Cosmic Mystery Series
Come embrace the Christmas child, Child of every human birth, Birth in stable, home or ward,
Cosmic Mystery Series
Come embrace the child of Christmas, Child of every human birth, Birth in stable, ward or dwelling,
Join us as we celebrate the Advent season with a Christmas Concert from our choir!
"Blue Christmas" services, which take place to support people struggling emotionally during the holiday season, are becoming more common. This song was written for such services. Ken Janzen sings and plays the instruments.
4 Advent Video Hymns written for the Worship Design Studio, which created its own separate videos. Recordings and videos by Ken Janzen
Blessed Christmas-tide even in a particularly bleak mid-winter. One carol includes a metaphorical rose blooming in darkest winter.
'Seeds of Peace' is set to the carol-tune O little town of Bethlehem. It's sung by a Children's choir in London.
This recording features Alice Wildermuth O'Sullivan playing her own arrangements of Christmas Carols on piano, augmented by bell instruments. As an organist and church musician in Lutheran churches for years, Alice developed these arrangements, some dating back to her first Christmas as a church organist when she was five.
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)
These timely new verses seek to update the spirit and language of the carol to today’s earth, “torn with strife,” while reflecting the Old Testament insight that nature sings joyously in honor of the creator.
"Las Posadas" is an old Mexican tradition enacting the effort by Mary and Joseph to find a place to stay on Christmas Eve. Actors depicting Mary and Joseph wander from "inn" to "inn" asking for a room, with a singing candlelight procession following them through the town. Here I offer my own words for the tune:
The Christmas poem, “Immanuel: God Within and Among Us” was written for the Centennial Christmas Cantata to celebrate the centennial of First Congregational Church of Long Beach's historic building. Below is a the video of the performance.
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.
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.
From the Boundless Life collection
To our winters Jesus brings Light and warmth and dancing, Melting frozen lives and hearts, Freeing and enhancing.