By the calendar of Western culture, fifty generations have come and gone since the last millennial change. Our hymnals and worship books do not have services for closing a century or beginning a new one. We are not practiced at observing such a calendar change. Moreover, the culture at large makes plans for exotic and expensive festivities to close out one year and begin another. Christian people live in the larger culture, so we are alert to the festivities planned. What should we make of these festivities? Does the gospel invite us to stand in a special place to look backward and forward at such a moment? If the clock striking midnight on is a doorway to a new future, who is standing on the other side? Is it we who knock on the door to the future? Or, is it the risen Lord who knocks at our observance of time? Worship is the way we encounter the risen One who is the Alpha and Omega and who comes to us in word and sacrament, in song and gesture. In the church’s liturgy God gives us an alternative place to stand. These resources are not finished scripts for you and your congregation to use. They are tools, seeds, and places to stand in seeing the possibilities for gatherings of worship and prayer. Adapt them for use in your community. I am grateful to the participants from across the church who gathered to brainstorm and think together about what is about to transpire in our culture and how we as Christians will want to keep godly time as a new millennium approaches and arrives: Anne Burnette Hook, Barbara Bate, Roger C. Dowdy, Mary J. Scifres, David Bone, Erin Foster, Cliff Guthrie, Marion Jackson, Mamie Ko, Blair Meeks, Lanecia Rouse, Dwight W. Vogel, and Jill Morgan. I am grateful for Joane Pettus who provided staff support for the consultation and, indeed, for the whole project. I am also thankful for each contributor to the rich and varied resources that follow. I offer a special word of gratitude to Roger Dowdy who served as editor-compiler for this project.
Daniel T. Benedict, Jr.
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| Introduction | Preface | Contents | Copyright | | Millennial Perspectives | Worship and Study Resources | | Seven Days of Praise and Prayer |Prayer and Worship for a Jubilee Week | The Last Letter: Revelation’s News | Repairing the World: God's Gift of Jubilee | Hymns | Additional Liturgical Resources | Appendix |
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his resource was developed and produced by The General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church with the expectation that many congregations will want to pray and worship God as the world begins a new century.