A separate video feed of the choir will be available here during the service.

Celebrant: Revd Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga

Gathering Music

Welcome

God, Creator and Parent of all,
we come to worship you.

God, you nourished and rescued your people.
We come to worship you.

God, you care for us like a mother.
We come to worship you.

God, you give strength and love to all who care for children.
We come to worship you.

God, you support us in good times and hard times.
we come to worship you.

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: Tell out, my soul

Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord!
Unnumbered blessings, give my spirit voice;
tender to me the promise of your word;
in God my Saviour shall my heart rejoice.

Tell out, my soul, the greatness of his name!
Make know his might, the deeds his arm has done;
his mercy sure, from age to age the same;
his holy name, the Lord, the mighty one.

Tell out, my soul, the greatness of his might!
Powers and dominions lay their glory by.
Proud hearts and stubborn wills are put to flight,
the hungry fed, the humble lifted high.

Tell out, my soul, the glories of his word!
Firm in his promise, and his mercy sure.
Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord
to children’s children and for evermore!

Timothy Dudley-Smith (b. 1926)
based on Luke 1: 46–51
CCL31580

Prayer of Approach

Motherly God, thanks to you for life and living, even when we are weary and worn out.
Thanks to you for challenge and change, even when we seek safety and security.
Thanks to you for playfulness and pain, even when we seek moderation and mild-living.
Thanks to you for companionship when we are lonely. Thanks to you for calling when we are settled. Thanks to you for creativity when we are uninspired.

Bring us to newness of life as your people.
Bring us to wholeness of life from out of its fragments.
Bring us to fullness of life from your communion in and with us.

Motherly God, to you we pray,

Amen

Confession

Let us call to mind our sin,
our failure to value the love of others
and our failure to love as Christ has loved us.

[Keep a little silence for reflection]

Your love gives us life from the moment of conception.
We fail to live as your children.

Lord have mercy.
Lord have mercy.

You call us to do good.
We seek our own good.

Christ, have mercy.
Christ have mercy.

You hear us when we cry for help.
We ignore the cries of others.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord have mercy.

Amen

Prayer of the Week

Lord Jesus, thank you for everyone who looks after children,
especially Mums on this special Mothering Sunday.

Thank you,
for our families – for dads and brothers and sisters, for grandmas and granddads
and uncles and aunties, for foster carers and step parents.

Thank you
for special friends and neighbours, childminders, nursery workers and
school staff who all share in caring for children.

Thank you
that you love and care for us even before we are born and that we can discover your love through the people around us.

Amen

Ministry of the Word

Isaiah 66: 12–14

Read by Katherine Wheldon

¹² For this is what the Lord says:

‘I will extend peace to her like a river,
and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream;
you will feed and be carried on her arm<
and dandled on her knees.
¹³ As a mother comforts her child,
so will I comfort you;
and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.’

¹⁴ When you see this, your heart will rejoice
and you will flourish like grass;
the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants,
but his fury will be shown to his foes.

NIV®

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

Matthew 23: 37–39

Read by Adrian Boynton

³⁷ ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. ³⁸ Look, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

NIV®

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

Meditation

[Silence]

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 David Moore

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: For the beauty of the earth

For the beauty of the earth,
for the beauty of the skies,
for the love which from our birth
over and around us lies,
Christ our God, to you we raise
this our sacrifice of praise.

For the beauty of each hour
of the day and of the night,
hill and vale, and tree and flower,
sun and moon and stars of light:
Christ our God, to you we raise
this our sacrifice of praise.

For the joy of ear and eye,
for the heart and mind’s delight,
for the mystic harmony
linking sense to sound and sight.
Christ our God, to you we raise
this our sacrifice of praise.

For the joy of human love,
brother, sister, parent, child,
friends on earth and friends above,
pleasures pure and undefiled:
Christ our God, to you we raise
this our sacrifice of praise.

For each perfect gift of divine
to our race so freely given,
joys bestowed by love’s design,
flowers of earth and fruits of heaven:
Christ our God, to you we raise
this our sacrifice of praise.

