A separate video feed of the choir is available here.

Preacher: Krou Assoua LLM
Celebrant: Revd Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga

Gathering Music

Welcome

Lord Jesus Christ, we come to you, burdened by our insecurities and responsibilities.
Sometimes we are not valued for what we are, but for what other people want to make us.
But we know you love us for what and who we are,
and this sets us free to be our fullest selves, disciples, following your way, and learning from you.
May we listen and learn together today.

Amen

[Silence]

Welcome to the house of God.
We have come from all the corners of the earth.

Welcome to the hospitality of God.
We come as we are; we bring our life, our stories, our journey.

Welcome, brothers and sisters.
We are the rainbow people of God.

Welcome, chosen people.
May God our companion bind us in his love.

Amen

Hymn: O Lord, your tenderness

O Lord, your tenderness,
melting all my bitterness,
O Lord, I receive your love.
O Lord, your loveliness,
changing all my ugliness,
O Lord, I receive your love.
O Lord, I receive your love.
O Lord, I receive your love.

Graham Kendrick (b. 1950)
CCL31580

Prayer of Approach

God of welcome, we are welcomed to be with you – as we always are.
In this moment, in this time, be real to us, be known to us,
let us hear your Word, know its truth and follow its leading.

Amen

Confession

Blessed, Holy God, your Word has been spoken, your voice heard, your desire known.
You speak to our every moment, our every breath, our every deed, and yet…
so often even if we hear, we do not listen…
and, even when we do listen, we do not always follow.
Blessed, Holy God, forgive us for being inattentive, deaf to your word and your ways.
Forgive us, Holy God.

[Silence]

The God of creation, the God of Word and deed, the God of all that has been and all that will be,
calls us to confess and assure us that our sins, our failings, our falterings, our stammerings are forgiven.
If we listen, we will hear God’s promise: ‘My child, your sins are forgiven, go in peace, go in love.’

Amen

Prayer of the Week

God Almighty, Father and Mother, Son and Spirit, you are the Word of life.
You are the Word of truth.
You are the Word of love.
You are the Word of hospitality.
You are the one above and beyond all else.
Yours is the Word to be heard and listened to.
Yours is the voice in eternity.
You are the Alpha and the Omega.
You are the beginning and the end.
You are.
You are our God.

Amen

Ministry of the Word

Colossians 1: 1–14

Read by Bob Collard

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

² To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴ because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people – ⁵ the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel ⁶ that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world – just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. ⁷ You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, ⁸ and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, ¹⁰ so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹² and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

NIV®

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

Luke 10: 38–42

Read by Rosemary Kearsey

At the Home of Martha and Mary

³⁸ As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹ She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’

⁴¹ ‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴² but few things are needed – or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’

NIV®

This is the Gospel of Christ.
Praise to Christ our light.

Meditation

By Krou Assoua LLM

Choral Response

Affirmation of Faith

We believe in the Creator:
the maker of all things

We believe in the Son:
the redeemer of our broken world

We believe in the Spirit:
The sacred wind that binds all things together in the family of God.

Creator Father, beloved Son and living Spirit.

Amen

Prayers and Intercessions

Led by Ann Wilson

The Peace

Peace to you from God, who is our Father.
Peace from Jesus Christ, who is our peace.
Peace from the Holy Spirit, who gives us life.

The peace of God be always with you.
and also with you.

Let us offer one another a sign of peace.

Hymn: Come down, O love divine

Come down, O love divine,
seek thou this soul of mine,
and visit it with thine own ardour glowing;
O comforter, draw near, within my heart appear,
and kindle it, thy holy name bestowing.

O let it freely burn,
till earthly passions turn
to dust and ashes in its heat consuming;
and let thy glorious light shine ever on my sight,
and clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

Let holy charity
mine outward vesture be,
and lowliness become mine inner clothing;
true lowliness of heart, which takes the humbler part,
and o’er its own shortcomings weeps with loathing.

And so the yearning strong,
with which the soul will long,
shall far outpass the power of human telling,
for none can guess its grace,
till he become the place
wherein the Holy Spirit makes his dwelling.

Bianco da Siena (d. 1434) tr. Richard Frederick Littledale (1833–1890)
CCL31580

Holy Communion

The Thanksgiving

Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation.
Through your goodness we have this bread to offer,
which earth has given and human hands have made.
It will become for us the bread of life.

Blessed be God for ever.

Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation.
Through your goodness we have this wine to offer,
fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It will become our spiritual drink.

Blessed be God for ever.

The Lord is here.
His Spirit is with us.

Lift up your hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give thanks and praise.

Almighty God, good Father to us all, your face is turned towards your world.
In love you gave us Jesus your Son to rescue us from sin and death.
Your Word goes out to call us home to the city where angels sing your praise.
We join with them in heaven’s song:

Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.

We bless the name of Jesus, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh,
whose brokenness and suffering makes love real,
who on the night in which he was betrayed took bread,
gave thanks, broke it and gave it to his disciples saying,

Take, eat. This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

After supper he took the cup saying,

Drink from this, all of you, this is my blood given for you.
Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.

This is the mystery of our faith.

