Endings Point to New Beginnings

Welcome to your online Sunday worship from St. George’s, Georgetown for Sunday, October 31, 2021. Today we celebrate All Saints!

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 based on the full story of Lazarus’ being raised from the dead that is told in today’s Gospel reading, John 11:32-44. The resources this week reflects on the grief we feel when we encounter endings but also the hope we have in Jesus which points us to new beginnings.  

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

Our opening hymn today is “For All the Saints.”

The Gospel Reading (John 11:32-44)

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”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 all people impacted by 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

Our closing hymn this week is a massive choral version of “All People That On Earth Do Dwell.”

Our contemporary song this week that I have selected is “How Great Are You, Lord” by Robin Mark. 

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.