Gathering song: Come and Make the People Whole, by Bret Hesla
Opening Prayer: Lift up the themes of welcome, immigrant justice and our faith calling. Here’s one idea: Immigrant’s Prayer / Oración de un Inmigrante
Opening Song: Let Not the Needy be Forgotten, by Bret Hesla
Readings: Choose one or more readings, both scripture and contemporary. Some ideas:
- Leviticus 19: 33-34 (substitute “immigrant” for “alien”)
- Romans 12: 9-18
- The Immigrant’s Creed, – by Jose Luis Casal
Song: Help Us to Stand With, by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
Prayers: Open up a time for prayers of the people.
- Leader begin: Let us lift up our hearts and lives in prayer. After each prayer, I’ll say, “God, who is mercy” and please respond “Hear our prayer.”
- After all who want have spoken, leader close with: “God, who is mercy: You embrace the smallest of creatures, you embrace the whole universe. Your tenderness knows no end, we, too, rest in your arms. Amen.”
Closing Song: For Justice Love and Peace, by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
——————-End service outline———————
Support documents:
Song Links: The above songs, with leadsheets, chords, mp3s and piano parts, can be found in Singing Prayers for the Earth: thirty-one songs, hymns and short refrains addressing the climate crisis of ecology and justice. © 2017 Bret Hesla and Richard Bruxvoort Colligan.
- Come and Make the People Whole, by Bret Hesla
- Let Not the Needy be Forgotten, by Bret Hesla
- Help Us to Stand With, by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
- You Embrace the Smallest, by Bret Hesla
- For Justice Love and Peace, by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
Readings and other resources: Here’s a link to a UCC site with many relevant readings and text on immigrant justice.
Credits: Thanks to Mary Preus, from the Community of St. Martin in Minneapolis, for putting this service together. FFI: bret.hesla@gmail.com. richcharbruxcoll@msn.com.