We hear God's CALL TO WORSHIP in Psalm 66:7-8
Bless our God, you peoples;
make the voice of his praise to be heard;
who holds our souls in life,
and will not allow our feet to slip.
We listen in silence for God's still small voice, CENTERING ourselves, becoming aware of God's presence within us and around us
We respond to God with ADORATION using the words of Richard Baxter
We praise and glorify you our Lord and owner, for we and all things are your own. We praise and glorify you our king and ruler, for we are your subjects, and our perfect obedience is your due. Just are all your laws and judgment; true and sure is all your Word. We praise and glorify you, our great benefactor. In you we live, and move, and are: all that we are, or have, or can do, is wholly from you, the cause of all; and all is for you, for you are our end. Delightfully to love you is our greatest duty, and our only felicity, for you are love itself, and infinitely amiable. Amen.
We hear God’s CALL TO REPENTANCE in Romans 8:38-39 and Joel 2:13
I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from God’s love, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God; for he indeed is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and plenteous in love, and relents of the evil.
We respond with CONFESSION using the words of the Anselm of Canterbury
Lord, I am bowed down and can only look downward; raise me up that I may look upward. My iniquities have gone over my head; they overwhelm me; and, like a heavy load, they weigh me down. Free me from them; unburden me, that the pit of iniquities may not close over me.
Be it mine to look up to your light, even from afar, even from the depths. Teach me to seek you, and reveal yourself to me, when I seek you, for I cannot seek you, except you teach me, nor find you, except you reveal yourself. Let me seek you in longing, let me long for you in seeking; let me find you in love, and love you in finding
We hear God’s teaching for our lives in THE READING OF THE LAW in Deuteronomy 6:4–9
Hear, Israel:
The Lord is our God,
the Lord is one,
and you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your might.
These words, which I command you this day, shall be on your heart;
and you shall teach them diligently to your children,
and shall talk of them when you sit in your house,
and when you walk by the way,
and when you lie down,
and when you rise up.
You shall bind them for a sign on your hand,
and they shall be for symbols between your eyes.
You shall write them on the door-posts of your house,
and on your gates.
We PRAISE God in the INVITATORY PSALM, the VenitePsalm 95:1-7 · Venite, exultemus
1O come, let us sing to the Lord; *
let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.
2Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, *
and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.
3For the Lord is a great God, *
and a great King above all gods.
4In his hand are all the corners of the earth, *
and the strength of the hills is his also.
5The sea is his, and he made it; *
and his hands prepared the dry land.
6O come, let us worship and bow down, *
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.
7For he is the Lord our God, *
and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
Gloria Patri
Glory be to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
As it was in the beginning,
is now and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
We PRAISE God in THE PSALM OF THE DAYPsalm 128 · Beati omnes
1Happy are they all who fear the Lord, *
and who follow in his ways!
2You shall eat the fruit of your labor; *
happiness and prosperity shall be yours.
3Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house, *
your children like olive shoots round about your table.
4The man who fears the Lord *
shall thus indeed be blessed.
5The Lord bless you from Zion, *
and may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.
6May you live to see your children’s children; *
may peace be upon Israel.
We pray a PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION in the words of Thomas Cranmer in the Book of Common Prayer (1549)
Blessed Lord, you have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning — grant us that we may in such a way hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them; that by patience and comfort of your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
We hear God speaking to us in THE READING for the dayGenesis 27:1–29
Monday, 26 January 2026 · Ordinary Time
1When Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, “My son?”
He said to him, “Here I am.”
2He said, “See now, I am old. I don’t know the day of my death. 3Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and get me venison. 4Make me savoury food, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, and that my soul may bless you before I die.”
5Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. 6Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Behold, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, 7‘Bring me venison, and make me savoury food, that I may eat, and bless you before the LORD before my death.’ 8Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command you. 9Go now to the flock and get me two good young goats from there. I will make them savoury food for your father, such as he loves. 10You shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death.”
11Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. 12What if my father touches me? I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I would bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing.”
13His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go get them for me.”
14He went, and got them, and brought them to his mother. His mother made savoury food, such as his father loved. 15Rebekah took the good clothes of Esau, her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son. 16She put the skins of the young goats on his hands, and on the smooth of his neck. 17She gave the savoury food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
18He came to his father, and said, “My father?”
He said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
19Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done what you asked me to do. Please arise, sit and eat of my venison, that your soul may bless me.”
20Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?”
He said, “Because the LORD your God gave me success.”
21Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”
22Jacob went near to Isaac his father. He felt him, and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23He didn’t recognise him, because his hands were hairy, like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him. 24He said, “Are you really my son Esau?”
He said, “I am.”
25He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s venison, that my soul may bless you.”
He brought it near to him, and he ate. He brought him wine, and he drank. 26His father Isaac said to him, “Come near now, and kiss me, my son.” 27He came near, and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him, and said,
“Behold, the smell of my son
is as the smell of a field which the LORD has blessed.
28God give you of the dew of the sky,
of the fatness of the earth,
and plenty of grain and new wine.
29Let peoples serve you,
and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers.
Let your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you.
Blessed be everyone who blesses you.”
World English Bible. Or read it at Bible Gateway in the NRSV: Genesis 27:1–29 · the short form, Genesis 27:24–29.
We REFLECT in silence
We greet the day with THE SONG OF ZECHARIAH, the Benedictus Luke 1:68-79
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
he has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior,
born of the house of his servant David.
Through his holy prophets he promised of old,
that he would save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant.
This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham,
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
Free to worship him without fear,
holy and righteous in his sight
all the days of our life.
You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
To give his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
We pray the LORD'S PRAYER as Jesus taught his disciples, in those words which are most meaningful to us
Our [ Father / Mother / Creator ] in heaven,
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done on earth
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our [ trespasses / sins ]
as we forgive those who [ trespass / sin ] against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
We pray a PRAYER OF INTERCESSION in the words of John Bradford
Let your mighty hand and outstretched arm, Lord,
be still our defense;
your mercy and loving kindness in Jesus Christ your dear Son,
our salvation;
your true and holy Word,
our instruction;
your grace and Holy Spirit,
our comfort and consolation
unto the end, and in the end.
Amen
We silently pray PERSONAL PRAYER
Followed by
Amen
We pray a PRAYER FOR UNITY OF ALL PEOPLE
God, you have made of one blood all nations of the earth, and your will is that all your children should be gathered into one family of love: break down, we pray you, the walls that divide us; deliver us from hardness of heart and from contempt for those who differ from us; and hasten the time when all shall dwell together in that peace which passes understanding, knowing you as Father and one another as brothers and sisters; through Jesus Christ our Lord, in whom there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but all are one. Amen.
We pray a PRAYER OF GENERAL THANKSGIVING in the words of Hugh Cameron
For the life which you have given and preserved,
the world in which we dwell,
and the hope of everlasting blessedness,
we thank you, O God.
For the pains and distresses which have moulded us as clay is moulded by the potter,
and for the consolations which so often like springs in the desert have refreshed our weariness,
we thank you, O God.
For comfort and help in sorrow,
in pain,
in bereavement,
and when flesh and heart failed,
we thank you, O God.
For the warnings of your spirit speaking to our spirits when the sky was bright and all people spoke well of us,
we thank you, O God.
For the life and doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ,
for his love and sacrifice,
for his boundless compassion,
and for the glorious company of those who have followed him in weakness unto victory,
we thank you, O God.
A concluding BENEDICTION or blessing Numbers 6:24-26
The Lord bless us and keep us;
the Lord make his face to shine upon us,
and be gracious to us;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon us,
and give us peace.
Amen.