Opening Ceremony – Religion & Grief Ministries

INTRODUCTION OF 2023 Religion & Grief Memorial Arch Co-Chairs               

Jeff Logan, Religion & Grief Ministries, Board Chair

WORDS OF WELCOME                                                                                                

Kathy & Michael Crow, Religion & Grief Memorial Arch Co-Chairs

CALL TO WORSHIP (responsively)

  The steadfast love of the Lord by no means ceases;[a]
    God’s mercies by no means come to an finish;
they’re new each morning;
    nice is your faithfulness.
 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “subsequently I’ll hope within the LORD.  – Lamentations 3:22-24

OPENING PRAYER           

Pallivi Reddy-Barrett

Within the darkness that encircles us throughout and shuts our imaginative and prescient, do Thou, Lord, rise just like the solar and dispel the darkness with Thy Mild Divine. Could all be free of hazard. Could all understand what is nice. Could all be motivated by noble ideas. Could all rejoice all over the place. Could all be glad. Could all be free from illnesses. Could all understand what is nice and wholesome. Could none be topic to distress. O Lord, lead us from the unreal to the Actual. Lead us from darkness to Mild. Lead us from dying to Immortality! Peace, peace, peace be unto all! 

Almighty God! Lord of humankind: take away the hardship and launch the sick of their illness. Ease the struggling and heal them as you’re the healer There isn’t any treatment besides by way of Your therapeutic. Assist us to be steadfast and make our religion well-established. Grant us a wholesome coronary heart and a truthful tongue. Set proper our affairs and forgive us our sins, our wrongs, our errors, and shortcomings.  Amen                                               from the Hindu Custom

Psalm 23                            

 Cantor Vicky Glikin, Temple Emanu-El

I Peter 1:3-9                       

The Reverend Witek Nowosiad, Religion & Grief Ministries, Board Member, Non secular Chief & Incapacity Advocate, Youngsters’s Well being, Plano                 

Reward be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his nice mercy, he has given us new start right into a dwelling hope by way of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the useless and into an inheritance that may by no means perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is saved in heaven for you, who, by way of religion, are shielded by God’s energy till the approaching of the salvation that is able to be revealed within the final time. In all this, you tremendously rejoice, although now, for a short time, you will have needed to endure grief in all types of trials. These have come in order that the confirmed genuineness of your religion—of larger price than gold, which perishes regardless that refined by fireplace—could lead to reward, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you haven’t seen him, you’re keen on him; and regardless that you don’t see him now, you imagine in him and are crammed with an inexpressible and wonderful pleasure, for you might be receiving the top results of your religion, the salvation of your souls.

An Islamic Understanding of Grief

Dr. Shahnaz Babaloui

Grief is an inevitable truth of life, one that every particular person should, sadly, undergo. Allah (S) says in Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 155, “And We are going to certainly check you with one thing of worry and starvation and a lack of wealth and lives and fruits… “

To grieve is to like, and the deeper one’s love is for somebody or for the group at massive, the deeper the grief for his or her loss. After we mourn the dying of a liked one, we really feel uncooked, offended, anguished, susceptible … you identify it. The ache can manifest in quite a lot of methods, and the coping mechanisms fluctuate from individual to individual. There isn’t any timeline for grief or the therapeutic course of, however the sharp pangs are inclined to blunt with time, although triggers can hit at any second, seemingly out of nowhere. 

Measures of nice consolation are obtained from Allah (S)’s knowledge and justice when such tragedies hit, as acknowledged in verses 155-157 from Surah Al Baqarah:

“…however give glad tidings to As-Saabiroon (the affected person ones). Who, when bothered with calamity, say: ‘Really, to Allah, we belong, and really, to Him we will return.’ They’re these on whom are the Salawaat (i.e., who’re blessed and will likely be forgiven) from their Lord, and (they’re those that) obtain His Mercy, and it’s they who’re the guided ones.”

PERSONAL REFLECTION              

Cathy Willson Monkman, Licensed Church Educator PCUSA 

SOLO “Wonderful Grace”                        

A. G. Black

MOURNER’S KADDISH

Jewish mourners typically recite the Kaddish throughout instances of bereavement or on the anniversary of the dying of a liked one.  This prayer is spoken collectively.

Glorified and sanctified be God’s nice identify all through the world, which He has created in keeping with His will.

Could He set up His kingdom in your lifetime and through your days, and throughout the lifetime of your complete Home of Israel, speedily and shortly, and say, Amen.                 

Could His nice identify be blessed ceaselessly and to all eternity.

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored, adored and lauded be the identify of the Holy One, blessed be He, past all of the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations which are ever spoken on this planet; and say, Amen.

Could there be considerable peace from heaven and life, for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

He who creates peace in His celestial heights, could He create folks for us and for all Israel, and say, Amen.

BENEDICTION

The Reverend Witek Nowosiad