Live Stream
Order of Service
MORNING WORSHIP & BAPTISMS
ST COLUMBA’S, PONT STREET
SUNDAY 5th DECEMBER 2021, 11.00am,
(2nd SUNDAY OF ADVENT)
Welcome & Lighting of Candles
Call to Worship
Hymn 281 People look East (Besancon)
Prayers of Approach
Families’ Talk
Hymn 277 Hark the glad sound (Crediton)
Sacrament of Holy Baptism: Evelyn May Sanderson Chan, James Gardner Lamb-Finlay & Maisie Elizabeth Lyburn
Hymn 632 Our children, Lord in faith and prayer (Belmont)
New Testament Reading: Malachi 3: 1-4
Gospel Reading: St Luke 3: 1-6
Anthem: Bogoroditsye Dyevo (Rachmaninov)
Sermon
Musical Interlude: How beautiful upon the mountains (Stainer)
Prayers of Thanksgiving & Intercession
Intimations
Hymn 283 The voice of God goes out to all the world (Morestead)
Benediction & Choral Amen
Organ Postlude: Fugue in D Minor 539 (J S Bach)
Retiring Offering
Hymn 281 People look East (Besancon)
- People, look East. The time is near
of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able,
trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look East, and sing today:
Love, the Guest, is on the way. - Furrows, be glad. Though earth is bare,
one more seed is planted there:
give up your strength the seed to nourish,
that in course the flower may flourish.
People, look East, and sing today:
Love, the Rose, is on the way. - Stars, keep the watch. When night is dim
one more light the bowl shall brim,
shining beyond the frosty weather,
bright as sun and moon together.
People, look East, and sing today:
Love, the Star, is on the way. - Angels, announce with shouts of mirth
Christ who brings new life to earth.
Set every peak and valley humming
with the word, the Lord is coming.
People, look East, and sing today:
Love, the Lord, is on the way.
Hymn 277 Hark the glad sound (Crediton)
- Hark the glad sound! the Saviour comes,
the Saviour promised long;
let every heart exult with joy,
and every voice with song! - He comes, the prisoners to relieve,
in Satan’s bondage held;
the gates of brass before him burst,
the iron fetters yield. - He comes the broken hearts to bind,
the bleeding souls to cure;
and with the treasures of his grace
to enrich the humble poor. - The sacred year has now revolved,
accepted of the Lord,
when heaven’s high promise is fulfilled,
and Israel is restored. - Our glad hosannas, Prince of Peace,
thy welcome shall proclaim;
and heaven’s exalted arches ring
with thy most honoured name.
Hymn 632 Our children, Lord in faith and prayer (Belmont)
- Our children, Lord, in faith and prayer,
we now devote to you;
let them your covenant mercies share,
and your salvation true. - Such children you did once embrace,
while dwelling here below;
to us and ours, O God of grace,
the same compassion show. - Dear Lord, your infant feet were found
within your Father’s shrine;
your years, with changeless virtue crowned,
were all alike divine. - Dependent on your bounteous breath,
we seek your grace alone,
in every stage of life and death,
to keep us still your own.
Hymn 283 The voice of God goes out to all the world (Morestead)
- The voice of God goes out to all the world;
his glory speaks across the universe.
The great King’s herald cries from star to star:
with power, with justice, he will walk his way. - The Lord has said: ‘Receive my messenger,
my promise to the world, my pledge made flesh,
a lamp to every nation, light from light’:
with power, with justice, he will walk his way. - The broken reed he will not trample down,
nor set his heel upon the dying flame.
He binds the wounds, and heals with his strong hand:
with power, with justice, he will walk his way. - Anointed with the Spirit and with power,
he comes to crown with comfort all the weak,
to show the face of justice to the poor:
with power, with justice, he will walk his way. - His touch will open eyes that darkness held;
the lame shall run, the halting tongue shall sing,
and prisoners laugh in light and liberty:
with power, with justice, he will walk his way.
Malachi 3: 1-4
The Coming Messenger
See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
Luke 3: 1-6
The Proclamation of John the Baptist
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”