9/6/26 Bulletin

3 hours ago
11 min read

UNION CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF HANCOCK

We respect tradition — and we welcome inclusive language about people and expansive language about God. Please pray using words most meaningful to you.

Open and Affirming of ALL God’s Children

September 6, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. – Communion Sunday – Labor Day Weekend

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The first pew in front of the pulpit has books and quiet activities for people of all ages.

Please find something that suits you, take it to your pew, and return it after the service.

Silent Prayer

You have taught us, O Christ, to love the world. You have shown us the light that is within us and within all things. May we learn to love you more and in loving you more

learn to love the earth and all its people more, for you are the light of all life.

* Indicates when we stand in body or spirit.

Announcements Deacon

Prelude Flight Rachel Portman

The Four Pieces in today’s service are from her Music book, “Ask the River.” They were written in 2019, the fruit of many years being immersed in nature and are a personal reflection of the beauty of the earth around us.

Welcome Rev. TJ Mack

* Introit Spirit of the Living God R. #281

Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me, / Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me. / Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.

* Call to Worship

One: On Labor Day we honor our work, physical and mental, paid and unpaid, joyous and heartbreaking.

All: We give thanks for the gift of work, suffer its difficulties, and strive to make labor just and joyous for all.

One: Our work can build our society, provide for our material needs, and give our life meaning.

All: We labor in gratitude.

One: Our work can damage our society and the planet, fail to sustain our material needs, and be meaningless.

All: We join together to create work that supports the well-being of all.

One: Our work can heal the world, help us understand who we are, and keep us safe. All: We labor in joy.

One: Our work can harm the world, demean us, and expose us to danger.

All: We join together to create work that is safe and humane.

One: Our work can fill our days with accomplishments and our lives with stories.

All: We labor in love.

One: Our work can dissatisfy and alienate us; we may not be able to find enough work or any work.

All: We join together to create work that blesses us, all people, and the planet.

One: This Labor Day and all Labor Days to come,

All: May our work, and all work, serve humanity and all living beings.

Passing the Peace & Lighting Peace & Justice Candle – Labor Day Litany

Pastor TJ: Today we celebrate workers and their contributions. Just as people in our sacred texts had varying jobs, we recognize the various gifts of workers today.

Liturgist: We celebrate those past or present in helping professions: medical professionals, teachers, social workers, and legal assistants.

All: We give thanks for the work of your hands. May God bless you so that through you others may thrive. Forgive the places that have been neglected due to injustice. Give us strength and courage to work toward fair access to services for all God’s children and just treatment of those who give so freely of themselves.

Pastor TJ: We celebrate those who work or have worked in factories and building professions.

All: We give thanks for the work of your hands. May God bless you and your work that allows us to have safe shelter and vehicles, even as some of your working conditions are unsafe. We support your struggle for just wages and working conditions so that you too may be safe.

Liturgist: We celebrate those who have ever worked from home: caring for children, elderly, and the infirm.

All: We give thanks for the work of your hands. May God bless your work and give you strength to carry on when the work is challenging. Our culture may not fully recognize your jobs as work, but we know that your work is often challenging. We will work with you for the respect you deserve.

Pastor TJ: We celebrate those who currently work or previously worked in cleaning professions.

All: We give thanks for the work of your hands. May God bless you and the work you do. Through your work our hotels, offices, and streets are cleaned and prepared for our use, and yet we often do not see you and the strenuous effort required of you. Forgive us for not recognizing your contributions. We support you and your struggle for fair and just wages and benefits.

Liturgist: We celebrate those past and present unable to work due to injury, illness, disability, or lack of access to jobs or transportation.

All: May God bless you and give you perseverance in this struggle. We repent for the ways in which we may have contributed to your situation. We support you and will journey with you in the process of searching for opportunities for work.

Pastor TJ: Let us pray:

All: Creator God, who created all things from the work of your hands, we commend to you all workers, those named here and those remaining unnamed. Forgive us for the ways we contribute to injustice perpetrated on workers and on your creation. Carpenter Jesus, who draws us into work with the marginalized, call us into your work of justice that we might change our own unjust ways and work toward fair and just treatment of workers. Powerful Holy Spirit, who empowers us for the journey, move in our lives and in our work that we might persevere in the face of injustice and claim the power you have bestowed upon us to work for justice. Amen

* Hymn Worker God Who Built Creation (Tune of “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”)

Worker God who built creation, author of humanity,

Thoughtful planner, joyous potter, through your work we come to be.

