Blessing For All Animals, Including Us

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Sunday Worship, October 1, 2023, 10:30am

Worship Lead: Rev. Bethany Russell-Lowe
Worship Associate: Helen O’Brien

This Sunday, our service will be focusing on animals.

  • What can we learn from other species?
  • How do we honor our relationships with non-human life?

Partial recording… (ie. missing first part, shows the final 45 minutes, only)

See down below for “Order of Service”…

Many Christian congregations do Blessing of the Animals services…

  • in honor of St. Francis of Assisi,
    • Catholic Patron Saint of the Ecology (and animals!),
      • whose Feast Day is October 4th.
  • Our service will be a Unitarian Universalist celebration…
    • of our connection to animals, and our own animal nature.

 

In addition to the service on Sunday…

  • we will also be hosting a time to meet and greet one another’s pets!
    • This will happen on Zoom at 3 PM on Sunday
      • (click link above — to join our Zoom online video session).
    • If you would like to show off your beloved pet,
      • or just meet a bunch of cute animals,
        • plan to join us for a few minutes.
    • We will gather for 15-20 minutes,
      • meet each other’s pets,
        • and celebrate the beloved animals in our lives.
    • You are welcome to join, even if you do not have a pet for us to meet.

I hope you’ll join us!

– Rev. Bethany

Our Order of Service:

  • Welcome
    • Helen O’Brien
  • Prelude
    • Danielle Mepham
  • Call to Worship
    • Rev. Bethany Russell-Lowe
  • Chalice Lighting
    • Rev. Bethany Russell-Lowe
  • Hymn #175
    • Brian Moon
  • Story
    • Rev. Bethany Russell-Lowe
  • Joys and Sorrows
    • Helen O’Brien
  • Prayer
    • Helen O’Brien
  • Hymn #15
    • Brian Moon
  • Offering
    • Helen O’Brien
  • Offertory Anthem
    • Desert Chorale
  • Sermon
    • Rev. Bethany Russell-Lowe
  • Hymn
    • Brian Moon
  • Chalice Extinguishing
    • Helen O’Brien
  • Postlude
    • Danielle Mepham

 

Attributions:

  • Prelude
  • Call to Worship
    • “God Got a Dog” by Cynthia Rylant
  • Chalice Lighting
    • “All Animals Are Our Relatives” by Rev. Florence Caplow
  • Hymn #175
    • “We Celebrate the Web of Life”
  • Story
  • Prayer
  • Hymn #15
    • “The Lone Wild Bird”
  • Offertory Anthem
    • “All Creatures of the Earth and Sky”
      • arr. by Chris Tackett
  • Sermon Sketches
    • “Little Dog’s Rhapsody in the Night”
      • by Mary Oliver
        • in Dog Songs
    • “Mercy”
      • by Rudy Francisco
        • in Helium
    • “The Peace of Wild Things”
      • by Wendell Berry
    • “Come into Animal Presence”
      • by Denise Levertov
        • in Poems: 1960-1967
  • Hymn
    • “All God’s Creatures Got a Place in the Choir”
  • Chalice Extinguishing
    • “Blessing of the Animals – St. Francis Day”
      • by Rev. Thomas Rhodes,
        • `adapted by Rev. Elizabeth Mount
  • Postlude