Fauntleroy Church, United Church of Christ

Sunday Worship - September 06, 2026

Welcome to worship at Fauntleroy Church, United Church of Christ! We are so glad to have you with us today. Here are a few helpful notes and asks as you prepare to worship:

Mask-only designated pews are available at the back of the sanctuary, on the entrance side. We ask that all who sit there do wear a mask to honor the needs and comfort of others in that section.
Please remember to silence your cell phone during worship.
Our Sanctuary features a hearing loop system designed to enhance audio clarity for individuals utilizing hearing aids or cochlear implants. To connect, please adjust your device to the T-coil (telecoil) setting. Wireless receivers are also available at the rear of the Sanctuary.
Please be aware that we livestream our worship on our Fauntleroy Church YouTube channel. For the care and safety of children, our camera focus will be blurred during the Time with Children that recurs weekly. Parents should know that children still might momentarily be shown on our recordings if they come forward for music, communion or a role in leading worship.
If desired, Sunday School and Childcare are available. See the back of this bulletin for details.
As an open and affirming congregation, the members and staff of Fauntleroy Church are committed to fostering community among people of all races, cultures, gender identities, and sexual orientations.

Fauntleroy Church gathers on the traditional, sacred lands and waterways of the Coast Salish peoples, specifically the Duwamish People, the first people of Seattle. We honor, with respect and gratitude, these original and ongoing stewards of this beautiful place who have cared for it and called it home for time immemorial. We acknowledge the harms that white settlers and the Church caused our indigenous siblings and their ongoing struggles due to that displacement and dispossession. We recognize God’s longing for us to repent and repair our relationship and commit to join with them to work for justice and the care of this land.

*Asterisks invite those who are comfortable to please stand.

PRELUDE Mayumi Tayake

WELCOME Rev. Leah Atkinson Bilinski

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENGAGEMENT Irene Stewart

*CALL TO WORSHIP / OPENING PRAYER (responsive) Gordy Mandt

Proclamations of God drawn from Exodus. The first two were spoken to Moses in Exodus 3; the final (“Let my people go”) was repeatedly spoken to Pharaoh through Moses and his brother, Aaron, in Exodus 5-10.

Leader: God has proclaimed, “I will be who I will be,” “I will be where I will be,” “I will be when I will be.”

RESPONSE: IN OTHER WORDS, GOD IS EVERYWHERE AND EVERY-WHEN, UNCONTAINED, UNBOUNDED, AND ALWAYS DYNAMIC.

Leader: God has proclaimed, “Certainly, I will be with you!”

RESPONSE: AND IT IS SO. HERE IN WORSHP, IT IS SO. IN EVERY PERSON’S STRUGGLES, IT IS SO. IN STRIVINGS FOR JUSTICE THAT FEEL INSURMOUNTABLE, IT IS SO.

Leader: God has proclaimed, “Let my people go!”

RESPONSE: TO THESE PROCLAMATIONS, WE ALIGN OUR WORSHIP AND OUR LIVES, BEGINNING ANEW IN THIS HOUR.

Leader: Holy One, open our minds and hearts in all the ways you need, we need and the world needs.

RESPONSE: STRENGTHEN US IN COMMUNITY, PRAISE AND PRAYER. GROW IN US GRACE, FAITH AND LOVE-DRIVEN RESOLVE. WORK YOUR PURPOSE OUT IN US AND THROUGH US. WE ARE HERE. WE ARE YOURS. AMEN.

*OPENING HYMN No. 70, v.1,3,4 “God is Here! As We Your People Meet”

Words: Fred Pratt Green, 1978; alt. Music: ABBOT’S LEIGH Cyril V. Taylor, 1941. Renewed 1970 by Hope Publishing Co. Used with permission of OneLicense.net Annual License with podcasting, No. A-727720.

A TIME FOR CHILDREN Pastor Leah

SINGING THE CHILDREN OUT (children may leave for Sunday School if they’d like)

Go now in peace, go now in peace.

May the love of God surround you,

Everywhere, everywhere, you may go.

SCRIPTURE READING Exodus 12:1-14 and 27b-30 Gordy Mandt

Bible translation: NRSVUE except verse 14, which Pastor Leah has edited to more sensitively reflect the Hebrew words depicting the Passover meal as a memorialization and a feast to memorialize.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall memorialize it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance… And the people bowed down and worshipped.

The Israelites went and did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his officials and all the Egyptians; and there was a loud cry in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.

SERMON “Let My People Go” Pastor Leah

HYMN No. 572, v.1,3,4 “Go Down, Moses”

African-American Spiritual in the public domain. We sing with reverence and commitment.

When Israel was in Egypt land, Let my people go,

Oppressed so hard they could not stand, Let my people go.

Refrain: Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land,

Tell old Pharaoh to let my people go.

No more in bondage shall they toil, Let my people go.

