These opening words for worship were created to accompany the sermon series The Apostles’ Creed: Ancient Words, Fresh Faith. You are welcome to use or adapt these liturgies for worship, with credit. When printing these liturgies, please use the following credit line: “Prayer by Rev. Carol Holbrook Prickett.”
Week 1: “God”
Creator God, we believe in you because you are all around us:
We hear your joy in the laughter of friends and neighbors.
We find your creativity in the wild creatures we share our world with.
We sense your power in gusts of winds shaking the trees.
We feel your tenderness in the softness of clover against our feet.
We taste your goodness in the rich burst of summer fruit.
We see your beauty in skies painted in streaks of gold and blue.
Creator God, we believe because we know
that all we see and hear and touch and taste is made by you,
our Almighty Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Amen.
Week 2: “Jesus Christ”
We come to worship Christ:
carpenter’s son, King of Kings,
lamb and shepherd, light and shelter.
We come to worship Christ:
host and meal, teacher and lesson,
alpha and omega, rabbi and Lord.
We come to worship Christ:
teacher, savior, redeemer and friend,
fully human, fully God.
Week 3: “The Holy Ghost”
In the beginning, when God created
the heavens and the earth,
the earth was a formless void
and darkness covered the face of the deep,
while a wind from God
swept over the face of the waters.
When the day of Pentecost had come,
the disciples were all together in one place.
And suddenly from heaven there came a sound
like the rush of a violent wind,
and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
Come, Holy Spirit! Come, fill us now!
Week 4: “The Holy Catholic Church”
We are called together to be the church:
people of the Book, the water, the bread and wine
people of grace and mercy, of wisdom and justice
people who sin and strive, forgive and wrestle with faith.
We are called together to be the church:
to offer our imperfect praises to our perfect God.
Week 5: “The Communion of Saints”
We come to worship with the saints,
surrounded by a cloud of witnesses:
holy ancestors who have paved the way
holy neighbors who run alongside us
holy hopes for all that might yet be.
We come to worship out of joy
that in God no one is ever lost or forgotten.
We come to join the communion of the saints!
Week 6: “The Forgiveness of Sins”
*adapted from the lyrics of the 1880 hymn “Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling”
Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling:
calling for you and for me.
We come for the wonderful love He has promised:
promised for you and for me.
Though we have sinned, God has mercy and pardon:
pardon for you and for me.
So come home, come home:
You who are weary, come home!
Week 7: “The Resurrection of the Body, and the Life Everlasting”
*quotes John 11:25-26 and Romans 14:8
Jesus said, ‘“I am the resurrection and the life.
Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
So if we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord.
So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
Blessed be the name of the Lord!
Deep Well Worship 