National Working Group on Worship
Theology & Discipleship
The Uniting Church in Worship
A Service of Thanksgiving for
and Blessing of a Child
Worship Services - PS -3
Below are the following: - Notes - The Order - Paper on the meaning of Blessing
i This
order may form part of a normal Sunday service of the congregation; it comes at
an appropriate place between the Preaching of the Word and the Prayers of the
People.
ii This
service combines thanksgiving for the birth or adoption of a child, the
blessing of the child, and the self-dedication of the parent(s) to their task. It
is appropriately used on the first occasion on which a child is present in the
worshipping community, but it may be delayed, e.g. in order for family members
to be present.
iii Care
should be taken so that the service is not confused with baptism, e.g. by not
standing near the font.
iv It
is appropriate to use this service whether or not it is intended to baptise the
child at a later date.
v One
of the parents holds the child throughout the service. If only one parent is
present, the wording of this service needs to be suitably amended.
vi If
a service of thanksgiving only is desired, the reference to blessing in Section
2 may be deleted, and section 6 omitted.
vii Part
or all of this service may be held in the home or hospital, at the discretion
of the minister. An elder or other representative of the congregation may say
the words of Section 8, or similar words.
viii If liturgical colours are used, the colour should be that
of the season of the Christian year.
ix HYMN/SONG
in this order refers to any appropriate style of music.
A Service of Thanksgiving for
and Blessing of a Child
1 HYMN/SONG
A hymn/song of
praise or thanksgiving may be sung.
2 PRESENTATION
The elder responsible for the care of the family brings the
parent(s),
the child and any sisters and brothers forward and introduces them to the congregation.
Friends,
I present to you N and N
who have come to give thanks for their child N,
and so that N may receive the blessing of God.
(I also present N and N
who are glad to be welcoming
a new sister/brother into their family.)
With them,
we give our thanks to God.
3 INTRODUCTION
The minister or
elder reads one or both of the following:
Jesus said,
Let the children come to me;
do not try to stop them;
for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Truly I tell you:
whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child
will never enter it.
And he put his arms round them,
laid his hands on them,
and blessed them.
Mark 10:14-16
and/or
Hear, Israel:
The Lord is our God, the Lord our one God;
and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your strength.
These commandments which I give you this day
are to be remembered and taken to heart;
repeat them to your children,
and speak of them both indoors and out of doors,
when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 6.4-7
The minister
says:
All life is from God,
and children are a gift from the Lord.
Within a family,
the birth/adoption of a child
is a joyous and solemn occasion.
In this event we see the wonder
of God’s loving creativity among us.
We are now to share the joy of this family
whose life has been enriched
by the gift of N.
4 Psalm
The minister, elder or parent(s) may lead the congregation
in a responsive reading, e.g. one or more of the following.
Other suitable psalms include Psalm 23 or 100.
It may be appropriate
in some situations to reword the psalm(s) in an appropriate way,
e.g. to substitute
‘parent’ or ‘mother’ for ‘father’ in Psalm 103.
Favour and bless us, Lord.
Let your face shine on us,
revealing your way to all peoples,
salvation the world over.
Let nations sing your praise,
every nation on earth.
The world will shout for joy,
for you rule the planet with justice.
In fairness you govern the nations
and guide the peoples of earth.
Let the nations sing your praise,
every nation on earth.
The land delivers its harvest,
God, our God, has blessed us.
O God, continue your blessing,
may the whole world worship you. Psalm 67
and/or
My soul, bless the Lord,
bless God’s holy
name!
Bless God, who fills your life with richness
and gives you an
eagle’s strength.
As tender as father to child,
so gentle is God to
believers.
God’s love is from all ages,
God’s justice beyond all time
for believers of
every generation:
those who keep the covenant,
who take care to live
the law.
Bless the Lord, you creatures,
everywhere under God’s rule.
My soul, bless the
Lord!
Psalm 103:1-3a, 5, 13, 17-18, 22
and/or
If God does not build the house,
the builders work in vain.
If God does not watch over the city,
the guards watch in vain.
How foolish to rise early
and slave until night for bread.
Those who please God receive as much
even while they sleep.
Children are God’s gift,
a blessing to those who bear them;
like arrows in the hand of an archer
are children born to the young.
Happy are those with a full quiver;
facing their enemies at the gate,
they stand without shame!
Psalm 127
The minister or
elder offers one of the following prayers and/or free prayer:
Let us pray:
O God,
like a mother who comforts her children,
you sustain, nurture and strengthen us;
like a father who cares for his children,
you look upon us with compassion and goodness.
We give you thanks for the birth (adoption) of N,
and for the joy which has come to this family.
Confirm their joy by a lively sense
of your presence with them.
Give them calm strength and patient wisdom
as they seek to bring this child
to love all that is true and noble,
just and pure,
lovable and gracious,
excellent and admirable,
following the example
of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
or
Creator God,
we give you thanks and praise
for the gift of this child.
We thank you for creating her/him in your image,
and breathing into her/him the breath of life.
We thank you for the love
which these parents have for each other,
and for the welcome they are giving to N.
By the power of the Holy Spirit,
fill their home with love, trust and understanding;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
or
God of infancy and age,
God of youth and maturity,
God in our play and our
work;
we thank you for the gift of N,
who comes to us bearing your image
in her/his own way.
We thank you for this family,
and for the love and care given to N.
Be with N and N
as they seek to guide her/him
in the ways of love and justice,
and strengthen them in the truth and grace
of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
6 THE
BLESSING OF THE CHILD
The minister may touch the child’s head, hands and feet
in the manner indicated:
May God grant you grace
to grow in wisdom and understanding, (touch head)
to work with Christ for justice in the world, (touch hands)
and to walk with the Spirit in the ways of peace (touch feet)
and the blessing of the Holy One,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
be upon you this day and forever more.
