For December 24, 2008 -- Christmas Eve

CALL TO WORSHIP
The time has come! The promised one is nigh!
Even now the labour pains can be felt, birth is at hand!
Tonight new hope is born. Tonight the world will be changed.
Tonight we come together to sing with angels and wonder with shepherds. Tonight we celebrate the promise of new life.
We have been called to this place in hope.
We worship the one who is born in our lives this day.

Offering Prayer
God of gifts, tomorrow morning many of us will gather around brightly decorated trees,
there we will pause to open gifts lovingly shared between family and friends.
Tonight we give these gifts to the child in the manger.
Tonight we offer our treasures and ourselves to the Prince of Peace.
May the gifts we offer here be our Christmas gift to the world.
May the gifts we offer tonight and tomorrow be signs of love and hope. May they make the light of the world shine brighter. We pray in the name of the child who is born tonight. Amen.

COMMISSIONING AND BENEDICTION
The child is born, the labour pains start to fade.
The shepherds and the angels have sung their songs.
We go out into the night of a world being changed.
We go out to be midwives in the birth of a new world.
Birth is a scary and exciting time,
a time of wonder and hope about what will come next.
As we go out into the world that is being born we carry with us the hope we find in the child who lies in the manger. We carry with us the songs of peace, goodwill towards all. We carry with us the promise of God to be active in the world.
May we share the hope, promise, and joy of Christmas with all we meet! Christ is born! Alleluia!