Special Worship Services - unitedmethodistwomen.org€¦ · Web viewWe are offering you the full text to the Native American ... sacred burial grounds were disturbed to feed the

ASSEMBLY 2018 Special Worship—Plenary Services within Community Gatherings

REFER TO Spiritual Growth—Order of Worships document for placement within five Community Gathering Services.

See more instructions and descriptions in red.

All songs with placement are included in these services. REFER TO POWERPOINTS for lyrics and the Songbook Resource List to purchase.

Sense of the Holy: Native American Blessing

Harriett Jane Olson, Kimberlee Medicine Horn Jackson and Daryl Junes Joe from the Board of Directors and Oklahoma Conference were on stage for this segment.

Note: We are offering you the full text to the Native American Blessing for your use. If you include a blessing in your service, you must recruit an indigenous native woman from your community and ask her if this language works for her. If not, you’ll need to rewrite it according to her traditions for this service. Please use this as an example and for spiritual enrichment and learning purposes.

Kimberlee: Hihanni was’te. I am Kimberlee He’ Pezuta. My mother is a He Pezuta and we are from the Ihanktonwon people of the Oceti Sakowin (Good morning. I am Kimberlee Medicine Horn. My mother is a Medicine Horn. We are Ihanktonwon (Yankton: Dwellers at the end of the village) and from the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires). It is difficult to accurately name all the tribes that originally inhabited the land we know as Ohio. But I speak the names of some of the tribes I do know: Erie, Kickapoo, Lenni Lenape, Shawnee, Miami, Ottawa and the Wyandot. Harriett: We recognize the injustices we have committed and continue to against indigenous people. We recognize that the harm done to native peoples is continual, not just something in the past; whether it is the Dakota Access Pipeline where sacred burial grounds were disturbed to feed the greed of big oil companies, or the increasing number of indigenous women who are murdered and their cases never seeing justice, we recognize that our complicitness in a system that further oppresses

Special Worship—Plenary Services within Community Gatherings—Assembly 2018

indigenous communities is evident. Because of this, United Methodist Women created an Act of Repentance Group that focuses us on healing the wounds of injustice brought upon the Native peoples of this land. Our Board of Directors member Daryl Junes Joe from the Navajo Nation, is a leader in the work of this group.

Kimberlee: We recognize that those who commit acts of oppression to our ancestors, our families today, and our future generations have been humans suffering from a wounded heart and we pray their connection to Creator will deepen as they think of the part they played, no matter large or small: one sin is not greater than another. We hope this turn to Creator strengthens and encourages each heart and leads them on the good road to a right relationship with the One who created us and all living things. We pray your sacred journey leads to a healed heart and we understand this takes time. Harriett: Will the congregation please join with me in a responsive confession from services from the Greater New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania and Upper New York Conferences?

RESPONSIVE CONFESSION

Knowledge beyond knowledgeO God, you know.I have not sought justice.What justice do I deserve?But mercy, we plead, mercy.

ALL: God, have mercy. On behalf of our ancestors,

ALL: I fall to my knees.

On behalf of our people,

ALL: I bow my head.

On behalf of ourselves,

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ALL: I rend my heart. ALL: What have I done?

Instead of listening

ALL: I talk nonstop.

Instead of loving others,

ALL: I make love transactional.

Instead of hearing the cries of my neighbors,

ALL: I turn their cries around and make it about me.

Instead of honoring the earth and the bounty she freely gives,

ALL: I hoard blessings.

Instead of recognizing boundaries and sharing what I have,

ALL: I take too much for myself.

Instead of confessing,Instead of repenting on behalf of my ancestorsand on behalf of the systems from which I benefitand the history of our nationand the history of our Church,

ALL: I have closed my eyes.

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I have not spoken up,I have cut myself off,I have pretended this was what you wanted from me.Great Mystery,Hold me accountable by your Spirit,

ALL: to talk less and listen more,to take less and give more,to destroy less and heal more,to display less pride and more humility.

