Rachel Henderlite ordination service, 1965.

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Let us look to God in prayer.

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Our heavenly Father,

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we thank thee that thy holy spirit is ceaselessly moving

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in the life of thy church.

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And in and through the work of thy spirit,

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that calling thy church followed into realms of new endeavor

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and leading ourselves in obedience unto thee.

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We thank thee, O God,

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for this service tonight for its witness to the reality

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of thy church as it transcends lines

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of class or race or sex.

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For its witness to the reality of thy church as thy

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living spirit is moving thy church forward to new

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endeavors. For the way in which thy

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spirit has called the one who is to be ordained tonight

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and set her aside for special avenues of service

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for the recognition of this call which has taken place in the life

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of the Presbytery and the life of the church.

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And we would ask thee that this occasion may look backward

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to the deepest dark roots of the church in the past

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and follow it into the present of which thy spirit is

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moving thy church for Christ's sake.

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Amen.

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(singing)

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You turn to your bulletin for the litany,

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please.

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O God of grace and glory.

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We acknowledge before thee our unpayable indebtedness.

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We are the children of sacrifice.

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Our choicest benedictions have been bought

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with the price of other blood and tears than our own.

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Thou hast given us the inheritance of them that feared thy name.

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O Lord, make us thankful.

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For all Saints and Martyrs, prophets

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and apostles,

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for all soldiers of the common good who serve thee in scorn of consequence

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and fell on sleep unashamed of whom the world was not worthy.

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O Lord, make us thankful.

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For the cross of Christ and His exceeding bitter sacrifice,

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for the truths which there were brought to light the love

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unbounded which there was freely given

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and the costly salvation which there visited thy people.

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O Lord, make us thankful.

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By His loneliness in the garden,

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by His betrayal and His trial,

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by the humiliation of his people's hate,

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the mockery of His thorny crown

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and the bitterness of scourging, and by the anguish of His cross,

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by His unfailing faith in thee

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and love for man.

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O Lord, make us thankful.

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Eternal God,

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may we who owe our spiritual blessing to so great a cloud of witnesses

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who have suffered before us and to Christ whose cross is our peace,

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walk as becomes those who are debtors to thy grace.

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From ingratitude, pride,

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hardness of heart and all manner of evil requiting.

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Good Lord, deliver us.

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From neglect of blessings dearly purchased,

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from selfish use of opportunities for which good men died,

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from growing within our hearts that venomous roots of covetousness,

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from pampering ourselves with vain superfluities

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and from all spendthrift wasting of our costly heritage.

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Good Lord, deliver us.

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Gird us, we beseech thee

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with gratitude and fidelity devoted to the service

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of mankind with more courageous zeal,

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free us from the detaining reluctance of our fear,

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selfishness, and unbelief.

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And at this Altar of Rememberance,

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may we, O Christ,

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join afresh the honorable company of thy true servants who in sacrificial living

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share the fellowship of thy cross.

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Lord, have mercy upon us and grant us this blessing. Amen.

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On December 3rd 1775 at

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Polegreen Church in Hanover County,

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Hanover Presbytery was formed.

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Hanover Presbytery was the first presbytery in the southern

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colonies.

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In one sense it was the mother Presbytery of practically

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the entire church that has come to be known as the Presbyterian Church

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in the United States,

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more commonly referred to as the Southern Presbyterian Church.

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Tonight another first takes place in the history

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of Hanover, in the history of the Presbyterian Church

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U. S. We have gathered

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in accord with the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.

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We have gathered for the purpose of ordaining to the Ministry of the Word,

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Miss Rachel Henderlite.

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In 1963 the General Assembly of our Church

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sent to the Presbyteries an overture which they had

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received. The presbyteries were to vote to see

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whether they believed that the Spirit of God was leading them

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to open the doors and to allow women to be eligible

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for any and all officers of this particular church.

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The presbyteries concurred

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with the proper percentage of votes

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and with the '64 Assembly, the General Assembly concurred

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with this.

