Sixth Sunday of EASTER 
Care of Creation Sunday
April 27, 2008
11:00 am


THE GATHERING

PRELUDE              Communion from Messe de la Pentecôte       Olivier
Messiaen

INTROIT        Wake Every Breath and Every String          William Billings

*HYMN                             Morning Has Broken         Bunessan
Olaf Boenisch, soprano saxophone

Morning has broken like the first morning,
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird.
Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning!
Praise for them springing, fresh from the Word!

Sweet the rain's new fall sunlit from heaven,
Like the first dewfall on the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness where God's feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight!  Mine is the morning
Born of the one light Eden saw play!
Praise with elation, praise every morning,
God's recreation of the new day!
-Eleanor Farjeon

*CALL TO WORSHIP                  Nancy S. Taylor
    One:    In the beginning. In the beginning did God stand alone.
        But then...
    Many:    From dirt and breath did God make...us.
    One:    And God was well pleased.
        And a garden, a planet of earthly delights
        Did God make our home.
    Many:    And we were delighted, delighted...benighted.
        For soon we forgot whose we were,
        And whose the garden.
        Soon we lost the way, and forgot how to turn back.
        And all too soon did we stand alone.
    One:    In the beginning. In the new beginning,
        Did God send Christ,
        To a people alone. And then.
    Many:    The Creation groaned as if in labor,
        And the future was born anew.
    One:    And God was well pleased.
        And we said...

*THE LORD'S PRAYER
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into
temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the
power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

*A SIGN OF OUR UNITY AND RECONCILIATION
Please greet those around you wishing them "peace" or "the peace of Christ."

WORDS OF WELCOME

ANTHEM                  Now Is the Cool of the Day       Jean Ritchie
arr. Peter and John Pickow

My Lord, He said unto me: Do you like my garden so fair?
You may live in this garden if you keep the grasses green,
And I'll return in the cool of the day.

Now is the cool of the day. Now is the cool of the day.
O the earth is a garden, the garden of my Lord;
And He walks in His garden in the cool of the day.

Then my Lord, He said unto me: Do you like my garden so pure?
You may live in this garden if you keep the waters clean,
And I'll return in the cool of the day.

Then my Lord, He said unto me: Do you like my pastures of green?
You may live in this garden if you will feed my lambs,
And I'll return in the cool of the day.
-Jean Ritchie

SCRIPTURE                     Ezekiel 34:17-23     Anne Reynolds
                                          Romans 8:19-29       Troy Ryba

*HYMN 568          God Marked a Line and Told the Sea       Kedron
(Children and teachers may leave for their Church School classes.)

SERMON                        Quinn G. Caldwell

*HYMN 563              We Cannot Own the Sunlit Sky   Endless Song

OFFERING OUR PRAYERS, OUR GIFTS AND OURSELVES

*CALL TO PRAYER                                   Robert W.
Brown
    One:           God be with you
    Many:        And also with you.
    One:        May the peace of Christ dwell in your hearts.
    Many:        Christ is our peace, our light, and our hope.
    One:        Let us pray. (please be seated)

PASTORAL PRAYER

PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Gracious God, you so love the world
    that you seek to reconcile it to your hoping heart.
Loving God, we so love you that we seek the same thing.
    Hear now our prayer:
If we have forgotten to bear ourselves as humble ones made of dust,
    or if we have forgotten to bear ourselves as glorious ones
    made of your breath,
    we ask your forgiveness.
If we have borne ourselves as lords of the Creation
    and not servants of the Creator,
    we ask your forgiveness.
If we have not cared for your Garden,
    or if we have cared for your Garden and not cared for your people,
    we ask your forgiveness.
If we have oppressed your people, if we have oppressed your planet,
    or if we have failed to see that the two are linked,
    we ask your forgiveness.
Holy God,
If our vision has been too short and we have given way to despair,
If we have forgotten that you are even now making all things new,
If we have not remembered
    that you have sent a Shepherd to lead us in right paths,
    we ask your forgiveness.

