[Uucf-bible] Christmas around the UU world

[Lisa Harris]

Tomorrow night at Universalist National Memorial Church in Washington, D.C. we are having a holiday healing service with a laying on of hands ritual and Taize.  Christmas Eve we will have lessons and carols with a nice mix of traditional and contemporary.  
   
  During Advent, we have an interesting candle lighting liturgy that we use to begin each Sunday worship during Advent.  I won't type the whole thing, but very briefly we are rejoicing in the coming of Jesus Christ Sophia.  The congregation has mixed feelings about this term.  Our minister explains that you can't have Christmas without a woman, so she uses this alternative trinity formula.  I'm interested to know how others feel about this term.  Any thoughts?

"Bohanon, Cecil E." <cbohanon at bsu.edu> wrote:
  We had a small but very powerful Lessons and Carols service last night
here at the UU Church in Muncie. The service was led by Rev. Derek
Parker who found an 1866 Universalist Prayerbook published by the
Massachusetts Universalist Convention. We used the prayers for Christmas
from that book. We also had readings from Habakkuk, and Luke (all four
of the lay adults attendees read) followed by hymns from the UU hymnbook

Derek gave a great sermon that we all really enjoyed-- I was especially
pleased my 9 year old son, Dmitri was at the service and seemed to get a
lot out of it

Christmas Blessings on All

Cecil Bohanon
Muncie, Indiana



-----Original Message-----
From: uucf-bible-bounces+cbohanon=bsu.edu at lists.uua.org
[mailto:uucf-bible-bounces+cbohanon=bsu.edu at lists.uua.org] On Behalf Of
kmcarson at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2007 10:26 AM
To: uucf-bible at lists.uua.org
Subject: [Uucf-bible] Christmas around the UU world

What's going on where you are?? blessings, Ron? Robinson

At First Unitarian in Providence, RI Rev. Nichols' sermon for this
Sunday is "Filling in the Manger --?The story of Joseph and Mary's
journey to Bethlehem is a perfect paradigm of our lives, which is why we
treasure it."??We'll have two services on Christmas Eve that mostly
consists of readings and carol singing.? The later service is my
favorite because we distribute candles to everyone and lower the lights
in the Meeting House as the flame is passed from person to person.? Last
year, we ran out of candles at over 200, so we are stocked with about
350 this year!

Our Re-imagining Religion group led by Tom Hall, an editor and long-time
supporter of the Jesus Seminar, is studying Matthew this month and
looking at the birth narrative in particular.? We read an interesting
article on Matthew by JS Fellow Robert J. Miller who argues that
Matthew's version does not include a "virgin" birth for Jesus.? Rather,
he says that the?role of the "Holy Spirit" in conception was understood
more metaphorically by Matthew's audience.? Perhaps "love child" may
suggest a modern interpretation, but that's not quite?in the same
spirit.??A better example might be?pre-Christian?Europe where children
born?after?the Beltane festival, which featured a relaxation of marital
fidelity rules, were said to be "Children of Beltane" and were not
stigmatized by questionable?paternity.

However He got here, I'm just thankful for the wisdom of Jesus!

Merry Christmas and Peace On Earth,

Kevin?
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