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In nineteen hundred and sixty-four in October,

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Miss Rachel Henderlite went under the care of Hanover

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Presbytery as a candidate for the Ministry of the

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Word. In February of '65,

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she was examined extensively

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by the Presbytery of Hanover in the areas of Theology,

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Bible and the Sacraments,

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the Book of Church Order including our Church's government,

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discipline, and its worship.

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Since she came under the care of Presbytery as an extraordinary

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candidate, it was necessary that the vote

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be postponed until the following meeting of Presbytery.

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Yesterday May 11th,

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nineteen hundred and sixty five, the Presbytery met

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and one of their actions was to vote unanimously that Miss Henderlite

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be ordained to the gospel ministry by means

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of the appointment of a commission.

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You see on the platform the commission of Presbytery.

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This is Presbytery in action

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and in accord with the Constitution of our Church,

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we are met to ordain Miss Henderlite.

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Scripture reading Ephesians,

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to me, though I am the very least of all the Saints this grace

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was given to preach to the gentiles,

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the unsearchable riches of Christ,

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and to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages

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in God who created all things,

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that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might

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not be known to the principalities

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and powers in the heavenly places.

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This was according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in

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Christ Jesus our Lord in whom we have boldness

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and confidence of access through our faith in him.

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So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering

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for you, which is your glory. For this reason I bow my needs before the Father

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from whom every family in heaven

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and on earth is named,

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that according to the riches of your glory He may grant you to be

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strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man

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and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you

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being rooted and grounded in love may have power to comprehend

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with all the saints what is the breadth

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and length and height and depth

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and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge

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that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

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Now to him who by the power at work within us

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is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask

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or think.

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To him the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations

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for ever and ever, Amen.

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Our text for tonight, an appropriate text I take it for this

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particular occasion. This important occasion in the life of our Church

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is found in Paul's letter to the Ephesians,

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chapter 3, verses 8 through 10,

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verses which have been read (unintelligible).

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In this passage and the Apostle Paul sees his task

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as a minister and therefore I think it's the task of every

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minister of the Word as two fold.

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First of all to preach the unsearchable riches

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of Jesus Christ

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and second to make all men see what if they

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pray another mystery hidden for ages in God who

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created all things that through the church the manifold wisdom of

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God might now be made known to the principalities

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and powers in the heavenly place.

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What is this plan, this mystery which has been hidden for all

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ages in God and what is now to be made known

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through the Church?

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This plan, this purpose is said before us very clearly in the first

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chapter of Paul's epistles in verse 10,

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in this verse Paul tells us that it is God's eternal purpose

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and that he has made known to believers in Christ in the poorest of times

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the sum of all things in Jesus Christ.

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All things includes all men

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and all their activities,

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their hopes, their aspirations, their dreams,

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their institutions, their relations to their fellow men.

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All things, all men,

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says Paul, are to be united,

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that is brought together,

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held together by the love of God in Jesus Christ,

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who by their love for Jesus Christ,

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manifesting that love,

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expressing that love,

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finding fulfillment in that love.

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Paul's task as a minister of the Word was passed therefore to every minister,

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and in a sense of every member of the Church,

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is to enable all men to see manifest

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in the Church.

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This plan, this purpose of God,

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to unite all things in Him that is to make it manifest,

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to make it known that all men may see

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and experience and feel this unity of all

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things in Christ. That it may be made visible manifest

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to the power structures of the universe.

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Now how are we to make men see this plan,

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this eternal mystery of God?

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How is the manifold wisdom of God to be made manifest

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through the Church?

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Paul has said before us in the opening chapters,

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the first three chapters of this epistle he tells us there that

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God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead,

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that those of us who believe in God's love in Jesus

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and in the resurrection become new men.

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Our lives become changed,

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reorientated, no longer away from men,

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from God but toward God.

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Reconciled to God,

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we become reconciled to one another.

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The barriers which divide us from our fellow men drop one by one.

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We become one new man, one new society in the Church.

