the journal of multiculturalism in education

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Calls to Worship

Call to worship 1

Leader: With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God

on high?

People: Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

Leader: Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten

thousands of rivers of oil?

People: Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body

for the sin of my soul?

Leader: He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD

require of you?

All: To do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.

Written by Jean Keith, hospice chaplain, Portland, OR

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Call to worship 2

Leader: Praise the Lord! Praise God in the sanctuary.

People: Praise God with heart and voice.

Leader: Praise God with bodies that are able and differently able.

People: Praise God with minds and bodies.

Leader: Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!

People: Praise the Lord!

All: Praise the Lord!

Written by Thomas Binford, Portland United Methodist Church, Portland, TN

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Call to worship 3

On this day we stand to open our hearts and minds to the unique gifts that

people with mental retardation, mental illness or other disabilities and their

families bring to our congregation. To the church of Galatia, Paul paid this

rare tribute, "Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me

with contempt or scorn. Instead you welcomed me as if I were an angel of

God, as if I were Christ Jesus Himself." (Galatians 4:14) It is Christ's

expectation that we embrace everyone within our church regardless of

intellectual, emotional or spiritual abilities. We ask God's guidance as we

welcome those with disabilities or mental illness and their loved ones into

the life of our congregation with a compassionate and sustained response.

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Call to worship 4

Let's worship God who loves us all-

whether we're old or young,

educated or uneducated,

agile or handicapped,

dark skinned or light skinned,

rich or poor,

conservative or liberal.

Let's worship God who wants us to love our neighbor -

the one who is weak and the one who is strong,

the one we understand and the one we don't,

the one who's like us and the one who's different.

Written by Judy Harms Potter and Dean Bartell

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Litanies

Litany 1

Leader: O come before the Lord with thanksgiving and praise, rejoicing in

God always, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

People: We come, gladly and with deepest humility, ready to receive

blessing and to be made a blessing to all those with whom we have contact

or relationship.

Leader: Prepare your hearts for what the Lord has for you, forgiving grace,

the cleaning out of the old making way for the new, and in being filled up to

overflowing with God's Holy Spirit for the days ahead.

People: We are ready, and we pray that the Lord will keep us open and

eager at all times to receive what we need and to be used to fulfill God's all-

wise purposes for our lives.

Leader: Pause now to receive God's blessing and, having received it, to wait

for further instructions in performing that Holy will.

People: We are waiting before the Lord and will continue to wait until we

receive and are filled!

Leader: The Lord bless you and continue to fill you to overflowing. Amen.

Written by Chalmer Faw, former Bethany Seminary Professor

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Litany 2 (Psalm 130)

One: O Lord, you have searched me and known me; you discern my

thoughts from far away. You search out my path and are acquainted with all

my ways.

All: Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your

presence. Your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me fast.

One: For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in

my mother's womb. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being

made in secret. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.

All: I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your

works.

One: How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of

them. I come to the end - I am still with you.

All: Search me, O God, and know my heart; lead me in the way everlasting.

Amen.


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Litany 3

Leader: We pray for all of God's creation and people everywhere.

People: No one is excluded from the love of God.

Leader: We pray for those whom we have shut out of the church and

distanced from the love of God.

People: Give us courage to open our lives to all people.

Leader: We are thankful for people with abilities and disabilities; limitations

and possibilities.

People: Let our arms be as open as the heart of God.

All: Thanks be to God. Amen

Written by Thomas Binford, pastor, Portland United Methodist Church,

Portland, TN

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Hymns

From Hymnal: A Worship Book

Healer of Our Every Ill # 377

I Bind My Heart This Tide # 411

I Will Raise You Up # 596

In the Bulb There is a Flower # 614

Move in Our Midst # 418

‘Tis Not With Eyes of Flesh We See # 571

We Walk By Faith # 570

Will You Let Me Be Your Servant # 307

Help Us Accept Each Other, in the tune of The Church's One Foundation

Help us accept each other as Christ accepted us;

teach us, as sister, brother, each person to embrace.

Be present, Lord, among us and bring us to believe we are ourselves

accepted and meant to love and live.

Teach us, O Lord, your lessons, as in our daily life.

We struggle to be human and search for hope and faith.

Teach us to care for people, for all, not just for some,

to love them as we find them or as they may become.

Let your acceptance change us, so that we may be moved

in living situations to do the truth in love,

to practice your acceptance until we know by heart

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the table of forgiveness and laughter's healing art.

Lord, for today's encounters with all who are in need, who hunger for

acceptance, for righteousness and bread. We need new eyes for seeing, new

hands for holding on: renew us with your Spirit; Lord, free us;

make us one!

