service Order of

Reception Of The Body

Celebrant: With faith in Jesus, we receive the body of our brother GEOFFREYfor burial. Our brother was washed in Holy Baptism and anointed with the Holy Spirit. Let us therefore, with confidence, pray to God our Heavenly Father, the Giver of life, that He will raise him to perfection in the company of the Saints.

Celebrant: The Lord be with you.

ALL: And also, with you.

Celebrant: Let us Pray.

O God of grace and glory, we remember before you this day our brother GEOFFREY. We thank you for giving him to us, his family, and friends, to know and love as a companion on our earthy pilgrimage. In your boundless compassion, console us who mourn. Give us faith to see in death the gate of eternal life, so that in quiet confidence, we ma y continue our course on earth, until by your call, we are reunited with those who have gone before, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

ALL: Amen.

Celebrant: Jesus said, I am the resurrection, and I am the life, he who believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live, and who ever lives and believes in me shall never die. John 11:25-26

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His compassion never fails; every morning they are renewed. Lamentations 3:22-23

Jesus said, let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. John 14:1.

I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39.

If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end, Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Romans 14:8-9.

We brought nothing into the world, and we take nothing out. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away: Blessed be the name of the Lord. Job 1:21.

The eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. Deuteronomy 33:27.

INTROIT HYMN | Jerusalem the Golden Alexander Ewing (1830-1895)

Jerusalem the golden, with milk and honey blest, beneath thy contemplation sink heart and voice oppressed: I know not, oh, I know not, what joys await us there; what radiancy of glory, what bliss beyond compare!

They stand, those halls of Zion, all jubilant with song, and bright with many an angel, and all the martyr throng: the Prince is ever in them, the daylight is serene; the pastures of the blessèd are decked in glorious sheen.

There is the throne of David; and there, from care released, the shout of them that triumph, the song of them that feast; and they who with their Leader have conquered in the fight, for ever and for ever are clad in robes of white.

Oh, sweet and blessèd country, the home of God’s elect! Oh, sweet and blessèd country, that eager hearts expect! Jesus, in mercy bring us to that dear land of rest, who art, with God the Father, and the Spirit, ever blest.

Celebrant: Let us pray.

Almighty God, we remember before you today your servant Geoffrey and we pray that, having opened to him the gates of larger life you will receive him more and more into your joyful service that, with all who have served you in the past, he may share in the eternal victory of Jesus Christ our Lord; Who lives and reigns with You, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

Congregation: Amen.

The congregation sits for the Liturgy of the Word

-The Liturgy of The Word-