Patrick Comerford
Next Sunday, 31 May 2020, is the Day of Pentecost (Whit Sunday).
The Book of Common Prayer (2004) names Christmas Day, Easter Day and the Day of Pentecost as the three Principal Holy Days on which ‘the Holy Communion is celebrated in every cathedral and parish church unless the ordinary shall otherwise direct’ (p 18).
The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary, as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland, are:
The Readings: Acts 2: 1-21 or Numbers 11: 24-30; Psalm 104: 26-36, 37b; I Corinthians 12: 3b-13 or Acts 2: 1-21; John 20: 19-23 or John 7: 37-39.
There is a link to the readings HERE.
The reading from the Acts of the Apostles must be read, either as the first or second reading, and must not be omitted.
Introduction:
Some years ago, I spent time after Easter in Cappadocia in south central Turkey.
Although it snowed, I did all the normal tourist things, including a hot-air balloon trip and visiting the ‘fairy chimneys,’ the cave dwellings and the troglodyte underground cities.
But my first reason for going there was because of my interests in Patristic studies: this is the region that has given the Church the Cappadocian Fathers – the great writers, theologians and thinkers in the fourth century that included Saint Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea; his younger brother, Saint Gregory of Nyssa; and their friend, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, who became Patriarch of Constantinople.
I was excited that I was visiting towns and cities linked with the Cappadocian Fathers who advanced the development of theology, especially our Creeds and our doctrine of the Trinity.
With the conflicts in Anatolia, Turkey and the Middle East, Christians in the region are an ever-dwindling minority and their cultural contributions to life in the Eastern Mediterranean and neighbouring regions is not just being forgotten, but in many cases is being deliberately wiped out and obliterated.
Early one morning, we descended into the depths of Derinkuyu or Anakou, the largest excavated underground city in Turkey. This multi-level city goes down 85 metres underground. It is large enough to have sheltered 20,000 people, along with their livestock and food, with churches, chapels, schools, wine presses, wells, stables, cellars, storage rooms, refectories and even a burial chamber. At the fifth or lowest level, I found myself in a cruciform church.
When I came up and emerged into the daylight, brushing my eyes, I was facing a stark reminder that until 1923 Derinkuyu was known to its Cappadocian Greek residents as Malakopea. Across the square from the entrance to the underground city stands the lonely and forlorn Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Theodoros Trion, like a sad scene in an Angelopoulos movie.
This once elegant church stands forlorn and abandoned since 1923. Its walls have started to collapse, the frescoes are crumbling, and the restoration promised by the government has been abandoned.
The Greek-speaking people who lived in Cappadocia for thousands of years were forced in fatal swoop, like all Greek-speakers in Anatolia, to abandon their homes in 1923 and to go into exile. They had been there before the days of Alexander the Great. But they are there no more.
They were there in Biblical times. We read about them next Sunday (Acts 2: 1-21). On the first day of Pentecost, we are told, the good news is heard by Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya, visitors from Rome, Cretans and Arabs – each in their own languages.
The very people who are counted out in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East then and today, the ethnic and linguistic minorities, the religious curiosities and the perceived oddities, those who dress, and appear, and sound and look different, whose foods and perfume and bodily odours are marked by variety, are counted as God’s own people on the Day of Pentecost.
Introducing the Readings:
Quite often we think the gift of the Holy Spirit is something to consider only at ordination or at confirmation, or it is just left as a gift for Charismatic Evangelicals to talk about. But the gift of the Holy Spirit does not stop being effective the day after confirmation, the day after ordination, the day after hearing someone speaking in tongues, or the day after Pentecost.
The gift of the Holy Spirit marks the beginning, the birthday, of the Church. And this is a gift that does not cease to be effective after Pentecost Day, even if the lectern and pulpit falls change from red to green. The gift of the Holy Spirit remains with the Church – for all times.
Indeed, in the Orthodox Church they speak eloquently of the Church being the realised or lived Pentecost.
We celebrate the Feast of Pentecost 50 days after Easter and on the Sunday that falls 10 days after the Ascension. Pentecost recalls the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at Pentecost. But it is also the Birthday of the Church, founded through the preaching of the Apostles and the baptism of the thousands who on that day believed in the Gospel of Christ.
