CHRIST the KING HYMN FESTIVAL
Lessons, Symbols and Songs of the Church Year
As we gather . . . The festival of Christ the King was first celebrated in 1925, in the midst of the
European political turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s. It was intended to proclaim God’s reign over
a world wracked by one world war and facing another. That truth can still be proclaimed today.
No human system is forever. None can claim absolute allegiance. Only Christ is sovereign.
PRELUDE
WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS
OPENING NARRATION
Often in our lives the celebration of a new year – a birthday, an anniversary, a new school
term, a new calendar – provides a natural time of reflection. We see ways that we are not the
same as we were a year ago, and we think about how the events of the past year have shaped us.
Today we celebrate Christ the King Sunday. The wheel of our church year has come full
circle, and we are poised on the eve of a new year. Today we are invited to look back – to recall
the stories of the seasons we have shared – and to turn with anticipation toward the year to come.
Today we are invited to reflect on how our encounter with the Word of the living God has
shaped us. For as we worship, we do more than remember: we enter into God’s story of
redemption and new life. We experience God’s saving action, and we are changed.
And so on this day, we are invited not to sit back and relax as we begin our worship;
rather, we are invited to enter in to in the presence of the living Lord. Through word and symbol
song and prayer, we join with the whole church - gathered here in this place and throughout all
times and places – to worship and adore Jesus, our risen and exalted King!
INVOCATION
Leader:
We begin our worship as we are called to begin each day of our life, in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Assembly: Amen.
ADVENT
Reading – Isaiah 11:1-10
Symbol
Narration
Hymn – “Awake! Awake, and Greet the New Morn” #242 (v. 1 & 2)
CHRISTMAS
Reading – Luke 2:1-20
Symbol
Narrati