I wrote this gathering a few years ago but never used it. this seemed to be the year.

We are here

because we’re people who have heard a rumour

that there’s life to be found on the other side of death.

We’re here because just the rumour is enough to bring
us hope

and just the hope is enough to bring us a moment of life.


We’re here because even though it is only a flicker,
a moment,
a breath

it’s changed our death forever.

Welcome to worship.

Prayer of confession
We confess, God
that we look for the living among the dead:
that we wish things would return to just how they were
rather than looking for where love might be alive now.

We confess that we don’t have the faith to believe
that life might come into our darkest hells.

We confess that it’s too dangerous to believe it.

Give us the faith to leave the death we know
and to search out the places
in the world
where life might be found.

Prayer for the world
Today we find ourselves in a world where the inevitable

no longer seems sure,
and we wonder what else is made possible

because of the resurrection:
what walls will be broken

and what darkness will be destroyed;
what death will be shown for what it is:

the possibility

for love

to come again.

You are invited to come and light a candle, and to say a prayer, either silently or out loud, for the world.
As you leave,
you might like to take a piece of cloth with you.

Blessing

Send us into the world, God
ready to encounter resurrection:
to point to love’s presence
to light another’s darkness
to speak your peace into the world’s pain.

and may we go as people who know there is another end to the story
and who will not live with fear anymore.

The grace…