Worry and Gratitude

Welcome to your online Thanksgiving Sunday worship from St. George’s, Georgetown for Sunday, October 10, 2021.

Our online worship continues here on our website as we continue to act with care for each other and as we work to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. 

In addition, we are also now offering in-person worship services with strict protocols on Sunday’s 10am. For more information about In-person worship follow this link.

Family Ministry

Our family ministry resources this week are not based on a reading assigned for today, but are based on the Old Testament reading Exodus 16:1-18; 17:1-7 which is in keeping with today’s theme. This reading focuses on giving thanks to God for giving us all that we need.  In our weekly Sunday email, there are links to a helpful family page that help explain all this Sunday’s theme and to fun colouring and puzzle pages that connect with this week’s lesson.  

Please sign up for our weekly emails to get those links to these great resources to use together with your family.  

Opening Music

Happy Thanksgiving, hymn singers! Today I have chosen “For the Beauty of the Earth” as our opening hymn. 

The Gospel Reading (Matthew 6:25-33)

Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”1

(Read all the reading assigned for this Sunday at this link.)

Online Worship

Here is your Sunday prayers and message:

Prayers of the People

We pray for peace in the world, we pray for this continent’s indigenous people seeking justice for the suffering, loss, and grief caused by residential schools and other systemic forms of racism, that a spirit of respect and reconciliation may grow among nations and peoples. Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

We pray for God’s healing for every person across our world as we continue to face the impact of the pandemic on our lives, our communities, and our nations, that we find strength and be guided by Your Loving Presence. Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

We pray for doctors and nurses, and all health care staff, we pray for teachers and students, we pray for all who care for those in need in body, mind, and spirit, that your grace may fill them and sustain them in this crisis. Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

We pray for the good earth which God has given us, and for the wisdom and will to conserve it Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

(To find the list of those we are praying for in our parish please sign up for our Parish email. To add a name to our prayers please contact me.)

Closing Music

For a closing Thanksgiving hymn, I have chosen a glorious choral version of “All Creatures of Our God and King.”

The contemporary song I selected for this week is “God of Wonders.”

A happy Thanksgiving to you all and I wish you all a blessed and safe week.

Thank you for your continued support of the ministry and mission of St. George’s.

Be Well and God Bless.

Peace,

The Rev’d Canon Rob Park

  1. Scripture quotation is from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.