Happy Women’s Day

Happy Women’s Day

Celebrating all the women past and present who make the road by walking.

United Church Training School, 1952

Maylanne Maybee from CCS and Norah McMurtry from the Sandy-Saulteaux Spiritual Centre led worship at a meeting of the United Church deans and principals today in Winnipeg.  Their worship was adapted from “Hearing the Voices” on the Global Women’s Project website.

Hearing the voices

Invocation

Mothering God–whose wisdom created us, whose strength sustains us, whose compassion guides us– crack us open this day. Crack open our ears so we may hear the words of our sisters from across space and across time. Crack open our eyes so we may see the places our lives connect. Crack open our hearts so the redeeming power of Christ may renew our relationships with those we may never meet. Crack open our lives, so you may infuse us fully with your passion and grace. In Christ’s name, AMEN.

Call to Worship

One: Come, like Sister Miriam, leading the Hebrew people out of bondage with tambourines and dance!
People: We come to our God with praise

One: Come, like Sister Martha, running through the dark with courage, proclaiming that Jesus is God!
People: We come to our God with our doubt and our faith.

One: Come and proclaim justice, like Lois Wilson and Chief Teresa Spence, with a passion for all people and an unquenchable search for justice.
People: We come to our God with hope

One: Come sisters and brothers, as you are, and join in the worship of the One who unites all women, all men, all children.
ALL: We come in unity and celebration. Praise to the one who unites us all!

Prayer of Confession

Mother God, who gave birth to us through the molding and forming of the earth–you breathed life into our lungs and called us good. You made us a people to dwell together. But we confess that we have distanced ourselves from your love. We have built walls between each other. In response to your generous diversity, loving God, we have formed divisions, made deeper by money, opportunity, violence, and arrogance. We have turned away from those less fortunate than us, from the faces of those who are hurting. We have neglected our responsibility and resisted change. (silence)

But you call us to be transformed, to open our eyes and see your splendour in each living breathing being on earth. Help us see how we can transform ourselves so the world might come one, small step closer to realizing your love. AMEN

Assurance of Pardon

God hears our cries and longs to help us in our struggle. God hears our confessions and forgives us. May we take God’s desire for transformation seriously, and find ways to respond to God’s forgiveness with acts of love and faith.

Scripture

Exodus 1:1-22 (Shiphrah and Puah)

Question for Reflection

How does our discussion about the future of theological education relate to midwifing?

Benediction

Go now with your ears open. Go to listen and learn the ways that God speaks through others, without regard for time or space, color or creed. Go now in peace. AMEN