Visual Suggestions for Pentecost

The Hermano Leon Clipart site has a variety of Pentecost images (both colour and black & white) available on their website.  (The image above is one of them.)

Dorothy Okray is offering some free PowerPoint slides for Pentecost on her Church PowerPoint website. 

You can also find PowerPoint slides for Pentecost on Will Hume’s Word and Table: Preaching and Worship Resources for the Busy Pastor.  Hume has also made available Bulletin Art for Pentecost.  

John Stuart is offering Pentecost bulletin cover/art on Flickr.  

ForMinistry.com has made available a selection of images for Pentecost.  You can access them here. 

If you’re looking for traditional art images for Pentecost, check out the great selection at Biblical Art on the WWW. (Just type in Pentecost, and click the “artwork have this word/phrase in its title” button.)  Also check out the collection of Pentecost images on the Art in the Christian Tradition website (Vanderbilt).  

The Church Health Reader website is offering a Pentecost slideshow which you can download and use free of charge.

For more creative worship resources for Pentecost, click on Pentecost in the list of "Labels" at the lower right side of the page.

Image: Road to Emmaus

This intriguing image is Road to Emmaus, by American artist, Adam Howie.  Notice the different shadows created by each of the figures (a cross, question mark, exclamation mark).  This is just one of a series of pieces he has created on the Emmaus Road.  You can see more of his artwork at his website, Red Bubble. 

For more worship resources for the third Sunday of Easter, click on Easter 3 in the list of “Labels” to the lower right.

Images for the 3rd Sunday of Easter

If you’re looking for Emmaus Road images for May 8, 2011, check out the collection on the Hermano Leon Clipart site. There's a wide variety there, both traditional and contemporary.  

For more worship resources for the third Sunday of Easter, click on Easter 3 in the list of “Labels” to the lower right.

Image: "Road to Emmaus"

The image at the top of this post is Road to Emmaus, by contemporary Irish artist, John Dunne.

He explains: "I have attempted to get the viewer to ask a particular question: What effect can the meeting of a stranger have on us? We know the events that followed the meeting of the two disciples on that road, but they did not recognize the Christ until he broke the bread with them (Luke 24:13-35). Most of the works on this theme show this moment. This is my attempt to take a fresh view of this wonderful event."

You can see more of Dunne’s art on his website. 

For more worship resources for the third Sunday of Easter, click on Easter 3 in the list of “Labels” to the lower right.

Easter Prayer

When everything was dark
and it seemed that the sun would never shine again,
your love broke through.

Your love was too strong,
too wide,
too deep
for death to hold.

The sparks cast by your love
dance and spread
and burst forth
with resurrection light.

Gracious God,
we praise you for the light of new life
made possible through Jesus.

We praise you for the light of new life
that shone on the first witnesses of resurrection.

We praise you for the light of new life
that continues to shine in our hearts today.

We pray that the Easter light of life, hope and joy,
will live in us each day;
and that we will be bearers of that light
into the lives of others.
Amen.

—Michaela Youngson, Superintendent Minister of the Ealing Trinity Circuit,

posted on The Methodist Church in Britain’s Open to the World website.

The image at the top of this post is by Richard Lyall.  He has made this image available for non-commercial use in worship. You can see more of his intriguing images on his website, Pilgrim’s Progress: In Relentless Pursuit of REAL…. 

 

For other prayers for Easter, see Easter Prayer II and Easter Prayer of Petition.

Litany for Good Friday

Deliver Us and Give us Peace

Lord Jesus,
by your cross and resurrection
deliver us
by your witness to the truth
deliver us
by your passion and death
deliver us
by your victory over the grave
deliver us
from the lust of power
deliver us
from the conspiracy of silence
deliver us
from the worship of weapons
deliver us
from the slaughter of innocents
deliver us
from the nightmare of hunger
deliver us
from the peace that is no peace
deliver us
from security that is no security
deliver us
from the politics of terror
deliver us
from the plundering of the earth's resources
deliver us
from the dispossession of the poor
deliver us
from the despair of this age
deliver us
by the light of the gospel
give us peace
by the good news for the poor
give us peace
by your healing of our wounds
give us peace
by faith in your word
give us peace
by hunger and thirst for justice
give us peace
by the coming of your kingdom
give us peace
Amen.

 

—John Davies, England

From Let Justice Roll Down: A Worship Resource for Lent, Holy Week and Easter, edited by Geoffrey Duncan; published by Pilgrim Press (August 2004).  Posted on the Education for Justice website. 

The image at the top of this post comes from Hermano Leon Clipart.  Visit his site to find many more wonderful images, free for use in worship.

For other prayers and litanies for Good Friday, see Prayer for Good Friday and Good Friday Prayer of Praise and Confession.

Image: Crown of Thorns

Richard Lyall has made this image available for non-commercial use in worship. 

If you’re interested in seeing more of his intriguing images, visit his website, Pilgrim’s Progress: In Relentless Pursuit of REAL….   He’s also made a number of other Easter fractal images available at EngageWorship.org (you’ll need to register on that site in order to access them).

Lyall is sharing the images under a Creative Commons license, so they can be used for non-commercial purposes but not sold or used in any other media (online or otherwise) with prior consent.