The people
respond:
Amen.
7 Dedication
of the parents
The minister addresses the parents:
Do you receive N as a gift from God?
One or both
parents says one of the following:
We thankfully receive N
as a gift from God.
With humility and hope
we dedicate ourselves
to love and care for her/him,
and to set before her/him the Christian faith
by teaching and example.
In this we ask for the power of the Holy Spirit
and the prayers of the church.
or
We thankfully receive N
as a gift from God.
With humility and hope
we dedicate ourselves
to love and care for her/him.
The minister
says:
The church is the family of Christ,
the community in which we grow in faith and commitment.
The people
respond, saying:
We rejoice in God’s blessing of N.
We seek God’s grace to be a community
in which the gospel is truly proclaimed to all.
We will support you and your child,
and pray that through our love
she/he may come to know God’s love.
A gift from the congregation may be given, along with a
suitable certificate.
The gift may be a Bible or New Testament, seeds, a plant or a suitable
children’s book. A candle should not be presented,
as the service of
Baptism provides for one to be given.
9 Concluding
prayer
The following
prayer and/or free prayer is offered:
Gracious God,
you entrusted your Son Jesus
to the protection and care of Mary and Joseph,
their families and community.
You have now entrusted this child N to her/his family.
Strengthen N and N by your Holy Spirit,
and help this congregation
to be a caring community in Christ.
May N be brought by grace
to the sacrament of baptism,
and come, with all your people,
to the fullness of your kingdom of love and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
10 Hymn/SONG
If a hymn/song of praise or thanksgiving was not sung at the beginning of this service, one may be sung here.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In using this service, please acknowledge:
“Used with permission -
National Working Group on Worship
Theology and Discipleship
The Uniting Church in Australia. 1999”.
Blessing
The language of blessing and acts of
blessing are found throughout the whole of Scripture. Christians continue to
pray for blessing from God for themselves and others, and even pronounce
blessings, but our understanding of the nature of blessing in the Christian
context is often quite vague.
In ancient Israelite practice
blessing appears to have had at first a magic-like quality. In the story of
Isaac’s blessing of Jacob it seems that the blessing, once given, operates
irrevocably, even when obtained by deceit. Isaac can neither cancel his blessing
of Jacob nor repeat the blessing for Esau. In time blessing was transformed by
being freed from this magical connection and placed instead in the context of
Israel’s monotheistic faith. It then became clear that it is God who blesses
even though the blessing may be pronounced by priest, prophet or parent. As a
result of this change, and particularly following the entry into Canaan, Yahweh,
who to this point has been known as the God who rescues, delivers and guides, is
known also as the God who blesses. The Old Testament speaks of the requirement
of faith in connection with God’s acts of deliverance, but not necessarily in
connection with God’s acts of blessing.
In the Old Testament, blessing is
bestowed through various symbolic acts and a variety of linguistic formulas. One
of the best known of these formulas is the so-called Aaronic Blessing in Numbers
6:24-26. These blessings had to do with such things as physical well being,
vitality, prosperity and wisdom. Evidence of blessing in a person’s life
included having many descendants, being able to overcome obstacles and enemies
and having fertility of land and cattle. Its spiritual component had to do with
righteousness of life, possession of wisdom and the ability to give wise
counsel. From the person who was blessed, power and goodness flowed out to other
people.
With the coming of Christ, blessing
underwent a further transformation as it began to be understood in relation to
the teaching and work of Christ. This means that in a Christian context,
blessing cannot be imparted and received simply in its Old Testament meaning
(though some of that meaning may be carried over into the new situation).
Blessing still has to do with well being of body, mind and relationships, but
now, even more importantly, it has to do with all that Christ has won for us by
his sacrificial death and glorious resurrection. To be blessed is not only to be
healthy, happy and wise, but also to receive the grace that comes through Jesus
Christ, to live in the love of God and to rejoice in the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit. Through God’s work in Christ, even death is no longer thought to limit
God’s blessing, since the greatest of God’s blessings is life eternal. A
further consequence is that blessing can no longer be recognised automatically
in the outward circumstances of a person’s life, but may be hidden under the
cross and in death, as in the case of martyrs and other faithful servants of
God.
Christian blessing is also of
necessity a trinitarian blessing. A blessing is incorporated into the service of
baptism, in the form of the Aaronic blessing. However, a service of blessing
could be held apart from baptism. Today, there are parents who seek blessing
rather than baptism for their children. This may be either because they wish
their children to have the option to choose baptism for themselves when they are
of an age when they can do so, or because they do not wish to make the
commitments required of parents in the service for the baptism of infants. In
such cases, A Service of Thanksgiving for and Blessing of a Child is appropriate
and has good biblical and theological grounding. The blessing sought from God
for the child is, above all, that she/he will come to know the love of God in
Jesus Christ and receive all the benefits of Christ’s atoning sacrifice.
It must be stressed that the service of blessing of a child is not the same as the sacrament of baptism, and neither parents nor the congregation should confuse the two. There is no use of water, an essential element in baptism. Though we can say that the children of believers are part of the household of faith (1 Corinthians 7:12-16), A Service of Thanksgiving for and Blessing of a Child does not assume that the parents are believers, and it does not join the child to the body of Christ. It does affirm that Christ died for this child, as he did for every child in the world; therefore it hopes for, and looks forward to, the time when the child will recognise this and, in response, seek baptism for her/himself.