Harriett: Starting today and every day into the future, I will teach my children and my children’s children so that future generations can abide by this confession.

ALL: God have mercy!

Harriett: Free us in grace and open our hearts to receive the blessing of a new relationship. Kimberlee: You and I are connected to each other and so we will walk alongside of each other learning the values of our people: praying, respect, caring and compassion, honesty and truth, humility and wisdom and practicing the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Harriett: May we start a new relationship now, here, in this place? Will you welcome us to your land? Kimberlee: Together, we can grow and learn. You are welcome here. Join us. May God bless you, women from across our lands and across the oceans, and inspire you toward bold action for justice for all peoples. Harriett: Thank you for your grace and invitation. We are committed to the ongoing fight for justice and, with God’s grace, do our best to honor this land and her people.

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Kimberlee: Wopida pidamaya. De yuonihan yuhapi c’ante was’te wopida unkenic eyapi. Thank you, all my relatives, for this honor. With a good heart, we thank you.

Opening 150th Anniversary Celebration

The next segment was a 150th Anniversary celebration with song and dance. Led by stilt walkers carrying huge colorful balloons, our Conference presidents came down the aisle with green feather flags with the names of their Conferences. Members of the Board of Directors and Program Advisory Group came down the aisle with lit paper lanterns on bamboo poles. The colors came from the joyful, bright colors of our 150th Anniversary logo.

We invited members of different cultures to share one song from their traditions in song or dance as a “birthday present.” We were joined by a Tongan choir from the California-Pacific Conference, a Cherokee choir from the Oklahoma Conference and a Korean dance group from the New Jersey Conference.

We then ended, singing together “O For a Thousand Tongues” and “We’ve Come this Far by Faith” as everyone exited. REFER TO POWERPOINTS for song lyrics.

Partnership Litany and Gender Equity Statement

See Special Worship Plenary Services.

The Partnership Litany was written as a more liturgical expression for introducing guests, who are not just guests but partners in the work. We have included the introduction only here as Harriett explained what a partner means to United Methodist Women.

Harriett:In this moment, 150 years from our beginning, we celebrate our journey.

What is a partnership? A partnership involves two—two persons or groups who declare common values and commitments. We partner to identify the needs of the world and match our resources, our abilities, our passions, our actions and our bold dreamings. We partner to put faith, hope and love into action on behalf of women, children and youth.

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As United Methodist Women, we know that we do this work together—members and leaders at every level across the country. And we work with partners in all sorts of organizations, building a powerful web of work and relationships in our own communities and around the world.

Together with our United Methodist Church family, and our interfaith, ecumenical and social justice partners, we take risks for justice and change near and far. Our legacy of partnership is visible in places like Sager Brown, begun in 1867 as an orphanage for African-American youth left homeless by the Civil War, where our women saw to it that the children would not be forgotten. Generations of children went to school there for more than a hundred years. The school closed in 1978—yet in in 1992, after Hurricane Andrew tore through Florida, United Methodist Women partnered with the United Methodist Committee on Relief to reopen the school as a depot for relief supplies. Last year, hundreds of United Methodist Women volunteered at Sager Brown, thousands packed relief kits, and many, many more gave to Sager Brown to bring relief to the communities devastated by Irma and Harvey and the 2017 hurricanes.

The reach of our impact has led United Methodist Women to partner with Interfaith Coalitions in New York and Washington, DC to speak out against hate speech against our Muslim brothers and sisters. United Methodist Women stood side by side with ecumenical and interfaith partners at press conferences led by Staff and elected leaders in New York and Washington, DC. Because of your mission giving, we were able to act immediately to create subway and metro ads to counter each hate speech ad with our own language: “Hate is not civilized. Support peace in word and deed.”

Gender Equity Statement

Dawn Wiggins Hare, CEO of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, joined Harriett on stage for this important statement about the vote that took place on Gender Equity right before Assembly.

