Thank you so much for your offer of assistance. Keeping everything running on the site often takes more time than I have and I appreciate your offering some help.
As you are aware, the Seminary sends out all sorts of free mailings on a regular basis. I'm pretty good with keeping up on Newsletters and Announcements, but the weekly sermons (Christian and Spiritual), as well as the Sunday School, can make life a little difficult.
What I need some help with is keeping up with those last three things. If you have Dreamwever, or another html program, I'd like to share some templates and ask that you copy and paste the info into them, making the necessary changes in sermon/lesson number, author, etc. and make sure there is proper spacing between the paragraphs. If you want a free html editor, you can download one here: http://www.pagebreeze.com/
That would be a tremendous help. For some of the mailings, I have material that has been sent to me, but the other part of this is if you can do a little digging on the internet to find some Sunday School lessons, Christian sermons or well-written interesting spiritual articles.
I would never want to burden your time, but if you could do at least 3, it would be a great help. I'm hoping that I can get a bunch of people to all help with a few, which would free me up considerably to do things like Group Health Insurance, Canadian Approval, ULC Handbook, etc. I have lots of projects I'd love to do, but don't have the time. A little help from a lot of people would be amazing.
If you would like to help, you can download the templates at TEMPLATES. Send them back to me at amy@ulcseminary.org. Do one or do as many as you'd like. I'm happy to get any help I can.
If you have been asked to do a funeral service and are in need of some non-denominational healing words to share, please go the shopping cart and look under 'general ministry needs'. We offer there a complete selection of funeral ceremonies that can be emailed to you right away.
I would suggest the saying the Lord's Prayer, which supremely fits all occasions, or the 23 Psalm, written below:
The Lord is my Shepherd:
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.
( Ps 23 )
________
Or consider a reading:
Even though one short step separates us from this thing called death, when it actually occurs, we discover that death is not what we thought. Death is not the destructive force we feared it to be. Instead, we will discover death to have been conquered already by our Lord who experienced it for Himself, and then came back to tell us that we should not fear death because He had made preparations for us. "Let not your heart be troubled."
( John 14:1 )
"But I would not have you be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him."
( 1 Thess. 4:13-15 KJV )
REMEMBER that there is no one way to perform a funeral service. The important aspects are reverence for the moment, continuing the cultural tradition of how we lay to rest our deceased, the call upon God for comfort and peace in this time of sorrow and grief, the reverence of God’s promise of eternal life to those that believe.
The funeral ceremony is for the bereaved more than the deceased. The minister is the professional person entrusted by God to carry forth the rites of the departed into the arms of a loving God.
Prayers:
God, grant us the strength and courage to embrace our Faith so that we may see that all of life is in Your hands. Amen.
Lord, we entrust all our hours to You. In our waking moments and in our sleep, we rest in You. We also entrust our loved ones to You in these moments of ultimate sleep.
Amen.
Our Father, we need a source of strength and refuge. We need a resting place. For being this kind of help in time of trouble, we offer our thanks. Bless the memory of this dear woman, my mother, and grant us all the peace that comes from trusting in You.
Amen.
Oh God, I thank You for the light of Your Son and the way that light has shone through the love of mothers.
Amen.
God, give us the grace to consider the way our lives are being measured. May the life of my mother remind us never to ignore the quality of life at the expense of quantity. We ask our prayer in the name of our Perfect Example.
Amen.
Our Father, for the promise of eternal life we offer our praise and gratitude. How difficult our lives would be today if we had no hope. But we do have a hope. We are called forth from this moment by the life of our Lord, in whose name we pray.
Amen.
Hear our prayer, O God, as we lay before You the concerns of our heart. Our hearts feel pain in these moments. Hear our cries, especially those that are deep and silent. You know the sorrow that has befallen us and You are aware of the grief within us. We come to You for healing and strength. Amen.
