Resources to help you and your church engage with worship and spirituality in meaningful and relevant ways in your context. Here you will find prepared material ready-to-use in gathered worship and personal devotion. These sources are many, representing the variety of worship experiences in the United Reformed Church and our ecumenical partners.
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Suggested worship resources
Online worship services - a list of churches streaming acts of worship which you can join Prayers during the pandemic - weekly prayers from the United Reformed Church to help bring you comfort and spiritual support during the Coronavirus pandemic Walking the Way: Continuing to support each other (PDF) - advice and resources to help you and your community cope during the Covid-19 pandemic Walking the Way News - includes ideas for worship and inspiring activities shared with us by local congregations Church information guides - a series of free guides with advice for churches and church organisations to help them stay in contact with and support their local community during and after lockdown
URC Worship Book – the entire book is available online as PDF downloads 12 complete worship services from Open Table Children’s and youth work - complete online recorded services and children’s messages on the URC YouTube Channel – subscribe to it for notifications of new resources Scottish Bible Society – brilliantly illustrated Bible Stories on PowerPoints, free to download and use for on-line worship
URC Advent resources - resources for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany 'Light in the darkness' - a complete Advent service from Open Table URC Easter resources - free printable booklets, service and activity posters and service sheet cover Walking towards Easter together - a Lent resource for churches to give to students, seniors, households and families to reduce isolation and offer hope in these challenging times Lent resources (PDF) - URC worship resources for Shrove Tuesday and the Sundays of Lent Pentecost service Youtube video - songs and activities written by URC Youth for use in lockdown 2020, although most of the elements are timeless Prayer Stations for Pentecost (PDF) - including Martin Luther King’s speech, ‘I have a dream’ and related activities 'The Fire of Love' - two Pentecost celebrations produced by the Joint Liturgical Group in Great Britain are available for free download A complete Pentecost service from Open Table Eco-Church worship resources (PDF) to help your congregation focus on the environment in prayer and worship A Creationtide series of URC Daily Devotions is available for download. You'll find them listed in the left margin of the website The Season of Creation (also called Creation Time and Creationtide) invites the Christian family to celebrate the good gift of creation, confess our abuse of creation and listen for God’s call to action and advocacy. The Season of Creation website details activities and resources to celebrate the Season of Creation through prayer and worship, advocacy and sustainability projects. Extensive free worship resources are available from: Advent
Holy Week and Easter
Lent
Pentecost/Whitsunday
Pentecost Season/Ordinary Time
Season of Creation (1 September - 4 October)
Baptism (PDF) - the complete service from the URC Worship Book 'Recognising and celebrating the birth of your baby' - guidance describing baptism, dedication and blessing options for worship services from the URC Communion (PDF) - the complete communion services from the URC Worship Book A complete ready-to-use communion service - from the Festival Communion service at Greenbelt 2016 Joint Liturgical Group of Great Britain has produced an Ecumenical Service of Baptism and Confirmation (PDF) Virtual funerals: liturgies and words for our digital world - also available as a downloadable PDF You can download more worship materials for the Sacraments and funerals on our Worship Book page. Baptism
Communion
Baptism and Communion
Funerals and memorial services
Environment Sunday (also called Eco-Sunday or Climate Sunday) might be held during the Season of Creation (1 Sept-4 Oct) or any other time of the year. It’s an opportunity to focus on our environment and our responsibility as stewards of God’s creation, especially as we face Climate Change, animal extinctions and other impending events. Worship resources are available from: The URC Children & Youth Work has created a complete worship service on YouTube which can be shared during Season of Creation, on an Eco-Sunday or any time in the year. It highlights prayers and poems written by URC children: https://youtu.be/F1vyNrWb0w8 'Remembrance for whole-of-life disciple’ (PDF) - Walking the Way resources for remembering and peace-making: prayers, poems, photos, reflections and activities Environment Sunday
Harvest
Mothering Sunday
Remembrance Sunday
Walking the Way Sunday
Council for World Mission Prayer Book - weekly prayers for our partners around the world Commitment for Life worship resources from the URC Christian Aid worship resources - prayers responding to emergencies and disasters, worship resources for Climate Justice, resources for weekly worship including sermon pointers and prayers Global link worship resources - these are often available from your Synod and relate to international partners. For example, Wessex Synod shares a partnership with the Lusaka Presbytery of the United Church of Zambia and developed a collection worship resources
Children and youth work resources – links to numerous creative and helpful URC resources for worship and faith development Roots on the web - inspiring ideas and resources to use with toddlers to teens Diddy Disciples - worship and storytelling podcasts for young children from Southwark Diocese Godly Play stories online Same Boat music - snappy music videos and worship resources
Walking the Way News - articles that explore spirituality in innovative and fresh ways URC Daily Devotions - sign up for a daily devotion to arrive in your inbox or download A5 booklets of series of complete devotions Exploring prayer - explore prayer in innovative and fresh ways with the URC Lectio Divina or ‘holy reading’ is a meditative and worshipful way of reading a passage of scripture Spiritual nourishment - explore spirituality in innovative and fresh ways with the URCPrayer
Bible study
Spirituality
A video highlighting newly ordained URC Ministers and Commissioned Church Related Community Workers. Please feel free to incorporate it into worship or shared on your church website.
Sunflowers and Thistles free resources from the URC to help you and your church explore Black Lives Matter and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on the unequal effect it has had in BAME communities