[Uucf-bible] Christmas around the UU world

[James D. Hamilton]

It was good to hear about what was happening in your communities to celebrate Advent and Christmas. 
   
  At Live Oak UU Church in Austin, Rev. Chuck Freeman's sermon on the 2nd Sunday of Advent was "A Unitarian Christmas", about the contributions of 18th- and 19th-century Unitarians to American Christmas observances. We sang several Christmas carols, both religious and "secular" (i.e. "Jingle Bells", etc.), one or two with some very explicitly theological Christian lyrics.
   
  On the 3rd Sunday, Rev. Kathleen Ellis's sermon was "Something About Mary", which was, yes, about the mother of Jesus. This service also included several Christmas hymns, although I did not attend the sermon since it was my turn to teach high school RE class. I lead the curriculum part of the class, which this year is about the Bible and the topic of the day was the Nativity stories.
   
  Our local UUCF chapter had its Advent service that evening. Nine of us met in a small room at the church to light all 4 Advent candles with an invocation for each. We also sang hymns, celebrated communion, and I reworked my talk from last year to provide the message on the traditional Advent themes of hope, peace, joy and love.
   
  The church also had a Christmas pageant (don't know details) on the 23rd and a Christmas Eve service. I could attend neither since I had already left for Kansas, where we actually had snow and attended a Christmas Eve communion service with my family at the local United Methodist church. 
   
  Did your churches have any special programs or projects to help people in need this season? Although I know some say that should be a year-round concern (and I agree), many of us find it especially appropriate this time of year.
   
  A merry fourth day of Christmastide to you all,
  James
  James D. Hamilton
  Austin, Texas

Lisa Harris <clairraven99 at yahoo.com> wrote:
  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." 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?
________________________________________________________________________
More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! -
http://webmail.aol.com
_______________________________________________
Uucf-bible mailing list
Uucf-bible at lists.uua.org
http://lists.uua.org/mailman/listinfo/uucf-bible


_______________________________________________
Uucf-bible mailing list
Uucf-bible at lists.uua.org
http://lists.uua.org/mailman/listinfo/uucf-bible



---------------------------------
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
_______________________________________________
Uucf-bible mailing list
Uucf-bible at lists.uua.org
http://lists.uua.org/mailman/listinfo/uucf-bible