May we labor in your image. May your love guide all we do.

Help us co-create your kin-dom. Help us make your dream come true.

Worker Jesus, teaching, healing, sharing gifts of wine and bread,

Strengthening the broken-hearted, making sure the poor are fed,

May we labor in your image. May we set the captives free.

Send us ever to the margins. Rouse our solidarity.

Worker Spirit, inspiration, you infuse each living soul,

Calling us to lives of justice till each heart is free and whole.

May we labor in your image. May we tend and heal and praise.

May we strive for life abundant, glad and grateful all our days.

* Invocation (in unison)

Praise be to you, O Creator, Christ, and Spirit! What abundance you shower on all who seek to know you! Increase our thirst for the knowledge of you, your ways, your wisdom, and your love. Inform our lives with your vision for the world. In our time together, shape us into the beloved community, a seed for the growing of humanity in your image. We pray in and with the presence of Christ Jesus. Amen

Children’s Message Pastor TJ

Scripture Matthew 20:1-16

Special Music Apple Tree Rachel Portman / Dennis Riley / Violin

Dennis studies Fiddle and Violin at Bagaduce Music, Blue Hill. Through his life he has studied piano and sung in many groups. We are thankful for this opportunity today!!

Message Rev. TJ Mack

* Hymn Take My Gifts B. #562

Take my gifts and let me love you, God who first of all loved me,

gave me light and food and shelter, gave me life and set me free,

now because your love has touched me, I have love to give away,

now the bread of love is rising, loaves of love to multiply!

Take the fruit that I have gathered from the tree your Spirit sowed,

harvest of your own compassion, juice that makes the wine of God,

spiced with humor, laced with laughter-- flavor of the Jesus life,

tang of risk and new adventure, taste and zest beyond belief.

Take whatever I can offer-- gifts that I have yet to find,

skills that I am slow to sharpen, talents of the hand and mind,

things made beautiful for others in the place where I must be:

take my gifts and let me love you, God who first of all loved me.

Prayers of the People – Sharing Joys & Concerns –

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father (Mother, Creator) 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 trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass

against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the

kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen

Lead me Lord, lead me in thy righteousness, make thy way plain before my face.

For it is thou Lord, thou Lord, only, that makest me dwell in safety.

Invitation to Offering – The witness of our sacred texts and generations of prophetic leaders is clear: when we have enough - and more than enough - to meet our needs, our call is to share until all others have their needs met. When this vision of thriving humanity is achieved, we all thrive. Let this truth settle upon us as a deeply held desire to love one another as God has loved us.

Offertory A Gift Rachel Portman

* The Doxology

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise God, all creatures here below;

Praise God for all that love has done; Creator, Christ, and Spirit, One. Amen

* Prayer of Dedication (in unison)

God of Justice, Mercy, and Fairness: We commit ourselves and these offerings unto you, that your will and ways be made manifest in our lives. Let us all work to ensure that all are fed, housed, cared for, and have work with dignity. And all of this done in ways that preserve the sanctity of this one precious earth. Amen

* Communion Hymn Let Us Break Bread Together R. #311

Let us break bread together on our knees; / Let us break bread together on our knees.When I fall on my knees, with my face to the rising sun, / O Lord, have mercy on me.Let us drink wine together on our knees; / Let us drink wine together on our knees.When I fall on my knees, with my face to the rising sun, / O Lord, have mercy on me.

Let us praise God together on our knees; Let us praise God together on our knees.When I fall on my knees, with my face to the rising sun, / O Lord, have mercy on me.

Communion Ritual

Deacon: May the Giver of Peace be with you.All: May God’s justice burn in us all.

Deacon: Our hearts are wounded and wandering.All: We lift them up to God.

Deacon: Give thanks to God, for God is good.All: God’s love endures forever.

Pastor TJ: It is right and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to You, Creator, Maker of Heaven and Earth. At the dawn of Creation, You breathed life into dirt, and glory sprung from the ground.