of unchangeable power, when you fashioned the world
the morning stars sang together and the host of heaven shouted for joy; open
our eyes to the wonders of creation and teach us to see all things for good,
to the honor of your glorious name; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
(New Zealand Book of Common Prayer, p. 569)
The Lessons:
Old Testament: Ezekiel
34:25 - 31
Psalm 148
New Testament: Revelation 21:1
- 3, 5 - 7
Gospel: Matthew 18:1 - 14
A Reading from _______.
Hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s people.
Thanks be to God.
The Holy Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ according to
_______
The Sermon:
The Nicene Creed:
Prayers of the People:
Caring God,
we thank you for your gifts of Creation
for our world
the heavens tell of your glory;
for our land, its beauty and its resources,
for the rich heritage we enjoy.
We pray:
for those who make decisions about the resources of the earth,
that we may use your gifts responsibly
for those who work on the land and sea, in city and in industry,
that all may enjoy the fruits of their labors
for artists, scientists, and visionaries,
that through their work we may see creation afresh;
we thank you for giving us life,
for all who enrich our experience.
We pray:
For all creatures and plants that have been put in
peril by our actions,
for all who through their own or other’s actions are deprived of
fullness of l
for prisoners, refugees, the handicapped, and all who are sick;
for those in politics, medical science, social and relief work, and for
your Church,
for all who seek to bring life to others.
We thank you that you have called us to celebrate your
creation.
Give us reverence for life in your world.
We thank you for your redeeming love;
may your word and sacrament strengthen us to love as you love us.
God, Creator, bring us life.
Jesus, Redeemer, renew us.
Holy Spirit, strengthen and guide us.
Blessed are you , God of growth and discovery;
yours is the inspiration that has altered and changed our lives;
your is the power that has brought us to new dangers and opportunities.
Set us, your new creation, to walk through this new world,
watching and learning, loving and trusting, until your kingdom comes. Amen.
(New Zealand Book of Common Prayer, p. 463 - 465)
The Confession:
Happy are those whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs
are pardoned.
I will confess my sins to the Lord, I will not conceal my wrongdoings.
Silence
God forgives and heals us.
We need your healing, merciful God:
give us true repentance.
Some sins are plain to us,
some escape us,
some we cannot face.
Forgive us;
set us free to hear your word to us;
set us free to serve you.
(New Zealand Book of Common Prayer, p. 458)
God the Creator brings you new life,
forgives and redeems you.
Take hold of this forgiveness
and live your life in the Spirit of Jesus. Amen.
(New Zealand Book of Common Prayer, p. 460)
The Peace
Offertory Sentence:
Jesus, the true bread that comes down from heaven: leaven us with your Holy Spirit, that the world may know the abundance of life in your new creation.
(Enriching our Worship 1, p. 52)
Eucharistic Prayer 3
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
All thanks and praise are yours at all times and in all
places, our true and loving God; through Jesus Christ, your eternal Word,
the Wisdom from on high by whom you created all things. You laid the foundations of the world and enclosed the sea
when it burst out from the womb; you brought forth all creatures of the
earth and gave breath to humankind. Wondrous
are you, Holy One of Blessing, all you create is a sign of hope for our
journey; and so as the morning stars sing your praises we join the heavenly
beings and all creation as we shout for joy:
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus
Glory and honor are yours, Creator of all, your Word
has never been silent; you call a people to yourself, as a light to the
nations, you delivered them from bondage and led them to a land of promise.
Of your grace, you have Jesus to be human, to share our life, to
proclaim the coming of your reign and give himself for us, a fragrant
offering. Through Jesus Christ
our Redeemer, you have freed us from sin, brought us into your life,
reconciled us to you, and restored us to the glory you intend for us.
We thank you that on the night before he died for us
Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks to you, he broke it, gave to
his friends and said: “Take,
eat, this is my Body, broken for you. Do
this for the remembrance of me.” After
supper Jesus took the cup of wine, said the blessing, gave it to his friends
and said: “Drink this, all of
you: this cup is the New
Covenant in my Blood, poured out for you and for all for the forgiveness of
sin. Do this for the
remembrance of me.”
And so remembering all that was done for us:
the cross, the tomb, the resurrection and ascension, longing for
Christ’s coming in glory, and presenting to you these gifts your earth has
formed and human hands have made, we acclaim you, O Christ:
Dying, you destroyed our death.
Rising, you restored our life.
Christ Jesus, come in glory!
Send your Holy Spirit upon us and upon these gifts of
bread and wine that they may be to us the Body and Blood of your Christ.
Grant that we, burning with your Spirit’s power, may be a people of
hope, justice, and love. Giver of Life, draw us together in the Body of Christ, and in
the fullness of time gather us with [blessed ,
and] all your people into the joy of our true eternal home.
Through Christ and with Christ and in Christ, by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, we worship you our God and Creator in voices of unending praise. Blessed are you now and for ever. Amen.
(Enriching our Worship 1, p. 62 - 65)
The Lord’s Prayer:
The Fraction Anthem:
Post Communion Prayer
Gracious God, you have given us much this day: the wheat and grapes which found our feast, the wit and will to be transform them into bread and wine, and the precious presence of your Son who transfigures and redeems all that we have broken and lost. Send us out now to care for this fragile earth, our island home. Grant us the wit and will to transform the toxic, irreverent ways we live, and the saving presence of your Son Jesus Christ who goes before us and call us into this world you love. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.
(from In Celebration of Creation, St. Thomas,
Medina, WA)
The Blessing:
May you be a new creation, Christ for those to whom
Christ shall send you, and the blessing of God our Creator, Redeemer, and
Sanctifier be amongst you and with you always.
Amen.
The Dismissal