Christ has died:
Christ is risen:
Christ will come again.

Therefore, as we eat this bread and drink this cup,
we acknowledge brokenness as a path to truth.
We long for the bread of tomorrow: eternally broken and so able to nourish.
We long for the new wine of the kingdom: continuously poured out that thirst may be quenched.

Send your Spirit on us now,
that by these gifts we may feed on Christ with opened eyes and hearts on fire.
May we and all who share this food offer ourselves to live for you
and be welcomed at your feast in heaven, where all creation worships you,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit:

Blessing and honour and glory and power
be yours forever and ever.

Amen

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
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 for ever.

Amen

The Communion

We break this bread to share in the body of Christ.

Though we are many, we are one body,
because we all share in one bread.

Amen

Post Communion Prayer

Eternal Father, we thank you for nourishing us with these heavenly gifts:
may our communion strengthen us in faith, build us up in hope,
and make us grow in love; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

Notices

Celebrating the life of Margaret Horner

Monday, 18 July 2022

Committal at Crownhill Crematorium led by Revd Dr Brenda Mosedale at 1.15 pm

For friends unable to be with us, there is a link to watch the committal live: click on this link: https://www.wesleymedia.co.uk/webcast-view. Use the PIN 750-4918 to access the webcast.

Other Webcast Viewing Instructions are available here. In case of difficulty, call 01536 314 895 and quote Event Number 1104616.

A Service of Thanksgiving celebrating the life of Margaret Horner at Newport Pagnell Methodist Church led by Revd Dr Brenda Mosedale at 2.45 pm

For friends unable to be with us, we cannot live stream, but the service will be recorded. It will be available on YouTube, but only a little while after the service finishes. Click on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmGyGRfAZFU.

Refreshments at MHA Westbury Grange at approximately 4.00 pm

To keep residents and staff safe, please do not attend if you have any Covid symptoms; please wear a mask when entering and leaving the building. The Bistro area where refreshments will be available is well-ventilated and opens into the garden.

We need numbers for catering, so please let Kathryn (email kath.schofield@btopenworld.com) know by 10 July 2022 if at all possible if you are planning to attend, and if you have any special dietary needs. We are sorry that we cannot cater for friends unable to attend (!) but if you can have a cup of tea and remember Margaret, that would be lovely.

Other information

Please wear whatever you choose, but since the day is a celebration of Margaret ‘s life, we would be glad to see some colour in the congregation!

Family flowers only. Donations in memory of Margaret are going to MHA Westbury Grange, where the staff cared for her so well in the last eighteen months of her life. Donations can be made on the day by cheque (payable to MHA Amenity Fund) or in cash, or you can donate online for up to four weeks after the funeral via the Funeral Director’s website: https://hwmason.co.uk/.

Northampton Methodist District World Church Service

6.00 pm Sunday, 24 July 2022 at Cornerstone

Preacher:       Revd. Sonia Hicks,
President of the Methodist Conference from June 2021 to June 2022

You are invited to join with people from across the Methodist District to this special service. Revd Sonia Hicks was President of the Methodist Conference from June 2021 to June 2022. You can read more about her at Sonia Hicks – Wikipedia.

We shall be providing stewards and arranging the bring and share meal for 5.00 pm and providing tea and coffee.

Please contact me (01908 373263 rosemary.kearsey@btopenworld.com) if you are prepared to help with refreshments and speak to Peter Cope if you would be prepared to act as a steward.

Rosemary Kearsey

Offering

‘God loves a cheerful giver’

Thanks to your generous giving we can be an Oasis of Hope to Milton Keynes.

Please keep supporting our mission!

If you are at our worship service in the church building and would like to make an offering, please place your offering in the basket at the door to the worship area. If you can’t find it, please ask the stewards.

There are many different ways to give: online, telephone banking or by cheque. For more information how to give please visit the Cornerstone website (www.cornerstonemk.co.uk) or contact: steward.cccmk@gmail.com.

Thank you for your support. It is much appreciated.

Final Prayer

Lord, send us out into the world, alert to whatever nudges us to hear you calling,
or whatever points us in your way.
Make us bold to resist those who would keep us in the comfortable well-trodden paths,
so that – like Mary – we can break free from time to time, to sit at your feet.

Amen

Hymn: My Jesus, my Saviour

My Jesus, my Saviour,
Lord, there is none like you.
All of my days I want to praise
the wonders of your mighty love.

My comfort, my shelter,
tower of refuge and strength,
let ev’ry breath, all that I am,
never cease to worship you.

Shout to the Lord all the earth
let us sing power and majesty,
praise to the King.
Mountains bow down and the seas will roar
at the sound of your name.

I sing for joy
at the work of your hands.
Forever I’ll love you,
forever I’ll stand.
Nothing compares to the
promise I have in you.

Darlene Zschech (b. 1965)
CCL31580

Blessing

The Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God,
teach you to walk in his way more trustfully,
to accept his truth more faithfully, and to share his life more lovingly;
that by the power of the Holy Spirit
you may come as one family to the kingdom of the Father.
And the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you today and always

Amen

The Dismissal

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

Amen