Harriett: One of the things that United Methodist Women’s predecessors advocated for 50 years ago as The United Methodist Church was being formed was the establishment of a Commission on Women. We were deeply engaged in the work for women’s equal treatment and knew that this would be needed for a long time. We also knew that the work would not be best served by the less permanent Committee on the Status of Women that the Church had had, nor did we think it should be carried by the Women’s Division.

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The General Commission on the Status and Role of Women was established in 1972 and I’m very pleased to welcome Dawn Wiggins Hare, the General Secretary, to join me on stage. Dawn, our organizations have been partners for a long time.

Dawn: Yes, indeed. We’re grateful our mutual connection—receiving each other’s Board members and working together on projects like the Do No Harm Event and legislation going to General Conference. We appreciated working with you on drafting an amendment to the Constitution of the Church adding gender equality to Article IV on the Inclusiveness of the Church, which we submitted to the 2016 General Conference. Both our agencies, and many women and men across the church, are lamenting that this amendment and one other on gender equality were not ratified by the needed vote of the Annual Conferences.

Harriett:Yes, we are. This is not who we understand The United Methodist Church to be. But the power of partnership is that when we come back to this (and we will come back to this!), we will be stronger because of working together on it.

Dawn: Amen! Thank you, United Methodist Women!

These are three examples of a long history of transformation through partnership. Today we welcome and name our leaders past and present and partners across both The United Methodist Church and the faith and justice extended community through ritual and artistic representation as we build a batik print together. Each piece together forms the true Power of Bold offered when the people of God become the hands of God.

Song: “Once We Were No People”

Closing Prayer

Harriett:God of all new beginnings, God of our past and of our future, we give you thanks for all who have walked together to bring peace, to bring comfort, to bring healing, to bring challenge, to bring your love to a desperate and hungry world. We thank you for reminding us that we do not go alone, but we go together and always with You.

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ALL:For 150 amazing years past, and many more yet to come, we give you thanks and praise your name. Amen.

Song: “Once We Were No People” (two final verses/refrains)

Conference Offering

See Special Worship Plenary Services.

This is our time to collect the official Assembly Offering collected by the Conferences. The Assembly Offering went to the Legacy Fund, as decided by our Board Advisory Group. We were privileged to have all living past presidents except one join us.

Shannon:Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pride that I welcome the former national presidents of United Methodist Women:

Ruth Daugherty, 1980-1984, from the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Carolyn Marshall, 1984-1988, from the Indiana Conference Carolyn Johnson, 1992-1996, from the Indiana Conference Genie Bank, 2000-2004, from the Detroit Conference Kyung Za Yim, 2004-2008, from the North Carolina Conference Inelda Gonzalez, 2008-2012, from the Rio Texas Conference

(Inelda Gonazalez from the Rio Texas Conference is unable to join us today due to health concerns but we honor her service.)

Yvette Richards, 2012-2016, from the Missouri Conference Shannon Priddy, 2016-Present, from the Indiana Conference

Yvette: Bold Dreams! Bold Dreams propelled Mary, the mother of Jesus, from her early life as an unknown young woman to a pivotal leader in the history of the world. Bold Dreams also brought each of us standing here before you tonight as your leaders, past and present also. And Bold Dreams brought each of you to United Methodist Women.

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Genie: Bold Dreams made it possible for our predecessors to establish and fund this unique organization called United Methodist Women. How could they possibly have known that the mission work they established more than a century ago would be flourishing almost 150 years later?

Carolyn J.: Bold Dreams, sisters, brought us here to this point in our history. And Bold Dreams are what we presidents know will propel us into our next 150 years. Bold Dreams like the Legacy Fund that proclaims what we believe in such a way that we offer to all the opportunity to participate in our vision and mission.

Kyung-Za: [in Korean, then in English]The Legacy Fund is a bold way of announcing our vision and inviting others into our mission. It will secure the future of United Methodist Women to more effectively respond to the challenges encountered by increasing numbers of women, children and youth in need.

