Service of the Word for Black History Month – Live Streamed – Sunday, 9 October 2022
A separate video feed of the choir will be available here during the service.
Guest Preacher: Richard Reddie,
Director of Justice and Inclusion,
Churches Together in Britain & Ireland
Led by Revd George Mwaura & Revd Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga
Welcome
Call to Worship
Beloved God,
today we bring ourselves into your presence.
To you we offer our prayers, our praise, and our supplications.
As we celebrate Black History Sunday and honour the culture of our brothers and sisters.
We remember the legacy of those who came before us –
who not only paved the way, but carried the bricks on broken backs that then built that road.
We remember the songs, stories, and fiery hope of men and women
and marvellous musicians, artists, writers, dancers, actors, athletes,
doctors, nurses, teachers, civil servants, broadcasters,
great orators and leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators.
Many suffered discrimination and prejudices just because of the colour of their skin.
However, they did not give up. They overcome the adversities with Hope.
Beloved God,
help us to honour their memory and never forget their stories.
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: Funga Alafia
Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.
Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.
Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.
Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.
With my eyes, I welcome you.
With my words, I welcome you.
With my heart, I welcome you.
Today we, all welcome you.
Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.
Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.
Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.
Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.
Poem: What is in a name?
By Maureen Onwunali
Confession
We confess our sin in penitence and faith.
Lord God, our maker and our redeemer,
this is your world and we are your people: come among us and save us.
We have wilfully misused your gifts of creation.
Lord, be merciful:
forgive us our sin.
We have seen the ill-treatment of others and have not gone to their aid.
Lord, be merciful:
forgive us our sin.
We have condoned evil and dishonesty and failed to strive for justice.
Lord, be merciful:
forgive us our sin.
We have heard the good news of Christ, but have failed to share it with others.
Lord, be merciful:
forgive us our sin.
We have not loved you with all our heart, nor our neighbours as ourselves.
Lord, be merciful:
forgive us our sin.
Kyrie
[From Ghana]Absolution
May the God of love and power forgive you and free you from your sins,
heal and strengthen you by his Spirit, and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord.
Amen
Hymn: To God be the glory
To God be the glory, great things he has done!
so loved he the world that he gave us his Son.
Who yielded his life in atonement for sin,
and opened the life-gate that all may go in.
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
Let the earth hear his voice!
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
Let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father through Jesus his Son;
and give him the glory, great things he has done!
O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,
to every believer the promise of God!
And every offender who truly believes,
that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
Praise the Lord! …
Great things he has taught us, great things he has done,
and great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;
but purer, and higher, and greater will be
our wonder, our rapture, when Jesus we see.
Praise the Lord! …
Fanny Crosby (née Frances J. van Alstyne) (1820–1915)
CCL31580
Prayer of the Week
Compassionate God, who sent Jesus Christ to deliver us from all manner of injustices and inequalities,
create in us new hearts and enlarged visions, to see the image of God in every person
irrespective of background, race and ethnicity.
May we be generous in our love of others
as we work towards ending misunderstanding, racism and injustice;
creating communities of human flourishing,
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.
Amen
Poem: Mother tongue says to Nigerian girl
By Maureen Onwunali
Ministry of the Word
Job 42: 10–17
10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.
12 The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so Job died, an old man and full of years.
NIV®
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Hymn: Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah
Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah,
kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah,
kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah,
O Lord, kum ba yah.
Someone’s crying Lord, kum ba yah, …
Someone’s singing Lord, kum ba yah, …
Someone’s praying Lord, kum ba yah, …
Spiritual
CCL31580
Mark 10: 46–52
Blind Bartimaeus Receives his Sight
46 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means ‘son of Timaeus’), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’
48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’
49 Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him.’
So they called to the blind man, ‘Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.’ 50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
51 ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Jesus asked him.
The blind man said, ‘Rabbi, I want to see.’
52 ‘Go,’ said Jesus, ‘your faith has healed you.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
NIV®
This is the Gospel of Christ.
Praise to Christ our light.
Meditation
By Richard Reddie,
Director of Justice and Inclusion, Churches Together in Britain & Ireland
Choral Response
Poem: A prayer to black
By Maureen Onwunali
Questions and Answers
With Richard Reddie
Prayers and Intercessions
God of all peoples,
whose Son reached across the ethnic boundaries between Samaritan, Roman and Jew,
help us to break down the barriers in our communities,
enable us to see the reality of racism and bigotry,
and free us to challenge and uproot it from ourselves, our society and our world.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We pray for all victims of racial hatred and discrimination,
and we seek your protection for those affected in our churches,
our schools, our places of work and our communities.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We pray for all in our world, of whatever race, who suffer the horrors of modern slavery.
Your Son came to bring good news to the poor and freedom for the oppressed.
We pray for all working to combat modern slavery and to end human trafficking:
for governments and agencies, for Church and other faith leaders
for businesses, charities and individuals.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We pray for ourselves.