SILENT PRAYER

ASSURANCE OF PARDON       Now I Walk in Beauty          Gregg Smith
Now I walk in beauty,
Beauty is before me,
Beauty is beside me,
Above and below me.
-Navajo Prayer

CALL TO THE OFFERING

OFFERTORY ANTHEM     The Heavens are Telling from Creation       Haydn
Alecia Batson, Julius Ahn and Harry Baechtel, soloists

The heavens are telling the glory of God, the wonder of His work displays
the firmament;
The day that is coming speaks it the day, the night that is gone to
following night.
In all the lands resounds the word, never unperceived, ever understood.

*SONG OF PRAISE                        Lasst Uns Erfreuen
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Christ the Word in flesh born low; Alleluia! Alleluia!
Praise Holy Spirit evermore; One God, Triune, whom we adore.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen!

*PRAYER OF DEDICATION

*HYMN 558                 O How Glorious, Full of Wonder    In Babilone

*BENEDICTION                 Quinn G. Caldwell

POSTLUDE              Toccata on Christ ist erstanden      Karl Friedrich Albes
Ulrich Cyganek, organist

Today, immediately following worship, all who are interested in a tour of
the Sanctuary are invited to meet Docent Barbara Neale at the front of the
Sanctuary.


                    TODAY AT OLD SOUTH

Welcome to Old South Church in Boston. Our faith is over 2000 years old, but
our thinking is not! Old South opens its doors to the city, to tourists from
near and far, to the needy, to an array of building users, and to a
congregation (of members, friends, and family-both the curious and the
committed) who call this their church home. Join us for fellowship and
refreshments in Gordon Chapel immediately following worship.

Today's scripture readers, Anne Reynolds and her husband Troy Ryba, joined
Old South in October 2007.

The flowers today are given by Bettina Blake in celebration of Old South
Church, servant community of the all-loving God.

More than thirty volunteers are extending hospitality to visitors and
parishioners. In addition, over twenty volunteers sing in the choir, while
others teach in the Church School. If you're interested in volunteering for
hospitality tasks, please call Betty Smith at 781/721-7777; to sing with the
choir, call Harry Huff at 617/425-5146; to learn about the church school,
call Tricia Hazeltine at 617/536-1970.

Wearing name tags is a great way to facilitate community and make newcomers feel welcomed. If you don't see a tag with your name on it, let us
know-there will be one waiting for you next Sunday!

CD recordings of today's service may be obtained by calling Jessica
Goodknight at 617/536-1970 or emailing <reception@oldsouth.org>. Sunday
sermons and worship services are also available on the Web and as podcasts
at <www.oldsouth.org>.

Audio of the service is available in the Gordon Chapel for those
worshipping with restless children.

Large print bulletins and hearing assistance devices
are available at the Front Desk.


                    NOTES ON TODAY'S MUSIC
April 22nd is the annual global observance of Earth Day, which was
originated by Gaylord Nelson as an environmental "teach-in" in 1970 to
inspire awareness of and appreciation for the Earth's ecology. Today at Old
South we give thanks for God's glorious creation, as we renew our pledge to
be good stewards of the bounty of natural resources with which we have been
so richly blessed.

The Old South Choir opens the service with the introit, Wake Every Breath
and Every String! an exultant 6-part round by William Billings (1746-1800),
the colonial tunesmith who has been dubbed "Father of American music." He
was a friend of Samuel Adams and Paul Revere and served Old South Church, as
well as Brattle Street Church and King's Chapel as a teacher of hymns and
anthems. We continue our praise of the Architect of the universe by singing
The Heavens Are Telling from The Creation by the Austrian composer Franz
Josef Haydn (1732-1809), whose lifespan was more or less concurrent with
that of Billings'.

