The Year of Luke is the first in a series of commentaries on biblical scripture found in the three-year cycle of Christian liturgical readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. Instead of interpreting these readings as a precursor …

For reasons I cannot explain, I have often find myself as an adult mired in a bit of darkness during the Christmas holidays. This year has been no exception. I am a little surprised, since I have …

DECEMBER 4, 2012 BY BRUCE SANGUIN Visit Bruce’s Site Here We tend to associate Advent with a season of waiting for the birth of the baby Jesus. Yet on the first Sunday of Advent, year after year, …

This past Saturday night, my wife Roberta and I stood with a group of people on Hollywood Boulevard, holding flickering candles. Passers-by might have assumed we were Christmas caroling. But we were holding a vigil for the …

(From a sermon I gave at Mt Hollywood Congregational Church on 12/2, the first Sunday of Advent.) On one seemingly ordinary day over 2000 years ago, a seemingly ordinary girl had an extraordinary rebirth. Mary abruptly experienced …

Minister: May it be well with you.
All: And also with you.

Minister: Life is a gift and we are to celebrate it.
All: May we rejoice in the beauty of this special time.

A baby waits in a dark, warm womb
Lulled by the sway of a donkey’s walk

Leader: It is a night of anticipation, a night of waiting.
People: We wait, as Mary and Joseph waited for the birth of their son.

I am what comes before sand and sandstone
Chickens and eggs.
I am the unproven truth
On which all proofs depend.

Advent comes again
time for watching and waiting
fill your days with hope

My soul sings in gratitude.

I’m dancing in the mystery of God.

The light of the Holy One is within me

and I am blessed, so truly blessed.

We believe in an Ultimate Reality,
a reality beyond our words
and beyond our images,
a reality that grounds and sustains everything that exists.

Leader: In this Advent season, we honor a time in history when people anticipated the birth of a child.
People: The child grew to be a man who gave hope to his people.

This service is a response to loving the traditional 9 lessons and carols but being aware that starting with ‘the fall of man’ is not the main Good News that our progressive church wants to express to our surrounding community members when they come to church once a year for Christmas carols!

English and Spanish verses of the song traditionally sung as Joseph and Mary search for shelter.

On December 12, 1531, on a hill where the goddess Tonantzin had been worshipped before the Spanish conquest of Mexico, the Virgin Mary appeared to an Indian peasant named Juan Diego. This dark-skinned apparition became known as the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Compassionate, Intelligent, Inter-Spiritual, Non-Dogmatic

Progressive Christian Spiritual Curriculum that is Compassionate, Intelligent, Inter-Spiritual, and Non-Dogmatic. This is Year One of our A Joyful Path curriculum for ages 6-10. 38 Lessons.