For Classroom and/or Home Schooling
Compassionate, Intelligent, Inter-Spiritual, Non-Dogmatic
For Classroom and/or Home Schooling
Compassionate, Intelligent, Inter-Spiritual, Non-Dogmatic
Blessed Christmas-tide even in a particularly bleak mid-winter. One carol includes a metaphorical rose blooming in darkest winter.
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In A Joyful Path, Year Two, we focus on some of the main tenets of Progressive Christianity and Spirituality, giving our children the foundation they need to walk the path of Jesus in today's world. It has stories and affirmations written to help children clarify their own personal beliefs while staying open to the wisdom of other traditions.
This four week ADVENT curriculum breaks the TeenText mold just slightly. We’ve moved away from the lectionary selections that are a part of our regular curriculum to focus on the birth narrative from Luke’s gospel.
This four week ADVENT curriculum breaks the TeenText mold just slightly. We’ve moved away from the lectionary selections that are a part of our regular curriculum to focus on the birth narrative from Luke’s gospel.
Year B (E-Delivery)
This special 4-week Advent Study offers an exploration of the season using rich visual art and music. Many congregations choose to mark these Sundays with the lighting of candles in the Advent wreath, balancing the dark days of winter with the promise of a coming spring.
Year A (E-Delivery)
This special 4-week Advent Study offers an exploration of the season using rich visual art and music. Many congregations choose to mark these Sundays with the lighting of candles in the Advent wreath, balancing the dark days of winter with the promise of a coming spring.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, Joy to the World, Lo, How a Rose is Blooming, In the Bleak Midwinter, Wake, Awake for Night is Flying (Advent hymn)
Sing with them, ye humans bold! Sing of peace, justice unfold! Ring the bells of liberty; Ring them loud ‘til all are free.
Two Favorite American Christmas Carols
“It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” and “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” are both 19th century American carols created in the context of war which address its horror directly.
Christmas is quiet and intimate and I get to sing the carols I love with my beautiful bowls. The other night James and I decided to make a little video of one of my favorites -- an old carol from Ireland -- The Wexford Carol. Here it is, just for you. I have loved this song for years, from the moment I first heard its arching melody. I hope these sounds fill your heart with peace and pray you continue to shine your Light all through this magical season and in the year to come. Enjoy! And if you love the video, post a comment and share with family and friends to pass along the light. I read every single one and I so much appreciate hearing from you.
"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.
While we’re busy explaining that the birth stories about Jesus of Nazareth are really parables and not history, and others are trying to prove or disprove the details of the nativity myths, the Christ in our Mass is all but forgotten. While so people continue to bandy the word Christ around as if it were Jesus’ last name, far too many of us have forgotten what the church has been teaching for centuries.
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;
The miracle of life is the true Christmas miracle... indeed each breath is a miracle, each moment when we are able to gaze at the stars and see their brilliance is a miracle. And love...that's the best miracle of all. This Christmas we wish you moments of love, laughter and light.
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
With such an expansive awareness of our universe and our place in it, it is necessary to pause and honor the corners we turn, the milestones, the past and the present. But meaning is lost when the words are irrelevant, when language is outdated, and practices are dogmatic and un-evolving. As progressive Christians, we are called to walk into the mystery of change, while at the same time keeping close to our hearts the timeless teachings of our tradition. Our life celebrations and rituals must then reflect this call, this necessary aspect of our path. Sacred community is a space to explore these traditions and to create new ones.