Love Works

Rev Dr Moira Laidlaw

A note from Moira about Liturgies Online
I was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and have been married to John for 57 years and resident of Australia since 1955 - with Australian citizenship about ten years later.  We came out here on our honeymoon planning to stay for only two years and are still here in this beautiful and much warmer environment!

We have 3 adult children, 6 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. God’s call to ministry came when I was “over the hill” figuratively speaking – I was ordained as a Minister of the Word in the Uniting Church in Australia in 1982, serving as parish minister in two Uniting Church settlements - one in Sydney and one in Central West NSW.

I retired early to pursue a further call to write liturgies related to the lectionary. These liturgies grew out of my attaining the Doctor of Ministry degree through San Francisco Theological Seminary back in 1992. My dissertation/project concerned The Use of Art Forms in the Worship of the Uniting Church in Australia, concentrating on writing liturgies with Australian imagery and resources wherever possible. 

There were not many liturgical resources with such imagery available at that time but thankfully there are many more available online these days.

These liturgies are therefore presented as an aid for ministers, worship leaders, and lay ministry teams.   The download  containing years A, B and C is my final contribution to worship and liturgy after writing and revising the liturgies over a period of 15 plus years.

 The liturgies contained in this download are revised versions of those previously published online. Some of the liturgies contain additional new material and all liturgies except Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Holy Week have a sermon included.  These Holy Week liturgies are meditations in themselves. Extra liturgies are provided for family services for Christmas Eve and Day and for Good Friday.

Many of these sermons are revised from ones used in past years and whilst including acknowledgement where possible, I apologise for the lack of any acknowledgment of material used when I first wrote these sermons.

I believe some material in the enclosed sermons would have been taken from Mediacom’s Pulpit Resource magazines of past years. Ideas would also have come from that wonderful Journal – Weavings -  now available for viewing at upperroom.org . This digital journal is an invaluable source of material for preachers.

In Powerpoint Images – I have added a few mostly single slides relating to the Word with Children.  The Powerpoint files are listed in order in their relevant year and I have added their file names in related liturgies. 

The two presentations entitled ‘God speaks to me’ are intended for reflection and meditation and are not related to any particular liturgies.

The liturgies in this download are as easy to access as the liturgies online.

Year A relates to  readings mostly from Mathew, with Year B mostly from Mark, and Year C mostly from Luke.

I am happy for you to use the material in this download with the knowledge that ownership of the worship material presented in this download belongs to Moira Laidlaw.

Hymns used in the liturgies are from The Australian Hymn Book or Together In Song unless otherwise indicated, and the New Revised Standard Version is the recommended Bible.

Congregational responses are indented.

I hope you find the material helpful and inspiring.

On a personal note, I would like to acknowledge and give thanks for the many encouraging sentiments expressed over the years by my many email ‘friends’ from all over the world.

God bless,

Moira Laidlaw.
B.A., Dip.Theol., D.Min.