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And in the Church this unity which God designs from all eternity

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becomes manifest to whatever power structures there be in Heaven

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or in Earth or in Hell.

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Paul illustrates what he has in mind in Chapter 2 of his letter

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as he writes "But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far

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off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

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For he is our peace who has made us both one

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and has broken down the dividing walls of hostility by abolishing

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in his flesh the law of commandments

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and ordinances that he might create in himself one new man

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in place of the two so making peace

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and might reconcile reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross,

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one body that is in the Church through the cross thereby bringing

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the hostility to an end.

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How then is this manifold wisdom of God,

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this eternal purpose of God to be made manifest?

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Not through preaching alone we observe.

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Though preaching is a very important means toward that end.

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But preaching alone, if that is all,

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does not impress the power structures of this world,

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to say nothing of the power structures of the universe.

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Paul suggests that this is to be made visible

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to the power structures of the universe,

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as the new society comes into operation,

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as it comes into being,

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as it moves toward realization in the Church

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which gives a poor taste any promise

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about ultimate unity which shall prevail throughout the universe.

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Now Paul could write this confidently of this plan of God

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and how it should come into operation because as he wrote he

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was able to see divided humanity in the process

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of becoming one.

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That story, as you'll remember,

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he said before us in the opening chapter of the Book of the Acts.

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The Church begins as a Jewish sect in the Book of the Acts.

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We see the barriers dividing mankind

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and that they dropping one by one.

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The first step being taken when Phillip preaches the Gospel to the Samaritans.

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The second step being taken when Philip preaches the Gospel to an Ethiopian eunuch.

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The third important step as Luke tells the story being taken when Paul baptizes

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Cornelius, a Gentile,

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who comes to see,

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as every sensitive Christian who comes to understand God's purpose must

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see, that if God is no respecter of persons then he himself

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can be no respecter of persons.

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The fourth step being taken in the city of Antioch,

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where for the first time there comes the dual existence for Jews

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and Gentiles. The major division of that particular day become one in Jesus

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Christ. And there,

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signficantly, Luke tells us that the disciples were first called Christians.

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Paul bares witness to this new society that was coming

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into being in one of the earliest letters that he wrote is the Epistle to

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the Galatians, for in Christ Jesus he wrote to his converts from

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his first missionary journey, "you are all friends of God through faith

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for as many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ

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there is neither Jew nor Greek,

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there is neither slave nor free,

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there is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ

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Jesus. And again in one of the last letters which came from his pen as he write

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from his nomenclature Colossians, here he says in Christ so in the Church

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of Jesus Christ there cannot be

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Greek and Jew, circumcised barbarians, Scythians, slaves,

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free men but Christ is all

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and in all.

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You will observe that Paul is not speaking to appear of what ought to be,

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but what he is,

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what men could see in process of becoming.

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The barriers that divided mankind in that they religious,

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cultural, social, political,

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racial, calling before the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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And this undoubtedly is what Paul had in mind

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when he writes to mean "though I'm the very least of all the saints,

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this Grace was given to preach to the Gentiles.

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The unsearchable riches of Christ

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and to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God

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who created all things. That through the Church,

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manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities

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and powers in the heavenly places.

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Now what does this mean for the Church of today?

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What does this mean to those who are called to be Ministers of the Word?

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Well it means first of all as Paul suggests here very clearly that as a Church

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we as Ministers of the Word doing our part

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and others if they have the opportunity.

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Must begin as a Church to move consciously,

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purposefully toward a fuller realization of this goal.

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You may recall that in the year nineteen hundred

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and forty there was held the first General Assembly of the World Council of

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Churches. The representatives of the major Churches of Christendom

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in all the continents of the world gathered

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and there they drew up a statement which says the greatest contribution

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that the Church can make to the renewal of society is for it to

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be renewed in its old life in faith

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and obedience to the Lord.

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Such inner renewal may include a clearer grasp for the meaning of the Gospel

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for the whole life of man.

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This renewal must take place both in larger units of the Church

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and in the local congregations.

