Today we're celebrating the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, which invites us to open our eyes to the unseen supernatural, and open our hearts in wonder to God’s Presence, as we explore the depths of the awesomeness of the truth that God is with us. Our Readings from Holy Scripture, and the other parts of our Liturgy reflect this theme throughout. It's also a Triple C Service. On the fourth Sundays of the month we have these Christ-centred Creative Celebrations. There are different parts to the Liturgy, and different translations for our passages from Holy Scripture. Finally, it's the Sunday before the first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30th. We’re marking this Day at St. Paul's by wearing orange to raise awareness of the tragic legacy of residential schools, and to honour the thousands of Survivors; and we're sharing the Covenant Collect, a Prayer Remembering the Children from the National Church’s Service to mark National Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a video of Bishop Sidney Black from the National Church's online Service of reflection and prayer for this Day: " Every Child Matters: Grace Will Lead Them Home;" and a Closing Hymn beloved in many First Nations’ congregations, from which the words “Grace Will Lead Them Home” are taken: Amazing Grace.
We’re sharing this and 4 other Hymns with the help of our Virtual Choir. We also have a Children’s Time, with Fergus playing on guitar the song “All Night, All Day.” We’re blessed to have Norman officiating, Murray leading the Prayers of the People, and Aisling online to give our First Reading. There’s a strong ecumenical component to our Service: our Prayers of the People are both from the Uniting Church in Australia – a special St. Michael and All Angels’ Litany from the late Rev’d Bruce Prewer, and a Prayer in Response to COVID-19; and our Affirmation of Faith is from the United Church of Canada.
When our Liturgy ends, the service begins: we go in peace to love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit, and by the power of the Spirit, bearing witness to Jesus and his way of justice, reconciliation, peace, and love to our broken world in all we say and do.
Today’s Service of Holy Eucharist will be livestreamed on our main Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/stpaulscalgary) at 9:30 am. Following the service, the video will be posted on our YouTube Channel, and a link to the service will be added here. To watch this service in full screen mode, please click on the “Watch on YouTube” button in the lower left-hand corner of the video. Please download the Order of Service in the Sermon Notes above if you would like to follow along. If you are sharing this Service online and don’t have Reserved Sacrament, you are invited to say the Prayer for Communion for those receiving Spiritual Communion also available above. Permission to reprint, podcast, and/or stream the music in this service obtained from:
(a) ONE LICENSE with license # A-713985, and/or
(b) CCLI with Streaming License # 20351479.
All rights reserved.