Order of Service
Liturgy for the 2024 Election Season
Call to Worship
Friends, we come to worship bringing our whole selves:
Our excitement and our anxiety;
Our trepidation and our confidence;
Our hope and our disillusionment;
Our fear and our joy;
There is room enough for it all in this beloved community.
Let us worship.
Opening Invocation
Community-building God, today we join together as diverse people of faith:
People of different beliefs
Different backgrounds
Different ethnicities
Different gender expressions
Different political affiliations
And you make us one.
Justice-seeking God, give us the courage and strength to reach beyond our differences so that we can find our similarities:
Our desire to care for the earth
Our call to tend to the oppressed
Our respect for the dignity of all your people
Our longing for peace
God of us all, move us to work with you and one another to achieve our mutual goals - your vision of wholeness and peace - even in these days of contention, soundbites, and personal attacks. Give us the courage and strength to put our faith into action. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Divine One, grant us your mercy.
We confess that we often struggle during the election season. Some of us have remained silent when we should have spoken up. Some of us have said things we wish we hadn’t. Some of us have lost friends. Some of us aren’t talking to members of our family. Some of us have lost trust in one another and in you. Forgive us, and bind us together as we move forward in your way…
Assurance of Forgiveness
People of Faith, hear this good news. In this space, we are forgiven. We are free to love and be loved. Amen.
Commitment to Action
(Could be used in place of a creed or affirmation of faith.)
We believe in the divine call to put our faith into action:
Advocating for the vulnerable
Protecting all of creation
Building the beloved community
We commit to God and to humanity to put our faith into action:
By our words and our deeds
Through our money and our labor
In the voting booth and the public square
We challenge ourselves and our neighbors to put our faith into action:
Regardless of election outcomes
Persisting through failures
Confronting injustice in our community and beyond
We will put our faith into action today and in the days to come. Amen.
Prayers of the People
Challenged and set free to do God’s work in the world, we pray for those in need. When I say “In our similarities and in our differences,” please respond with “together we pray.”
Ultimate One, we come to you with our requests for healing and wholeness, for liberation and for peace.
In our similarities and in our differences, together we pray.
Divine One, inspire us to work across the aisle for economic justice that all of creation might have shelter, food, security and safety,
In our similarities and in our differences, together we pray.
Infinite One, remind us of your commitment to the dignity and worth of all human beings, no matter our race, culture, ethnicity, age, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, socioeconomic position, or family status.
In our similarities and in our differences, together we pray.
Creating One, compel us to care for this beautiful and fragile earth we call home, and to protect our oceans, skies and lands from the trauma of this current climate emergency.
In our similarities and in our differences, together we pray.
Loving One, arouse us to love peace and justice as we work towards a life free of violence and hatred. Turn us to your way of love in the world.
In our similarities and in our differences, together we pray.
To you, Source of All, do we commend our prayers, trusting in the transformative power of your beloved community.
Invitation to the Offering
As people of faith and conscience, we find unity in the common threads of care and justice woven through our sacred texts, and we are called to action. One of the ways we can act is to support this community of faith as we heed the divine call to care for one another and for our earth. Your gifts to this community make it so. Let’s put our faith into action as we worship God with our offering.
Offering Prayer
Abundant One, we give thanks for the freedom to worship you, and we give thanks for the challenge to put our faith into action.
May our gifts today support your work in the world as we pray, act, and vote. Amen.
Blessing/Benediction
Source of all, we give thanks for the people of faith who join together in the work of justice in our state (world). This work is difficult, and so we need one another.
As we pray together
engage together
learn together
advocate together
mobilize together
and vote together
May we put our faith into action, trusting that as we do so, we become the beloved community, united in compassion for all of creation.
Amen.