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The influence of worshipping congregations upon the problems of society

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is very great when these congregations include people from every

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social groups.

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If the church said Amsterdam the voice of the representatives of the churches of the world,

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if the Church can overcome the national

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and social barriers which are now divide it,

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it can help society to overcome these barriers.

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But it is very plainly intimated that if the Church

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and the local congregations and at the larger levels can not overcome

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these social and emotional barriers,

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it cannot help society to overcome them.

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In light of this statement, we might think for a moment of the Church,

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our own particular Presbyterian Church in the United States.

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A church which draws very heavily from the middle

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class, perhaps more of a class church than any

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other great denomination in America.

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Larger percentage of college graduates than any other church in the south,

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larger percentage of professional men,

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fewer people in the lower income bracket than any other

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major church in the south.

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We can be proud all of us that our Church is able to attract

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men of such influence in their communities,

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but it does concern many of us increasingly I hope,

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that our Church is composed so exclusively

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or so largely of one particular segment of society.

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For any church, a local church or a larger unit is composed so entirely

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of one particular segment of society, the temptation,

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the tendency, which is very difficult to overcome is for it to

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reflect,

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to reflect the ethical judgments,

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the ethical values of that particular segment

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of society. That isn't all.

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Amsterdams said the greatest contribution that the Church can make to the renewal of society

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is to renew its own life in faith and obedience to Christ.

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One by overcoming the national and social barriers which now divide it.

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And two by eliminating all racial discrimination

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and segregation.

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It is here that the World Council of Churches,

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that the Church has failed most lamentably,

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where it has reflected and then by its example,

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sanctified the racial prejudice that is rank within the world.

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Yet it is here that today with guidance concerning what God willed for it is especially

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clear. It's known that we must call society away from prejudice based

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upon race of color, and from the practice of discrimination

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and segregation as denials of justice

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and human dignity.

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But it cannot say a convincing word to society unless it takes step to eliminate

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these from the Christian community because they contradict all

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that it believes about God's love

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with all of its children.

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That declaration was made 25 years ago.

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What is happened since then, much progress has been made in solving our racial problem

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in the south.

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But the two races are not yet reconciled.

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We cannot yet seem that those far off have been brought near

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together in the blood of Christ.

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Or but in Jesus Christ, both have become one.

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The world of hostilities have not yet been broken down.

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Both are not yet reconciled in one body,

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the Church through the cross of Jesus Christ.

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The hostility has not yet come to end.

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Therefore as we think for a few moments tonight about the Minister of the Word,

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we must recognize all of us ministers

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and laymen, that is not enough to preach the unsearchable

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riches of Jesus Christ as important as that be.

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But that we must make all men see what is this plan,

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this mystery, this purpose of God to make all things one in Jesus Christ.

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That through the Church manifold wisdom of God let it be known

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to the power structures of this earth, as well as the great power

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structures of the universe.

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Second plan which Paul suggested that the Church has in the light of this eternal purpose of God.

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Therefore the task of the minister, the task of all of us is to

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(unintelligible) that we shall be eager to maintain the unity of the spirit.

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Of course!

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How can the Church help to convince men

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that things can become one in Christ,

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that its God's purpose to unite all things in Christ for the Church itself was broken,

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embittered, divided off to one section to another

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and the Church of our day is broken

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and divided and in some places in embittered.

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Men of the world can see that,

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the free members of the Church cannot always see it.

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And one thing that disturbs me as much as anything else I think is that too many men

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of good will who recognize that if our civilization is to be saved,

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that somehow men must learn to live together.

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And men therefore who ought to be workers within the Church

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and friends of other churches dismiss the Church as an agent

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for such unity because it seems to them that the Church means division

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rather than unity.

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I am quite confident that if Paul were applying this text to our day he would say that

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all of us must commit ourselves,

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become eager not to maintain

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but now to recover the unity of the Church in Jesus

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Christ. In the third place,

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Paul suggests that in the light of God's eternal purpose to unite all things in Christ in the

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ethical life of the Church that our daily conduct in the life of the world,

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we must turn away each of us from those practices

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and reject those (unintelligible) which divide men

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from their fellow man.

