3-31-2024 Order of Service

Transformation

Sunday, March 31, 2024, 10:25 am

Online on Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/738363620
Passcode: BUF

Zoom by phone, for audio only: (346) 248-7799
Meeting ID: 738 363 620
Passcode: 306220


Gathering Music                      Melanie Reick, Traditional Easter hymns

Welcome                                   Rev Paul Beckel

An Easter Litany for Trees, by James Broughton

(see below)

Prelude                                      Phoenix Ensemble

Open My Heart

Chalice Lighting                       Tom Nicholas

Covenant                       

Singing Together                      #38, Morning Has Broken

Children’s Focus                       Farfallina and Marcel by Holly Keller,

read by Jayne Kuhlman

Children’s Blessing                   We Hold You In Our Love

On Transformation                    Rev Paul Beckel

Responsive Reading                 Alive in the World (see below)

On Trans Day of Visibility         Talia Dienes

Chalice Choir                             I Dreamed of Rain, by Garrett/Nickel

Reflections                                Tom Nicholas

Reflections                                Rev Paul Beckel     

Offertory                                    The Water is Wide

Singing Together                      #1050, Jazz Alleluia

Benediction                    

Singing Together                      #155, Circle Round


Afterward

If you’re with us on Zoom today, please stay after the service for our online coffee hour. If you’re here in person, please join us downstairs for coffee and conversation. Visitors: you may wish to use a red cup — then we’ll know you’re open to a bit of orientation.

If you’re new, we’d be grateful to have you provide us with contact information so we can let you know what’s happening here. There are buff-colored visitor contact cards in the pew racks, and in the entryway, that you can drop in the collection basket. Or provide your contact information HERE. 


Contributions payable to “BUF” may be sent to:
1207 Ellsworth Street, Bellingham 98225

For info about donating online (credit card or PayPal), by automatic bank transfer, or via phone apps, see the “give” button in the upper right-hand corner at buf.org or contact the office: (360) 733-3837 / admin@buf.org

 

Welcome: An Easter Litany for Trees, by James Broughton

Harken, fresh saplings on Easter morn!
To ensure your perennial resurrection,
affirm your faith in the miracle of green
by repeating yearly this credo of renewal:

I believe unconditionally in
the one impossible truth
the two doors of perspicacity
the three windows of the unthinkable

the four corners of the boundless
the five pillars of insecurity
the six towers of pointlessness
the seven roads to the vanishing point

the eight capitals of bewilderment
the nine arenas of intrepidity &
the ten palaces of impossible wisdom

wherein are kept
the original designs for the world’s trees
the original scores for all birdsong
and the master blueprint for the first
explosion of springtime

Be true to this faith all your budding days
and ye shall branch blossom and be leafy
to the joy of all…
as many times as there are Easters.

 

Responsive Reading: Alive in the World, by Jackson Browne

I want to live in the world, not inside my head
I want to live in the world, I want to stand and be counted

With the hopeful and the willing
With the open and the strong
With the voices in the darkness
Fashioning daylight out of song
And the millions of lovers
Alive in the world

I want to live in the world, not behind some wall
I want to live in the world, where I will hear if another voice should call

To the prisoner inside me
To the captive of my doubt
Who among his fantasies harbors the dream of breaking out
And taking his chances
Alive in the world

To open my eyes and wake up alive in the world
To open my eyes and fully arrive in the world

With its beauty and its cruelty
With its heartbreak and its joy
With it constantly giving birth to life and to forces that destroy
And the infinite power of change
Alive in the world

To open my eyes and wake up alive in the world
To open my eyes and fully arrive in the world

To open my eyes and wake up alive in the world
To open my eyes and fully arrive in the world