Many churches will celebrate More Light Sunday on June 2, 2013, the second Sunday after Pentecost. We will still be in the season of celebrating the birth of the church, and the lectionary Psalm for the day is Psalm 96 – “Sing to God a new song, all the earth!” It is time for the church to sing a new song about its welcome of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) people. It’s time to sing new songs of welcome and justice and love and adoration. By celebrating More Light Sunday, you are joining with other congregations, campus ministries, and chapters around the country to proclaim God’s extravagant welcome. We also recognize that this particular Sunday might not work for you, so it is absolutely fine to hold More Light Sunday on any other day. Please register here to let us know when you plan to celebrate More Light Sunday.
Some special music and liturgical language has been written by MLP Board member Rev. Ilene Brenner Dunn and Mr. David Marks, recently retired music director of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX. You are welcome to download and use these resources for your More Light Sunday Celebration, with acknowledgement of the authors.
Liturgy:
Liturgy for More Light Sunday 2013 (pdf)
Microsoft Word Version
Music:
More Fire! More Breath! More Light! (pdf)
composed for More Light Sunday, PC(USA), 2013
Awe and Wonder (pdf) | Awe and Wonder 4pt. (pdf)
Additionally, we encourage you to consider singing new songs not only metaphorically (by imagining 10 ways to make your congregation more Trans welcoming,) (by signing up for local campaigns for marriage equality and equal protections for LGBTQ persons) (by knitting rainbow scarves as a witness of your congregation’s welcome), but also literally. Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal will be published in the Fall of 2013, but many congregations have samplers of some of the hymns that will appear in the hymnal.
If your congregation already owns the 2012 Sampler version of Glory to God: A Presbyterian Hymnal, the following hymns from that resources are appropriate for More Light Sunday 2013. If you own copies of the sampler, accompaniments can be downloaded at Presbyterian Hymnal.
- I Will Come to You, David Haas
- Come to Me, O Weary Traveler, Sylvia Dunstan
- For Everyone Born, Shirley Erena Murray & Brian Mann
- Source and Sovereign, Rock and Cloud, Thomas Troeger, ABERYSTWYTH
- Heaven is Singing for Joy, Pablo Sosa
- God, Be the Love to Search and Keep Me, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
As your congregation prepares for More Light Sunday 2013, if you have written poems, liturgy, communion prayers, hymns, responses that you would like to share with the rest of the More Light family (even resources you’ve written from previous years) please email it to antony@mlp.org and send it in a doc., docx., or pdf file, and we will post it here as a resource for other More Light Churches.
Consider also these musical resources:
- God, The Sculptor of the Mountains, John Thornburg , Amanda Husberg (Sing the Faith #2060)
- In the Midst of New Dimensions, Julian B. Rush (Sing the Faith #2238)
- Spirit, I have Heard You Calling (pdf), Thew Elliot (permission granted with author acknowledgement)
- When Bodies Join and Souls Combine (pdf) | With Accompaniment Chords (pdf), Patrick Evans (permission granted with author acknowledgement)
- Once We Were No People (Anthem) (pdf) | Congregational Refrain (pdf), Patrick Evans (permission granted with author acknowledgement)
Anthems and hymns by Mark Miller appropriate to More Light Sunday:
- Welcome
- All My Days
- Draw the Circle Wide
- The Lord’s Prayer
- Communion Setting (Sing the Faith #2257)
Submissions from More Light Churches
From Lawrence A. Reh, Pastoral Director, First Light Ministries at First Presbyterian Church Oakland.
I also like Christopher Grundy’s “More Light”
http://www.christophergrundy.com/musicplayer.html
Here is a verse to For Everyone Born from the Reconciling Methodists:
4th Verse (from the Reconciling Methodist movement)
For gay and for straight, a place at the table,
transgender and queer in one family tree,
engaging each gift and blessing each covenant,
for a gay and for straight, a new way to be.
And another verse for including folks with every differing ability: You have my permission with citation.
A new closing stanza (by Rev. Will McGarvey)
For firm and infirm, a place at the table,
For wheelchairs and canes, a child’s running feet,
For sighted and blind, all joining the chorus,
The hearing impaired, all feeling the beat.