Invermoriston Millennium Hall
Welcome
Hymn My God, how wonderful you are (Westminster – Turle)
1 My God, how wonderful you are;
your majesty, how bright!
How beautiful your mercy seat
in depths of burning light!
2 How wonderful, how beautiful
the sight of you must be,
your endless wisdom, boundless power,
and awesome purity!
3 O how I fear you, living God,
with deepest, tenderest fears,
and worship you with trembling hope
and penitential tears!
4 Yet I may love you too, O Lord,
almighty as you are,
for you have stooped to ask of me
the love of my poor heart.
5 No earthly father loves like ,
no mother half so mild
bears and forbears as you have done
with me, your sinful child.
6 Father of Jesus, Love divine,
great King upon your throne,
what joy to see you as you are
and worship you alone!
Prayer
Reading: Luke 2:41-52
41 Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. 43 After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
49 “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
Hymn Jesus, Saviour, pilot me. (Toplady)
Jesus, Saviour, pilot me
Over life’s tempestuous sea;
Unknown waves before me roll,
Hiding rock and treach’rous shoal.
Chart and compass come from Thee.
Jesus, Saviour, pilot me.
Though the sea be smooth and bright
Sparkling with the stars of night
And my ship’s path be ablaze
With the light of halcyon days
Still I know my need of Thee;
Jesus, Saviour, pilot me
As a mother stills her child,
Thou canst hush the ocean wild;
Boist’rous waves obey Thy will
When Thou sayest to them, “Be still!”
Wondrous Sovereign of the sea,
Jesus, Saviour, pilot me.
When at last I near the shore,
And the fearful breakers roar
‘Twixt me and the peaceful rest,
Then, while leaning on Thy breast,
May I hear Thee say to me,
“Love one, I will pilot Thee.”
Prayers of Intercession
Hymn Come celebrate the women (Aurelia)
1 Come, celebrate the women
who brought the Church to birth!
the gentle revolution
that shall transform the earth:
whose faith was salt and leaven,
whose hearts and minds were free,
and this was their direction –
to peace and unity.
2 The teachers, saints and mothers
who lived and died unsung
kept safe the gospel story
and taught it to the young;
the Christ child Mary cradled,
the living Word to be,
was crucified for pleading
this peace and unity.
3 Daughters of the disciples,
you weave the story still,
the fabric of the future
with warmth and love and skill,
you make the bread of wholeness,
the wine of harmony –
and all shall share your feasting
in peace and unity!
Talk – Mothers
Hymn When mothers of Salem (Athlone – Quaile)
- When mothers of Salem their children brought to Jesus,
The stern disciples drove them back and bade them depart;
But Jesus saw them ere they fled,
And sweetly smiled and kindly said,
“Suffer little children to come unto Me.
- “For I will receive them, and fold them in My bosom;
I’ll be a Shepherd to those lambs, oh, drive them not away!
For if their hearts to Me they give,
They shall with Me in glory live:
Suffer little children to come unto Me.”
- How kind was our Saviour to bid those children welcome!
But there are many thousands who have never heard His name;
The Bible they have never read,
They know not that the Saviour said,
“Suffer little children to come unto Me.”
- And still the kind Saviour bids little children welcome,
For Jesus’ loving, tender heart to children is the same;
Though here His voice is no more heard,
From heav’n itself He speaks this word,
“Suffer little children to come unto Me.”
Benediction
Urquhart & Glenmoriston Parish Church 