Nor spill their blood on Egypt’s soil, Let my people go. (Refrain)

Oh, let us all from bondage flee, Let my people go,

And let us all in Christ be free, Let my people go. (Refrain)

INVITATION TO GENEROSITY Gordy Mandt

OFFERTORY Zach Fitzgerald and Mayumi Tayake

*SUNG RESPONSE No. 278, v.1 “Creator God, Creating Still”

Words: Jane Parker Huber, 1977; rev. 1993. Music: William Croft, 1708.

Creator God, creating still, by will and word and deed,

Create a new humanity to meet the present need.

*PRAYER OF DEDICATION (unison) Gordy Mandt

God of justice and deliverance, bless this offering and all the ways we seek to participate in your saving ways. Bless also the Lavender Rights Project and its Black, Trans and gender-expansive leaders. May your hand be upon their work to raise voices, shift power, empower movements, expand community and care, and work for liberation with unrelenting determination. Amen.

INVITATION TO CHRIST’S TABLE Pastor Leah

COMMUNION HYMN No. 330 , v.1-2 “Let Us Break Bread Together”

African-American Spiritual in the public domain. We sing with reverence and commitment. Out of respect, we do not change the words of spirituals, but if you need not sing “drink wine” for reasons of your own struggles, you can simply hold silent space on those words or think, “share love” -- which of course, is what Jesus did with his life-blood we invite into our being.

PASTORAL PRAYER

THE LORD’S PRAYER (unison)

Our Father/Mother/Creator, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

WE REMEMBER THE STORY TOGETHER Pastor Leah and Gordy Mandt

*WE COME TO CHRIST’S TABLE

Ushers will release you pew by pew down the center aisle for communion. When you come to the trays, please take a cube of bread (all bread is gluten-free) and a chalice of juice and return to your seat via the side aisles. We will partake of the bread and juice together after all have been served.

Our church practices an open table of extravagant welcome. You do not need to be a member of this church, of a certain age, or have your faith or beliefs all figured out to partake of communion. If you simply desire to better know the Divine with this community of Christ’s people, you will find meaning at Christ’s table.

*SHARING OUR THANKSGIVING

In “passing the peace” style, you are invited to greet others and share “I give thanks for you in the body of Christ!”   

*BENEDICTION Pastor Leah

*CLOSING HYMN No. 578, v.1,3,4 “Profetiza” (“Prophecy, My People”)

Words and Music: Rosa Martha Zarate Macias, 1989; rev. 1994. Transl. New Century Hymnal, 1994. Harm. Raquel Gutierrez-Achon, 1993. Used with permission of OneLicense.net Annual License with podcasting No. A-727720.

We will sing the English except for the final refrain that will end the song, which you are invited to sing in Spanish. For those unfamiliar with the Spanish language, here is a transliteration that *might* be helpful to your pronunciation. Words in parentheses are where the end of one word and the beginning of another are squeezed into one note:

Pro-fay-tee-zuh, Pway-bloh me-oh, pro-fay-tee-(zahoon)-nah vayz mahs.

Kay too vohs (sayehl) ay-co dehl clah-more day lohs Pway-blohs ehn oh-preh-(seeohn).

Pro-fay-tee-zuh, Pway-bloh me-oh, pro-fay-tee-(zahoon)-nah vayz mahs.

Ah-noon-(seeahn)-doh-(layah) los poh-brays oon-nah (nooay)-vah so-(seeah)-dahd.

POSTLUDE

OFFERING: If you did not bring an offering with you today, we invite you to give at www.fauntleroyucc.org

Thank you for considering how you can support the work of this congregation.

Leah Atkinson Bilinski, Senior Pastor

Karyn Frazier, Associate Pastor

Zachary Fitzgerald, Music Director

Mayumi Tayake, Accompanist

Sarah Ackers, Volunteer & Engagement Coordinator

Allen Lambert, Caretaker

Aimee Pinckney, Financial Assistant

Pat Gedney, Financial Assistant

Carol Gilderoy, Lead Sunday School Teacher

Carol Smith, Nursery Supervisor

Sebastian Dwyer, Nursery Assistant

Kyle Lorenzen, Office Manager & Worship Technician

Jackie Gould, Building Coordinator

Alfred Machacon, Event Coordinator

Tyler Torres, Faith Formation Coordinator

Thanks to the following volunteers, who make Sunday mornings happen:

Building Opener: Steve Garrett

Usher Team: Pam Goldfine – captain, Jane Leonard, Tim Richards

Greeter: Joan Wieringa and Jenny Mandt

Sound Tech: Katie Ackers

Liturgist: Gordy Mandt

Communion Prep: Julie Huff and Wendy Cwinar

Nursery: Carol Smith and Sebastian Dwyer

Sunday School: Carol Gilderoy, Day Eaton, Tyler Torres

Coffee Hour: Judy Bevers and Allison Wetzel

Opportunities for Engagement: Irene Stewart