May we be voices against oppression and channels of the transforming power of the gospel.
Open our hearts to all who suffer in our midst but out of sight.
Help us to work for a world where human beings are valued,
where no one is enslaved, and no one used against their will for another’s pleasure or need.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We pray that we may know the power of reconciliation.
Wherever there is division between us and others, because of our race or ethnicity,
we pray that we may all be led to reconciliation.
We pray for all who work to bring communities together in ways that are just and equal for all.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
As we pray for reconciliation, we pray also for restoration.
We pray for those whose spirits and communities have been weighed down by racism.
Guide us as we strive to ensure everyone has equal dignity.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
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 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.
Notices
Children’s Harvest Activity
9.30 am –12.30 pm Saturday, 22 October 2022
A morning full of fun activities based around harvest – these will include making pumpkin muffins! Please see Tabbie, Nerys or Ruth to make sure you have a place reserved.
The Coat of Hopes
The Church of Christ the Cornerstone is pleased to welcome the Coat of Hopes and the artist behind its creation, Barbara Keal, for events on 22 & 23 October 2022. The Coat will be on display in the church until 29 October 22022.
Saturday, 22 October 2022: beginning at 4.30 pm
The Coat will lead a walk of witness through the shopping centres, returning to the church about 5.15 pm.
From 7.00 pm Barbara will give a talk about the coat and its pilgrimage from Newhaven to Glasgow to COP 26 last year and the creativity of textile contributions from hundreds of people along the journey, from artists and makers to the volunteers who attached the patches to the coat.
There will be an opportunity for local patch-makers to tell their stories. There will be a time to explore ‘Where am I going and what is my purpose within the climate crisis?’ and to make a fresh commitment to Care for Creation.
10.00 am Sunday, 23 October 2022
Then on Sunday, 23rOctober 2022, at 10.00 am there will be Harvest Thanksgiving Worship on the theme of Hope, featuring the Coat.
Cheryl Montgomery
What is Fair Trade?
The Congregational Meeting on Sunday, 2 October 2022 reaffirmed unanimously that Cornerstone should be a Fair Trade Church. This means that we will as far as possible use, and promote the use of, Fair Trade certified products. But what is Fair Trade and why does it matter?
Many of the foodstuffs that we consume in the UK rely on ingredients grown or produced in poorer parts of the world. This includes our tea, coffee, sugar and cocoa for chocolate, for example. Fair Trade simply means paying the farmers and workers a fair price so that the people who pick the tea and grow the coffee beans get a fair wage and can afford to put meals on the table and to send their children to school.
Products which display the Fair Trade logo are guaranteed by the Fair Trade Foundation to have met some minimum criteria for the fair treatment of producers. The Cornerstone shop stocks a wide range of Fair Trade food and other goods from Traidcraft, which is Christian-based company specifically created to import and sell Fair Trade produce.
Fair Trade, especially as realised by TraidCraft, is good for the environment because it helps small, family-owned, farms which, unlike large anonymous ‘factory farms’, care for the land they work on and have a personal commitment to sustainability. For this reason, promoting Fair Trade is one of the things A Roche require for the Eco Church awards.
Joy & David Chapman
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, go with us into our everyday lives, to honour you in all that we do and say.
May our being and doing reflect your love and your grace.
And when we next meet, may we recognise with thanks the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Hymn: Go, tell it on the mountain
Go, tell it on the mountain,
over the hills and everywhere.
Go, tell it on the mountain
that Jesus Christ is born.
While shepherds kept their watching
o’er wandering flocks by night,
behold from out of heaven
there shone a holy light.
Go, tell it on the mountain, …
And lo, when they had seen it,
they all bowed down and prayed,
they travelled on together
to where the Babe was laid.
Go, tell it on the mountain, …
When I was a seeker,
I sought both night and day:
I sked my Lord o help me
and he showed me the way.
Go, tell it on the mountain, …
He made me a watchman
upon the city wall,
and if I am a Christian,
I am the least of all.
Go, tell it on the mountain, …
Traditional
CCL31580
Blessing
In a world where we have, in the past, enslaved and dehumanized others,
we go to treat each person with dignity and respect.
In a world where profit is valued more than human life,
we go to proclaim the priceless worth of each person.
In a world where the ugliness of racism and white supremacy is found,
we go to show that love conquers all social ills.
Choir: We bid you goodbye …
Go forth into the world in peace; be of good courage;
hold fast that which is good; render to no one evil for evil;
strengthen the fainthearted; support the weak; help the afflicted;
honour everyone; love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit;
and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be amongst you and remain with you always.
Amen
The Dismissal
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
In the name of Christ.
Amen
Amen Siyakadumisa
Amen siyakadumisa,
amen siyakadumisa,
amen bawo, amen bawo.
Amen siyakadumisa.