Carolyn M.: The Legacy Fund provides ongoing education and training opportunities for women to lead, serve and transform communities near and far. Finally, it will prompt the engagement of future generations of United Methodist Women to see the impact of their efforts to make a difference.

Ruth: As bold dreamers, as your leaders, we challenge each of you to continue to pray for, work toward and give for the future of United Methodist Women. And now, we invite the representatives of each annual conference to come boldly, bringing forward their conference Assembly offering for the Legacy Fund, to further the Bold Dreams of our great organization.

Shannon: Our Conference treasurers are preparing to bring forth the Offerings from the Conferences across the country and every woman in this room will have the opportunity to join us in giving at the end of today’s Community Gathering! So, as you watch and rejoice in the work God has done for United Methodist Women, prepare your offerings and hold them until the end of the service. After the conclusion of this evening’s Community Gathering, members of the Legacy Fund Steering Team will be standing at each exit to collect Legacy Fund gifts as you depart.

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Offering

Song: “God of Grace and God of Glory” (Lydia Munoz version)

Fifty-six Conference treasurers come forward from the audience to place the Offering in a basket; Estella Wallace, national treasurer, received the gifts.

Blessing

Shannon: We welcome our Treasurer Estella Wallace to bless our offering.

Estella:Tonight, we as bold women pray: O Gracious God, bless these offerings that have been lovingly and sacrificially given by women from across the world. May these gifts keep alive the dreams of our foremothers and now our dreams of responding to your call through United Methodist Women.

Bishops Sharing Stories of United Methodist Women Inspiration

Harriett:What a blessing it is for me to stand beside this group, with so many of our female bishops in The United Methodist Church and the bishop of our host conference. We welcome these barrier-breaking women! They are serving in the Power of Bold, confirmed in their calling by the church. We remember that this is a church that did not always affirm their call and would not always have received their leadership in their current conferences. United Methodist Women’s history includes support for women’s ordination all the way back to the mission field. In 1888 at the World Mission Conference in London, our own Mary Nind spoke movingly about a day when women might be able to baptize the babies they were bringing to birth. Over many years and with the support of growing numbers of men in the church, women’s ordination was authorized and decades later, as women’s gifts were received and confirmed, we have been blessed by the leadership of women and men in the episcopacy. Sisters and brothers, we’ve been on a long journey together. We are grateful for all the gifts you bring: spiritual wisdom, strength to lead, racial ethnic diversity and with a wide range of gifts. Think about what our church can look like in the future—women and men, diverse in race, ethnicity and experience, working with laity,

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and committed to the liberation of all who come to the table of grace. Today we are blessed to hear stories about how United Methodist Women have been a part of your journey to this place or inspire your work today.

(Bishop Carcaño was unable to attend Assembly as planned but we offer her story.)

Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño: Here I am. United Methodist Women have been an inspiration and a fountain of sustaining grace for me throughout my entire life. There is nothing more formative for a young girl than to be with her grandmother and mother and see courageous women of faith in action.

As a young woman in high school I was invited to be a part of our local church’s United Methodist Women participation in our conference School of Christian Mission, now called Mission u. It opened my eyes to a world being transformed by God’s grace and through the hands and hearts of women! Responding to my call to ministry was not easy in a church that at that time doubted the call of women to ordained ministry, but United Methodist Women were some of my most ardent supporters and encouragers.

Throughout my 42 years of ordained ministry I have been inspired by United Methodist Women’s vision of a world transformed to the glory of God. My life and my ministry have been blessed by this vital witness. For this great gift I will be forever thankful!

My name is Minerva Carcaño, bishop from the California-Nevada Conference and I am committed to the increased ordination of women in the church, women ready to lead the way forward.

