This Sunday, September 12, the Advocate will host a Liturgy of Lament, Longing and Hope, with Eucharist. This liturgy, created for the congregations of the Diocese of North Carolina, will help us to recognize where we are on the landscape of life and faith at this point in the long season of Covidtide. In a way, it is an update on the Liturgy of Longing that we engaged in at the Advocate last Advent.
In the words of the Diocesan website, “The Liturgy of Lament, Longing and Hope…helps us to experience the ways God’s love is holding us, Jesus is walking with us, and the Holy Spirit is moving among us, even as our long journey continues with its twists and turns.”
What to expect: A series of three reflections will replace the sermon.
Pondside: Each person will receive a liturgy guide, a few small rocks, a pen, a life experience map and a candle.
Zoom: Folks gathered on Zoom are invited to gather a candle, a rock and a pen, and to print the Liturgy Guide (includes life experience map and rock images).
With each of these symbols, we will be invited to name, in the silence of our hearts or aloud, our laments, our longings and our hopes in this time of pandemic, civil divisiveness, racial strife and future unknowing.
Please plan to join in this liturgy at 10:30 AM on Sunday, either on Zoom or pondside. It will be good for us to pray, sing and be together at this time. The Zoom link will be posted Saturday. I will also host a Zoom conversation at 5pm for those wishing to share their laments, longings and hopes in conversation with others.