Traditionally, the icon of the Feast of Pentecost is an icon of bold colours of red and gold signifying that this is a great event. The movement of the icon is from the top to the bottom. At the top of the icon is a semicircle with rays coming from it. The rays are pointing toward the Apostles, and the tongues of fire are seen descending upon each one of them signifying the descent of the Holy Spirit.
The building in the background of the icon represents the upper room where the Disciples of Christ gathered after the Ascension. The Apostles are shown seated in a semicircle which shows the unity of the Church. Included in the group of the Apostles is Saint Paul, who, though not present with the others on the day of Pentecost, became an Apostle of the Church and the greatest missionary. Also included are the four Evangelists – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – holding books of the Gospel, while the other Apostles are holding scrolls that represent the teaching authority given to them by Christ.
In the centre of the icon below the Apostles, a royal figure is seen against a dark background. This is a symbolic figure, the κόσμος (cosmos), representing the people of the world living in darkness and in sin. However, this figure carries in his hands a cloth containing scrolls that represent the teaching of the Apostles. The tradition of the Church holds that the Apostles carried the message of the Gospel to all parts of the world.
In the icon of Pentecost we see the fulfilment of the promise of the Holy Spirit, sent down upon the Apostles who will teach the nations and baptise them in the name of the Holy Trinity. Here we see that the Church is brought together and sustained in unity through the presence and work of the Holy Spirit, that the Spirit guides the Church in the missionary endeavour throughout the world, and that the Spirit nurtures the Body of Christ, the Church, in truth and love.
Acts 2: 1-21:
The Jewish Festival of Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks, was known in Greek as Pentecost (Πεντηκοστή). It occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan, and this year it falls from sunset on Thursday 28 May to nightfall on 30 May 2020.
Shavuot has a double significance. It marks the wheat harvest in Israel (Exodus 34: 22), and also commemorates the anniversary of the day when God gave the Torah to the people assembled at Mount Sinai.
This holiday is one of the Shalosh Regalim or three Biblical pilgrimage festivals – the other two are Pesach or Passover, and Sukkot (Tabernacles, Tents or Booths).
The date of Shavuot is directly linked to the date of Passover, just as the date of Pentecost is directly linked to Easter. At Passover, the people were freed from slavery in Egypt; on Shavuot, they were given the Torah and in the Covenant the 12 tribes and their followers become became a nation committed to serving God.
There are obvious parallels for Christians with the links between Easter and Pentecost: at Easter we are freed from slavery and find salvation; and at Passover, we celebrate the birth of the Church through the gift of the Holy Spirit, when the 12 Disciples and their followers realise the new covenant with God and become God’s people, the Church.
According to the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2: 1-21), Jews from ‘every nation under heaven’ are in Jerusalem, possibly visiting the city as pilgrims during Pentecost.
They include visitors from Rome, as well as Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judaea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Cyrene, Cretans and Arabs.
This account of the first Day of Pentecost is a sharp reminder that Pentecost is for all. The Holy Spirit is not an exclusive gift for the 12, for the inner circle, for the believers, or even for the Church.
We should notice how many times the words all and every are used in this story:
● they are all together (verse 1);
● the tongues of fire rest on each or every one of them (verse 3);
● all of them are filled with the Holy Spirit (verse 4);
● the people in Jerusalem are from every nation (verse 5);
● each or everyone hears in his or her own language (verse 6);
● so that all are amazed and perplexed (verse 12);
● Saint Peter addresses all (verse 14);
● he promises that God will pour out his Spirit on all (verse 17);
● this promise is for allwithout regard to gender, age or social background (verses 17-21);
● and the promise of God’s salvation is for everyone (verse 21).
God’s generosity at Pentecost is lavish, risky and abundant, overflowing to the point of over-abundant generosity. The Holy Spirit is not measured out in tiny drops, like some prescribed medicine poured out gently and carefully, drop by drop. It is not even like the gentle measure used for pouring out a glass of wine
The Holy Spirit gushes out and spills out all over the place, in a way that is beyond the control of the 12, like champagne fizzing out after the cork has been popped at a celebration, sparkling all over the room, champagne that can never be put back, unlike wine that can be decanted and poured out once more in polite and controlled measures.
The gift of the Holy Spirit marks the beginning, the birthday, of the Church, so perhaps champagne is the right image as we celebrate the birthday of the Church next Sunday. But this is a gift that does not cease being given after Pentecost.
