This Sunday

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12355 Moorpark Street, Studio City, CA 91604

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“For the Beauty”
Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels
March 30, 2025
10:00 AM, In-person and Via Zoom

As one of the three transcendentals: the good, the true, and the beautiful, beauty is an essential quality of being. All existing things are beautiful. Our spirits grow as we develop the ability to appreciate even the parts of existence from which we might otherwise be tempted to turn away.

Order of Worship

March 30, 2025

PRELUDE,

WELCOME, Renee Segall

ANNOUNCEMENTS, Barbara Allen

BELL

OPENING MUSIC,

CALL TO WORSHIP, #417, Barbara J. Pescan

For the beauty of the earth, this spinning blue green ball, yes!

Gaia, mother of everything we walk gently across your back

to come together again in this place

to remember how we can live

to remember who we are

to create how we will be.

Gaia, our home, the lap in which we live—welcome us.

*OPENING HYMN, #77, “Seek Not Afar for Beauty”

Seek not afar for beauty; lo, it glows

in dew-wet grasses all about your feet,

in birds, in sunshine, childish faces sweet,

in stars and mountain summits topped with snows.

Go not abroad for happiness; behold

it is a flower blooming at your door.

Bring love and laughter home, and evermore

joy shall be yours as changing years unfold.

In wonder workings or some bush a flame,

we look for Truth and fancy it concealed

but in earth’s common things it stands revealed,

while grass and flowers and stars spell out the name.

*CHALICE LIGHTING, Alan Frias

*COVENANT, led by Renee Segall

Love is the spirit of this church,

the quest for truth is its sacrament,

and service is its prayer.

To dwell together in peace,

to seek knowledge in freedom,

to serve humanity in fellowship,

thus do we covenant.

*SONG OF HOPE AND FAITH

From all that dwell below the skies,

let songs of hope and faith arise.

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Let peace, good will on earth be sung,

from every land, by every tongue.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

CHILDREN’S MESSAGE, “”, Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels

CHILDREN’S BENEDICTION, May Love Surround You” by Carole Etzler

May love surround you with warm gentle arms.

May love surround you and keep you from harm.

And may you always continue to grow.

May you find happiness wherever you go.

OFFERING, Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels

Music:

RESPONSE, “From You I Receive”

From you I receive

To you, I give

Together we share

And from this, we live.

JOYS & SORROWS,

Music:

Readers: Damian Davis

PRAYER, #515, “We Lift Up Our Heart in Thanks” Richard M. Fewkes

For the sun and the dawn which we did not create;

for the moon and the evening which we did not make;

for food which we plant but cannot grow;

for friends and loved ones we have not earned and cannot buy;

for this gathered company which welcomes us as we are, from wherever we have come;

for all our free churches that keep us human and encourage us in our quest for beauty, truth, and love;

for all things which come to us as gifts of being from sources beyond ourselves;

gifts of life and love and friendship we lift up our hearts in thanks this day.

ANTHEM,

SERMON, “For the Beauty” Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels

*CLOSING HYMN, #203, “All Creatures of the Earth and Sky”

All creatures of the earth and sky,

come kindred, lift your voices high, Alleluia, Alleluia!

Bright burning sun with golden beam,

soft shining moon with silver gleam: