What's New, September 2026
The summer season seems to pass by so fast. We pray that you have found time for enjoyment, fun, and play as well as relaxation and restoration of body, mind, and spirit. We also think of all of you who have been dealing with flooding, fires, grief and other challenging situations over these past months.
In each What’s New, we seek to give you links to inspiration for your worship planning, making the process just a little bit easier amid all the other aspects of being in ministry or a lay worship leader.
We also hope you will join us for the Gathering Webinar on October 28th as we tour GatheringWorship.ca and hear from you about how you use the Gathering website. Details are found in this September email.
As the long weekend approaches and a new season of church life is engaged, we offer the following:
For the Sunday of Labour Day weekend
- Servants of God, Come in from the Fields and Homes and Workplaces: a call to worship
- In the Homes, Let Labour Cease: a call to Worship
- Compassionate God, on This Labour Day Weekend: a prayer
- Leisure without Purpose: a sermon idea
- God Has Conceived Us as Children of Light and Grace: a commissioning
- From This Place of Prayer and Praising: a hymn
For the First Sunday after Summer Holidays
- Holy Mystery, the Very Ground of our Being: a prayer
- Ever-present God, Yet another School, College, and University Year Begins: a prayer
- A Prayer as School Resumes: a psalm
- Back-to-School Prayers: for parents, students, teachers, grandparents and all who want to surround students and teachers in prayer
For Orange Shirt Day and the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation – September 30
- Orange Shirt Day and Indigenous Artists: information
- A Prayer as We Wear Orange: a prayer and an invitation to action
- Holy One, Child of Life, Great Spirit, We Meet You in the Company of Ancestors: a prayer
- Creator God, History Has Brought Us Together on the Lands that Have Become Known as Canada: a prayer
For World Communion Sunday – October 4
- It Takes a Variety of Ingredients to Make Bread: a call to worship
- Wheat, Barley, Rye, Maize, Oats Rice: a call to worship
- Our Presence Here This Morning Is an Act of Commitment to the Communion of Faith: a prayer
- Bread Recipes for All Sorts of Communion: a download
- A Great Thanksgiving for World Communion: a prayer
- Wheat in the Fields: a hymn
- Grain: a hymn (with video and music download)
For the Fall Season of Worship
The Revised Common Lectionary moves us through the gospel of Matthew and invites reflection on themes of fairness and forgiveness, justice and generosity. It also continues the journey with Moses as the Hebrew people flee enslavement and are shaped by their journey in the wilderness. We encounter Joshua and Deborah. The church year ends with Matthew’s familiar but often misinterpreted parable of the sheep and goats, a parable about how we live as disciples in the here and now, not a description of the afterlife. As requested by our subscribers, we provide these two documents for easy access until the end of the Pentecost 2 season:
All of the prayers and services for this season are also added individually into GatheringWorship.ca and available for future reference. Be sure to tag as Favourites the ones you like the most and will want to use in the future.
We appreciate that you do not share these files with other churches or colleagues who do not subscribe to Gathering. Please explain to them why you use Gathering and invite them to subscribe.
Please take a moment and send along your original worship ideas, prayers and services to Gathering. Just send them as is, and we will do the editing! Gathering works best when we share our resources and inspiration! Your contributions make Gathering the rich resource it is supporting worship leaders across Canada!
It is such a blessing and a privilege to plan and lead worship. Many blessings for the unfolding of worship as you move into the fall season!
Susan & Alydia