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And that we must follow wherever it may lead

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in all of life the dictates of love

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which as (unintelligible) has recently reminded us is not an emotion,

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but is the drive toward the

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reunion of that which is separated.

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Pulled into the infancy of a church,

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when the church is only a small group in the society of that time

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and to a group of people that come out of Paganism

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and indecidedly Ephesians he emphasizes the fundamental unit of virtues of honesty

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and of truthfulness and of love.

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At the present time the Church of Jesus Christ is composed of the

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most powerful group in society, those who determine the course of our society.

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And we are living in a industrial civilization,

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quite different from the one in which Paul wrote.

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I feel confident that if he were writing in our own day,

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he would indicate that the day this

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love, this patience to reunite that which is divided must be followed out those of us

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in the Church into the far reaches of our technical civilization.

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We must be concerned as members of this Church in which the wisdom of God

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is to be made manifest. That we must be concerned

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with the automation and what it does to men

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and women. We must be concerned

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with unemployment and its causes.

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That we must be concerned with those persistent pockets of poverty that exist in the most

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affluent society that the world has ever known.

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We must be concerned with those tensions that divide peoples.

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We must be concerned with better understanding of races

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and of nations.

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Perhaps some of you read

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or heard of the interview that came over shortwave from Moscow

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on June 9, 1961.

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Basically a question of how the Communists felt toward religion.

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The answer was we consider all religions to be basically reactionary.

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Be it Mohammadism, Buddhism or Christianity - they all preach essentially the same thing: be patient

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with the life on Earth,

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accept all of everything,

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turn your left cheek to the man who struck you on your right cheek for he will go to hell

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and you to the heavenly kingdom. Religion is against men fighting for their freedom.

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If at the beginning, said Moscow,

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Christianity played an important role

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and at times even a progressive one in the history of mankind,

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it is through the ages become a tool of reactionaries the

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world over. It's easy for us to dismiss that as communist propaganda.

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But let us not forget how wide it is spread among the oppressed peoples of the world.

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But as Paul Hutchinson said religion today is being challenged to prove not so much

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that it is intellectually respectable as that it is morally relevant.

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That for the first time in the history of the world thousands

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and thousands of men are turning away from all religion either through indifference

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or on the grounds that it actually holds back

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human progress and human welfare.

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God's purpose is that through the Church,

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God's purpose to make all things one in Jesus Christ is to be

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made manifest that people are to see it coming into be.

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In the fourth place, Paul suggests that this unity of all things in Christ must be realized in

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the families of Christian people. Husband

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and wife and parents and children.

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Finally the fifth place,

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that in this struggle with a demonic powers which are loose in

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our world today, these devilish powers we might say that this struggle,

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says Paul, must be fought

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and won by each of us putting on the

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whole armor of God and each bartering straight from the other

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and each of us giving strength to the other.

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These demonic powers, these devilish powers in the world were never stronger than now.

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There is no one of us that can be sure that we can stand alone.

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We need each of us. This whole armor of God,

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those virtues, those gifts,

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those spiritual strengths which are nourished

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and born and kept alive and strengthened within the Church of Jesus

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Christ within the society of believers.

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The minister's task is the Church's task to strengthen the individual

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in this inevitable struggle against evil

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and to develop this redemptive fellowship where weak

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and sinful in earning men and women may find strength to fight

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and to win in the struggle

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and in the battles of life.

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And our privilege as ministers or as people,

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ministers and people working together

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is to build such a redemptive unitive fellowship where men of the world

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may see and experience such power

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and see that such fellowship is actually

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available. To me said Paul has that

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Grace been given to preach the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ.

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And they call me and see what is this plan

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and this mystery. That through the Church the manifold wisdom of God may be

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made known to the powers of the universe

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but to each of us, he adds,

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has been given his own gift,

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his own particular gift to work all of it,

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all of us toward this end to build up the body of Jesus

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Christ until we all attain to the unity of faith

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and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood

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for the measure of the stature of opponents of Jesus Christ.

