4 Advent Video Hymns written for the Worship Design Studio, which created its own separate videos. Recordings and videos by Ken Janzen
Do all the good you can by all the means you can In all the ways you can in all the places you can At all the times you can to all the people you can As long as ever you can (John Wesley)
Searching for the Christmas spirit – Is it heard when angels sing? Is it found in deeds of merit? Is it heard when church bells ring? Come and treasure Jesus’ memory; All the beauty it can bring.
Miracles of human birthing – We but stand in silent awe. God in each and every earthling Gives to life its sacred core. Come and ponder all the mystery of new life that we adore
The outside shed where Jesus lay Was home to goat and ox; It was a dirty place to be; Fit for the shepherds’ flocks;
Theme: The Everywhere God
If we allowed ourselves to meet God everywhere, each day would become a Christmas. Christmas is not so much a season of the year as a season of the human heart.
In the mild mid-summer pleasant winds can blow; Balmy zephyrs soothe us; wafting to and fro; Christmas has its beauty; Mary’s pain is past; Lullaby her first born; parents’ joy at last.
On the theme: The Tree, The Carol, the Child
Christmas is a time to move into the world of images and dreams, a time to allow the 'make believe' happen. Let us be still and reflective.
From the Festive Worship Collection
Theme: Dreamtime Reality -- Season of Hope Thoughts for Reflection To travel hopefully is the mark of a pilgrim. To believe one has arrived is the mark of the insecure.
I invite you into the way I celebrate Christmas. It may be different to the way you celebrate and think about Christmas, but I ask you to join me as I bring you into what I think can be a joyful way of celebration in the 21st Century. One of the biblical scholars has helped me crystallise what I find difficult about the traditional presentations of Christmas. Greg Jenks, in his book ‘Jesus then and Jesus now’ has asked the question, “Has the Jesus tradition become a giant fairy-tale for children, and little more than an annual exercise of ‘let’s pretend’ for grown-ups?” (Page 123) That is the question which plagues me every Christmas.
From the Boundless Life collection
Tiptoe, softly, gently To the Christmas stall; Space where hope is singing Peace on earth for all.
From the Boundless Life collection
God is present in each baby And throughout all time and space, In the chaos and the order, In each tender touch and face.
From the Boundless Life collection
Celebrate at Christmas time Light that only dark can birth, Light in every baby’s eyes, Gift of darkened realms of Earth.
From the Boundless Life collection
Mary, Joseph, Jesus, The characters remain. Shepherds and the angels, Truth travellers’ contain Shaped in ancient story’s Sweet mystical refrain.
From the Boundless Life collection
When the child is at the center, When the babe is in the stall, When the adult nurtures wonder, When the carols warm us all, Then the fragments come together And the vision shines as one
From the Boundless Life collection
My spirit shall rejoice in God Who breaks my chains of guilt and fear; For God upholds each person’s worth Throughout the ages of this Earth.
When Christmas comes it brings great joy; This story of a baby boy; The birth of life - divine event That tells us all of God’s intent To be at one with human life, In all its beauty, all its strife.
From the Boundless Life collection
If cobwebs fill the corners That lurk within our mind Our faith can help us brush aside Each clinging thought we find
From the Boundless Life collection
O child within the Christmas scene Come play with us today. Melt all the ice within our hearts And warm us as we play.
1. God is at hand. A babe is born; Proclaimed to be ‘The Light’; With every morn New light brings dawn: And God is seen anew; And God is seen anew; And God, and God is seen anew.
1. Our world cries out to be reborn: a world of pain, all tossed and torn. Babies born to mothers scarce old enough to yet conceive, like Jesus born to Mary, so young, so fearful, so naive;