Service for the 2nd Sunday of Christmas – 2nd January 2022
St Paul’s Athens
Welcome to St Paul’s Athens, especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens. Happy New Year! Deacon Christine leads our worship today, and is the preacher. Please remember that masks are mandatory in church and when you are in groups in the garden. We are required to be 1.5m apart for worship.
Opening Hymn: 36 The first Nowell
Minister: Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you
All: and also with you.
Minister: O Lord, open our lips
All: and our mouth shall proclaim your praise.
Minister: Give us the joy of your saving help
All: and sustain us with your life-giving Spirit.
The minister then welcomes people informally.
Prayers of Penitence
Minister: As we come to the Lord at the start of this New Year, let us seek his grace to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom as we confess our sins in penitence and faith.
All: Lord God, we have sinned against you;
we have done evil in your sight.
We are sorry and repent.
Have mercy on us according to your love.
Wash away our wrongdoing and cleanse us from our sin.
Renew a right spirit within us and restore us to the joy of your salvation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Minister: May the Father of all mercies cleanse us from our sins, and restore us
in his image to the praise and glory of his name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
All: Amen
Psalm (147, vs 13-end)
13 Sing praise to the Lord, O Jerusalem; ♦
praise your God, O Zion;
14 For he has strengthened the bars of your gates ♦
and has blest your children within you.
15 He has established peace in your borders ♦
and satisfies you with the finest wheat.
16 He sends forth his command to the earth ♦
and his word runs very swiftly.
17 He gives snow like wool ♦
and scatters the hoarfrost like ashes.
18 He casts down his hailstones like morsels of bread; ♦
who can endure his frost?
19 He sends forth his word and melts them; ♦
he blows with his wind and the waters flow.
20 He declares his word to Jacob, ♦
his statutes and judgements to Israel.
21 He has not dealt so with any other nation; ♦
they do not know his laws.
Alleluia.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now and shall be for ever. Amen
First Reading: Ephesians 1, 3-14
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.
Reader: Hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
All: Thanks be to God.
Minister: Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead.
All: And Christ shall give you light.
Minister: You have died and your life is hid with Christ in God.
All: Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead.
Minister: Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.
All: And Christ shall give you light.
Minister: When Christ our life appears you will appear with him in glory.
All: Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.
The Benedictus Luke 1, 68-79 (Please stand to say the canticle together)
- Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, who has come to his people and set them free.
- He has raised up for us a mighty Saviour, born of the house of his servant David.
- Through his holy prophets God promised of old to save us from our enemies, from the hands of all that hate us,
- To show mercy to our ancestors, and remember your holy covenant.
- This was the oath God swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
- Free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.
- And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
- To give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of all their sins.
- In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
- To shine on those who swell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be; world without end. Amen.
Hymn 40 What child is this?
2nd Reading: John 1, 10-18
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
Reader: Hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches
All: Thanks be to God.
Sermon (Please be seated)
The Apostles’ Creed (remain standing)
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
Intercessions: Lord in your mercy, Hear our prayer.
Collect:
God our Father, in love you sent your Son that the world might have life: lead us to seek him among the outcast and find him in those in need, for Jesus Christ’s sake.
All: Amen
Our Father, 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. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
The Peace (Please stand) The deacon will introduce words for the Peace
Christ is our peace. He has reconciled us to God in one body by the cross. We meet in his name and share his peace. The peace of the Lord be always with you
All: and also with you
Hymn: 47 As with gladness (the collection will be taken)
Minister: Let us say the Grace together:
The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen.
Fr. Leonard’s usual Day Off – Monday
Home tel : 210 72 14 906; email anglican@otenet.gr
Deacon Chris: 22950 53164: Please avoid contacting Chris on Fridays.
Swedish Church: contact Fr. Bjorn on 694 607 2428
The Anglican Church in Greece (including St. Paul’s) is self – financing, and receives no income other than from the generosity of those who worship here. We are a legal body and we pay tax. Our tax number is 997073090. If you wish to donate direct to our bank (IBAN) the account with Piraeus Bank is: The Anglican Church in Greece, St. Paul’s Athens GR 820172 0500 0050 5008 6327 479 Swift code is PIRB GRAA
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