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For this reason tonight on this significant date in the life of our Church

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I bow my knees with Paul before the father

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from whom every family in heaven

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and on earth is named.

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That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be

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strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man

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and that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith that you

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being looted and grounded in love may have power to comprehend

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with all the saints what is the breadth

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and length and height and depth. And to know the love of Christ

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which the pass of knowledge that you may be filled

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with all the fullness of God.

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Now that he move by the power at work within us he's able to do far more abundantly

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than all that we ask

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or think. To him the Glory

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and the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations

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forever and ever - Amen.

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We'll ask the candidate Miss Rachel Hendlite to please stand.

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Rachel do you believe the scriptures of the Old

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and the New Testament to be the word of God

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and the only infallible rule of faith

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and practice? I do.

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Do you sincerely receive and adopt the confession of faith

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and catechisms of this Church as containing the system of doctrine

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taught in the holy scriptures? I do.

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Do you promise if that if at any time you find yourself

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out of accord with any of the fundamentals of this system of doctrine

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you will on your own initiative make known to your Presbytery

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the change which has taken place in your views since the assumption of this ordination

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vow? I do.

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Do you accrue the government and discipline of the Presbyterian Church

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in the United States? I do.

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Have you been induced as far as you know your own heart to seek the

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office of the Holy ministry from love to God

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and a sincere desire to promote his glory in the gospel of his son?

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Do you promise to be zealous and faithful in maintaining the truths

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of the Gospel and the purity

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and peace of the Church, whatever persecution

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or opposition may arise under you on that account?

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Do you engage to be faithful

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and diligent in the exercise of all your duties as a Christian

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and the minister of the Gospel whether personal

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or relative,

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private or public

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and to endeavour by the grace of God to ordain the profession of the Gospel

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in your manner of life and to walk

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with exemplary piety before the flock of which God

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shall lead you?

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Do you now undertake the work to which you have been called

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and do you promise an reliance upon God for strength

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to be faithful in the discharge of all the duties incumbent upon you

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as a minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ?

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Almighty God and everlasting Father

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who just governs all things in heaven and earth by thy widsom and have from the beginning ordained for thy Church the ministry of reconciliation, giving some to be apostles and

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some Christ and some Evangelists and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, or the work of the ministry, or unifying

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the body of Christ sent down by Holy

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Spirit in fresh measure upon this thy sermon whom we in thy name,

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and in obedience with thy holy will, will now by the laying on of our hands

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ordain and appoint to the office of the holy ministry in thy church committing unto

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her authority to preach the word, administer the sacraments, and to

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bear (unintelligible) in thy church.

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Bestow upon her the grace of thy Holy Spirit confirming in heaven what

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we do in thy church on earth

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and owning her as a true minister of the Gospel of thy son.

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Like her master may she sanctify herself as others may be sanctifed through the truth. That the same mind be in her which was also in Christ Jesus. May she quicken, nourished

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by people in the face of the gospel.

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Increase her own faith in thee, our God, finding in the fellowship of thy son,

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may her speech be full of sincerity and truth,

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may she by her words

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and work show forth the powers of the gospel,

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the (unintelligible) of man, and the glory of thy holy name.

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Grant this, O Heavenly Father, for the sake of thy dear son, Jesus Christ, in whose name thou has taught us to pray.

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Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

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Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the Kingdom and the

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power and the glory, forever. Amen. (unintelligible)

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Let us pray. We now pronouncedly declare that Rachel Henderlite has been ordained to the ministry of the word

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and sacrament agreeably to the word of God and according to the constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the United States.

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And that as such she is entitled to all support, encouragement,

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honor, and obedience in the Lord.

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

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of the Holy Spirit - Amen.

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Western culture originated in a patriarchal type of society

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on the principle of the male dominance in the family

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and the community.

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The discussion of the role of women in ancient writings usually reflects

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this patriarchal setting.