Fred Kaan, Hope Publishing Co., Reprinted under License #8805

When Welcoming In Jesus' Name, in the tune of My Hope Is Built

Through Jesus Christ our Risen Lord

the Spirit came and was outpoured,

creating out of many one:

one fellowship on earth begun.

When welcoming in Jesus' name,

we share the love of God we claim.

What God began at Pentecost

is often marred and even lost,

when yearning hearts are kept at bay

by barriers left in the way.



O Spirit of the Lord descend,

bring all exclusion to an end,

melt hearts of stone, raze every wall,

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unite the lives you gift and call.



Where hearts and doors are open wide,

where all who come are not denied,

where every soul can enter in

full fellowship will there begin.



Author Unknown

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Prayers

Invocation Prayer 1

Gracious God who lives and loves through each one, meet us here today as

we worship. Teach us in our time together to accept one another as you

have accepted each one already. Let your church be the vessel of healing

and wholeness, compassion and encouragement, strength and comfort.

Have mercy on your church that we might with one voice give glory and

praise to you. Amen.

Written by Nancy Sollenberger Heishman, Church of the Brethren General

Board

Invocation Prayer 2

Our gracious God, we come together as a diverse people with differing

limitations and abilities. We want to appear strong and yet weakness is our

constant companion. No matter what the outsides of ourselves say, no

matter how we are perceived by others as disabled or "normal" we are all

the same in our need of You. Looking upon our hearts you see us only as

Your children. For this we are truly thankful. Accept now our worship as an

offering of praise. In the name of our Savior we pray. Amen.

Written by Cady Laycook, South Bay Community, Redondo Beach, Calif.

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Prayer 3

God, help us to respect people with mental retardation, mental illness or

other disabilities and their families rather than to ignore or pity them. In

difficult conditions, be with us all. In darkness, grant us wisdom that we may

know your will. In times of intense emotion, grant us calm that we may

know your peace. In the light, grant us awareness that all may know your

love. Unite us all, one body in your love. Amen.

Written by Merle Landes, cofounder of the Della Landes Foundation

Prayer of Confession

Leader: Oh God, we know you tell us to bring in the poor, the crippled, the

blind, and the lame so that we may share your goodness but out of fear we

cling to the old ways and deny any with blemish their place at your table.

People: Forgive us, merciful Creator, for following human wisdom when we

should be following yours.

Leader: Oh God, we know that those we consider to be weaker are

indispensable to you and yet we treat them profanely, forbidding them

access to your sanctuary.

People: Forgive us, merciful Creator, for failing to care for one another.

Leader: Oh God, we know there are varieties of gifts, and it is you who

activates all of them in everyone, but we say, "You do not belong to the

body; I have no need for you" to those members of the body that we think

less honorable.

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People: Forgive us, merciful Creator, for our failure to remember that all the

members of the body, though many, are one body with Christ.

People: Oh God, we know you chose what is foolish in the world to shame

the wise and what is weak in the world to shame the strong and yet we

began to make excuses for the dissension that exists within the body and

why we desire the greater honor.

All: Forgive us, merciful Creator, for boasting of our own wisdom and our

own discernment rather than recognizing the source of all life: Christ Jesus,

who became for us wisdom from you. Help us to live in the one Spirit

remembering we are all baptized into one body - broken or whole - and are

all made to drink of the one Spirit that comes from you and you alone.

Amen.


Offertory Prayer 1

Lord, we lift to you this offering, a small token of our great love for you, our

God, and our response to the need of our fellow human beings. Be pleased

to receive it and bless its reach and effectiveness as only you can do with

your great bountiful grace. Through Jesus Christ, the Lord of heaven and

earth. Amen.


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Offertory Prayer 2

Loving and generous God, you have given us so much. Open our hearts so

that we may receive the gifts offered by those seen as foolish in the world.

Accept our offerings today as tokens of our lives dedicated to serving and

honoring the whole body of Christ with all its members. Help us to always be

receptive to your invitation to partake of your bounty. Help us to assure that

none are likewise, denied the same invitation through acts of cruelty,

indifference or apathy. Receive our meager gifts; receive our broken lives,

receive our humbled hearts given in the name of Christ. Amen.


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Scriptures and Meditations

"So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created

them, male and female he created them." - Genesis 1:27

We are all made in God's image.

"For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my

mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden

from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths

of the earth." - Psalm 139:13-15

We are all wonderfully made.

"... For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." - Isaiah

56:7

Worship is for all, disabled as well as nondisabled.

"A voice cries out: 'In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make

straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up,

and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become

level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be

revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has

spoken.'" - Isaiah 40:3-5

To make straight the paths is a call to remove the barriers that prevent us

for worshiping together.

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"Just then some men came, carrying a paralyzed man on a bed. They were

trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus; but finding no way to bring

him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down

with his bed through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus."

