These are worship resources for the Third Sunday of Epiphany, January 24, 2021. The resources are gathered from a variety of sources and, while assembled mainly for The Anglican Church of St Thomas the Apostle, Kefalas, on the island of Crete in Greece, others may find them useful.
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While some restrictions have been lifted in the lockdown here in Greece, churches are only allowed to have one person per 25 square metres at an in-person service – which for us means something like three and a half persons. So we will continue on Zoom-only until this changes. You can join our Zoom Service of the Word by clicking this link or by entering the following into your Zoom application: Meeting ID: 850 4483 9927 Passcode: 010209.
The Order of Service is here for downloading, although all the parts needed by the congregation – hymns and responses – will be up on the screen.
Read
The readings we will be using this January 24, 2021, the Third Sunday of Epiphany are Jonah 3:1-5, 10, Psalm 128, and Mark 1:14-20. Many churches will use 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 in addition, as a second reading.
Reflect
I will post my sermon for Sunday after I have preached it.
Fr Leonard Doolan of the Anglican Church of St Paul, Athens has once again sent me a prerecorded sermon for this coming Sunday, and you can listen to it below.
Pray
Collect
Almighty God,
whose Son revealed in signs and miracles
the wonder of your saving presence:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your mighty power;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
(or)
God of all mercy,
your Son proclaimed good news to the poor,
release to the captives,
and freedom to the oppressed:
anoint us with your Holy Spirit
and set all your people free
to praise you in Christ our Lord. Amen.
Biddings
I bid your prayers for the leaders and people of the nations; especially
- Katerini Sakellaropoulou, President of Greece, and
- Kyriakos Mitsotakis the Prime Minister of Greece;
- Elizabeth, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and her other realms, and also in her role as Governor of the Church of England;
- and Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of her British government;
- In the European Union,
- Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission;
- Charles Michel, President of the European Council; and
- Josep Borrell, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs & Security Policy;
- For the United Nations and its work, and its Secretary General, António Guterres;
- For the peoples of the United States, and for their new President, Joe Biden and their new Vice-President, Kamala Harris;
- the peoples of Belarus, Hong Kong, Sudan, Kyrgyzstan, Peru, Bolivia, Nigeria, Brazil, and Thailand as they continue to demonstrate for democracy and justice;
- for the maintaining of peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and between Russia and Ukraine, North and South Korea, and for a final, just resolution to their conflicts;
- for peace and justice between Palestinians and Israelis;
- for advocates of Indigenous rights and the adoption and implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
- prisoners and captives, especially the over one million Uygers being held in detention in China;
- the over 79.5 million refugees and nearly 4 million stateless person, remembering especially the crucial situation of Greece, and the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (“UNHCR”);
- for a lessening of tensions between Turkey and Greece; and
- for peace in Yemen, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, and Ethiopia.
I bid your prayers for the sick and suffering and all who minister to their needs;
- remembering the over twenty-five million active cases of the novel coronavirus, and mourning with the families of the over two million who have died in the pandemic;
- for the almost 1.8 million people in the UK with active cases of covid-19, the over 91,000 who have died of it there, and the over 133,000 active cases here in Greece, and the families of the over 5518 dead here;
- remembering those ill with other diseases, and those whose operations have been postponed;
- all those having issues with mental health;
- those suffering from addiction, and those in recovery;
- those who have been affected severely by the economic effects of the pandemic, especially in food services and tourism;
- and giving thanks for the efforts of researchers in finding vaccines, and for the rollout of vaccines across the world.
I bid your prayers for the Church:
- for Robert Innes & David Hamid, our bishops;
- for Justin Welby our archbishop, Stephen Cottrell the Archbishop of York, and the General Synod of the Church of England;
- as we complete the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, we remember our beloved in Christ in other denominations, especially the leadership in:
- The Orthodox Church: Vartholomaĩos, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople; and Irinaios Athanasiadis, Archbishop of Crete; and the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece in Athens;
- The Roman Catholic Church, especially Pope Francis, and the bishop for Crete, Petros Stefanou;
- the Greek Evangelical Church, the independent Greek Pentecostal churches, and the various Lutheran, Reformed, and other Protestant churches ministering to foreign populations;
- we pray especially for congregations that have been obliged to cease in-person services;
- for the churches and peoples of Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey (World Council of Churches Ecumenical Prayer Cycle);
- in the Anglican Communion, we pray for The Church of Bangladesh (Anglican Cycle of Prayer);
- (from the Prayer Diary of the Diocese in Europe) pray for:
- the Spanish Episcopal Reformed Church, Bishop Carlos López-Lozano;
- for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland;
- and in the Diocesan Office in London:
- for the Safeguarding team: Grace Fagan, Lisa Welch, Bridgett Fenton, Laura O’Brien, Majean Griffith, Katherine Harris; and
- our care for children and vulnerable adults.
Intercession
In faith let us pray to God our Father,
his Son Jesus Christ,
and the Holy Spirit.
For the Church of God throughout the world,
let us invoke the Spirit.
Kyrie eleison.
For the leaders of the nations,
that they may establish and defend justice and peace,
let us pray for the wisdom of God.
Kyrie eleison.
For those who suffer oppression or violence,
let us invoke the power of the Deliverer.
Kyrie eleison.
That the churches may discover again their visible unity
in the one baptism which incorporates them in Christ,
let us pray for the love of Christ.
Kyrie eleison.
That the churches may attain communion
in the Eucharist around one table,
let us pray for the strength of Christ.
Kyrie eleison.
That the churches may recognize each other’s ministries
in the service of their one Lord,
let us pray for the peace of Christ.
Kyrie eleison.
Free prayer of the congregation may follow.
Into your hands, O Lord,
we commend all for whom we pray,
trusting in your mercy;
through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Sing
HYMN: I Come With Joy, A Child Of God (Tune: Land of Rest)
1 I come with joy, a child of God,
forgiven, loved and free,
the life of Jesus to recall,
in love laid down for me.
2 I come with Christians far and near
to find, as all are fed,
the new community of love
in Christ’s communion bread.
3 As Christ breaks bread, and bids us share,
each proud division ends.
The love that made us, makes us one,
and strangers now are friends.
4 The Spirit of the risen Christ,
unseen, but ever near,
is in such friendship better known,
alive among us here.
5 Together met, together bound
by all that God has done,
we’ll go with joy, to give the world
the love that makes us one.
HYMN: To Those Who Knotted Nets Of Twine (Tune: St Botolph)
1 To those who knotted nets of twine
to comb a fish-filled sea,
Christ called aloud, “Put down that line
and come and follow me.”
2 Accustomed to the tug of rope
ensnared in rocks and weeds,
they felt from Christ a pull of hope,
amidst their tangled needs.
3 They left their boats, their sails and oars,
but even more than these,
they left the lake’s encircling shores,
and its familiar breeze.
4 O Christ, who called beside the sea,
still call to us today,
Like those who fished in Galilee,
we’ll risk your storm-swept way.”
The Island Parson 