F.S. Pierpoint (1835–1917)
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 for ever 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

CIO News

Our application to the Charity Commission to become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) has now been approved. This is great news! Many thanks to everyone who has worked so hard to make this application successful.

There is still a lot of work to do before the CIO is up and running and can take over from the Ecumenical Council, but the new CIO trustees will be meeting shortly and we wish them well with this important task.

Peter Cope

Support Earth Hour

8.30–9.30 pm Saturday, 25 March 2023

Earth Hour is an annual event organised by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), when people and organisations all over the world switch off their lights at home for one hour ‘to help raise awareness on the most urgent issues facing our planet.’ As part of our activities as an Eco Church we would like to invite Cornerstone members, if they can, to participate for one hour on Saturday, 25 March 2023 from 8:30 pm until 9.30 pm. This would involve switching off some lights and devices and taking time to pray. In addition, WWF has provided a list of things that people could do during the hour: https://www.earthhour.org/.

Stuart Kean on behalf of the Eco Church Group

Cornerstone Annual Congregational Meeting

12.30 pm next Sunday (26 March 2023) by Zoom

Our Annual Congregational Meeting (ACM) for 2023 will be at 12.30 pm next Sunday (26 March 2023) by Zoom. The Annual Reports and Accounts for 2022 are now available. The Agenda and Minutes are included in the Report and Accounts document, which has been sent electronically to everyone on the Cornerstone mailing list. Please note that items of any other business can only be considered if they have been notified to the Chair (Peter Cope) at least 24 hours before the start of the meeting.

Looking forward to a Fair Trade Easter

Please continue to support Fair Trade with your purchases. You have heard that Traidcraft has gone into administration after over forty years of helping small-scale producers overseas to receive a just income for their labours and develop their businesses sustainably for the planet. Due to that work, there are now many brands carrying the Fair Trade mark available in supermarkets and elsewhere and this is very important for products such as coffee, tea, chocolate (cocoa) and bananas, which crops are all very vulnerable to extreme climate change events.

The Cornerstone Shop will continue to sell a variety of Fair Trade goods and will shortly receive a supply of Meaningful (Real) Chocolate Easter Eggs. Order forms are available at Reception and will be circulated by email, or if you dare you can wait and buy them off the shelves!

Joy Chapman (cjoy.chapman9@gmail.com; mobile 07854 762676)

Cornerstone Prayer Network

Prayer is central to our Christian fellowship. The Cornerstone Prayer Network is here for people who have asked us to pray for them. Please send your prayer requests to cornerstonechurch.prayernetwork@gmail.com and the details will be passed on to the members of the Prayer Network. If your prayer request is for someone else, please check with them before sending details to the Cornerstone Prayer Network.

If you would like to become a member of the Cornerstone Prayer Network, please send your details by email to cornerstonechurch.prayernetwork@gmail.com, or speak to June Halstead after a Service in the church.

Offering

Final Prayer

Lord God, your mother-like love for us is so special
that we are scarcely able to believe it, let alone receive it.
We give thanks today for our mothers and their care for us,
and we also give thanks for those who have been like mothers to us,
offering us nurture and care throughout our lives.
We celebrate the fact that the roots and pattern for this love are found in you.
All love comes from you, so we pray that you will inspire and strengthen us
to become mother-like in our concern for others.
Help us to pass on the best advice to our children and to others,
and may we draw strength and inspiration from your Easter sacrifice,
to become those who lay down their lives for others.
We ask this in Jesus’ name.

Amen

Hymn: He’s got the whole world in his hand

He’s got the whole world in his hand. [×4]

He’s got you and me, brother …

He’s got you and me, sister …

He’s got everybody here …

He’s got the whole world …

Traditional
CCL31580

Blessing

May the Lord who brought us to birth by his Spirit, strengthen us for the Christian life.
May the Lord who provides for all our needs sustain us day by day.
May the Lord whose steadfast love is constant as a mother’s care,
send us out to live and work for others.
And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be with you and remain with you always

Amen

Dismissal

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

Amen