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But there are notable exceptions.

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The most famous Brit with this ancient patriarchal view of woman's status

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is Platos' proposal in the Republic that woman should be man's

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equal in the political community.

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More than 2000 years after Plato,

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the English philosopher John Stuart Mill again takes up the defense of women

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in his pamphlet, "The Subjection of Women" in which he cogently states

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the case for complete social,

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economic, and political equality between men

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and women. Not to be outdone 125

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years later in 1964,

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the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States

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approved the ordination of women as ruling

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and teaching elders in the Church.

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Tonight we are here participating in the ordination of the first woman

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as a teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church.

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We in Hanover Presbytery are particularly proud.

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It seems most fitting and proper that such a first should come to you,

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Rachel Henderlite, a sincere Christian,

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scholar, friend,

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author, teacher,

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faithful servant of the Church.

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Through all your years you have given yourself without reservation to the cause of

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our Christ and His Church.

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In many ways beyond the knowledge of most of us,

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your sphere of service and self giving has reached many people even to

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the far end of the world.

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The church is grateful to you for your spirit

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and your contributions.

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We of All Souls Presbyterian Church

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and the Richmond community have been especially blessed by your presence.

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We may say of you as it was said by Dorcas of Joppa,

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she was certainly swift to do good works

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and accomplish them with such grace that she was loved by all her friends

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and her neighbors.

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The qualities which she displayed were the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

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We may liken you to the words spoken of Dietrich Bonhoeffer,

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the German martyr, as the example of what a modern Christian must be:

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a devout man whose life mirrored his beliefs.

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In this act of ceremony and ordination,

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the Church especially recognized not only your services

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but your gifts and your supreme fitness for the ministerial office which

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clothed you with your authority to perform various functions

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and rites of the Church.

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To and for these duties you are set upon by the ceremony of ordination.

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By the authority of the Church, I extend to you words of commendation

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and charge you to fulfil the high office of God's ministry.

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I charge you to accept some of the uncompleted tasks of the Church.

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First to continue in your ministry to preach

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and teach against the spectator role of the layman.

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Many of us as Christians are convinced that the Ministry of the

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Church is the responsibility of the professionals,

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such as the minister, the missionaries

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and other paid church workers.

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Even those that share the work of the Church view it as assisting the Minister.

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I submit that the work of the Church is a job of the whole people of

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God. Every member of a Christian church is administered

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to whom have been committed the difficult work of bearing witness to the Lord.

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We are not spectators in the grandstand watching the game

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but we are the actual players on the field becoming involved in the day

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to day pressures of the mission of the Church.

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Second I charge you to continue to promote the Church as the

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unboundless fellowship of believers.

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Fellowship of believers does not restrict itself to All Souls Church

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or the Presbyterian Church U.S.,

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neither does it limit itself to Richmond

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or this country or to a given economic level

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or race. This fellowship extends its love

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and understanding to all mankind without regard for his station in life.

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This is even more true today than ever since by jet we are just several

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hours from any point on the face of the earth, and now appears sometimes

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to be in space also.

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We are reminded of the words of Harry Emerson Fosdick

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and I quote, "We are committed to one who himself sought

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out the unwanted and the unloved.

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The law breaker and the petty embezzler,

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the distressed and the downtrodden,

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the bewildered and the fear-ridden,

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to one who defined his mission to men by saying that he was anointed to preach

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good news to the poor,

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proclaimed release to the captives

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and recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty hose who are oppressed."

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Unquote. Third I charge you to continue to

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hold strong to the faith in the midst of rapid social change.

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There is no basic agreement in the Church to day on its responsibilities in

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areas of social change.

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You equate change and progress.

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The elders tend to be suspicious of change,

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believing that it is based on moral and spiritual illusions.

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According to Paul Albrecht these dilemmas are basically in three areas:

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differences and aims of values and change,

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effects of technical change on traditional social

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and cultural system,

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and the realization that the outcome of change is always unpredictable.