Bishop Peggy Johnson: Here I am. My local United Methodist Women unit sent me to my first Clergywomen’s Consultation, which sealed my call in ordained ministry. Later as a pastor serving in a Deaf congregation, the United Methodist Women planning committee of the Assembly one year gave scholarships for our entire United Methodist Women unit to attend and it changed this church’s United Methodist Women from being an insular group to an outreach-based movement. Still later as a bishop the Mission u Disability study gave me a platform to teach my passion to the denomination and extend disability ministry to more places than I could imagine. I feel the passion of United Methodist Women spurring me on to boldness. I am Peggy Johnson, bishop of the Eastern Pennsylvania and Peninsula Delaware Conferences, and I am committed to speak out for the marginalized and to lead on social justice issues in the face of opposition.

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Bishop Karen Oliveto:Here I am. My name is Karen Oliveto and when I was growing up, the United Methodist Women of my home church modeled to me what it meant to have an engaged faith—continually learning, growing and serving. Their faithfulness continues to inspire and embolden me in my own witness and leadership. My name is Karen Oliveto, bishop of the Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone Conferences and I am committed to justice for all women … particularly those who speak out in male-dominated environments knowing their “Cost of Bold” will be high. (Cost of Bold is the name of Saturday morning’s service.)

Bishop Sharma Lewis:Here I am. My name is Sharma Lewis, and I praise God for the ways United Methodist Women empowered me to lead by giving me many opportunities to teach at Mission u’s, preach at Annual Meetings and witness with members by putting my faith into action. My name is Sharma Lewis, first African-American female bishop of the Virginia Conference, and I am committed to education that transforms.

Bishop Cynthia Moore Koikoi:Here I am. My name is Cynthia Moore Koikoi. I now keep the United Methodist Women Prayer Calendar open on my desk. Each day it reminds me to boldly lead Western Pennsylvania Conference to minister with the people on the margins. Through the calendar, I see all those who are responding boldly around the world called to God’s mission. United Methodist Women literally serves as a daily reminder and weekly encouragement to empower me to lead boldly. My name is Cynthia Moore Koikoi, bishop of the Western Pennsylvania Conference, and I am committed to resources that offer inspiration.

Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey: Here I am. I was shaped, formed and nurtured by amazing women throughout my life. I prayed that I would continue to find the same kind of support in my adult life and I did! I was privileged to serve in a church early in my ministry with a large, active and powerful group of United Methodist Women. These women were wise and caring, firm and loving. They guided me spiritually. They guided me and provided the “motherly” advice I needed time and time and again. They calmed me when the values of parenting, being a spouse and leading a large church collided. I will be forever grateful for these important women in my life.

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I am Cynthia Fierro Harvey, bishop of the Louisiana Conference, and I am committed to the power of mentorship of women, by women and for women.

Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor: Here we are, here we stand, daughters, sisters, granddaughters and great granddaughters of United Methodist Women, bishops of the Church, committed to lead and walk alongside with you in this holy journey of Boldness. Here I am, Mary Virginia Taylor, bishop of the Holston Conference, and I am committed to work alongside you to make sure that the next 150 years of witness be a beacon of light for all to see; committed to putting faith, hope and love into action on behalf of women, children and youth here in America and around the world.

Bishop Gregory Palmer: (bishop of the West Ohio Conference, on screen)We are women and men committed to work alongside you in dismantling the structures of racism, sexism and injustice. We are committed to support your work on Maternal and Child Health, providing a Living Wage for all, addressing Climate Justice by reducing emissions and ending Mass Incarceration as we know it. We are a diverse group committed to a diverse kind of work—there is room for all at the table of justice and equity.

ALL:Committed to justice, committed to boldness, committed to Christ!

Service of Communion

Invitation

Bishop Tracy S. Malone: (bishop of the Ohio East Conference and president, General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, on screen)There is no better place to mark our mutual commitment to this journey of boldness than at the table of grace and mercy. This place where the love of God meets human need, where Jesus meets us in bread and juice, where we are transformed to be Christ’s body.

Confession:

God of grace and God of glory, we come before you, your humble servants called by you to your will and your way. We come knowing that we have made mistakes.

