An Outline for Worship with Examples and Options for Adaptation and Use
Prepared by the National Council of the Churches of Christ
Acts of Giving
Offertory Prayer
O God,
We bring these gifts like red raspberries in a cup.
Like dandelions in a bouquet brought by a six-year-old.
They never seem like enough, and we are
never quite enough
to get the captives freed,
to get the people fed,
to get the good news spread.
So we offer them for your blessing,
confident in your grace,
which makes raspberries a feast
and dandelions a fragrant garden.
(Source: "For All Who Minister," A Worship Manual for the Church of the Brethren, Brethren Press, Elgin, IL, 1993, p. 121.)
An Offertory Doxology
Praise God on whom our lives depend
Praise God whose love shall never end.
With justice, love, humility,
May we serve daily, faithfully. Amen
(Source: "For All Who Minister," A Worship Manual for the Church of the Brethren, Brethren Press, Elgin, IL, 1993, p. 122.)
Iroquois Prayer
We return thanks to our mother, the earth, which sustains us.
We return thanks to the rivers and streams, which supply us with water.
We return thanks to all the herbs, which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases.
We return thanks to the corn, and to her sisters, the beans and squashes, which give us life.
We return thanks to the wind, which, moving the air, had banished diseases.
We return thanks to the moon and stars, which have given to us their light when the sun was gone.
We return thanks to the sun, that he has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye.
Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit, in whom is embodied all goodness, and who directs all things for the good of his children.
(Source: adapted from "Earth Prayers," edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon, 1991, p. 238. Reprinted by arrangement with HarperSanFrancisco, a division of HarperCollins Publishers.)
Praise
O Holy One, I ran through the fields and gathered flowers of a thousand colors--
And now I pour them at Your feet.
Their beauty and their brightness shout for joy in Your presence.
You created the flowers of the fields and made each one fare more lovely than all the skill of man could design.
Accept my joy along with theirs, this field of blossoms at Your feet.
Holy One
as the wind blows through these flowers till they dance in the ecstasy of creation,
send Your Spirit to blow through my being till I too bloom and dance with the fullness of Your life.
(Ishpriya R. S. C. J.; Source: "Earth Prayers," edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon, 1991, p. 223. Reprinted by arrangement with HarperSanFrancisco, a division of HarperCollins Publishers.)