大象传媒

Please note:

This script cannot exactly reflect the transmission, as it was prepared before the service was broadcast. It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors that were corrected before the radio broadcast.

It may contain gaps to be filled in at the time so that prayers may reflect the needs of the world, and changes may also be made at the last minute for timing reasons, or to reflect current events.

听

Opening anno;
大象传媒 Radio 4.听 It鈥檚 ten past eight.听 Time now for Sunday Worship which today is a service of Holy Communion from St Columba鈥檚 Church of Ireland Parish at Knock in East Belfast.听 The preacher is Canon Noel Battye and the celebrant is Canon Ken Smyth who also leads the service which begins with the choir singing: Call to Remembrance by Richard Farrant.听

CHOIR: Call to Remembrance (Farrant)

Welcome听 (Canon Ken Smyth)

Good Morning and welcome to St Columba's, set in one of the leafier suburbs of 听east Belfast, where for 120 years this Parish Church has been the spiritual home 听for generations of worshippers.听 Over the years the faithful have gathered here to 听be part of the church鈥檚 life and worship, and, as we do this morning, to partake of 听Holy Communion in response to our Lord's clear command to do this in 听remembrance of Him. We'll be reflecting on the whole theme of Remembering 听throughout this Service, but听 right now, we lift our voices in praise as we sing our 听opening hymn 鈥� My God, How Wonderful Thou Art.

Hymn - My God, How Wonderful Thou Art (Westminster)

The Lord be with you
and also with you.

Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden;
Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
By the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
That we may perfectly love you,
And worthily magnify your holy name;
Through Christ our Lord.听 Amen

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son Jesus Christ, to save us from our sins, to intercede for us in heaven, and to bring us to eternal life.
Let us then confess our sins in penitence and faith, firmly resolved to keep God鈥檚 commandments and to live in love and peace:

Almighty God, our heavenly Father,
We have sinned in thought and word and deed,
And in what we have left undone.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ,
Have mercy on us and forgive us
That we may walk in newness of life
To the glory of your name.听 Amen

Almighty God,
who forgives all who truly repent,

have mercy on you,
pardon and deliver you from all your sins,
confirm and strengthen you in all goodness,
and keep you in eternal life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.听 Amen

CHOIR: Gloria (Celtic Eucharist 鈥� Martin White)听听

Collect

Almighty Father,
Whose will is to restore all things
In your beloved Son, the king of all:
Govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
And bring the families of the nations,
Divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
To be subject to his just and gentle rule;
Who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
One God, now and for ever.听 Amen.

A reading from Job chapter 19: 23-27a听听 (Moranne Noad)

鈥淥 that my words were written down!
O that they were inscribed in a book!
O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock for ever!
For I know that my Redeemer* lives, and that at the last he* will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in* my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

My heart faints within me!鈥�

This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God

听鈥淭herefore, so great a sacrament, we bow our heads in adoration鈥� 鈥� the theme of 听Faure鈥檚 Tantum Ergo, sung for us now by members of the choir.

Choir: Tantum Ergo (Faur茅)

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Luke.听听 Luke 20: 27-38

Choir 鈥� Glory to Christ our Saviour

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, 鈥楾eacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man鈥檚 brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.鈥�

Jesus said to them, 鈥楾hose who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die any more, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.鈥�

This is the Gospel of the Lord

Choir 鈥� Praise to Christ Our Lord.

Sermon: Canon Noel Battye

*No sun 鈥� no moon
听No morn 鈥� no noon
听No dawn 鈥� no dusk 鈥� no proper time of day
听No sky 鈥� no earthly view
听No distance looking blue
听No shade 鈥� no shine 鈥� no butterflies 鈥� no bees
听No fruit 鈥� no flowers 鈥� no leaves 鈥� no birds
听November!听

听I love those lines by Thomas Hood, and all the other lines that go to make up that poem and I love November.

听November 鈥� trailing with mists and memories like smoke from an autumn bonfire drifting across our horizons.

听November 鈥� when there is time for reflection not just as we look back upon the dying year but upon our lives and histories as well.

听Earlier this week we had 鈥楢ll Saints鈥� and 鈥楢ll Souls鈥� when we remembered NOT the great heroes of the faith but simple Christians who have inspired us along the way, including some whom we have known ourselves.

听NEXT Sunday, and on Armistice Day we鈥檒l remember the sacrifices made in two world wars and other conflicts too, while this Tuesday, the people of Enniskillen here in Northern Ireland will remember another 8th of November a day now etched indelibly upon their minds and memory.