The gift of the Holy Spirit remains with the Church – for all times. The gift of the Holy Spirit is for all who are baptised, who are invited to continue daily to hear the word, to join in fellowship, to break the bread, to pray – just as we do when we celebrate the Eucharist (see Acts 2: 42-47).
Because of this gift, the Church is brought together in diversity and sustained in unity. The Orthodox Church speaks of the Church as the realised or the lived Pentecost.
At times, our thinking about the Holy Spirit is made difficult by traditional images of a dove that looks more like a homing pigeon; or tongues of fire dancing around meekly-bowed heads of people cowering and hiding in the upper room in Jerusalem, rather than a room that is bursting at the seams and ready to overflow.
But the Holy Spirit is not something added on as an extra course, as an after-thought after the Resurrection and the Ascension.
As we affirm our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed, shaped to a profound degree by those Cappadocian Fathers, as we say ‘We believe in the Holy Spirit,’ do we really believe in the Holy Spirit as ‘the Lord, the giver of life,’ in the Holy Spirit as the way in which God ‘has spoken through the prophets’?
The gift of the Holy Spirit does not stop being effective the day after Confirmation, the day after ordination, the day after hearing someone speaking in tongues, or the day after the Day of Pentecost.
God never leaves us alone. This is what Christ promises the disciples, the whole Church, in the first choice of Gospel reading, as he breaks through the locked doors and breaks through all their fears (John 20: 19-23).
We need have no fears, for the Resurrection breaks through all the barriers of time and space, of gender and race, of language and colour.
Pentecost includes all – even those we do not like. Who do you not want in the Kingdom of God? Who do I find it easy to think of excluding from the demands the Holy Spirit makes on me and on the Church?
Pentecost promises hope. But hope is not certainty, manipulating the future for our own ends, it is trusting in God’s purpose.
Acts 2: 1-21 (NRSVA):
1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs — in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ 13 But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 “In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”.’
Pentecost (El Greco) … ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf’ (John 15: 26)Numbers 11: 24-30:
The people of Israel have left Mount Sinai, and now they are out in the desert. Some people on the fringes of the community are complaining to Moses about the food they have to eat. Manna may be God-given, but the taste is monotonous, even if it tasted of oil, honey and coriander. They remember the food they had to eat in Egypt, fish and vegetables they can recall and list in detail: cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. Now they want meat to eat meat.
The rebellion spreads amongst the tribes. Moses gently chides God for making him like a nursing parent, and asks him: ‘Where am I to get meat to give to all this people?’ He would rather die than continue to live in this misery.
God tells Moses to gather together the elders or leaders of the people to help him shoulder this burden.
Moses now tells the people that God has promised to provide sufficient meat for all. He gathers the 70 elders at the place of worship at the edge of the camp. Then the presence or spirit of God descends on the gathering, like a cloud and they begin to prophesy, but then go silent.
Then Eldad and Medad, two men who were not invited into the Tabernacle or the Tent, begin to prophesy. Joshua wants to silence them, but Moses asks Joshua whether he is jealous. Would that all the people were filled with the Spirit and were prophets.
Psalm 104: 26-36, 37b:
Psalm 104 is a hymn of praise to God as creator. Earlier verses in this psalm praise God for creating the heavens and the earth, for overcoming chaos, for caring for the earth and all who live in it.
God is so great that even uncontrollable great sea monsters like Leviathan become harmless and sportive. All living things depend on God at all times, for their food, for their breath, for their very life. Through the Spirit, creation is renewed continually. God’s power is seen too in the earth and the mountains, the earthquakes and volcanoes. For this, we should praise God throughout our lives.
I Corinthians 12: 3b-13:
At the beginning of this letter, the Apostle Paul gives thanks that the Christians in Corinth ‘are not lacking in any spiritual gift’ (1: 7). Even so, it appears, they have written to him ‘concerning spiritual gifts’ (12: 1). It seems the community has questions about how to know when someone who speaks in the community is speaking with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Now, Saint Paul tells them that someone who accepts Christ’s authority and believes openly that ‘Jesus is Lord’ does not curse Jesus and is guided by the Holy Spirit.
He then lists nine gifts (pneumatika) that show the Spirit of God is present in the community:
1, speaking with wisdom (Sophia)
2, speaking with knowledge
3, faith
4, healing by the Spirit
5, working miracles
6, prophecy
7, discernment of spirits
8, tongues
9, interpreting tongues
Each of us receives a gift, albeit one not in this list, and God chooses, not us.
