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Radio 4 Sunday Worship

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A service from Emmanuel Church, Didsbury

Led by Claire Campbell Smith

Preacher: Elaine Storkey

Director of Music: Helen Leach

Producer: Ben Collingwood

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Please note:

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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.

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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.

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Radio 4 Opening Announcement:Ìý ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4.Ìý It’s ten past eight. Theologian Elaine Storkey reflects on God the Holy Trinity in Sunday Worship now which comes live from Emmanuel Church Didsbury in Manchester. The service is led by Claire Campbell Smith and begins with a setting of the Trisagion, music which addresses God as ‘Holy.’

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CHOIR + MUSIC GROUP: Trisagion (Anonymous [Russian Orthodox] – arr. C Howie & arr. Helen Leach) °Ú1’30±Õ

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CLAIRE: °Ú1’00±Õ

Good morning. That ancient prayer, the Trisagion – ‘Thrice holy’, describing God as holy in three different qualities and traditionally sung three times – begins this act of worship, in which we reflect on the mystery of the Trinity – God who is one, yet with three distinct, interdependent realities: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

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Trinity Sunday was inaugurated in the 12th century and unlike other feasts in the Christian calendar, like Christmas or Easter, it celebrates a doctrine rather than an event.Ìý Nine hundred years on, dealing with the concerns of contemporary life – security, the way forward in the aftermath of a particularly difficult general election, personal stresses and heartaches – people may struggle with the complexity or indeed the relevance of the theology of the Trinity. So this morning, philosopher, sociologist and theologian, Dr Elaine Storkey, is here to explore how God the Trinity might speak today into our human experience, especially into our relationships.

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The musicians of St James and Emmanuel Church continue to lead us now with the glorious vision of God presented in a hymn written for Trinity Sunday: Holy, holy, holy!

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CHOIR, CONGREGATION + ORGAN:

Holy, holy, holy! (Nicaea)

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ELAINE: °Ú0’40±Õ

We thank you, Holy God for this vision of your beauty and majesty. May we too praise your name in earth and sky and sea.

We ask that you will lead our hearts in worship, our minds in understanding and our wills in obedience as we reflect on your power and love in our world today.

We ask this in the name of Jesus, our Saviour.ÌýÌý

All: Amen.

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CLAIRE:Ìý°Ú0’15±Õ

The first reading today begins with that same image of God’s greatness and majesty, yet goes on to testify that this is not a distant God but one who is intimately involved with humanity.Ìý The reading’s from Isaiah, Chapter 40, starting at verse 12.

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READER 1: °Ú1’30±ÕÌý

[verses from Isaiah 40]

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Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the spirit of the Lord, or as his counsellor has instructed him? Whom did he consult for his enlightenment, and who taught him the path of justice? Who taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? Even the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as dust on the scales; see, he takes up the isles like fine dust. Lebanon would not provide fuel enough, nor are its animals enough for a burnt-offering. All the nations are as nothing before him; they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

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Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God’? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

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CHOIR + MUSIC GROUP:

I will lift up my eyes (Helen Leach)

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CLAIRE:Ìý

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains – a setting of Psalm 121, a song of pilgrimage, by this morning’s music director, Helen Leach.

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God’s promise to be a constant presence in the lives of his people is also found in today’s Gospel reading, from Matthew Chapter 28, starting at verse 16.

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READER 2:

[Matthew 28.16-20]

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Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’

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CLAIRE: °Ú0’50±Õ

There’s no doubt that the twists and turns of life can cause us to question that statement. Our preacher Elaine Storkey has spent eight years gathering material for a book about the violence and mistreatment of women across the world, attempting to find some level of Christian understanding. Violence and abuse, together with recent events in Manchester and London may well make us struggle to see where God is in the midst of such tragedy. Perhaps we find that faith can only truly be understood through the lens of eternity, which is tough when the present reality can feel so dark: ‘When the oceans rise and thunders roar,’ as this next song puts it. Yet in Christ, God went through the worst that could ever assail us, so that he could walk with us through it, and he overcame death itself, to show that wasn’t the end. ‘Hide me now’ – a song of trust by Reuben Morgan.

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CHOIR + MUSIC GROUP:

Still (Reuben Morgan)

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ELAINE: Talk one

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CHOIR + MUSIC GROUP:

A touching Place (John Bell)

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ELAINE: Talk two

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CHOIR, CONGREGATION, + MUSIC GROUP: Put peace into each other’s hands (St Columba) °Ú2’30±Õ

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CLAIRE: °Ú0’20±Õ

This morning we pray for all those involved in the political life of this country, particularly at this difficult time following the general election. We ask for a deep sense of God’s presence with us, for the love of Jesus to fill us, for the Holy Spirit to transform us.

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READER: °Ú0’30±Õ

Almighty and everlasting God,

you have given us your servants grace,

by the confession of a true faith,

to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity

and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the Unity:

keep us steadfast in this faith,

that we may evermore be defended from all adversities;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

ALL: Amen

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PRAYERS: °Ú3’00±Õ

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CHOIR + MUSIC GROUP: There is a longing in our hearts (Quigley)

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READER 1:Ìý

Lord forgive us for our indifference to the sufferings of those we do not know, for our complacency towards the violence endemic in our world, and for our failure to seek justice for those who are silenced by fear. Make us more alert to our responsibilities to others and more ready to speak out.

Lord, have mercy.

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READER 2 :Ìý

Lord, forgive us for the times when we have undermined those around us, or turned a blind eye when others have been demeaned or violated. Help us in all of our relationships to honour one another and to live in kindness, gentleness and peace, as men and women made in your image, and united in Christ’s body.

Lord, have mercy.

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READER 1:Ìý

Lord, make us people of love, so that we are more effective ambassadors for you in a broken world. Give us the courage and power to share the good news of your Gospel, to bind up the broken-hearted, and to bring justice to the oppressed. May your glory be upheld and your love made visible through us. Lord, have mercy.

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CHOIR + MUSIC GROUP: ÌýThere’s a longing (refrain - close)

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CLAIRE: °Ú0’05±Õ

We join in the prayer which unites all those who follow Christ:

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ALL: °Ú0’30±Õ

Our Father,

Who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,

For ever and ever.

Amen.

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CLAIRE: °Ú0’10±Õ

To end our service, a hymn in which we pray to become vessels/agents of God’s abundant love, through the power of the Spirit:Ìý Love divine, all loves excelling.

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CHOIR, CONGREGATION + ORGAN:

Love divine (Blaenwern)Ìý

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ELAINE:Ìý[0’25]

We praise and worship you, God of love and grace, and ask this day for your peace in the pain of those who mourn, your healing in the bodies and minds of those who suffer, and your love in the hearts of those who hate. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all, evermore

ALL: Amen.

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MUSIC GROUP: Still (instrumental reprise)

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Radio 4 Closing Announcement:

Sunday Worship came live from Emmanuel Church in Didsbury, Manchester. It was led by Claire Campbell Smith, and the preacher was Dr Elaine Storkey. The music was directed by Helen Leach, and the producer was Ben Collingwood.

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Next week’s Sunday Worship comes from the Metropolitan Cathedral of St David’s in Cardiff.

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You may be interested to know that ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 2 are now on the lookout for their Young Choristers of the Year for 2017. For more information follow the link on the Sunday Worship webpage.

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