Prelude — On the Nature of Daylight
Max Richter (2004) · organ
Richter composed this in 2004 as a meditation on human fragility and resilience. It moves slowly, with no need to resolve — it simply opens a space and holds it. That is our opening posture for this Pride Sunday. Come in. Breathe. You are already welcome here.
Introit — Saman
Ólafur Arnalds · piano
Arnalds saw this word as graffiti on a wall in his hometown of Reykjavík. In Icelandic, saman means together. He kept it. Let this moment do the same — hold us together, quietly.
Opening Hymn — Bring Many Names
HPP #13, vv. 1, 5, & 6
This hymn comes from a single conviction: if all of humanity is made in the image of God, then every aspect of who we are reflects something of the divine. On this Pride Sunday, we open worship by singing a God who is too large, too loving, and too alive to fit neatly inside any one definition.
Interlude — Caritas abundat in omnia
Hildegard of Bingen · organ
The full title translates: Loving-kindness abounds for all — from the darkest to the most eminent, beyond the stars — and most loving toward all. Hildegard wrote in omnia — for all things, in all things, without exception.
Hymn of Reflection — They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love
HPP #495, vv. 1 & 4
Peter Scholtes wrote this in the 1960s, rooted in Jesus’ own words: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). It is love — visible, public, unmistakable. On Pride Sunday, this is our declaration. They will know.
Offertory — Flow, My Tears (Lachrimae)
John Dowland · organ
Lachrimae — tears. Dowland wrote this as a song for someone cast out, unrecognized, longing for a place they cannot reach. Bring your offering on behalf of every person who has been told there is no place for them — and let this congregation be proof that there is.
Closing Hymn — Help Us Accept Each Other
HPP #289, vv. 1, 3, & 4
“Help us accept each other as Christ accepted us.” This hymn is a prayer to become people who can do the same. We do not sing it because we have arrived. We sing it because we are still learning.
Postlude — Somewhere (from West Side Story)
Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim · piano
There’s a place for us / Somewhere a place for us / Peace and quiet and open air / Wait for us, somewhere.
Tony and Maria sang this knowing the world around them refused to make room for their love. Bernstein and Sondheim wrote it anyway — as an act of faith that the place exists, even when it has to be imagined before it can be built.