Unity of Praise

Liturgical Resources

Call to Worship

Family of God, we gather today to unite our voices and our lives in praise to God!
How good and pleasant it iswhen we live together in unity!

We gather to celebrate how God binds us together to live, work, play, and rest as the Body of Christ!
How good and pleasant it iswhen we live together in unity!

We gather to remember how God has worked through us to share Christ’s love with one another and our neighbors through our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness.
How good and pleasant it iswhen we live together in unity!

Family of God, today we come as diverse and unique members of the Body of Christ to learn and grow not in uniformity but in unity to love God, self, neighbor, and all creation.
How good and pleasant it iswhen we live together in unity! Thanks be to God! Amen.

Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, May 2026.

Opening Prayer

Maker of Our Days, 
you created each of us unique beings with differing strengths and weaknesses.  
Help us not only to use our strengths to assist others but also to allow others to use their strengths to meet our weaknesses. 

Restorer of Our Souls, 
you have seen the parched places we have made in our lives, 
along with the devastation thrust upon us by the action or inaction of others. 
Meet us in the places of our deepest pain so that our facades of self-sufficiency might fall away, and we might be drawn into right relationship with you and one another. 
 

Breath of Our Lives, without you, we are but a mound of clay.  
Fill us with your presence, invigorate our worship, 
set us on fire so that others might be drawn into your light and nurtured by the warmth of your loving care.

Amen.

Written by Rev. Dr. Bob Gross and posted on the Worship Ways website of the United Church of Christ at https://www.ucc.org/worship-way/pentecost-11-august-16-united-church-of-christ/.

Prayer of Confession

O God, we yearn to be a community of believers,
united in your Spirit.
And yet we are fraught with divisions:
denominational, political, theological.
We are weighed down by tensions and the things that break us apart.
Forgive us, great God, for this great sin.
Help us to learn to live in community together,
loving one another, in spite of our differences,
and respecting one another in everything that we do and say.
Help us to be as you call us, one in heart and mind.
Only through the grace of your son, Jesus Christ,
can we achieve this. Amen.

Posted on Waiting for Water: Liturgy for The Easter Journey 2013 http://storage.cloversites.com/waitingforwater/documents/Liturgical%20resources%202013%2010%2018%2012.pdf. Re-posted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2014/01/prayer-of-confession-united-in-your.html.

Benediction

Family of God, how good and pleasant it is when we live, when we praise, when we weep, and when we find peace in unity together. May God bless you with the wisdom and grace to recognize and cooperate with the Spirit who binds us together in love, that we may grow in unity of praise now and forever. Amen.

Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, May 2026.