God is Still Speaking Festival Worship
The Riverside Church - November 6, 2004
 "Oh, God - speak, speak. We, your saints, are listening from the depths of our souls."
These closing words by Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr. captured the prayers of those from the New York , Central Atlantic and Connecticut Conferences, UCC, who filled The Riverside Church on November 6, 2004 , for the All Saints Celebration kicking off the God Is Still Speaking campaign. Rev. Forbes is the pastor of The Riverside Church.
I Kings 19:1-12 was the Scripture from which Forbes preached. "We can't put God in a box," Forbes said. When God speaks to us, it may not be in the forms in which God has spoken in the past. In I Kings, Elijah stands on the mountain before the Lord. A great wind, an earthquake and fire come. But the Lord is not in any of these. "..and after the fire a sound of sheer silence." In that silence God comes to Elijah; God by-passes Elijah's senses and comes to Elijah's soul.
Forbes urged us to listen, listen for the voice of God - even when we have "dry bones", even when we feel abandoned. He asked us to listen even as other voices may be filling our consciousness - voices of nationalism, of secularism, of hedonism.
Before hearing the voice of God, Elijah went into a cave. Forbes noted that we may feel we are in a cave or a closet. But we came from God, God is in us. Ultimately we must be willing to leave the protection of that cave or closet and listen to God speak in whatever ways God may choose.
Forbes called the God Is Still Speaking campaign a well-timed movement, a time of re-discovery, a time of social transformation. "Sometimes God has difficulty getting through to us," he noted. But we will listen together and know that love is the last word.
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Let Us Go To The House of the Lord
Worship in the vaulted nave of The Riverside Church began with drummer Guillermo Cardenas leading the procession of the people. Hannah Grace Kirkpatrick, Shu-kun Thomas and Zakiya Williams Wells stood before the altar as their voices and hands demonstrated, "Here's the church, here's the steeple, open the door and see all the people." Enid Fraser proclaimed, "I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord."
Then the voices of the people joined in "The Church's One Foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord."
Rev. Linda Tarry-Chard, a minister at The Riverside Church and a member of the board of the Metropolitan Association, welcomed those gathered "as witnesses that God is still speaking."
Regional Conference Minister Michael Caine gave the invocation, asking that we each feel the presence of Jesus in our midst. Darrell Pone, Damaris Ortega, Youngren Ponnuraj and Asayo Okumura Thomas led us in the Lord's Payer in English, Spanish, Tamil and Japanese - four of the languages in which worship is conducted in the metropolitan New York area.
"God, we wish you would speak to us, but we ignore the messages you speak all around us." These were the opening words of the prayer of confession led by Rev. Jimmy Only, pastor of the Congregational Church of Manhasset and a member of the board of the Metropolitan Association.
Musical Voices of the People
Musical voices of the people were shared by Trio Cuatro, Cruz Echavarria, Arelis Figueroa and representatives from area Latino congregations.
We passed God's peace in the manner of Christian churches in India , led by Rev. Christopher Ponnuraj, pastor of the Bedford Park Congregational Church and Registrar of the Metropolitan Association.
Susan Switzer who is studying for the ministry in care of the Metropolitan Association urged us to show "amazing generosity" in the evening's offering which will be shared by The Riverside Church and the God is Still Speaking campaign.
As we shared our financial gifts, the young members of the Send Judah First Step Team of The Riverside Church burst into movement and words urging us to "Give the world the holy step".
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God is Still Speaking Anthem
From their places in the pews of The Riverside Church came the members of the mass choir, volunteers from UCC churches throughout the region. Their faces and clothing represented the diversity of the UCC. Their words and music by James Ahrend of the Sayville UCC represented our unity.
Open our ears, open our eyes, speak through the wind and the storm.
Lighten our hearts, light up our souls, help us endure 'till the morn.
Soften our hearts, strengthen our will, save us from closing our minds!
Maybe God is still speaking, still speaking to human kind.
New York Conference Minister Geoffrey Black read the Scripture, I Kings 19:1-12, ending with God's appearance to Elijah in "a sound of sheer silence".
Then God spoke to us through the lyric soprano voice of Kathleen Battle and the harp of Nancy Allen. In his sermon Rev. Forbes commented that he looks for "signs"; he felt Ms. Battle's willingness to share her music on this Saturday evening, after a long week of work, was definitely a sign that the God Is Still Speaking campaign is not just a campaign, but a "movement".
Ms. Battle's first gift with the spiritual "Heaven is One Beautiful Place". Her second gift was "Over My Head", a favorite of Rev. Forbes'.
Rainbow Litany
Following Rev. Forbes' sermon, we joined in the Rainbow Litany, led by Rev. Cliff Frasier, a litany which ends:
Thank you for your still small voice and for the inspirations that move us to confession of faith.
Still-speaking God, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. Amen
Then the voices of all the people joined in the United Church of Christ Statement of Faith.
Concluding the celebration was Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. The mighty organ of The Riverside Church led us to pull from our memories the few stumbling or total glorious words and notes we could remember. Only these last words were in the Order of Worship:
For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord
And of his Christ;
And He shall reign for ever and ever.
King of Kings
And Lord of Lords.
Hallelujah!
If we were looking for another sign that the God Is Still Speaking campaign is a "movement," we got it; the "silence" at the end of the Chorus was observed; no one sang at the wrong moment. Perhaps, like Elijah, we heard God speak "in the sound of sheer silence".
Reported by Lucy Werner
Here are more faces from our Festival Worship in The Riverside Church.
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