听And memory is a very powerful thing, but of course it also has its deficiencies.听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 It is both fallible and defective at times.

听鈥淥h yes, I remember it well,鈥� we say, 鈥渂ut do we?鈥�

听Let me give you a couple of personal examples: the first one based on a purely oral account.听

听On the Sunday following the awful Enniskillen bomb at the cenotaph there was a huge memorial service in the Cathedral to which everyone from the Prime Minister and the Archbishop along with dignitaries of Church and State came to mourn along with the bereaved.

听I was there to do the commentary on local radio for the 大象传媒 in N. Ireland. My brief was the to fill in from when the parade left the Cenotaph until it arrived at the Cathedral, as well as the service itself.

听Beforehand I had gleaned every available detail about the victims and their background.

听In the event, the service was about seven minutes late in starting so that I had to draw on every scrap of that material. Because of that you might imagine that I would remember them forever. Yet only a few years later, on another Remembrance Sunday, preparing a sermon for my own church I was shocked to find I couldn鈥檛 remember even the number of victims and of those, I could only name two, Student Nurse Marie Wilson and one other as well as two poignant images in news reports of the time - Mrs Gordon Wilson, seated at the organ of the local Methodist Church waiting for a congregation that never came, and a prayer book and a pair of gloves sitting on a hall table in a nearby village waiting in vain for the lady who would have picked them up afterwards before going on to her local service.听 Nothing else.

听So memory is defective, even with regard to such critical moments in our lives, for time moves on and other things fill our minds鈥�. And memory can be something else as well 鈥� memory can be quite selective too.
听
听It is so much easier to remember the awfulness of events that affected only us or 听our own community] opt 鈥� while forgetting the ills of others and nowhere was 听this more evident than in this province where for decades each side chose only to 听remember the ills done to itself.

听And thus it was not until a quick succession of tit-for-tats on both sides from a Protestant fish shop on the Shankill to a Catholic pub in Loughinisland and eventually a bomb in Omagh in which both sides shared the suffering that there were the first glimmers of an era of hope to come.

听And of course what applies to nations and communities can also be seen in relationships between individuals and groups, families and communities, whether we鈥檙e speaking about warring couples hurting each other endlessly or different generations failing to see each other鈥檚 point of view.

听It is as if the hurts inside us take up so much room that we have little space to understand those who oppose us so that as well as being defective, memory is also selective鈥�. but it can also be effective as well.

听No doubt in the days ahead, with Remembrance Sunday and Armistice before us
听someone will quote the famous line of George Santayana, that those who do not 听remember the past are condemned to relive it - thus giving real purpose and 听direction to our words when we will say, 鈥淲e will remember them.鈥�

听It is as if there is power, not just in the words read or spoken, and in the visual, the poppies worn, the old soldiers and the black of mourning but also in actions 鈥� the sounding of a bugle, the laying of wreaths in silence and solemnity.
听听
听And that brings me to words spoken right at the beginning of our service today
听鈥淲e will remember him鈥� or rather 鈥淒o this in memory of me...鈥� Words at the very heart of all we do and say this morning words made solid in action, in the breaking of bread and sharing of wine as the congregation here kneels or we bows our heads in reverence, words and actions repeated in different languages and cultures right around the world this day - words, which whenever we hear them each in听 our own denomination or church and in whatever form, simple or ritualistic, somehow will always take us back to a little group of men gathered in an upper room over which lay the shadow of parting and sorrow and remind us of a sacrifice of love made once for all upon a cross outside Jerusalem 2,000 years ago so that we know forever听听 We will remember Him - and His eternal sacrifice of love for us.听 And as we do so, we find ourselves reminded of an as yet unknown future, when that same redeemer, in whose presence we worship here, will stand upon this earth.

Choir:听 According to Thy Gracious Word (Gloucester)

Responsive Creed

Brothers and sisters, I ask you all to profess together the faith of the Church.

Do you believe and trust in God the Father who made the world?
I believe and trust in him.

Do you believe and trust in the Holy Spirit who gives life to God鈥檚 people?
I believe and trust in him.

This is the faith of the Church.
This is our faith;
We believe and trust in one God
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Prayers of intercession (Canon Walter Laverty, Karen McAlpine, Dr Elizabeth
听Leonard)

In our prayers this morning, we remember not just the needs of the church, but 听also those of the world, and all of its peoples, whether as groups or individuals.

