Dear siblings in Christ,
As this month of October began, perhaps you marked the commemoration of St. Francis of Assisi (Oct. 4). St. Francis’s attention to the cries of the poor and the natural world many centuries ago reminds us to attend to them in our own time.
During these months of the pandemic and in the year prior, the ELCA Worship team and our colleagues at Augsburg Fortress have been preparing the forthcoming supplement to Evangelical Lutheran Worship. We are now only one month away from the release of this supplement, All Creation Sings. Its title evokes the song of all creation celebrated in Scripture. The rest of the cosmos is likely louder than our human song these days, as singing together in person is something we miss greatly. Yet even when our songs are more sighs and prayer than celebration and rejoicing, we can be assured of God’s abiding presence.
Please visit www.augsburgfortress.org/allcreationsings to learn more about this resource. You can read several blog posts, view a digital preview of the Pew edition as well as accompaniments for the preview’s assembly song, see a full hymn list, and access a new, informative resource, “Introducing All Creation Sings.” This guide offers helpful information for introducing ACS in your congregation or synod.
Our worship resources help us to sing, but they are also sources of prayer. Even though we cannot sing together in person at this time, the prayers and hymns of ACS can support individual devotion, family worship, in-person gatherings, or online worship.
As we pray, the Spirit breathes sighs, sighs far too deep for words;
God, who searches hearts and knows the Spirit’s mind, hears all our prayer.
All creation waits, eager and longing.
As we live in hope, we know that in all things God works for good.
“Abba, Abba, Hear Us,” text by Andrew Donaldson
All Creation Sings 1072, stanza 3.
In peace,
Deacon Jennifer Baker-Trinity
Program Director for Resource Development
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New Worship Resources at ELCA.org
Worship Resources for a National Election
Scripture readings, prayers, and assembly song suggestions are offered in PDF and Word formats, to be used in settings such as prayer vigils, as part of Morning or Evening Prayer, as part of regular weekly worship, or for personal devotion in the weeks preceding or following an election.
Supplemental Resources for Service of the Word
Additional “Thanksgiving for the Word” resources are available in PDF and Word formats. Additional options for Advent and Christmas will be added in early November.
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Worship in the Home
“Worship in the Home” continues to be available each week on the ELCA Worship blog. You are encouraged to worship as you are able in homes on Sunday and throughout the week. If you don’t have a hymnal at home, perhaps your church might set up a hymnal lending library for home use. In addition to Sunday worship resources, resources for Daily Prayer are available, including simplified forms of Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer, as well as table prayers.
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