Saint Paul then compares the Church to a ‘body’ (verse 12). The Church is Christ’s body, and our God-given gifts contribute to the Church as a whole. We are all baptised into one body, and – regardless of ethnic background (‘Jews or Greeks’) or social status (‘slave or free’) – we are all empowered by the Holy Spirit.
John 20: 19-23:
In the Church calendar, we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit as an event that happened at the great festival of in-gathering, Pentecost, 50 days after Passover, following Saint Luke’s symbolic timing.
On the other hand, in Saint John’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit is the gift of Christ’s resurrection, on the Day of the Resurrection itself (see John 20: 21-22).
Yet, of course, both are true.
Early on Easter morning, Mary Magdalene finds that body of Jesus is missing from the tomb. She assumes that the man standing nearby is the gardener, but when he speaks to her she recognises him as Christ. She has told the disciples: ‘I have seen the Lord’ (verse 18). The Risen Christ now appears to his disciples. He bears still the marks of his passion and crucifixion, yet can pass through doors; he is truly alive.
Earlier, he has said ‘[my] peace I leave with you’ (John 14: 27). Now he now sends out the disciples, and the Church, to continue his work (verse 21). To early Christians, Jesus’ exaltation, his appearances and the giving of the Holy Spirit are one event.
Christ has not left us on our own, so that we may soar into spiritual fantasy and relish the prospects of more magic and more religion. Our task as disciples is to bear fruit, to let the seed sown in death rise to new life. What matters is life and love.
John 20: 19-23 (NRSVA):
19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’
John 7: 37-39:
The second, alternative, Gospel reading, is set during the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles (סוכות or סֻכּוֹת, Sukkōt or Sukkos), on the 15th day of Tishrei, the seventh month (late September to late October). This was one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals to perform a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. This seven-day festival celebrates two occasions: it marks the end of the harvest time and of the agricultural year (Exodus 34:22); and it commemorates the Exodus and the dependence of the people on the will of God (Leviticus 23: 42–43). It concludes with Simchat Torah (שִׂמְחַת תּוֹרָה), a holiday that marks the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah readings, and the beginning of a new cycle.
According to rabbinic tradition, on each day in Sukkoth, people brought water from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple, in a ritual that was filled with joy and that served as a reminder of the water that sprang forth from the rock in the wilderness. This joy reaches its climax on the last day of Sukkoth.
On this day, Jesus joins in the joyful celebrations and reinterprets the water: he is the ‘living water’ (verse 38), he relieves the thirst of the believer, and he promises the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The passages he quotes in verses 38-39 do not correspond with specific Biblical verses. But his words contain allusions to a number of sources, including Proverbs 18: 4; Isaiah 44: 3; and Isaiah 58: 11.
In verse 39, the ‘living water’ becomes ‘the Spirit,’ which is capitalised in the NRSV and other translations to identify this with the Spirit promised later in John 14: 26 and John 20: 22.
The saying, ‘as yet there was no Spirit’ in verse 39 has caused theological difficulties for early interpreters and translators, so that some have added the word given, although the text as we have it appears to be original. The Holy Spirit exists before time, and will come to believers after Jesus has died, is risen and is ascended (‘glorified’). The disciples and the church will receive the Spirit, and make it available to others.
John 7: 37-39 (NRSVA):
37 On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, 38 and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water”.’ 39 Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
A closing reflection:
‘Little Gidding,’ the fourth and final poem in the Four Quartets, is TS Eliot’s own Pentecost poem, written after his visit to Little Gidding on 21 May 1936, ten days before Pentecost that year (31 May 1936). ‘Little Gidding’ begins in ‘the dark time of the year,’ when a brief and glowing afternoon sun ‘flames the ice, on pond and ditches’ as it ‘stirs the dumb spirit’ not with wind but with ‘pentecostal fire.’
At the end of the poem, Eliot describes how the eternal is contained within the present and how history exists in a pattern, and repeating the words of Julian of Norwich, he is assured:
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
I have no doubts that the Holy Spirit works in so many ways that we cannot understand. And I have no doubts that the Holy Spirit works best and works most often in the quiet small ways that bring hope rather than in the big dramatic ways that seek to control.
Sometimes, even when it seems foolish, sometimes, even when it seems extravagant, it is worth being led by the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit may be leading us to surprising places, and, surprisingly, leading others there too, counting them in when we thought they were counted out.
