Blessings for Youth from the Phippsburg Congregational Church
The curious and thoughtful congregation of Phippsburg’s United Church of Christ, and the Reverend Holly S. Morrison, invited Jamie Dorr to share the story of MYC at their Sunday service on February 8th. Holly crafted a service with music, Psalms and readings that celebrated the lives and experiences of youth. It was moving to sing “Now in the Days of Our Youth” with a community moved to lift up young people and “to seek another’s good, and honor what is right.”
The church focused their previous year’s Local Mission work on the MYC, and the community blessed us with a donation of their collected offerings and efforts. Below we share the Responsive Reading, crafted especially by Reverend Morrison for this day of honoring our youth.
Responsive Reading: The Gifts of Youth
ALL: God sent us a child; what a holy gift!
Like Moses, kept afloat by love, discovered with joy
Like Miriam, inspiring community with dance and song
Eager for guidance, like Samuel in the temple
learning the difference between God’s voice and ours.
ALL: Help us, God, to share wisdom as needed,
and make space for voices other than ours,
because God sent us a child:
like Stephen, arguing and preaching in the service of truth
bullied and beaten, arrested, treated like a threat
ALL: Help us, God, to protect young people at risk,
to mourn for the misunderstood and martyred,
because God sent us a child:
like Chester Greenwood, warming us with inventions
like Samantha Smith, daring to ask the powerful for peace
ALL: Help us to celebrate the children God gives us:
by loving them, listening to them, learning alongside them
by sheltering & feeding them, clothing and caring for them
ALL: Making space to feel welcome, to be safe, to heal & play,
space to unwind and practice, space to create and skate.
May we be the grip tape that gives their feet traction
May we be the bearings that help them move with ease
ALL: So they can catch air and stick the landing,
build courage and become confident
that they are God’s gift to our community
because God’s blessings are revealed in every child