Happy Boxing Day!

Greetings and a belated Merry Christmas to you all! I trust you had a peaceful and joyous celebration of Christ's birth. My first working Christmas turned out well...I survived to tell the tale!

The couple of days leading up to Christmas Eve turned out to be somewhat anticlimactic as things died down after a fairly hectic Advent. Paul recovered from his travels all day Thursday, and Friday we braved the crowds and visited the city centre. I had a couple of caroling engagements that day, but otherwise, life stayed fairly low key. Then Christmas Eve hit. I had four services that afternoon and evening. The first two were Crib Services--basically services where we tell the Christmas story and assemble the proper characters in a Nativity Scene. Fortunately, I didn't really have to do much in either of those--tell a story, say a couple of prayers. They only lasted about 30 minutes each. Those were at 2 and 4, respectively. Then, after the 4:00 service, I stayed to set up for the 11:30 service. Went home for about 30 minutes and then headed to a Service of Lessons and Carols--where all I had to do was sing. It was nice to be able to participate and not lead a service for a change. The only problem--the organist is quite advanced in age and had been feeling poorly in the week leading up to Christmas. Every song was sung slower than a funeral dirge. It was aweful. The service would have taken half the time if the carols had been at proper tempo. Then, after the service, since we were in an Anglican Church, we got to have mulled wine in the church. God bless the Anglicans! The last service of the day started at 11:30pm and included Communion. No sermon. Just some carols, reading of the Christmas story, and Communion--all with candlelight. I enjoyed it. It was a very peaceful service. Sunday morning brought the last service of the weekend with a fairly brief service of Word and Table.

Then, Paul and I went to a church members' house for Christmas lunch--complete with Christmas Crackers (not food, but difficult to explain here...) and the traditional Christmas fare--turkey, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, stuffing, brussel sprouts, broccoli, carrots, topped with gravy. It was very good. No one went away hungry.

Paul and I are now in Portugal. A bit tired after our 7am flight this morning, but Paul's liking Portugal more than England at this point. It being my first trip to the Continent, I'm excited to be able to say I've been to Portugal! We'll have a few relaxing days before we go back to Norwich to start the new year.

I do hope you all are well and wish you a new year filled with joy and peace.

Holy Advent, Batman!

You never recognize how much your traditions and routines matter to the making of a season until they are removed. It doesn't feel like Advent. I can't believe Christmas is less than two weeks away. Part of my problem is the lack of a finals week. I haven't necessarily killed myself the last two weeks....which is good...but that's been my rhythm for 7 out of the last 8 years. At least half of Advent is a time to wind down after exams, take a deep breath, and relax. No such luck this year. Things just keep going, and going, and going. Also, my house is rather barren of decorations. I put up some tinsel, lights and baubles, but haven't put up tree (no room in my house) or a Nativity scene (at home in a box in my parents' basement). My most traditional celebration has been to listen to Handel's Messiah which I have listened to, in its entirety at least a dozen times in the last two weeks. Pitiful, I know.

That's not to say that other folks aren't going to town. It's quite fun to see the lights go up and the lighted trees in the windows as I drive around. A bit of trivia--the English did not decorate Christmas trees until Prince (?) Albert (Queen Victoria's husband) brought it over from Germany in the late 19th/early 20th century. Also, only in the last few years have outdoor lights and other decorations become popular--like in the last 5 years. Apparently, it's something that has crossed the Atlantic from the States. Most folks do a simple outline of the house shape or drape icicle lights along the front of the house. Others, though, go all out. It looks like they went to the store, bought every outdoor decoration they had, came home, and then it looks like Christmas threw up on the front of their house. But then you get that at home, too.

Church wise, things have been going non stop. On the positive side, I really haven't had to go to many meetings. It's all been fellowship stuff, which is fantastic (though I realize that all of the church members have been working hard and I'm just enjoying the fruits of their labor...). On the other hand, things have been going non stop. Christmas carols are incredibly popular and nearly every church has a carol service. I'll be going to at least three of them. There are some similar carols--Away in a Manger, Silent Night, O Come All Ye Faithful, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, and the like. Some of them have the same tune, but the verses differ a bit. Others have the same words, but the tunes are completely different. Have you ever sung a Christmas Carol to a tune that isn't normal? It absolutely ruins it! Now, I know, as a responsible minister, I should say that it doesn't matter, it's the words we sing, etc, blah blah. But no. O Little Town of Bethlehem isn't the same. Neither is It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. But mince pies are very tasty (they don't make them with meat anymore). I'm learning the traditions, slowly but surely. One big thing that a lot of churches do for children is the Christingle service.

A Christingle is an orange with a red ribbon wrapped around it, a candle coming out the top, and four toothpicks with fruits or sweets of some sort stuck into the orange around the candle. The orange represents the world. The red ribbon represents the blood of Christ. The four toothpicks represent the four seasons and the sweets the fruits of the earth. The candle, quite obviously, stands for the light of Christ. The tradition originally came from the Moravian Church in the mid-18th century. The word "Christingle" means "Christ Light". (see picture at left)

One last note--Paul (my brother, for those of you who don't know) is coming! Yay! He'll be here next Wednesday. I'm still trying to decide where he's going to sleep. I'm really glad he'll be here for Christmas. It'll be good to have family around.

Priest Idol

So I just finished watching a television show called Priest Idol. I first saw it in the TV guide a few weeks ago, and of course, being the nerd I am, had to check it out. After the first episode, I missed a couple of weeks, and saw the last episode tonight (it only ran for 3 or 4 weeks). It follows this new Anglican priest who comes into a dying church somewhere in the north of England (based on the accents...not sure where exactly this village is). The village is in bad shape and the Anglican Church had trouble getting any priests to take this particular parish. In the end, they brought in an American Episcopalian to take the position. They then hired a secular marketing firm to put together a snazzy campaign to try and lure in folks. They even came up with the catchy slogan "Church Lite" (with the T in the shape of a cross)...'50% less stuffy than before' and 'more easily digestible' were some of the sub-slogans, if you will. It worked. At the beginning of this guy's tenure, there were 8 in the church on Sunday. About a year later, they had 52. Not a huge number, but something to be proud of.

So now I'm torn. Of course, I'm thrilled that the church is looking to fulfill the needs of the people in that village and that people, including children, are now participating in God's Kingdom. At the same time, I absolutely detest the slogan and secular marketing they did. The slogan is awful. They even had t-shirts and billboards with the slogan (it didn't help their cause any that the t-shirts were carolina blue...). A friend of my cousin (who was at the Thanksgiving meal) made a good point when she said that the slogan "Church Light" might have been more appropriate. I tend to agree...at least it has a deeper theological meaning and still has ties to what the church believes.

The other good thing this church did...it didn't apologize for its tradition or its symbols. They had icons in the church, the priest wore the cassok and chaucible (though he went shopping for a "church lite" robe), and they still processed and still did things liturgically. They were in no way apologetic for who they were--except for the 'church lite' bit.

So I guess the question becomes, how do we reach out where we to proclaim the Good News without selling our soul?