We bid you welcome on this first Sunday of the new year. Like Janus we gather with part of us looking backward and part of us looking forward. We gather on the edge of the new year saddened by our losses, cherishing our joys, aware of our failures, mindful of days gone by....

Our eyes and minds turn now toward the ordinary. Leaving this space made sacred by our presence, take with you at least some seed of understanding, hope and courage and drop it into the confusion of the world....

Let us go forth into the world through a door of hope for the future, remembering these words by Martin Luther: "Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." So may it be with us.

In the river, the water continually flows on, yet the river is ever there. "Our lives flow on in endless song," yet life and joy shall never end. Quotation from the traditional Quaker song, "My Life Flows on in Endless Song," #108 in Singing the Living Tradition.

And now may we go forth in the certainty of faith, in the knowledge of love, and in the vision of hope. And in our going, may we be blessed with all good things on this day and forevermore. Amen.

Keeping faith, our faithfulness keeps us. Go in faith.

Out of wood and stone, out of dream and sacrifice, the people build a home. Out of the work of their hands and hearts and minds, the people fashion a symbol and a reality. May this house be truly a place of meeting: meeting in warmth and joy and openness; meeting in courage and love and trust....

Spirit of life, we come together this Easter morning to rejoice in your ongoing creation around us and within us. We come to rejoice, but we come with burdens of sorrow and pain, of shame and fear, of false obligation and false pride. On this Easter morning may we discover a joyous and courageous...

O Source of life and love, Torn by desires to sit back and to enjoy the beauty of the world— to savor the blue skies and gentle days— and by desires to recast the world and to fight its evils— to save the world... Torn by all those things that hurt and confuse and make no sense amid beauty—...

With faith to face our challenges, With love that casts out fear, With hope to trust tomorrow, We accept this day as the gift it is— A reason for rejoicing.

May our faith sustain us, our hope inspire us, and our love surround us as we go our separate ways, knowing that we will gather again in this beloved community. Amen.

Shall we pray? Too often, God, we have ignored you. We have lived as though you didn't matter. We have denied the new life that you would have us embrace; we have perpetuated that which depletes life. Forgive us for hesitating when we knew action was the needed response. Forgive us also for...

Thou who knows the secrets hidden within all hearts; thou who knows all sorrow and all joy, who knows all hope springing from sources unknown, who knows all loneliness, all desolation, all sadness; thou who knows all this, and understands, and with everlasting love seeks to lead us in each moment...