Celebrant: Revd Hannah Akibo-Betts
Preacher: Krou Assoua LLM

Gathering Music

Opening Sentences

Call to Worship

Christ calls us to follow with our whole hearts, laying down all that holds us back.
We come, ready to walk in love and forgiveness.

May we welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us.
Strengthen us, O God, to forgive, to love, and to follow.

Come, let us worship God together.
With grateful hearts, we worship and trust in God’s grace.

Amen

Greetings and Welcome

Hymn: Father, Lord of all creation

Father, Lord of all creation,
ground of being, life and love,
height and depth beyond description
only life in you can prove:
you are mortal life’s dependence:
thought, speech, sight are ours by grace;
yours is every hour’s existence,
sovereign Lord of time and space.

Jesus Christ, the Man for others,
we, your people, make out prayer:
help us love – as sisters, brothers –
all whose burdens we can share.
Where your name binds us together
you, Lord Christ, will surely be;
where no selfishness can sever
there your love the world may see.

Holy Spirit, rushing, burning
wind and flame of Pentecost,
fire our hearts afresh with yearning
to regain what we have lost.
May your love unite our action,
never more to speak alone:
God, in us abolish faction,
God, through us your love make known.

Stewart Cross (1928–1989)
CCL31580

Prayers of Thanksgiving and Confession

Almighty Father, we thank you for your gift of love and grace in Jesus Christ
that give us the right to be sons and daughters of your heavenly Kingdom:
Thank you for the active sharing of our faith that helps us
to encourage our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.
Thank you for the boldness achieved through Christ
to approach your throne of mercy to confess out fleshly sins that hinders our spiritual growth.
Have mercy Lord; Have mercy as we confess not only our individual sins; but cultural and national sins.
Forgive our disobedient, selfish and oppressive natures.

Grant us a willing spirit to honour and obey your call
and by so doing honour members of the body of Christ.
Cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We are truly sorry and repent of all our sins.

[Silence for personal confessions]

Absolution

May the God of love and power forgive and free us from all our sins,
strengthen us by his spirit, and raise us to new life in Christ our Lord.

Amen

Kyrie

Prayer of the Week

Gracious God, you call us to follow your Son with open hearts and willing spirits,
and to forgive as we have been forgiven.
Send your Holy Spirit to guide our steps, so that we may walk in the costly way of love,
welcoming one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Grant us courage to surrender what holds us back, and faith to trust your grace each day,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

Psalm 1

¹ Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
² but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither –
whatever they do prospers.

⁴ Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

⁶ For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

NIV®

Ministry of the Word

Philemon vv. 1–21

Read by Bob Collard

¹ Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,

To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker – ² also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier – and to the church that meets in your home:

³ Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving and prayer

⁴ I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, ⁵ because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. ⁶ I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. ⁷ Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.

Paul’s plea for Onesimus

⁸ Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, ⁹ yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul – an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus – ¹⁰ that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. ¹¹ Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.

¹² I am sending him – who is my very heart – back to you. ¹³ I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. ¹⁴ But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favour you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary. ¹⁵ Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for ever – ¹⁶ no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.

¹⁷ So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. ¹⁸ If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. ¹⁹ I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back – not to mention that you owe me your very self. ²⁰ I do wish, brother, that I may have some benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ. ²¹ Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask.

NIV®

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

Hymn: Longing for light

Longing for light, we wait in darkness.
Longing for truth, we turn to you.
Make us your own, your holy people,
light for the world to see.

Christ be our light! Shine in our hearts.
Shine through the darkness.
Christ be our light!
Shine in your church gathered today.

Longing for peace, our world is troubled.
Longing for hope, many despair.
Your word alone has power to save us.
Make us your living voice.

Christ be our light! ….

Longing for food, many are hungry.
Longing for water, many still thirst.
Make us your bread, broken for others,
shared until all are fed.

Christ be our light! ….

Longing for shelter, many are homeless.
Longing for warmth, many are cold.
Make us your building, sheltering others,
walls made of living stone.

Christ be our light! ….

Many the gifts, many the people,
many the hearts that yearn to belong.
Let us be servants to one another,
helping your kingdom come.

Christ be our light! ….

Bernadette Farrell (b. 1957)
CCL31580

Luke 14: 25–33

Read by Rosemary Goldie

The cost of being a disciple

²⁵ Large crowds were travelling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ²⁶ ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, even their own life – such a person cannot be my disciple. ²⁷ And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

²⁸ ‘Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? ²⁹ For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, ³⁰ saying, “This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.”

³¹ ‘Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³² If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. ³³ In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

NIV®

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

Sermon

By Krou Assoua LLM

[Silence]

Musical Meditation

Affirmation of Faith

We believe in God, who is our true security and our eternal hope;
whose love cannot be measured by wealth or possessions.
We believe that life does not consist in the abundance of things,
but in belonging to God and to one another.
We believe in Jesus Christ, who warned against storing up treasures for ourselves
and called us to be rich toward God, who frees us from anxiety and greed,
offering us abundant life through grace.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, who turns our hearts from fleeting riches to what truly lasts,
who empowers us to live generously, to trust God’s provision, and to seek God’s kingdom above all.
This is our faith. We trust in God, who alone gives life that endures for ever.

Amen, Amen

Intercessory Prayers

Led by Joy Enenche

Hymn: I am a new creation

I am a new creation,
no more in condemnation,
here in the grace of God I stand.

