This Sunday is an AWESOME day - the Day of Pentecost, the third of the "big 3" Feasts of the Church Year (the other 2 being Christmas and Easter), which is often called the Birthday of the Church! All of us are invited to come to this Service, seeking to experience more than ever before of God's Presence and power and purpose to spread, in word and deed, the coming of God's Kingdom of love! Our whole Liturgy, from start to finish, is expressed by the prayer, “Come, Holy Spirit, come!” The Holy Spirit is the focus of the Offertory Anthem and 7 of the 8 Congregational Hymns in which the Choir is leading us in-person (the other is “Part of the Family” – most appropriate for the Church’s Birthday); our passages from Holy Scripture, Children’s Time, and Sermon; and the videos we’re sharing from the “Thy Kingdom Come” global prayer initiative, Holy Spirit Litany, and silent Prayer in the Prayers of the People. In these Prayers of the People, we have the opportunity in prayer to say “Yes” to a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit. Following this, we have the opportunity to say “Yes” to receiving Our Lord in our hearts as we receive Holy Communion, physically or spiritually, feeding by faith with thanksgiving on the One who laid down his life for us, so that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we may have his life within us for evermore.
We also have the opportunity to continue two ways that we at St. Paul’s give expression to the fact that we are participants, not spectators, in the unfolding story of the Church – that we are part of Acts Chapter 29 – by wearing red and sharing the passing of the Peace in different languages. In addition to our Choir, we’re blessed to have our Service enriched by Norman officiating and Betty assisting; Nicola and Keith on video reading from Holy Scripture; and John L. in-person leading the Prayers of the People. When our Liturgy ends, the service begins, with a “Sending” to “go forth into the world, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit.”
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.
The pictures accompanying today's Sermon didn't show up in our online Service, because the wrong camera was accidentally used. Here's a link to a quick video with these pictures and a brief description of where they occur in the Sermon: https://youtu.be/NSMTDm3Hegg.