ORDER OF WORSHIP -OCTOBER 25TH, 2026
ORDER OF WORSHIP
OCTOBER 25TH, 2026 10:30 AM
TWENTY FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
**Kindly stand if you are able
**PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR PHONE before Worship
PRELUDE “Be Still My Soul” - Jean Sibelius
John Coates, Organ
WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
CALL TO WORSHIP (Adapted from Psalm 90)
LEADER: Turn, O LORD! How long?
PEOPLE: Have compassion on your servants!
LEADER: Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
PEOPLE: Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us and as many
years as we have seen evil.
LEADER: Let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.
PEOPLE: Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands — O prosper the work of our hands!
INVOCATION
Almighty, eternal and merciful God, whose Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light
unto my path, open and illuminate our minds, that we may purely and perfectly understand thy Word and that our lives may be conformed to what we have rightly
understood, that in nothing we may be displeasing unto thy majesty, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
-Huldrych Zwingli
**OPENING HYMN “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty” Red #2
CALL TO CONFESSION
Our Protestant faith holds that confession is central to our worship and that all those who confess with sincere hearts will be forgiven. Join as we confess with a prayer of Martin Luther.
PRAYER FOR UNDERSTANDING
Behold, Lord, an empty vessel that needs to be filled. My Lord, fill it. I am weak in the faith; strengthen me. I am cold in love; warm me and make me fervent, that my love may go out to my neighbor. I do not have a strong and firm faith; at times I doubt and am unable to trust you altogether. O Lord, help me. Strengthen my faith and trust in you. In you I have sealed the treasure of all I have. I am poor; you are rich and came to be merciful to the poor. I am a sinner; you are upright. With me, there is an abundance of sin; in you is the fullness of righteousness. Therefore I will remain with you.
(A moment for silent personal confession)
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
John Calvin tells us, Not only does the Lord through forgiveness of sins receive and adopt us once for all into the church, but through the same means he preserves and protects us there. For what would be the point of providing a pardon for us that was destined to be of no use? Be confident that we are all assured of forgiveness.
**GLORIA PATRI “Glory Be to the Father” Red# 805
**HYMN OF PRAISE “Lord, I Want to Be a Christian” Red #563
*PASSING OF THE PEACE
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH (from the Heidelberg Catechism)
I am not my own, but belong— body and soul, in life and in death— to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
John Knox wrote, “The Scriptures of God are my only foundation and substance in all matters of weight and importance.” Let us hear the Word of God and learn.
SCRIPTURE READINGS
NEW TESTAMENT 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 Brittany Hannon
GOSPEL Matthew 22:34-46
SERMON MESSAGE “Who Are We?” James Phillips
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
And Lord we pray for those in our own hearts whose names you already know, for their own healing and comfort, in your name and that of our redeemer Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray, saying:
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.
OUR TITHES AND OFFERINGS
Let us return to God the offerings of our life and the gifts of the earth. May our gifts be a blessing to those who receive them. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
OFFERTORY “Greet Now the Swiftly Changing Year” Red #372
DOXOLOGY Avery & Marsh (Back of the Red hymnal)
PRAYER OF THANKS
We thank you, our Lord for those gifts to us that we send to you for your work and ours in congregation, community, and culture. Guide us in good use as we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
HYMN OF PARTING “May the Grace of Christ Our Savior” Red #841
BENEDICTION
To be Presbyterian is to embrace education, learning, critical thinking, research, the arts, and human quests for the beauty of holiness.
-Rev. Robert Cathey
POSTLUDE “Praise Our God” - John W. Peterson
James Phillips
Union Church
44 Balmville Rd, Newburgh NY 12550
(845) 562-0954
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