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 Him thanks and praise
God our Father,
Creator of the Heavens and the Earth,
your Spirit crafts beauty from chaos.
You make us in your image
and form us into your likeness.
When the deceiver comes
your Spirit convicts us
and leads us in the way of truth.
You yearn for us to become your holy people
who will live and love by your command.
When we are enslaved,
you become our advocate,
exposing the oppressor’s illusion of power.
You lead us to freedom,
parting the seas that would overwhelm us.
You send priests and prophets
to reassure us of your presence,
and to remind us of your Word.
You confound all human wisdom.
You reveal yourself as the God of love –
the God of relationship,
whose greatness can never be reflected
in stone or precious jewel.
Despite our failures
your love remains steadfast.
You refuse to turn us away
and leave us orphaned.
Abiding in Jesus your Son,
you came to Earth.
By your death on the Cross,
you show how love can conquer all.
By your resurrection,
you demonstrate your divinity.
Through your tender embrace,
you show yourself to be truly human
By your Word,
you declare that we are forgiven.
Through the work of your Spirit,
you renew us, direct us,
and give us hope for the future.
And so, with the angels and the archangels,
with the choirs of heaven,
and with all who have gone before us, we declare:
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.
As we gather, we remember how,
on the night before our Saviour was betrayed by one of his own
and put to death by those who wanted to extinguish your plans,
Jesus gathered with those, who like us, were perplexed, or felt insecure,
and gave new life to an ancient rite.
He took the bread, gave thanks, broke it,
and gave it to his disciples saying
‘Take eat, this is my body, given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.’
After supper, he took the cup of wine,
gave thanks, and gave it to them saying,
‘Drink from this all of you. This is my blood of the new covenant,
poured out for all people for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this in remembrance of me.’
As we remember God’s faithfulness in the past,
His presence with us today,
and how our future is at His disposal,
we declare:
Christ has died
Christ is Risen
Christ will come again.
Loving God,
send down your Holy Spirit,
that these gifts of bread and wine
may be for us Christ’s body and blood.
Accept our lives as a sacrifice of praise to you.
Unite us with Christ,
refashion us as your people,
and bring us with all creation,
to inherit your eternal kingdom.
The bread is broken in the sight of the people
We break this bread to share in the body of Christ
Jesus Christ is Lord. May His spirit have his way with us. Praise be to God.