Jean Ritchie is an American folk singer and Appalachian dulcimer player. She
has become widely regarded as the "Mother of Folk." Born in Viper, Kentucky
in the Cumberland Mountains in 1922, she grew up singing hymns in the Old
Regular Baptist church she attended, "lining them out" in a lingering,
soulful way. She was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to trace the links
between Appalachian ballads and the songs of the British Isles.  Her own
compositions include many songs lamenting our abuse of the environment,
especially as a result of the effects of strip mining in Kentucky. Now Is
the Cool of the Day is a poignant call for ecological respect. It is based
on Genesis 3:8 and is sung today in an arrangement by her two sons, Peter
and Jon Pickow. Reverence for the earth is similarly the supplication in the
Native American prayer, "Now I Walk in Beauty."

The prelude is an evocative tone poem by the late Parisian composer Olivier
Messiaen (1908-1992). Messiaen was a mystic who believed that
everything-animate and inanimate, seen and unseen-has the ability to praise
God. Birdsong, splashing water, a single ray of light penetrating a
stained-glass window: all glorify the Creator. This movement from his
Pentecost Mass is a dialogue between various birds (nightingale,woodpecker,
cuckoo and blackbird) and droplets of water. Toward the conclusion of this
dialogue, the sun appears, shimmering in the sky and the raindrops slowly
evaporate, praising God as they ascend to the heavens.

We are pleased to welcome to our service this morning Ulrich Cyganek, who is Director for Church Music of the Regional Protestant Church of the Rhineland in Dûsseldorf, Germany.  He has been visiting the United States to gain knowledge of American choirs and church music programs. He will be organist today for the postlude, playing a toccata on the chorale Christ Is Arisen by German composer Karl Friedrich Albes (b. 1930).

---

OLD SOUTH CHURCH IN BOSTON
MINISTERS, OFFICERS AND STAFF

Nancy S. Taylor, Senior Minister ~ Quinn G. Caldwell, Associate Minister
Harry L. Huff, Minister of Music ~
James W. Crawford, Senior Minister Emeritus
Calvin Genzel, Wedding Outreach Minister ~
Janet Butler, Wedding Coordinator
Ken Orth, Healing Prayer Service Minister
Robert W. Brown, Ministerial Intern ~
Abigail G. Henderson, Field Education Intern
Mark S. Burrows, Theologian in Residence
Patricia Hazeltine, Church School Director ~ Rolanda Ward, Youth Worker
Carolyn Davis, Director, Old South Preschool
George Sargeant, Assistant Organist & Choir Director
 Willie Sordillo, Jazz Service Music Director
Peter Coulombe, Director, Old South Ringers
Amy Budka & Phil Stern, Children’s Music Directors

Wayne Davis, Moderator v Pamela Holland, Clerk ~
James Monsma, Treasurer
Phil Stern, Chair, Board of Trustees ~ Susan T. Campbell, Historian
Diane Gaucher, Senior Deacon  ~ Vicki A. Newman, Pledge Secretary
Helen McCrady, Senior Church Administrator
Amy Perry, Administrative Assistant v Rosemary Clarke, Accountant 
Elias Perez, Senior Sexton v Ozo Nwodo & Robert Blenman, Sextons
Jessica Goodknight, Rubia Reyes & Jim McDonnel, Receptionists

www.oldsouth.org v 617/536-1970


A NOTE ON THE INCLUSIVE DIMENSIONS OF GOD’S GRACE

Old South Church in Boston, in the name of its host, Jesus Christ, and in the spirit of Christ’s invitation carved into the stone of this church’s portico, “Behold I Set Before You an Open Door,” welcomes all who seek to know God.

Following the One who we believe is Sovereign and Savior, we affirm that each individual is a child of God, and recognize that we are called to be like one body with many members, seeking with others of every race, ethnicity, creed, class, age, gender, marital status, physical or mental ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression to journey together toward the promised realm of God.

We invite everyone to join in the common life and mission of our reconciling community through participation and leadership in this congregation, and by fully sharing in the worship, rites and sacraments of this church.
As we all move forward with the work of this church, we commit ourselves to making justice and inclusivity a reality in this congregation and in the world.  On the threshold of Christ’s open door, we rely upon the healing, unconditional nature of God’s love and grace to be our help and guide.

Old South Church
645 Boylston St. Boston, MA 02116
(617)536-1970 Tel (617)536-8061 Fax