Call to Worship – May 29, 2016 – Last service in Congregation Beth Yam
Today presumably is our final service of worship in Congregation Beth Yam. We have been blessed by the Hilton Head Jewish community to have been so warmly welcomed into their temple for the last decade. By means of this ecumenical gesture, Jews and Christians of this island have been spatially and especially drawn closer together. Next week we begin a new phase of our own congregational pilgrimage. Thus we gather in worship of the God who leads us at all times and in all the places of our existence together.
Pastoral Prayer
We praise Thee, O God, for ultimately placing us in a nation in which we personally have experienced virtually no negative repercussions from being Christians. We live as free people in a free land, where no laws are allowed either to encourage or discourage anyone of any religion, but where all people regardless of religious or secular persuasion are treated equally under the law. We thank Thee for Thy spirit moving among various leaders through our national history who have institutionalized the notion of religious freedom into our Constitution and our federal and state statutes.
But as we express gratitude for the American system with respect to religion, we pray for millions of people in other nations who experience persecution because of their religious beliefs or their choice to avoid religion altogether. We pray for people who even now are being persecuted for righteousness’ sake by following the precepts of their own religion, whatever it may be. Grant greater generosity of spirit to those in power who actively promote or indifferently allow persecution, and transform the hearts of all individuals who intentionally hurt or attack those who think and believe differently from themselves. We pray particularly for everyone who has been driven out of their homes or countries because they refuse to disavow their faith in Thee.
On this transitional Sunday in the life of the Chapel Without Walls, we thank Thee for the kindness of Congregation Beth Yam in allowing us to use this beautiful sanctuary for our services of worship over the past ten years. We ask Thy blessings to be permanently with them because of their generosity. And as we begin a new chapter in the life of our own congregation which deliberately has chosen to live without its own walls that Thou wouldst bless us as we move inside the walls of The Cypress. May this new epoch in our congregational life strengthen us as a congregation of believers, and may we become “church” to many who have never had a church or at least not for a long time. Our prayers we make in the name of Jesus Christ, the great Head of the Church. Now we pray together as he taught us, saying, Our Father….