A Service of Celebration & Thanksgiving
February 23, 1942-July 12, 2024
Union Church, Berea, KY Rev. Kent Gilbert, Pastor
August 11, 2024, 3:00 pm Dr. Bernardo Scarambone, Director of Music
Gathering Music
Ringing of the Peace Bell Leo Sivers Boyce
Welcome Rev. Kent Gilbert, Pastor
Opening Prayer Anthony Boyce
¨ Hymn #547 Amazing Grace Amazing Grace
1. Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
2. ’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!
3. Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
4. My God has promised good to me,
His Word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.
5. When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.
Readings
Scripture Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Poem The Peace of Wild Things, Wendell Berry Max Sivers Boyce
Poem The Summer Day, Mary Oliver Aidan Sivers Boyce
Poem I Meant to Do My Work today, Richard LeGallienne Kristin Boyce
Scripture Philippians 4:4-9
Song Bring Him Home Schonberg, Boubil, Kretzmer Dr. Stephen Bolster, vocalist
Reflection and Remembrance
Following reflections from family, who wish are invited to share a brief word, reflection or story.
” Hymn Morning Has Broken Bunessan
Affirmation of Faith Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
One: O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
All: There is the sea, great and wide; creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great. There go the ships and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it. These all look to you to give them their food in due season; when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
One: When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.
All: May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in the work of creation.
One: I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
All: I will sing praise to my God while I have being. May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord!
Prayers of Commendation and Release
¨ Closing Song Do You Hear the People Sing? Schonberg, Boubil, Kretzmer
Do you hear the people sing?
Lost in the valley of the night?
It is the music of a people
Who are climbing to the light
For the wretched of the earth
There is a flame that never dies
Even the darkest night will end
And the sun will rise.
They will live again in freedom
In the garden of the Lord
We will walk behind the ploughshare
We will put away the sword
The chain will be broken
And all men will have their reward.
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes!
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes!
¨ Benediction and Blessing
¨ Postlude
I Meant to Do My Work Today
I meant to do my work today—
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.
And the wind went sighing over the land,
Tossing the grasses to and fro,
And a rainbow held out its shining hand—
So what could I do but laugh and go?
~ Richard Le Gallienne
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
~ Wendell Berry
The Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention,
how to fall down into the grass,
how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed,
how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
~Mary Oliver
Leave a Reply