Housewarming Eucharist

On Friday we had a housewarming, and quite near the start was a house blessing eucharist. Here are some of the liturgical highligts.

At the start we had 3 candles lit with some opening words, the idea from an Iona liturgy but adapted to a house warming context [see below]. These three lights are part of an array of seven candles which surround the bread and wine, four of which are not lit at the start. The three that are lit are extinguished at the confession [one for each of the responses to the confession -the Kyries for those who are used to such things] and then all seven are lit, one each in turn for each of the seven sections of the Eucharistic prayer. At the end of the service the candles are prayed over and taken to and left in different parts of the house as signs of prayer for the house in all its rooms.

In this service we used the track "Image of the Invisible" from Late Late Service's God in the Flesh CD. The track includes some words from the prologue of John's gospel and is an extended meditation on the incarnation, it seemed apprpropriate that we should use it in Advent for a house move ...
The prayers were done by handing out notelet sized pieces of paper and pencils and pens and asking people to write blessings while the Taize track 'O Lord hear my prayer' played in the background. For the Kyries we used the Russian Orthodox Kyrie from "A Musical Offering" and voiced-over the intro and sentences.
After communion we played Dido's "Life for Rent" which echoes themes of impermanence which work with how our life is just now and also echoes the idea that we need to learn to invest in treasure that lasts to eternal life ...
'if my life is for rent and I don't learn to buy
Well I deserve nothing more than I get
Cos nothing I have is truly mine'
Well, I find it quite spiritual, anyway ...

Words.

1st Voice: A light in the name of the Maker,
Who made a home for all creation.
2nd Voice: A light in the name of the Son,
Who brings all things home to God.
3rd Voice: A light in the name of the Spirit,
Who makes us at home in God and God at home in us.
three lights for the trinity of love:
God beyond us,
God with us,
God upholding us:
the beginning, the end, the everlasting one.

Gospel

Prayers

Forgiveness, using Kyries. Douse one of the three candles with each section.
O soul be joyful; the saving God stretches out loving hands to you to announce a loving reconciliation. Washed and made whole, let us open our hearts to God.

We are the body of Christ
God's Spirit is with us
Let's lift up our hearts:
We lift them to God.
Let us give thanks to our God
It is right to give thanks and praise

Blessed are you God: you took on human estrangement and had mercy on our rootlessness.
When we were still far off, you met us in Christ, and brought us home.

We bless you for Jesus who gave up the security of home to make known your homemaking. We praise you for Christ's redeeming death; for bearing bodily the inhospitality of human wrong.
dying and living, he declared your love, gave us grace and opened the gate of glory.
From the broken-ness of Christ's body blooms forth the New Creation where your home becomes our home and our creativity becomes your delight.
In Christ we know ourselves beloved of you, that all things will work for the good.

Blessed are you our refuge and our host; your joyful generosity provides this bread & wine;
earth-& rain- & sunlight-born, product of human care and delight.
We take them now and bless you, and in our sharing of them, renew Christ's eternal covenant.

Let your Spirit well up in us and in these gifts of your creation, as we eat and drink unite us in the body of Christ, remake us alive to You.
As bread and wine are made one with us, may we become one with you;
living our prayer and praying our life.

We proclaim Christ's death and celebrate the resurrection,
and so we find in this bread and this wine a foretaste of our messianic homecoming.
As we eat and drink these holy gifts make us one in Christ, our risen Lord.

Around this table we come with wandering Arameans, seekers of promised land and citizens of a more enduring city.
With them we offer our sacrifice of praise and join with the eternal song of heaven.
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come,
hosanna in the highest.

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus took bread & wine, gave thanks, broke the bread, & shared it saying; “This is my body, broken for you”
When we break the bread,
is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?
Afterwards, he shared the cup, saying: “This is my blood of the new covenant”
We do this in memory of him: We will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.
Father, Feed us with the Bread of Heaven;
May we become drunk with your holiness.

Communion

God of our lives, you are always calling us
to follow you into the future,
inviting us to new ventures, new challenges
new ways to bless those around us.
When we are fearful of the unknown,
give us courage.
When we worry we are not up to the task,
remind us that you would not call us
if you did not believe in us.
You call each of us for a special purpose
Each person says next line individually
No-one else can fulfill my purpose,
All: it is entrusted only to me.
Words of blessing ...