April 06, 2025 Bulletin
Niccolls Memorial Presbyterian Church
Old Forge, New York
Transfiguration Sunday
April 6, 2025
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PRELUDE
WELCOME
OUR NICCOLLS 2025 MISSION
Inspired by faith in Christ and loving concern for our neighbors, we pursue spiritual growth, fellowship and care for all creation. Christ’s teachings and teachings of other wisdom traditions that resonate with compassionate love for all, informs our actions. We seek to be a family of abundant love that values relationships that are fair and inclusive.
INTROIT: #167 - Forty Days and Forty Nights (v.5)
CALL TO WORSHIP:
Leader: We gather beneath wide skies and sheltering trees, in the presence of God who meets us where we are.
People: Like the stillness of the lake at dawn, we open our hearts to grace.
Leader: In this Lenten season, we remember the courage it takes to walk the winding trail—wholehearted, unguarded.
People: Like Mary, who poured out perfume without counting the cost, may we offer our lives freely and fully.
Leader: Here, among mountains that echo with ancient songs, we come to a table set with love.
People: May our spirits be renewed, our burdens lightened, and our lives transformed by the wild, generous love of Christ.
OPENING HYMN: #401 Here in This Place
MEDITATIVE MOMENT
Be Still and Know That I Am God
In this moment of meditation, you are invited to breathe deeply and rest in God’s presence. If at any point you find this time unsettling or need to step away mentally, please feel free to do so. You are loved and held just as you are.
(Moment of silence.)
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
SCRIPTURE READING: John 12:1-8
HOMILY: “The Poetic Politic: Breaking Open to a Different Way of Being”
SACRED PRACTICE MOMENT
In silence or prayer, take a moment to reflect:
You are invited to reflect silently, journal, or simply rest in presence.
(Instrumental music played)
CONGREGANT’S REFLECTION
Sally Woods is invited to share a reading that has been meaningful in her journey of faith.
(This is space, during Lent, for a congregant to share a song, poem, or scripture that has personal meaning.)
HOLY COMMUNION:
INVITATION TO THE TABLE
PRAYER OF THE PEOPLE
We will continue to pray as your son taught us to pray, saying…
*Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.
INVITATION TO THE OFFERING
ANTHEM: Jesu, Joy Of Man’s Desiring
by J.S.BACH, arr byRalph Martino
Saxophonist: George Smith
DOXOLOGY: #184 - Calm to the Waves
(You are invited to stand if willing and able)
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
CLOSING HYMN: #541 God Be with You Till We Meet Again
(You are invited to stand through the extroit, if willing and able)
DISTILLATION
(A brief opportunity for the congregation to shout out a word or phrase that distills their experience with the service.)
BENEDICTION
Leader:
Go now, carrying the Light of Christ,
to see and serve with Love,
held always in the Presence that makes all things whole.
Congregation:
Amen.
EXTROIT: #177 - I Will Come to You (v.1)
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Worship Leader: Lee Vance (he/him)
Choir Director: Judith Barker
Liturgist: Kathryn Godley
* As we come together in prayer, we acknowledge that the Lord’s Prayer has been incorporated in Christian liturgy since the earliest days of the Church and it holds deep familial meaning for many of us. At the same time, its traditional language reflects a patriarchal context and our Niccolls community embraces a more expansive view of the Divine. The language is challenging for some, and so we encourage each individual to interpret and internalize this prayer in a manner that aligns with their understanding and relationship with the Divine.