- Luke 5:18-19

This passage gives an image of all people as friends requiring intention and

creativity to find solutions.

Compiled by Ginny Thornburgh, National Organization on Disability

I Corinthians 12:12-27 - Theme of One Body with Many Members

"Then the king will say to those at this right hand, 'Come, you that are

blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the

foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was

thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you

welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you

took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.'" - Matthew 25:34-37

In this scripture, Jesus teaches the importance of caregivers. He told of a

king who said to those who had fed, given water to, welcomed, clothed and

cared for others, "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of

these who are members of my family, you did it to me." Any care that we

give one member of the family of God surely must honor God and the whole

family of God. The caregivers of the world give from the spirit of God within

them. And we are all caregivers. Sometimes that care includes feeding and

clothing children or adults who cannot care for themselves. Other times we

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give an encouraging word or hug. We are caregivers as we let the love of

God within us be expressed by us as caring words and actions.

Compiled by Merle Landes, cofounder of the Della Landes Foundation

"They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying 'Peace,

peace,' when there is no peace." - Jeremiah 6:14

This passage speaks of our apathy and desire to think we have fixed "the

problem" of welcoming those with disabilities into our midst, or that we don't

have to think about accessibility because we have no disabled people in our

churches. Walter Brueggemann suggests that God's healing begins with

truth telling.

The African American spiritual beings "There is a balm in Gilead to make the

wounded whole," but the scripture from Jeremiah comes not as an

affirmation, but as a question: "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no

physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been

restored?"- Jeremiah 8:22. Implied is the answer, no. This can be a

reminder that answers are not easy when we look for healing and try to

describe what healing means.

"We tried to heal Babylon, but she could not be healed." – Jeremiah 51:9

This scripture reference is in the context of exile, and though the theology

can be frightening, those of us who have lived life in the face of disabilities

know only too well that some things cannot be healed on this earth.

"Rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings

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healing." - Proverbs 12:18

This proverb connects the idea of accessibility as an attitude.

Compiled by Marilyn Lerch, pastor of Good Shepherd Church of the Brethren,

Blacksburg, Va.

"O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your

wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake

me, until I proclaim your might to all the generations to come. Your power

and your righteousness, O God, reach the high heavens." Psalm 71:17-18

"He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths

will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who

wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings

like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." -

Isaiah 40:29-31

"He reached down from on high, he took me; he drew me out of mighty

waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy and from those who hated

me; for they were too mighty for me. He confronted me in the day of my

calamity; but the Lord was my support." - Psalm 18:16-19

Selected by Chalmer Faw, former Bethany Seminary professor

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Closing Statements and Benedictions

Closing Statements of Affirmation and Commitment

I will labor so that all persons may be enabled to gather before God in

worship.

I will try to see all persons as sons and daughters of God.

I will seek to let God's love living in me cast out my fear of others who are

different from me.

I will look for what I have in common with others who are disabled.

I will labor whenever possible so that all persons with disabilities have the

freedom to enjoy life's opportunities as I do.

I will seek out the gifts, abilities and strengths of each person with a

disability.

I will give thanks for God's faithfulness in the midst of our common

humanity, trusting in the Lord all the days of my life.

Nancy Sollenberger Heishman, Church of the Brethren General Board

Affirmation

"For my house shall be a house of prayer for all people." (Isaiah 56:5) As

God's creations, we are fashioned uniquely, each endowed with individuality

of body, mind and spirit to worship freely the One who has given us life.

Each of us has abilities; each seeks fulfillment and wholeness. Each of us has

disabilities; each knows isolation and incompleteness. Seeking shelter from

the vulnerability we all share, claiming our promised place in God's

household of faith, we are transformed by invitation, affirmation and love. In

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grateful response, we worship and serve God, the source of hope and joy;

celebrate and serve one another, rejoicing in our diversity; transform and

serve the world, until we become a community which reflects God's Oneness

and peace. Let the house of God be open to all who would enter and

worship.


Benediction 1

Go forth with a willingness and comfort to serve our brothers and sisters

with disabilities and be served by them. Go forth with a firm commitment to

build a faith community where all are welcomed and included. Amen.


Benediction 2

Now may the blessings of God - Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, be upon

you to keep you growing and fulfilling the calling which has been set upon

you. In His precious name. Amen.


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Benediction 3

Go now, knowing that you are loved;

Go now, knowing that you are a child of God;

Go now, knowing that God is with you always;

Go now, knowing you are known by God.


Benediction 4

May the Lord send us forth from this place into the world with love and

power to be witnesses by example and word to the open heart and open arms of the Christ who lives within and among us. AMEN.

Written by Cady Laycook, South Bay Community, Redondo Beach, CA

the journal of multiculturalism in education

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