Order of Worship

Order of Worship

August 23, 2026

ORDER OF WORSHIP
August 23, 2026
Continuing God’s Story Together“   Let this little message be but a reminder,
and I will continue with the story.”
2 Maccabees 6:17

Worship Participants 

Deacon: Mary Ann La Bue

Welcomers: 

Reader: Diane Ranney

Announcer: Rebecca Rosensweig

Prelude

Welcome

Song     This Little Light of Mine

Opening Prayer (unison)     Deacon

Holy God,You call us to be students and apprentices of Jesus. Help us recognize your Spirit moving among us. May we not just keep your Spirit to ourselves but share our knowing with others. Come Spirit now to inspire and move us.Amen

Song           We Are

Ev'ry secret ev'ry shame

Ev'ry fear ev'ry pain

Live inside the dark

But that's not who we are

We are children of the day

So wake up sleeper

lift your head

We were meant

for more than this

Fight the shadows

conquer death

Make the most 

of the time we have left

We the light of the world 

We are the city on a hill

We the light of the world

We gotta We gotta We gotta

Let the light shine

Let the light shine

Let the light shine ooh

We are called to

spread the news

To tell the world

the simple truth

Jesus came to save 

there's freedom in His name

So let His love break through

We are the light

we are the light

we are the light

So let your light shine brighter

We are the light

we are the light

we are the light

Jesus

You are the light 

You are the light

You are the light

We will lift You high and

shine shine shine

We are the light of the world

We are the city on a hill

We are the light of the world

And we gotta we gotta we gotta

Let the light shine

let the light shine

Let the light shine

let the light shine

Scripture:     Acts 8:26-38 (NRSVUE)

Today’s reading is from Acts of the Apostles chapter 8:

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worshipand was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
    and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
        so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
    Who can describe his generation?
        For his life is taken away from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 

May God bless this reading and our understanding. Amen

God’s Stories                  Rev. Jennie Valentine

Sacrament of Baptism

Invitation     
Rev Tina Walker-Morin: Dear friends, as we come to this font of the living water, let us recall the meaning of baptism. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

People: For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free- and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

Rev. Tina Walker-Morin: Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Rev. Jennie Valentine:  Story of Jesus’ baptism

Rev. Tina Walker-Morin: The sacrament of baptism is an outward and visible sign of the grace of God. Inasmuch as the promise of the gospel is not only to us but also to our children, baptism with water and the Holy Spirit is the mark of their acceptance into the care of Christ’s church. In baptism, God works in us the power of forgiveness, the renewal of the Spirit, and the knowledge of the call to be God’s people always.  

Questions of the Candidates

Rev. Tina Walker-Morin: Parents, do you desire to have your child baptized into the faith and family of Jesus Christ?

Parents: We do

Rev. Jennie Valentine:  (To Parents and Godparents) Will you with God’s help to guide and encourage this child by counsel and example, in prayer and with love?

Parents & God parents: We will

Rev. Tina Walker-Morin: (To Parents and Godparents): Do you promise to seek out our still speaking God at work all around you in the beauty of nature, in the love of family and friends, in the wonder of the ways God’s love saves us from hopelessness, and restores us to our true and authentic selves, and to show love and justice to others? If so, say we will with the help of God.

Parents and Godparents: We will, with the help of God

Rev. Jennie Valentine: (To Parents and God parents): Do you promise, through the grace of God, to seek and live as a follower of the Christ, to show love to all people and to work for justice, and to witness as best as you are able to the work and word of the Christ? If so, say we will with the help of God.

Parents and Godparents: We will with the help of God.

*Congregational Assent        Rev. Tina Walker-Morin: Jesus Christ calls us to make disciples of all nations and to offer them the gift of grace in baptism. Do you, who witness and celebrate this sacrament, promise your love, support and care to the one about to be baptized, as she lives and grows in Christ?
People: We promise our love, support and care.

Blessing Baptism Water     Rev. Jennie Valentine: Bless by your Holy Spirit, gracious God this living water, which flowed through the streams of your world coming to the town of Sandwich.
By your Holy Spirit watch over those who come in the name of Jesus Christ. Create new life in the one baptized this day that they may rise in Christ. Glory to you, eternal God, the one who was, and is, and shall always be, Amen.

Act of Baptism               Aria Soares

Prayer For the Baptized     Gracious God, you have filled the world with joy by giving us the gift of Jesus. Bless Aria may she be filled with joy; may she grow in faith and curiosity. Give her strength for life’s journey, courage in time of suffering, the joy of faith, the freedom of love, and the hope of new life; through Jesus Christ, who makes us one. Amen.

Song     Come to the Water

Here’s a life

so new and small

You knew this child

before the call

Before first breath

before first cry

You wrote this name

beneath the sky

And I am Yours forevermore 

Come to the water

and find me there

Washed in a love

and a mercy rare

In my mother’s womb

and in the open air

Come to the water

and find me there

We hold this child

with open hands

And lay them down

in Your commands

Surround these years

with Your embrace

And let them grow

in wonder and in grace

I am not my yesterday

I am not the chains I wore

You called me by a holy name

And I am Yours forevermore

Sermon            Rev. Tina Walker-Morin

Song                  History Maker

Prayers of the People & Lord’s Prayer   Rev. Tina Walker-Morin

Our Father/Mother/Creator,who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kin-dom 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 kin-dom and the power and the glory for ever. Amen

Send Forth Song                 Rise Up Medley

Rise up O saints of God

Have done with lesser things

Give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the King of Kings

If not us then who

If not me and you

Right now

It’s time for us to rise up

If not now then when, 

will we see an end 

to all this pain

It’s not enough to give up

It’s time for us to rise up

Rise up O saints of God

the kin-dom tarries long

Bring in the day of righteousness

and the end of the night of wrong

Rise up of saints of God

The church for you doth wait

With strength unequal to the task.

Rise up and make it great

Lift high the cross of Christ

tread where Christ’s 

feet have trod

Come sisters, brothers in the faith

rise up O saints of God

Lift high the cross of Christ

tread where Christ’s 

feet have trod

Come sisters brothers in the faith

rise up O saints of God

Benediction                  Rev. Tina Walker-Morin

Announcements

Postlude