As I’m writing this commentary, the news is filled with chatter about another anniversary observance of January sixth. It’s not about the liturgical religious observance known as the Epiphany, of course; but the third-year anniversary of those days surrounding the political insurrection in our nation’s Capital.
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,
Decades ago, I wrote a blessing prayer for this season that began with a reference to nothing but a flicker of hope in “the fading glory of these autumn days, when night creeps early on to darkness; and leaves us, bound in shadows, longing for the light.” And yet, it remains that flicker of hope that I want to write about.
Join us as we celebrate the Advent season with a Christmas Concert from our choir!
If we want peace, it has to start with us. We must uproot violence from our language, in the ways we relate to one another.
"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
Today there are Bethlehems all over the world as families are forced to leave home environments, travel to places unprepared for them, and find a way to survive on their own.
Christmas is a season of lights... And a season to become enlightened…. To notice and amplify the light that shines within us all, revealing inner wisdom and guidance for our lives.
Why not at least integrate working on gratitude as our routine attitude during “the season” this and each year —and continue our practice into each new day of the fresh year?
A Puzzle for the Christmas Season
Christmas presents us with an intersection of religious and secular stories that come from and come with a mixed bag of fact and fiction
For Classroom and/or Home Schooling
Compassionate, Intelligent, Inter-Spiritual, Non-Dogmatic
For Classroom and/or Home Schooling
Compassionate, Intelligent, Inter-Spiritual, Non-Dogmatic
For Classroom and/or Home Schooling
Compassionate, Intelligent, Inter-Spiritual, Non-Dogmatic
I wonder what the numerous losses our world has experienced in the past two years may have liberated us from. What joys may we discover in this liberation? In the freedom from the way things were? In the discovery of stars to guide us? In the joy we allow ourselves to take in each new birth.
Woven into the fabric of the disturbing news that continually bombards us are those moments of humanity, mostly unreported, that tell us who we really are.
Blessed Christmas-tide even in a particularly bleak mid-winter. One carol includes a metaphorical rose blooming in darkest winter.
Jesus was best known for healing and exorcising. The crowds that came for medical help got more than they may have expected as they heard him speak about justice for everyone and love for neighbors and enemies. Spreading health and preaching compassion were at the heart of being the Prince of Peace.
With childlike wonder and anticipation, I too will be dreaming this holiday, less of a White Christmas than a multi-colored, trans-religious, trans-disciplinary, trans-"everything" world, one complete with an iconic (conic?) tree, party hat, and in a literary sense, megaphone.
As the days grow shorter and autumn deepens its hues, this past Sunday marked the beginning of the season many Jesus-followers call Advent. Once, Mary began her long journey to Jerusalem to oblige their state’s census while growing the life of Emmanuel (God-with-us) within her. Now, we attend to the ordinary matters of life while carrying the hoped-for life of the Divine kin-dom, culminating in our collective celebration of the Christmas season.
'Seeds of Peace' is set to the carol-tune O little town of Bethlehem. It's sung by a Children's choir in London.
Jesus is, in fact, no longer the reason for the season. But the reason this is so extends far beyond the cultural and commercial contamination of a quaint old tale.
I have found two books to be especially helpful this Christmas. Living under COVID restrictions is like being imprisoned. Sermons written by Martin Luther King, Jr., while in jail speak directly to the concerns of today, although he was thinking of the situation in the 1960s.
It wasn’t until two years ago that I finally understood the magic of Christmas. I tell people with regard to Passover seders that until you’ve been to at least three of them, you don’t really get the genre. I guess I needed a few Christmases of doing it to understand that it’s not about the tree and the gifts.
The Christmas story is one of comfort and sweetness, if you will allow me that word. But we must not become so enamored by the Silent Night that we miss the revolutionary impact of the imagery. God appears in the poor places on earth and not in the councils of the rich and powerful.
What a strange Advent this has been. In the midst of this pandemic, so many of our rituals and customs have been set aside as we struggle to do our part to slow the numbers down and bend that curve. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have much of an appetite for John the Baptist’s ranting and raving this Advent Season.
Christmas with Amy McKenzie, soprano and Alice Wildermuth O'Sullivan on piano.
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.