We pray for the Church, the people of God in every place, throughout the world, 听for a sense of working together for Gods Kingdom and for the ability to live in 听that听 spirit of unity and love which reveals the Glory of Christ.听
听
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

We pray for the nations of the world and all leaders in these uncertain times.听 We 听pray for God鈥檚 directing and controlling hand upon each one, and his blessing 听upon all who continue to stand above politics as symbols of stability and peace.
听
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

We remember in particular this morning, all those who are going through terrible 听times of testing, whether in their personal or corporate lives and we pray 听especially for鈥�..

Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

We also remember with thanksgiving those whom we have known and loved, 听who are now in Gods nearer presence, and for whom we give our thanks today.
听
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

Merciful father
Accept these prayers
For the sake of your Son
Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, Amen.听听
听听听听听听听听听听听听
The Word has been read and preached and we have responded to it in prayer.听 听We now move to that part of the service where we remember the sacrifice that 听Jesus made.

Prayer of Humble Access

We do not presume to come to this your table,
Merciful Lord,
Trusting in our own righteousness
But in your manifold and great mercies.
We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table.
But you are the same Lord,
Whose nature is always to have mercy.
Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord,
So to eat the flesh of your dear Son Jesus Christ,
And to drink his blood,
That our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body,
And our souls washed through his most precious blood,
And that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us.听 Amen

Christ is our peace.
He has reconciled us to God in one body by the cross.
We meet in his name and share his peace.

The peace of the Lord be always with you,
And also with you.

Solo / choir: St Patrick鈥檚 Breastplate vv8

听Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us
听Therefore let us celebrate the feast.

听Cantor & Choir:听 The Lord be with you鈥�

听Father, Lord of all creation,
听We praise you for your goodness and your love.
When we turned away you did not reject us.
You came to meet us in your Son,
Welcomed us as your children
And prepared a table where we might feast with you.

In Christ you shared our life
That we might live in him and he in us.
He opened wide his arms upon the cross
And, with love stronger than death,
He made the perfect sacrifice for sin.

Lord Jesus Christ, our redeemer,
On the night before you died
You came to table with your friends.
Taking bread, you gave thanks, broke it
And gave it to them saying,
Take, eat: this is my body which is given for you;
Do this in remembrance of me.
听
Lord Jesus, we bless you:
You are the bread of life.

At the end of supper
You took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said,
Drink this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant,
Which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins;
Do this in remembrance of me.
Lord Jesus, we bless you:
You are the true vine.

(Cantor + Choir)
听Let us proclaim the mystery of faith.
听Christ has died;
听Christ is risen;
听Christ will come again

Holy Spirit, giver of life,
Come upon us now;
May this bread and wine be to us
The body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
As we eat and drink these holy gifts
Make us, who know our need of grace,
One in Christ, our risen Lord.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Blessed Trinity:
With your whole Church throughout the world
We offer you this sacrifice of thanks and praise
And lift our voice to join the song of heaven,
For ever praising you and singing;

Sanctus and Benedictus (Celtic Eucharist 鈥� Martin White)

Thanks be to you, our God, for your gift beyond words.
Amen. Amen. Amen.

As our Saviour Christ has taught us, so we pray 鈥�

Our father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,听
your kingdom come,听听
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and forever.听听听
Amen

The bread which we break is a sharing in the body of Christ.
We being many are one body,
For we all share in the one bread.

Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God,
Who has taken away the sins of the world.
Happy are those who are called to his supper.
Lord, I am not worthy to receive you,
But only say the word and I shall be healed.

Distribution:听 听Choir sing: Agnus Dei (Celtic Eucharist 鈥� Martin White)

Post communion prayer

听God of peace,
听Whose Son Jesus Christ proclaimed the kingdom
听And restored the broken to wholeness of life:
听Look with compassion on the anguish of the world,
听And by your healing power
听Make whole both people and nations;
听Through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Almighty God,
We thank you for feeding us
With the spiritual food
Of the body and blood of your Son Jesus Christ.

Through him we offer you our souls and bodies
To be a living sacrifice.
Send us out in the power of your Spirit
To live and work to your praise and glory. Amen.

The peace of God
Which passes all understanding,
Keep your hearts and minds
In the knowledge and love of God,
And of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord;
And the blessing of God almighty
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
Be with you and remain with you always.听 Amen.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
In the name of Christ.听 Amen.

We conclude our service by singing How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds.

Hymn: How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds (St Peter)

Organ Voluntary