My heart is overflowing,
my love just keeps on growing,
here in the grace of God I stand.

And I will praise you, Lord,
yes, I will praise you, Lord,
and I will sing of all that you have done.

A joy that knows no limit,
a lightness in my spirit,
here in the grace of God I stand.

Dave Bilbrough
CCL31580

Sharing the Peace

Jesus teaches us that life is not found in the abundance of our possessions,
but in being rich toward God and one another.
The peace we share is not something we can buy or earn; it is a gift

May the peace of Christ, which passes all understanding, keep our minds focused on him.
May that peace remain and be with you all.

And also, with you.

Let us share with one another the peace that comes from trusting in God alone.

Invitation to the Table

Come to this table, not because you have earned it, but because Christ calls you.
Come, not with the riches of the world, but with open hands and open hearts,
ready to receive God’s gifts.

We long for the food that gives eternal life.

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.

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

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

It is right and good to give you thanks and praise, loving God.
You created all things and called them good.
You give us life and breath,
yet we confess we have often looked to other things for meaning and security.
Still, you do not abandon us.
You sent your Son Jesus, who taught us that life does not consist in the abundance of possessions,
but in being rich toward God.
And so, with all who trust in you, with the company of heaven and the saints on earth,
we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

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.

On the night in which he was betrayed,
our Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying:
‘Take and eat; this is my body, given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.’
Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it for all to drink, saying:
‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin.
Do this for the remembrance of me.’
So, Lord, we remember all that Jesus did,
in him we plead with confidence his sacrifice made once for all upon the cross.
Bringing before you the bread of life and cup of salvation,
we proclaim his death and resurrection until he comes in glory.

Great is the mystery of faith:

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

Lord of all life, help us to work together for that day when your kingdom comes,
and justice and mercy will be seen in all the earth.
Look with favour on your people,
gather us in your loving arms and bring us with all the saints to feast at your table in heaven.
Through Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
all honour and glory are yours, O loving God, For ever and ever.

Amen

The Lord’s Prayer

And as our Saviour taught us, we pray together:

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

Invitation to Communion

These are the gifts of God for the people of God. Come, for all is ready.

[Meal is shared]

Prayer after Communion

Generous God, you have fed us at this table with a meal which is a foretaste of the banquet in heaven.
Inspired and strengthened, may we go out to preach the message of love, peace and hope
in Jesus’ name.

Amen

Notices

Revd George Mwaura: Annual Leave

Sunday, 24 August – Tuesday, 16 September 2025

While George is on leave if any urgent pastoral needs arise, please get in touch with Revd Dr Margaret Goodall, whose email address is margaretgoodall24@gmail.com and her phone number is 07957 203736. For any administrative matters, please contact Cheryl Montergomery, Chair of our Church Council.

Please hod George and Christine in your thoughts and prayers while they are away.

New Wednesday Bible Study:
‘Weakness Made Strong. the Stories of Moses and Rahab’

Starting Wednesday, 24 September 2025 at 7.00 pm by Zoom

If you would like an invitation to the Zoom sessions, please contact robin_kyd@yahoo.co.uk.

Flowers in the Worship Area this weekend

The flower arrangement in the Worship Area this Sunday is to celebrate the 55th wedding anniversary of June & Brian Halstead and the 56th wedding anniversary of Pat & Robin Kyd. Our thanks to Ratna for the arrangement. We remember the happy couples in our prayers and wish them respectively every future happiness together.

The Contemplative/Memorial Garden

Have you seen the Contemplation Garden recently? It is so beautiful. Thank you so much to the gardening group for the hard work that has returned it to a special space for people to enjoy. The choice of plants and mended water feature make it perfect for spending a while, being present in the moment and feeling the healing power of the water and the plants. If you have not seen it yet, make a point of looking next time you are at Cornerstone.

Katherine Wheldon

Offertory Prayer

Gracious God, all abundance flows from your endless love.
We humbly present these offerings – both those given today and those already shared –
asking for your blessing as we build your kingdom through this church and beyond.
May these gifts serve your purpose and bring light to all corners of your world.

Amen

Hymn: Will you come and follow me

Will you come and follow me,
if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know
and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown,
will you let my love be known,
will you let my life be grown,
in you and you in me?

Will you leave yourself behind
if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind
and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare
should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer
in you and you in me?

Will you let the blinded see
if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free
and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean
and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean
in you and you in me?

Will you love the ‘you’ you hide
if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside
and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found
to reshape the world around,
through my sight and touch and sound
in you and you in me?

Lord, your summons echoes true
when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you
and never be the same.
In your company I’ll go
where your love and footsteps show,
thus I’ll move and live and grow
in you and you in me.

John l. Bell (b. 1949) and Graham Maule (b. 1958) Iona Community
CCL31580

Words of Mission and Blessings

Living God, send us out to love;
and in loving, show us how to serve;
and in serving, teach us how to act;
for we are yours.
And the blessings of God Almighty: Father, Son and Holy Spirit always accompany us on this journey

Amen

Dismissal

Church, go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
In the name of Christ, we will.

Amen

Benediction

May God’s blessing surround you each day,
as you trust him and walk in his way.
May his presence within guard and keep you from sin.
Go in peace, go in joy, go in love. [×2]