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In spite of this we must continue to walk in faith led

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by Christian truth and light that is available to us,

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hoping and believing that the ultimate of our efforts is within God's master plan.

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Finally you are further charged to recognize

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and faithfully teach, preach

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and fulfill all the functions of the Church.

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All to the glory of God regard

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with uncompromising seriousness the full import of your enlarged sphere

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of service as God's servant

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and his faithful witness.

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As you begin formally in your ministry in the Church of Jesus Christ,

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may this prayer be yours as you seek to fulfill your ministry.

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Lord help me live from day to day

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and such a self forgetful way that even when I kneel

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to pray my prayers shall be for others.

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Help me in all the work I do to ever be sincere

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and true and know that all I do for you

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must needs be done for others.

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Let self be crucified and slain

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and buried deep in all in vain.

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May efforts be to rise again unless you live for others.

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And when my work on the earth is done

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and my new work in heaven begun.

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May I forget the Crown I've won while thinking still of others.

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Others, Lord, Yes, others.

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Let this my motto to be.

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Help me to live for others that I may live for thee.

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Amen.

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Let's unite our hearts in prayer.

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Almighty and ever blessed God,

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Giver of all good things,

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closer to each of us than our inner most selves,

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we come before thee in prayer.

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Thou art God. And we are sinners unworthy of thy Grace.

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So we come in humility with Thanksgiving. Godly father

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and we like children often going astray.

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So we come with contrite hearts seeking thy forgiveness.

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Thou Christ and we are thy people.

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So we come with assurance. Tho spirit

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and we are thou church and its constituency.

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So we come seeking thy guidance.

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We pray for thy people in thy church the world over as they seek thy

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will. We pray for thy guiding hand on those in positions

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of authority in our civil

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and church governments that they may be approved by thee unashamed

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workmen rightly dividing thy word of truth.

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We express to thee our gratitude for thy many blessings to us which

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we are so prone to take for granted.

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We pray that thou will forgive us our pride

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and our prejudice.

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May we in all areas of our lives seek thy will

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and pursue it that we may be worthy to be called thy servants

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and thy people.

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Teach us, oh Lord, to love all thy people as thou hast loved us.

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Grant us the grace to put thee first

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and self last. That thy name be honored

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and thy will done.

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Oh God as we are gathered here together this evening in a service of worship

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and praise for this purpose of the ordination of thy servant called

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and now set apart to be a teaching elder.

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We are especially grateful to thee for her ministry

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and witness among us in the areas in which she has served in our community

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and in church at large.

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Grant that Rachel continue to grow in our grace

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and that she continue to be a blessing

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and an inspiration to all those who priv- whose privilege it is to know her

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and to work with her.

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May she continue to have the courage to stand on her convictions

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and may she always be aware that she never stands alone when thou art her God.

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We pray thy richest blessing on her as she shortly moves into an area where she will be

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teaching and training those who prepare for the Ministry of thy Gospel.

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May she continue to walk close to thee all the days of her life.

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And now we dedicate ourselves to thee as thou seeking us

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has moved our souls to seek thee.

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Thanks be to thee our God and our father.

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Praise be to thee Father, Son,

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and Holy Spirit.

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We make our prayer in Jesus' name

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and for his sake, Amen.

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After we have sung hymn one hundred

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and ninety one, this service will be concluded by benediction by

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Reverend Rachel Henderlite

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and we will meet downstairs for a reception in the fellowship hall.

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All of you are cordially invited to this reception.

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We would ask you to do this one thing after the benediction if you would please

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sit down again

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and give Rachel's relatives

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and the mates of the members of the commission an opportunity

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to go downstairs and form a receiving line

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and then beat yourself to the doors.

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Hymn one hundred and ninety one.

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Now

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under him who is able to keep you from falling

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and presents you without blemish before the presence of His glory.

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With regard to the one God our Saviour through Jesus

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Christ our Lord. Be glory majesty dominion

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authority before all time

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and now and forever Amen.

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Rachel Henderlite ordination service, 1965.

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