Since Echoes was founded at PRIDE in Bellingham in 2013, we try to celebrate all the love, joy and gifts that ALL of God’s people have brought to the church especially queer people and those who identify as a part of the LGBTQIA+ community!
Here are some resources we used at our 2022 PRIDE service!
Invocation
All: Beloved One, your embrace is a refuge from violence and hatred. Those who have been turned away, forgotten, or persecuted find belonging in you. We hope to embody such love in this place. May we be a sanctuary, a shelter, a safe place to turn. May we endeavor to learn from each other and grow together in love that protects and uplifts. Amen.
Song: God Calls You Good by Paul Vasille
God calls you good, beloved child.
You are a treasure deeply prized.
And you can say to every doubting voice,
'God calls you good, beloved child.'
God calls me good, beloved child.
I am a treasure deeply prized.
And I can say to every doubting voice,
'God calls me good, beloved child.'
Christianity for Heathens by Jay Hulme
1.
Love everyone as if everyone is holy,
as if everyone's intrinsically worthy,
as if the streets are strewn with Christ
taking naps in empty doorways.
ii.
Love yourself as if you are loved.
as if you were never an accident,
as if everything you were meant to be
waits for you to claim it.
iii.
Love the world as if it were a gift,
as if you were made as part of it,
as if you were meant to tend to it
every inch of earth is Holy Ground.
iv.
Love justice, and kindness, and truth,
as if everything depends on it,
as if everything depends on it.
Everything depends on it.
V.
You were given a gift, and trusted.
Love it all, love it all,
love it always.
?.
Know this, if you know anything at all:
Life is no challenge, nor test;
life is love.
∞
Reflect it back in abundance.
The Prayer of Jesus paraphrase by J. Manny Santiago
Our Parent, who is among us, blessed be your Creation.
May your reign be a reality here on earth.
May we become more interested in building your kin-dom here and now than in waiting for it to come down from above.
Let us share our bread with those who hunger.
Let us learn to forgive as well as to receive forgiveness.
Help us through the time of temptation, delivering us from all evil.
For ours are the eternal blessings that you pour upon the earth.
Amen.
Closing Blessing
One: Beloveds, let us go with hearts full of courage, that we might practice love that disrupts bigotry.
All: Let us go with minds open to experiencing God in ways strange and unexpected, in ways ordinary and everyday.
One: Let us go with joy, for the Creator of all life goes with us.
All: For all our BELOVED. Including ourselves.
Amen.
Song: The Queer Gospel by Erin McKeown
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