Musing Worship

Luke 2:1-20 Photo Credit: Rev. Andrea Allan Dec 2016 (If you'd rather see this preached live, here's the link ) As December looms we begin to feel the pressure build.  Here at the church there have been many choir rehearsals for the anthems and the beautiful Cantata, our Sunday School has spent every Sunday practicing their nativity play that we got to enjoy this morning.  At home the pressure is building to decorate the house, shop for just the right gift for everyone you love, our calendars begin to fill quickly with countless get togethers with friends, work, and family, there’s the feeling that ones house should be clean and presentable for those who drop by or the parties you may be hosting, there is the hope to write out at least a few Christmas cards, and once the gifts are bought there’s the wrapping to work on, the line up at the post office to wait through, and then there’s the gatherings and meals to prep for and create on Christmas itself!  I do...

(This logo is the creation for the Young Clergy Women International  found at https://youngclergywomen.org )    A few years ago, I miraculously stumbled across a Facebook group called The Young Clergy Women Project – it seemed a few of my Facebook friends were members and Facebook thought I might want to join too.   Well I was certainly interested, but I couldn’t just join by Facebook, so I went to their website to learn more.    The Young Clergy Women Project (YCWP) is for women who are ordained and under 40 years old – I fit the bill!   So, I signed on, and began by joining the Facebook group and the many subgroups under the YCWP umbrella.    The YCW, which is now called the Young Clergy Women International (YCWI,) has helped me in practical matters as a minister, but it has also changed who I am and how I react to those seeking support for ways I didn’t even realize until lately. The other day a colleague posted a...

I love this video for the reminder that Advent is a time that is purposely different from Christmas. This week it seemed that as December 1 st hit, the world exploded with Christmas. Most people I know spent this weekend putting up Christmas trees and decorating the house – my family included! And while preparing our homes for Christmas is part of what Advent is about, Advent is really more slowly moving toward Christmas, rather than rushing as fast as we can to the big day!   It’s like our Advent wreath where we light one new candle each week.   Every Sunday the light from our wreath gets brighter and brighter beginning with the first candle lit today, and adding for the next 4 weeks. Slowly the light grows as we move closer to Christmas.   Slowly we prepare our homes and ourselves as we continue to wait for Christmas.   It’s like our video just said, if you’re sick of Christmas by December 25 th , you’re doing Advent wrong! We are all tremendousl...