Whether they are persecuted minorities in the Middle East, refugees cramped into camps on islands in the Mediterranean and across Europe, or people who are marginalised and isolated at home, or those we are uncomfortable with because of how they sound, seem, look or smell, God’s generosity counts them in and offers them hope.
And if God counts them in, so should the Church. And so should I.
Liturgical Resources:
Liturgical colour: Red (Pentecost, Year A)
Greeting (from Easter until Pentecost):
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Penitential Kyries:
Great and wonderful are your deeds,
Lord God the Almighty
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
You are the King of glory, O Christ.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
The Collect of the Day:
Almighty God,
who on the day of Pentecost
sent your Holy Spirit to the apostles
with the wind from heaven and in tongues of flame,
filling them with joy and boldness to preach the gospel:
By the power of the same Spirit
strengthen us to witness to your truth
and to draw everyone to the fire of your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Collect of the Word:
O God, who taught the heart of your faithful people
by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit:
grant us by the same Spirit
to have a right judgement in all things,
and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort;
through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Introduction to the Peace:
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.
If we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit.
Galatians 5: 22
Preface:
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
according to whose promise
the Holy Spirit came to dwell in us,
making us your children,
and giving us power to proclaim the gospel throughout the world:
Post Communion Prayer:
Faithful God,
who fulfilled the promises of Easter
by sending us your Holy Spirit
and opening to every race and nation the way of life eternal:
Open our lips by your Spirit,
that every tongue may tell of your glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessing:
The Spirit of truth lead you into all truth,
give you grace to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
and to proclaim the words and works of God …
Dismissal (from Easter Day to Pentecost):
Go in the peace of the Risen Christ. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Suggested Hymns:
Acts 2: 1-21:
296, Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire
318, Father, Lord of all creation
298, Filled with the Spirit’s power, with one accord
312, Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost
301, Let every Christian pray
302, Lord God the Holy Ghost
303, Lord of the Church, we pray for our renewing
305, Breath of life, come sweeping through us
306, O Spirit of the living God
639, O thou who camest from above
307, Our great Redeemer, as he breathed
308, Revive your Church, O Lord
341, Spirit divine, attend our prayers
386, Spirit of God, unseen as the wind
310, Spirit of the living God
313, The Spirit came, as promised
491, We have a gospel to proclaim
309, When God the Spirit came
204, When Jesus came to Jordan
395, When Jesus taught by Galilee
Numbers 11: 24-30:
381, God has spoken – by his prophets 304, Loving Spirit, loving Spirit
386, Spirit of God, unseen as the wind
Psalm 104: 26-36, 37b:
346, Angel voices ever singing
42, Good is the Lord, our heavenly King
356, I will sing, I will sing a song unto the Lord
357, I’ll praise my maker while I’ve breath
6, Immortal, invisible, God only wise
305, O Breath of life, come sweeping through us
34, O worship the King all–glorious above
I Corinthians 12: 3b-13:
294, Come down, O Love divine
408, Come, risen Lord, and deign to be our guest
297, Come, thou Holy Spirit, come
318, Father, Lord of all creation
298, Filled with the Spirit’s power, with one accord
520, God is love, and where true love is, God himself is there
312, Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost
91, He is Lord, he is Lord
299, Holy Spirit, come, confirm us
521, I am the Church! You are the Church!
421, I come with joy, a child of God
96, Jesus is Lord! Creation’s voice proclaims it
303, Lord of the Church, we pray for our renewing
102, Name of all majesty
306, O Spirit of the living God
438, O thou who at thy Eucharist didst pray
440, One bread, one body, one Lord of all
313, The Spirit came, as promised
530, Ubi caritas et amor
491, We have a gospel to proclaim
531, Where love and loving-kindness dwell
John 20: 19-23:
293, Breathe on me, Breath of God
263, Crown him with many crowns (verses 1, 3, 4, 5)
338, Jesus, stand among us
424, Jesus, stand among us at the meeting of our lives
652, Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us
307, Our great Redeemer, as he breathed
505, Peace be to this congregation
675, Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?
John 7: 37-39:
646, Glorious things of thee are spoken
576, heard the voice of Jesus say
553, Jesu, lover of my soul
303, Lord of the Church, we pray for our renewing
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
The hymns suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000)
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