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We have excluded new voices from our old traditions. We have not made a way for those who sit on the margins to join us as United Methodist Women. We have discouraged some who come with new ideas. We have ignored some who speak words we don’t understand and don’t bother to translate. Like Mary, turn us around to look you in the face, to hear your voice as it sings into our ears words of justice, words of peace, words of joy.

Words of Assurance

Bishop Tracy S. Malone:No matter where we come from, how we get here or where we’ve been, God waits to embrace us in the grip of a fierce and tender love that never lets us go.

ALL: Thanks be to God.

Opening sentences are sung by ordained band members:One: The Lord be with you.All: And also with you.

One: Lift up your hearts.All: We lift them up to the lord.

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

Words of Institution

Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball: (bishop of the West Virginia Conference, on screen) God looked out among the people and chose a teenaged woman to bear the One who would save the world. Humble and meek, strong and brave, Mary would mother that child of God. God called and Mary boldly answered, Mary boldly acted, Mary seized the power of boldness and became the mother of Emmanuel, God with us. We cannot understand, we cannot comprehend, so we simply sing out our thanksgiving.

Sanctus (Sung)

God looks out over the people of God. God sees us, women of all shapes and kinds, with our own minds and hearts, all here to serve the world God made. God calls and we answer. Boldly dreaming with God of what might become. Boldly dreaming because we know that everything is possible with God, through the power of the risen One. Boldly dreaming because God proved that love overwhelms evil, truth overcomes death, courage brings forth new life.

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Memorial Acclamation

Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball:(Sung) Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

Bishop Joaquina Nhanala: (bishop of the Mozambique Episcopal Area, on screen)On that night, when the empire would take Jesus away, friends gathered at a table. Jesus blessed and broke, blessed and poured. And they ate and drank. Without hatred or fear, Jesus reminded them to remember ... to remember the cost and power of being bold in a world that would refuse, revile, reject.

We are the Marys who, like the mother of that one who would bear the cost of bold action, stand in resistance and resilience.

AMEN. (sung)

Bishop Oliveto, Taylor: Come, Holy Spirit, Come. (Raise hands and keep them raised.)

Bishop Moore Koikoi, Lewis: Come, Holy Spirit, Come. (Raise hands and keep them raised.)

Bishop Johnson, Harvey: Come, Holy Spirit, Come. (Raise hands and keep them raised.)

Bishop Virginia Taylor, Palmer: Come, Holy Spirit, Come. (Raise hands and keep them raised.)

Bishop Nhanala: Come, Holy Spirit, pour into these ordinary elements and make them holy for the journey. Come, Holy Spirit, pour into us ordinary people and make us extraordinary for the journey. Like Mary, make us vessels for the impossible to be made real. (Hands down.)

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Please join me in speaking the Lord’s Prayer together.

ALL:Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,thy kin-dom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespassesas we forgive those who trespass against us.And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evilfor thine is the Kin-dom, and the power and the glory forever.Amen.

Bishop Nhanala:The table is prepared and all are welcome. As the ushers bring the elements to you, welcome these gifts of God offered to us freely, without price. The elements offered here are bread, a gluten-free wafer and alcohol-free juice. We will offer intinction for each other, dipping the bread or wafer into the cup and passing on to our neighbor. After the elements come to you a basket will be passed for you to place your commitment cards—the offering of ourselves to the service of God and God’s creation. Songs: “Ososo Spirit, I Have Heard You Calling,” “While Earth Remains,” “Veni Sancte Spiritus,” “Let Us Break Bread Together,” “Let Your Little Light Shine” (No lyrics on screen.)

Prayer After Communion

Bishop Nhanala:Eternal, everlasting God,

Let us live in the mystery that is your faith in us and our faith in you. As Mary did, may we ever open ourselves to the possibility that you would use us, just as we are, to make the impossible possible in your world.

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Special Worship Services - unitedmethodistwomen.org€¦ · Web viewWe are offering you the full text to the Native American ... sacred burial grounds were disturbed to feed the